My stomach twisted as a cold, deadly chill coursed up my spine. Eighthundred?I snatched the phone from her, mumbled a goodbye to the asshole, and tossed it on the floor. My hands shot out, and I grabbed Karina’s arms. I dragged her up to me, the towel falling to the floor. Her naked, soft body collided against me, but the rage in my body didn’t give a shit.
“You have been a naughty girl,” I seethed, grabbing her jaw.
“Col,” she whimpered.
“I trusted you!” I barked, spinning us so I could pin her against the wall.
She let out a breath from the impact. My hand dropped to her throat, just resting there. I could never hurt her again.
Not physically.
Her blue eyes met mine.
“I couldn’t sit by and do nothing, Col! I may be just a dumb blonde, but I know what you're doing. You're not only trying to overthrow Ray Romano. You're trying to save those girls—”
“They have been tailing us,” I hissed, baring my teeth.
“We are a team,” she gasped, her hands grabbing my shirt. “That fucking bastard won’t suspect that it’s you leading the FBI to the containers! Don’t you see that?”
I swallowed, bowing my head. This was such a fucking mess, and she shouldn’t be caught in the middle of this. Betrayal or not, Karina couldn’t be involved in this.
“Col, I couldn’t just leave them,” she whispered.
“You don’t think I know that?” I hissed. “You. Betrayed. Me. Karina.”
She cupped my cheek, making me raise my head again. I should push her away, but her touch felt too damn good.
“This is complicated. It’s a fucking mess, but we're going to get through it.”
Promises.
Hope.
Things a fool believed in.
I shook my head. “There's so much you don’t know, and thank God, I didn’t fucking tell you,” I sneered.
“I know you have a secret army. I know you have been plotting against Romano for months—”
“Years, actually. You don’t know anything,” I seethed.
“What?” she gaped. I sighed, looking away from her out the window.
Fuck. So many fucking secrets. Too many hurdles.
One way or another, she would've betrayed me in the end. Subconsciously, I knew this, but I still wanted her. I was selfish.
She didn’t deserve this life. She deserved better. Karina Jones belonged to me, but I was the prisoner here, chained to her—but she shouldn’t be chained to me. I was a monster, a demon serving an eternity in hell, and she was an angel who shouldn’t have fallen.
But she didn’t fall, did she?
No, I fucking dragged her down with me.
We could never be…for a moment in time perhaps, but forever wasn’t for us.
A demon didn’t get to love an angel.
She needed to be free of me and I of her. To make that happen, I needed to break her, even if it killed me. Because after all, I was nothing but a demon.
