Page 31 of Vows From Hell

She didn’t want that.

I wasn’t sure why I thought she’d ever want that. I didn’t even know why I thought I’d be able to let her go. The way she talked, walked, and smiled at those around her was fake, almost beyond belief.

Yet no one figured it out.

My Bambi was all alone, suffering and in pain without a single person noticing.

That was when I decided that she truly belonged with me, next to me. Since I had a job or two to finish in New York, the goal was to get her afterward. That bastard, Kyle Morrison, beat me to it.

I’d heard of him in passing. He only acted like a big shot. In reality, he was just an average man with big dreams. Dreams he had no means of turning into reality. The fact that he used my girl to try to lure me out was enough for me to want to snap his neck like a twig.

It didn’t take a lot for me to find out where he was staying, what his plans were and how to prevent him from getting what he so desperately wanted.

And that was one of the things that hadn’t changed in the past three years.

Many motherfuckers were still lurking around Storm. Some were more innocent than others, but not Kyle Morrison. That bastard was aware of our relationship before he reached out to her. He wanted to use her like a pawn in his game. And I was going to be damned if a man like him would ever be enough to capture me.

I expected him to arrive sooner than anticipated. I threw him a bait and he took it. Just how I willingly took the bait they planted at the coffee shop.

I couldn’t resist the urge to grab her.

I couldn’t control myself anymore.

I couldn’t contain my desire to finally have her all for myself, until my last dying breath.

With the help of a young man who worked under the same man as me, I’d invited Kyle Morrison into this hideout. He didn’t expect that the house was soundproof and built like a cage to capture him.

The moment I closed the door, with Storm’s sweet taste still on my tongue, I clutched the gun in my hand. The night was going to end with someone dying, and it wasn’t going to be Storm or me.

Deliberately, the door was left unlocked.

Every piece of evidence he would want and need was right there in the open. But as soon as he left the comfort of his home, Arlo made sure there wasn’t going to be any cell service. Hence, calling for backup or trying to send incriminating images was futile.

And Morrison was too proud to ask for help immediately.

To him, I was nothing but a small fish in the sea.

How arrogant of him to believe that he could use my Bambi and still not see me as a direct threat to his life.

I didn’t lock the basement door. Knowing Storm’s curiosity, she was going to come upstairs sooner or later. And there was something I needed to confirm, something that I could barely stop thinking about.

Pride swelled in my chest.

My Bambi killed someone to keep me safe, to keep us safe.

At first, the thought of her taking a man’s life pained me. It wasn’t the life I wanted her to live, even with me. Then, I got to see the look of determination on her face, with not an ounce of regret behind her big, pretty eyes.

That was when worry turned into pride.

The chain of malice I set into motion came back to bind Storm to me, forever. Once we were shackled together, not even the Devil himself was going to separate us. Until death did us part.

By the time the door behind me was safely closed, with Storm still being in the room downstairs, Morrison was already inside. Luckily, the house itself was small, even smaller than that cabin in the middle of nowhere.

He was right in front of me, with a gun pointed at me.

“Long time, no see,’’ he commented.

I blinked.

---