Not her.
She stared me down like she'd already survived worse.
And was ready to survive me too.
For the first time all day, I forgot about Sophia.
This woman was far more dangerous to look at. Dangerous way, like a wild animal that could turn on you at any moment.
Her shaved head gleamed beneath the weak light.
She had taken off the hoody and now I could see all of her. She had rich, deep-brown skin that looked like it would burn hot beneath my hands.
Full lips parted in shock.
Doe-shaped eyes that had haunted me since the warehouse.
She was thicker than Sophia.
Wide hips.
Heavy thighs straining against her shorts.
Breast not as full as Sophia’s but still full.
A tattoo peeked from her thigh, dark ink against all that smooth skin.
She looked like a goddess who'd been dragged to hell and decided to rule it instead of leaving.
My dead wife's face on a woman built from sin and survival.
My pulse stumbled.
The air left my lungs.
She wasn't Sophia.
Same face, but different body, different aura.
And somehow that realization hit harder than the resemblance.
Who the hell was this woman?
Chapter Four— Jamie
I turned around and squinted at the man standing in the doorway. The light, what little there was from the window, caught the angles of his face, sharpening them. It took me a second to figure out who he was, but then it hit me—this was the dude from last night. The one who’d been in the middle of that bloodbath at the warehouse. Today he wasn’t in a suit, just black jeans and a black shirt. An expensive pair of frames on his face, making him look like someone who reconciles spreadsheets and has a favorite brand of oat milk. Not the guy who, twelve hours ago, was rearranging someone’s skeleton like it was a minor inconvenience.
I sighed, long and heavy. This was just my fucking luck. I had literally just been cutting through the abandoned building so I wouldn’t have to walk the long way around. Of course, trouble would find me. It always did.
"That you, Jamie?" Momma Graham called from her room, her voice frail.
Fuck.
My heart sat somewhere in my stomach
Fuck! I'd gotten sloppy.
After what I saw last night, I should've laid low. Now I'd dragged a killer straight to the only safe place I had left. Momma Graham had taken me in when the streets tried to eat me alive.
