Page 22 of In the Dark

“I’ve alerted a team that we’re here, Viper. Killing me now would do you no good.”

The fight in her pretty eyes didn’t die, but her hand stopped searching.

That fight, that stubbornness, that vigor to end me had all my warning bells sounding in my head. And it was enough that I knew I’d have never been able to say yes to her cousin when she was available to marry.

So, maybe I’d give her what she wanted, and she could be thankful for that for a time.

Plus, she and I both knew that if her dad had hidden the money in a trust, he’d have told her first. And I wanted to be the person to rip apart every piece of her and make sure we found just what she was fighting so hard to hide before I let her out of my sight.

I curled around her and waited for my team to get to us. She was muttering now, not making sense at all. Seconds seemed like hours as her face turned bluer and bluer.

“You better not die, Viper. Not like this.”

As an SUV pulled up, I was happy to see they’d brought a medical unit. My HEAT smartwatch was state-of-the-art and, because I’d alerted for an emergency, it must have read my body temperature and location. I screamed at them to help her first.

“Do I look like I need medical attention?” I snapped at a guy who tried to get in my way to check me as I carried her to the SUV. “Attend to her!”

“But, sir, she’s not as important as—”

“She’s the most important. She’s about to be my wife, and if you don’t save her, you’ll be the first to go.”

4

Jasmina

COULDN’T MY UNCLE SHINE some divine light down on me to help me with this day from hell? Of course he didn’t, which meant he probably didn’t get to heaven himself.

We’d be stuck next to the devil forever.

Or at least I would, because Callahan sat across from me in the SUV, staring at the men who were checking my vitals and fighting me for a pulse. “Back off,” I seethed, swatting their hands away. I glared at Cal. “Tell them to leave. And take me home. The funeral’s in an hour.”

“You think you’re fine?” he asked me in a condescending tone.

The heat was blasting in the SUV, and they’d thrown a heated wrap around me so the hypothermia would subside. “I am fine.” I lifted my chin, and finally Cal gave them a nod.

They all exited the vehicle, and I was left with the privacy window up in the back of the SUV, alone with Callahan Knight as a driver started to go toward my residence.

Callahan was a wolf wrapped in gentlemen’s attire. He’d worn all black to meet me, looking absolutely flawless, but I knew the suit actually hid a man with no soul.

At least I’d gotten it wet and put a hole in the back of it.

“Don’t you need my address?” I grumbled, shaking within the blanket.

“No.” He started to unbutton his suit jacket and pulled that off. “You know I have it already.” He jerked his chin my way.

“Time to strip, Viper,” he murmured as he yanked off his top.

Damn. He still looked delicious. Tattoos everywhere. Over his broad chest. Even over his abs. Abs that went on for days.

Murdering, treacherous, vile abs, I reminded myself.

“I’m not undressing in here with you,” I said through shivers.

He lifted an eyebrow as he pulled his belt buckle to undo it.

Crap.

“You have to get those clothes off or you’ll never warm up.”