Page 31 of Killer Kiss

He yelped and tried to get away from his wife’s dead body.

I stared at Riddick, cursing his completely out-of-line behavior. “What the fuck!”

He grinned as he switched the gun with an attached silencer to his other hand. “What? You’re the one who said you were the boss. You pointed out that I’d created a witness. Didn’t your mother teach you not to leave witnesses? I know mine did.”

He knew very well I’d been taught exactly the same way he had.

But that was why I did surveillance. It was why I would have never followed this man into this house, not knowing if there were others inside. What if that had been a kid who’d walked down the stairs? Would Riddick have treated them in the same way?

A chilling realization confirmed he probably would have. I turned to him, suddenly terrified that exact scenario was going to play out if a kid appeared from upstairs. I needed to get him out of here before that could happen. “Go on then. Get on with it.”

“Please.” Gorman desperately shook his head from side to side. “Why are you doing this?”

“Rule number one,” I told Gorman idly, playing it as cool as I could. “We don’t ask why. We don’t care.”

Riddick squeezed the trigger, and the gun sent a silent bullet straight into the man’s leg.

I dove on him, muffling his scream of pain while shooting Riddick a dirty look. “What the hell? I know you’re a better shot than that!”

I winced at the blood pouring from the man’s thigh. He sobbed, clutching at the bullet wound uselessly. Riddick was making a mess just for the fucking sake of it.

I shoved some tape across the man’s mouth and then held my hand out for the weapon. “Give me the gun.”

Riddick glanced over at me. “You have your own.”

“I’m well aware. But this is my target and this is my show.” I wasn’t letting him run it anymore.

He grinned at me. “You gonna mess him up?”

I took the gun from him. “No. I’m going to do what I was paid to do and then I’m going to go home and go to bed, because like I already told you, I’m not a freaking morning person.”

The words came out strong. Sure. Just the way I’d intended.

But my gaze kept straying to the dead woman and the thought she hadn’t deserved this.

I pointed the gun at Gorman’s balding head.

The power it spread through my entire body was undeniable. The rush was heady, the adrenaline spiking until it coursed through my blood.

Riddick moved behind me, his voice taunting in my ear. “Go on. Have a little fun. You know you want to.”

I hated that I paused. I hated he was right. That some part of me actually did want to prolong this.

That some part of me was as dark as he was.

When Riddick put his hand over mine and lowered it a few inches, I pulled the trigger.

The bullet found its mark in Gorman’s shoulder.

His cry of pain was muffled by the tape, but Riddick’s voice was filled with delight. “See? You liked that, didn’t you?”

I didn’t want to.

But I couldn’t stop watching the gush of blood and the power it created inside me.

“We’re the same, you and I, Ophelia. This is why we’re going to be great partners. Keep going. Watch him bleed.”

His lips brushed my cheek.

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