Page 17 of Holy Sinner

Rafe grunts and from the satisfied moan he gives, I know he’s ready to give Kit whatever she asks him to. But she isn’t looking at him. She’s looking at me.

I lean forward and brush her hair away from her face. “What is it?” I ask her as I press my thumb to her bottom lip. “What do you want, sweetheart?”

She blushes, that pretty pink dusting across her skin when I call her ‘sweetheart.’ It doesn't matter that she’s dating two murderers, Kit is still a romantic, prone to blushes and coy looks when we do the mundane things she likes. I would give this woman the world, do anything, be anything for her, and it’s the small things like pet names that have her looking at me shyly while Rafe goes down on her.

“I want you,” Kit whispers. When she reaches for me I catch her hand and kiss her palm. “I need you, Grant.”

I squeeze her hand and nip her thumb. “How do you want me?” I already know what she wants. She’s going to reach for my belt and beg to taste me just the way Rafe is devouring her. It’ll be a good warm-up to what we do to her tonight. But before Kit can answer me, something happens.

There’s a slide of a lock, the sound so slight that if I wasn’t as hypervigilant as I am it would have been missed. But I am who I am, so I hear the fucking lock a split second before the door moves. I grab one of Kit’s knives off the table and that’s when Rafe clues the fuck in. He lifts his head from between Kit’s thighs and zeroes in on the door I’m already moving towards. I angle myself and shove my body in front of Kit to hide her while I hear the distinct rapid-fire click of a camera.

“Rafe!” Kit moans and I know she hasn’t heard what we both have. She doesn’t know some fucker is trying to get photos of her. The thought makes me angry. She shouldn’t have to worry about this kind of thing, but she’s ours. Which means the world is out to get her. I rip the door open and swing, half expecting to catch a lowlife with a camera to their eye but when I do, there’s no one there and my fist catches air.

“Where are they?” Rafe calls out to me. I can hear Kit’s muffled voice, she’s confused from the tone of it, but I shut it out when I catch movement at the end of the hallway. It’s not the way we came. That way leads back to the entrance. Whoever just went down the hall is going somewhere else.

Definitely the camera fucker.

I take off down the hallway and trust Rafe will stay put with Kit. He’ll keep her safe while I find this fucker who thought they could exploit what belongs to me. I know exactly what a photo of the three of us would go for if the tabloids caught wind of it. Easily tens of thousands. Everyone knows we’re dating Kit but they don’t say much other than a few off-color jokes because Rafe and I are too powerful. As much as they might blush and pearl clutch, they know we make bank for them when it comes to the box office. We’ll get work because they need us and if they want either of us, they’ll keep their fucking mouths shut.

That doesn’t mean a photo won’t blow Kit’s career up. She’s not bulletproof the way we are.

“She’s so fucked once they drop her but like, can you blame her?”

That was what one woman cackled about on a podcast I know Kit loves to listen to while she works. That happened last month and I haven’t heard her put it on since. Rafe and I aren’t going to drop her, we’re hers. She won’t have to worry about having to carry on without us or being blacklisted. I’m going to handle this fucker. Up ahead of me I heard the slam of a door and I put on a burst of speed. At the end of the hallway is a stairwell and when I crash through the doors its silent. Whoever I’m chasing isn’t that fast, they must have only gone up the single floor it takes to hit the street level. I know I’m right when I exit the stairwell and see the back of a short man hunched over his camera and I smile. There’s an exit door in front of him, the red light of it glows like a way out for me. I’ll kill him and kick his useless body out through the exit. We chose this place for a reason. There’s no cameras, no one would ever come here if there were. Only the richest and most influential clientele are allowed through its doors. The man currently fondling his camera like he just found a golden ticket is neither of those things.

Who snuck him in?

The weight of Kit’s new knife feels good in my hand and I’m glad I get to be the one to feed her blade for the first time with this sorry sack of shit who thought he was going to make money off of her and ruin her life. I’m going to make him tell me who his contact here is and go after them next. They’re all going to pay.

I keep my steps quiet as I make it halfway down the hall. There’s just another few feet before I get to him when one of the doors flies open and a couple stumbles out, holding on to one another.

“Oh my god, did you see that? Her tits were out!” The woman giggles and throws her arms around her date’s shoulders. “You think I have better tits than hers?”

He holds her close and gives her a wet sloppy kiss. “Baby, you know I do.”

I side step them but it’s no use, the drunk couple blew my fucking chance at slitting the camera man’s throat. I’m still going to smash that camera, though.

He sees me. “Fuck,” he whispers, eyes wide, before he takes off at a sprint. I growl in annoyance when he crashes through the Exit door and into the night, but it’s fine. I’m in top shape and if we’re out in the open I’ll catch him in no time at all.

Except that when I try to shoulder the door open, it doesn’t budge. I take a step back and throw my shoulder into it once again and it moves an inch but not much more. I do it again and hear the scrape of metal on concrete and wince.

He pushed a dumpster in front of the door. Smart.

Normally I could appreciate someone with half a brain but not right now, not when they were after Kit. I throw myself against the door one more time to force the dumpster back another inch before I do it again until there’s enough room for me to work with. I step back and remember all the fucking training I had to do to pass as Iron Shield and kick the door open. It bangs against the dumpster and there’s finally enough room for me to get out into the alleyway and follow the fucking photographer. The cool night air and rain hit me the second I’m clear of the door and I say a silent prayer, because the alleyway is a dead end. There’s not a single fire escape in sight, either.

“Thank fuck,” I whisper. There’s only one way he could have gone from here. I’m down the alley and on the sidewalk in seconds. I see the photographer the second I turn the corner. He didn’t think I was following him if his relaxed pose tells me anything. He’s leaning against a car and breathing hard, his eyes closed with smile on his fucking bland face. He looks like every nameless fuck I’ve passed by without a second glance, but right now?

Right now he’s the most important person in the world to me. Right now, his oatmeal ass looking face is the only one that I see. Brown thinning hair, pudgy cheeks and skin with a sallow tint.

He doesn’t hear me until it’s too late.

Lucky for him, the street we’re on is busy. I can’t fucking kill him out in the open. I might be reckless when it suits me but this is not the time to give into what I want to do. I want to fucking gut him and leave him bleeding out in a puddle of his own piss but that’s going to have to wait. because if I have to listen to Rafe bitch one more time at me I’ll gut him.

With killing off the table, I do the next best thing. I walk right up to him and gut punch him. He’s silent for a second, the smile on his face frozen before his mouth opens and he gasps and chokes.

“Ughhgh!” The sound of him choking attracts a look from a couple walking by so I grab him around the shoulders and pull him against my side when his legs nearly give out. I’m not surprised when he pukes from how hard I hit him.

“You okay there, buddy?” I ask and smile like I’m helping him. I nudge him forward and he steps in his own sick with a groan. “You seriously gotta cut back, I won’t be here to help you next time.” We get passed by a few people who give me sympathetic, knowing looks and good natured chuckles while I help my “friend” back into the alleyway.

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