Page 125 of Angel Of Darkness

His whisper stopped her cold. “For what? Leaving you?” So that he’d have to fight a vicious battle without her?

But Keenan didn’t say anything else. Damn him. Nicole looked over her shoulder, glaring. “For what?”

“Life.” He inclined his head. “Now I understand why you fought so hard.”

No, no, he was not bringing that up to her even as he was breaking her heart.

“Some things are worth fighting for,” Keenan murmured. He turned away and began to march back up the stairs.

“He can’t kill you.” Intensity hardened Sam’s voice.

Nicole’s tongue swiped over her lips even as her fingers tightened around the doorknob. “Th-that’s not what Az said.”

“Az is a dick.”

So was he. “Az said that if Keenan killed me...” And Keenan was halfway up the stairs now. His shoulders up. His head high. Couldn’t he have looked a little depressed? “Az said if Keenan killed me, he could go back.”

She turned the knob and opened the door.

Sam slammed it closed instantly. “What?” Lethally soft and vibrating with fury.

“You heard me.” Nicole didn’t doubt that for a moment. “Keenan can go back. He can get his life back. I just have to die.”

“There are no do-overs. Az knows that. He can’t bullshit his way through this mess!”

“I don’t think he was bullshitting.” She wasn’t going to run after Keenan even though it hurt to watch him walk away. “Now get out of my way, Sam.”

He blinked.

“Out of my way.”

“You’d leave him?” He edged away but watched her with curiosity in his eyes. “I didn’t count on that.”

She flashed her fangs. “Maybe I finally realized it was time to save my own skin.” She yanked open the door. The night waited for her. Dark and heavy.

She wouldn’t look back. Death was the only thing that waited behind her. She’d never wanted death.

Not when the doctor told her that the same cancer that had killer her mother was slowly destroying her own body.

Not when that vamp had slammed her onto the ground in that alley.

No, she’d never wanted death.

But she sure wanted her angel. She could almost feel his touch.

A touch that would kill.

“You’re a fucking idiot.”

Keenan didn’t turn when Sam burst into the room. His gaze was on the street below him. On Nicole. She moved so quickly through the shadows that he could barely keep track of her. “If she stayed here, she would’ve been dead by dawn.” Because he was a greedy bastard, and he wanted to touch. So badly.

“So you send her out alone? That was your genius plan?”

“No. My genius plan…” Nicole was turning the corner and heading out of sight now. He swallowed. “My plan is to track the coyotes before they track us and to kill them. Then Nicole won’t have to worry.” He’d thought she’d stay safe if he was with her. Watching her back every moment.

But that plan was too risky. Because when he was close?—

Touch. Take.

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