“Yes. Everyone has been normal. Bella has been especially nice to me.”
Those lips of his twitched,slightly. “I want you to tell me the moment someone disrespects you, understood?”
My stomach flipped at the thought of him punishing someone for disrespecting me. My eyes dropped to his tattooed hands. Those hands had killed people—hundreds probably.
Would he—has he killed for me?
“Then we go downstairs, you point them out to me, and I rip their eyes out for you. I cut off all ten fingers for you. I yank out their tongue for you. I cut out their heart for you.”
“Such a quiet angel tonight,” he murmured.
“Was there something you wanted to talk about?”
He smirked then, and if I had been standing, I was sure my knees would have gone weak. That was the power this man had over me. I was supposed to hate him, but the man sitting in the chair before me had my heart in his bloodied, tattooed hands for almost a decade.
“What did you do today?” he asked, his voice lower than before.
“Well, I didn’t try to escape today.”
He huffed a short breath through his nose, almost a chuckle, but not quite.
Come on, Col. Come back to me.
“I don’t know if that's a good thing or a bad thing,” I admitted, mainly to myself as I sat up on an elbow, my hair tickling my back as the comforter shifted down my opposite arm, exposing my skin, something he never looked at.
For the last nine years, Collin Stevens only looked in my eyes. He never once looked anywhere else.
“Don’t lose your fight, Angel.”
I looked up to him then, my lips forming a small smirk. “You saying you want me to fight you, Stevens?”
His eyes flashed with something, and thatsomethingwas what I was fighting for. I held his eyes, pleading with him.
Please. Please give me something.
“Go to sleep, Karina,” he said before rising to his full height and running his palm over his shaven head. That head was once filled with luscious midnight locks, and I used to dream of running my fingers through them. He turned to walk away, and I panicked.
No. No. I was so close. I scrambled, yanking my body out from underneath the comforter and crawling to the edge of the bed. My hand shot out, my fingers wrapping around his gently. His head snapped to me.
“Wait, don’t leave,” I pleaded.
“Let go of me,” he said through clenched teeth.
“Stay, please.”
He yanked his hand away with a growl. I needed him in here; despite my goal, I slept better knowing he was in the room. My soul felt at ease near him, even though he'd dragged me through hell. I knew I was safe with him. He would protect me.
My heart knew it. My soul trusted it. So, I took the chance.
“I can’t sleep without you,” I murmured to his back, my voice cracking.
He stiffened, his shoulders tensing, and the hand I grabbed balled into a tight fist. He turned his head to the side, allowing me to see just a sliver of his icy eye.
“You’ll figure it out.” Then, he was gone, slamming the door with a bang that caused me to flinch.
Oh, hell no.
I charged after him, ready to fight.
