Page 126 of The Sinner's Bargain

I wanted to laugh at her innocence. “Not everyone can look past this face or what I do, Blue. You heard those women today. I’m a monster.”

Her pale gaze never flickered. Never wavered. She bore into my soul with the sweet calm of a saint.

“I was raised by monsters, Mr. Lacroix. The worst kind. You do things normal people might not, but you’re not a monster.” She touched the ropes of disfigured skin of my face. “And I don’t think you realize just how incredibly devastatingly gorgeous you are. Maybe more so with the scars. I remember trying to think what you would be considered because I’ve seen, and been handled by all manner of good-looking men—”

“What do you mean handled?”

Blue smiled, amused by my outrage and ignoring it. “But you’re not simply handsome or pretty. You’re dangerous and beautiful in a way a lion is when he’s guarding his pack. You’re ... the perfect darkness.”

I didn’t know what I was supposed to say to that. No one had ever compared me to darkness before. Not the way she had. Usually, people are referring to my soul.

I touched my fingers to her lips.

“Is that right?”

I replaced my fingers with my lips when she nodded.

I drew back to search her face. “I want to hear more about those men who handled you.”

She chuckled. “Tell me about the other two.”

I was prepared to fight the matter, but I would bide my time.

“Anne.” I felt a pang at the thought of her. “She had the most beautiful heart. She’d seen everything dark and twisted in this world and still she bled for others. She should have been a nun or a nurse. She was sold to me by her uncle for a crate of coke.” I rubbed a hand over my eyes. “It wasn’t the first time he’d used her to get what he wanted. He’d been doing awful things to her since she was five, but fuck she still thought tomorrow would be better. Never said a bad thing about her uncle, despite it all. When I found out and killed the fucker, she begged me to quit. Said I deserved better.” I barked a laugh. “I couldn’t believe my ears. That was her only request from me.”

Blue’s eyes shone in the firelight. Dancing with my pain.

“What happened to her?”

My jaw tightened. “She went to the village without me. It was during mating season. She was ... the wolves got her.”

Blue gasped. One hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my God.”

I nodded, looking away. “I almost quit looking after her. I was beginning to see the patterns and I couldn’t have any more blood on my hands. Then I met Penelope and she was ... tough. Tougher than Anne. I thought ... maybe. She came from an all-women’s biker’s club. Her leader and crew came looking for justice after she died, but I managed to talk to their Captain and told her a lie she believed.”

“What lie?”

I blew out a breath. “Penelope was found in the swamp. She must have gotten lost and fallen in. It was an accident.”

Blue watched me. “What was the lie?”

“All of it, baby. She didn’t just fall into the swamp. Constance didn’t just fall out the window. None of them just died accidentally. The house killed them.”

Most women would have climbed off my lap and called me crazy. They would stress that I was imagining things. They would ask me to talk to a shrink.

Blue touched the collar of my shirt and said, “Okay, so now what?”

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