Page 41 of Above All Else

“Out, three, two, one.” His hand withdrew from my shoulders to my lower back. “And again.”

I tilted to the left as the car turned a corner. “You slaughtered another man...” my chin quivered as I inhaled in a breath, “as though it were nothing.”

“It wasn’t nothing.” His rich, resounding voice sliced through the tension.

“That’s not what it looked like, Carter.” I inhaled on his command and then exhaled. “You killed him just as easily as Ethan.”

Sitting upright, my head thumped against the headrest, sending shooting stars into my vision, the dirt road transforming into the freeway.

“I killed Ethan to get to you, and I killed Paul tosaveyou.“ His jaw clenched as he concentrated on the road, his elbow resting on the center console. “Neither one was innocent. But both deserved to die.”

The air whooshed from my lungs. “You can’t just kill people because you think they deserve it, Carter.”

He hit the brakes, and I flew forward, my hands taking the brunt of the force as I braced against the dashboard. The car came to a complete stop on the freeway, the hazards flashing against the trees lining the road. “I have never taken a life untilthis night, and both of them revolved around you.”

My brows came together. “Are you...” I sucked in a breath. “Are you seriously blaming me for this?”

His hand found my wrist, brought my palm to his lips, and peppered kisses across it. “Quite the opposite. Take it as my declaration. I’ll do whatever it takes to have you, possess you, and protect you.”

I jerked away from him. “Just moments ago, you were willing to slice and dice me.”

“And I’ll regret that until my dying days.”

Shaking my head, my hair tumbled over my shoulders, covering my chilled flesh. “And what’s changed?”

“I found out the truth. Isn’t it obvious?”

A car zoomed by, their horn blaring, sending my heart on a rampage. “We need to get off the road.” Another one followed, their lights flashing into the night, brightening the foliage lining the mountainous sides. “Carter.”

“Not until you understand.”

A semi-truck swerved to the left, his fifty-foot trailer rocking the car side to side, his horn like an imminent warning from Death himself.

“Okay. Fine.” My hands flew into the air. “I understand. Just get us out of the way.” I glanced behind us with a frantic patter in my chest. “Please.”

Carter raised a brow and hit the gas. The Lexus catapulted us to sixty-five in nothing flat. My back pressed against the seat, my legs locked in place, as the car shifted with a jerk. He released thegas pedal at seventy, then took my hand and kissed my knuckles.

“Are we going to just pretend for the rest of our lives that nothing happened tonight?”

“I want you to remember the lengths to which I will go in order to avenge my family and protect those I care about.”

My teeth bit into my inner cheek. “As sweet as that sounds, that’s not normal.” I pulled my hand from his. “None of this is.” I leaned against the far side of the car, getting as much distance from him as possible. “And what about my parents? They won’t understand when the police find my boyfrie—“

“Ex-boyfriend.”

“I’ll be hunted across the nation.” The sign for Avon flew by, and I twisted to see it.

“Everything that happened tonight will be swept under the rug. The society has full immunity from the law.”

“How...how is that even possible?”

He shrugged. “I didn’t ask to be in it or how it works. I just know the rules.” His hand slid down the steering wheel, the fingers he used to bring me to climax wrapping around the bottom half. “I moved my parents to Philly with me after the last reckoning, and we never looked back.” He blew out a puff of air. “Until I started getting those damn emails.”

“So you had no intentions of coming back?” My heart cracked as I glanced down at my wringing hands, then back to him, our eyes clashing.

“No. I didn’t.”

I swallowed.

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