Page 5 of While You Sleep

I pulled her wallet from my pocket. I’d lifted it when she’d collided with me. I’d waited for her outside the restroom, and she’d done exactly what I expected—apart from the babbling.

Adam wasn’t much for talkers, he liked his women quiet and obedient, mainly because he was weak.

Sophia was naive, detrimentally so. Starved of affection, desperate for approval. Her father was a piece of shit and her stepmother was a bitch—she wasn’t getting any love or kindness from either of them—and her best friend, Fiona, was self-absorbed and more interested in the guy she was fucking than her supposed best friend. Sophia would be eager to please, desperate for a kind word, for affection. Adam would eat her alive. He’d break her within a week. That light in her blue eyes would be dull and faded by the time he was finished with her.

Watching her tonight, I got the feeling my wee beauty was looking to get fucked so badly, she was considering letting some preppy asshole do the honors. I wasn’t going to let that happen.

None of it.

I wasn’t the best at reading people, but I knew interest when I saw it, and Sophia had looked at me with a good amount of it. A lot more than the man she’d been kissing on that dance floor. I knew every facet in those eyes, every facial expression, I’d studied them like it was my full-time job.

Usually, when a woman looked at me like that, she wanted me to get her off, and if she made my dick hard, I gave her what she wanted. But I’d never had a woman look at me the way Sophia had. She’d stared up at me, babbling, about fuck knew what, all flushed and trembly, eyes big, silently asking me for something she couldn’t even fucking describe.

But I knew.

I knew what she wanted from me, even if she didn’t.

Because I knew her.

I’d killed more people than I could remember, taking a life was easy. Meaningless. For most of my life I’d been numb, felt nothing, and I’d wanted nothing but for Declan and I to take the positions in the O’Rourke family that were owed to us—until now.

I pulled my phone from my pocket and hit Declan’s number.

“What’s up?” my younger brother answered.

“I’m done waiting.”

There was a beat of silence. “Then so are we.”

I disconnected and looked up at the second-floor corner apartment.

No, Adam wasn’t getting one more fucking thing that was meant to be mine.

Chapter Three

Sophia

My phone dinged as I walked out of the cafe, then someone called my name from across the street before I could pull it from my pocket.

Brian jogged toward me.

I hitched my bag higher, fighting my nerves as heat rushed to my face. “Hey.” Being shy sucked, I blushed all the time, even when there wasn’t anything to freaking blush about. “How did you know I was here?”

“I didn’t.” He grinned. “Fate seems to like throwing us together.”

If I believed in that kind of thing, I’d say he was right. I seemed to bump into him all the time.

“You excited for tonight?” he asked.

“Yep.” Well, kind of, but I was trying hard to get enthused. We’d had our movie-and-dinner date last Thursday, and I’d had a good time. Brian was a nice, normal guy. That’s what I wanted, right? And it really was cool that we’d started off as friends, and now that he and Steve were tight, it meant we could double-date with him and Fiona, and that was fun. We had a good time when we all hung out.

Brian grinned and his dimple popped. “I’m really looking forward to it, Soph. Though, technically, it’s our third date,” he said.

“Oh, and how do you figure that?”

“The pub was kind of like our first. I mean we had our first kiss there, right? The dinner and movie last Thursday was our second, and, if I remember correctly, I kissed you good night then as well.”

Where was he going with his? “You did,” I said and my stupid face went hot again. He’d latched on to my boobs and jammed his tongue down my throat like it was a fist and my uvula was a punching bag.

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