Page 29 of The Sinner's Bargain

CHAPTER NINE

THORAN

Good Christ her eyes were haunting.

They bore into my fucking soul with a power I didn’t know could exist. The soft, cornflower blue sat nestled in the centers of wide contours, surrounded by dark, heavy lashes. They were distracting. Dangerously.

They watched me now with confusion over my words. I could see her trying to piece it together. To make it make sense.

“I see,” she whispered softly. “May I ask why?”

How was she so calm?

It baffled me. Most people — not even women specifically — would have been hysterical. They would try to make a run for it. They would have said things like, No! You can’t do that. Useless things. Part of me had been surprised when she’d come out of the bathroom at all. I’d expected her to have crawled out the window. The jump would have been high, but there was a whole trellis down the side she could have used to climb down. I’d been prepared to go in after her if she hadn’t come out, face freshly washed, hair tamed, and looking so small in my top.

“You saw me kill a man,” I reminded her.

Katie Smith blinked. “Oh! Of course,” she murmured as if it made all the sense in the world. “You really don’t have to worry about that. I won’t tell anyone.”

I would have laughed if she didn’t look so ... adorably genuine. It was as if she hadn’t seen a movie in her life. Did she honestly think that would work?

Yet, I nodded. “I know.” Because I did with zero doubt in my mind.

I may not have known much about my new puzzle box beyond the lies on paper, but I did know she was on the run. Telling the police wasn’t a mistake she would make.

“Then why?” she pressed.

I moved around the foot of the bed to stand mere feet from my guest with her big eyes and full lips. There was such a fragile innocence to her, a softness that made the dead thing inside my chest ache. I could tell her that was the reason I was keeping her. Or that I didn’t let anyone leave after I’d caught them on my property. I could agree she knew too much.

In the end, my sole conclusion was, “Because I don’t want to,” which was also true.

Katie Smith stared at me. Not with fear or anger, and I didn’t get it.

Maybe she was broken.

Maybe she hit her head too hard on the driveway.

Whatever her issue was, it fascinated me.

“Go back to sleep, Blue. It’s still late. I’ll get you in the morning.”

Without waiting for her shock to wear off, I turned and left the room. I closed her door behind me and waited.

I waited for her to run out.

I waited to hear her curse my name — which she hadn’t even asked.

I waited for her to do literally anything.

The light beneath the door shifted as if she’d moved past it. Bed springs squeaked. I heard the sheets rustle and then silence.

Had she really just gone back to bed?

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