Page 1 of Hearts Of Darkness

PROLOGUE

EVE

Isense him watching me all the time. Drinking in my reaction, feeding off my frustration. I can tell he’s been wanting to show me my hopeless reality for days. Is he tiring of my constant defiance? Too bad. He’s taken nearly everything from me, and it’s all I have left.

“I wasn’t trying to run,” I say quietly. “I know there’s no escape from this place. I know what you’ll do to my parents if I try.”

He laughs. “Then maybe we’re finally starting to understand one another,my angel.”

I don’t want to be his ‘angel’.

I don’t want to be his anything.

“I’llneverunderstand you!” I try to yank my arm away, but his grip is unflinching. “You’re nothing but a heartless monster!”

“I thought we’d agreed I was the devil?” His dark pools are glinting unpleasantly at me now.

“There’s a difference?”

“A monster is never Machiavellian in his intent, Eve. He’s not that smart or patient. I, on the other hand… You wouldn’t fuck me willingly, so I starved you for two days. It made your submission that much sweeter. A monster would have taken what he wanted from you, then and there.”

“I hate you!” Tears of helpless rage and some other emotion sting the corners of my eyes. “I wish I’d never walked into that damn liquor store!”

“Careful,” he warns, pulling me back to the unwelcome warmth of his body, lust sparking in his hooded gaze. “I tend to find your defiance amusing, but you’re really pushing my patience today…”

1

EVE

“No one has to die here tonight.”

His voice is calm, dead calm, but the hand gripping my mouth is rough and unforgiving. Black spots cloud my vision as I struggle to draw breath. My heart feels like it’s going to pound right out of my chest, and my thoughts? They’re balancing on a jagged knife’s edge, somewhere between fear and panic.

He takes my arm and pulls me closer to him, the icy tip of his gun grazing my temple and snapping me back to my harsh reality. I blink and focus on dragging air into my reluctant lungs, willing my racing pulse to slow; praying that my survival instincts kick in soon.

I can’t see his face, but there’s a dark familiarity to how he’s handling his weapon. There’s a knowledge there. Training. This man knows how to pull the trigger, and he’s not afraid ofthe consequences.

Instead, my eyes dart to the young guy standing behind the liquor store counter. He’s watching us with his mouth wide open. He’s just a college kid, younger than me; my scared partner in this chaotic narrative. He only started his shift a few minutes ago. His backpack is still lying, discarded, next to a stack of cheap beer kegs.

I only came into this liquor store because Anna begged me to. I was handing over a bottle to pay when Mr. Deadly walked in and held a gun to the back of my head.

“Take what you want, mister,” says the guy nervously, indicating to the open till. From my vantage point, I can see untidy wads of twenties, tens, ones…No hundreds?“Like you said, no one has to get hurt.”

There’s an amused sound from my assailant. “Oh, I don’t want your money.”

His voice is deep, velvety, eminently masculine and laced with the faintest trace of an accent. He doesn’t sound like your typical liquor store junkie thief. There’s no slur in his speech, no admission of drink or narcotics abuse. He sounds educated. Refined.

For some reason this scares me even more.

“Get out.Go.”

The store worker blinks at him.

“I don’t like to repeat myself…”

There’s an edge to his words that sends a shiver down my spine as the young guy grabs his bag and hightails it out of there.

The hand tightens around my mouth, and I’m yanked backward against my assailant’s body. I let out a muffled cry.It’s like colliding with a brick wall. He’s a solid mass of muscle from his chest and abdomen, all the way down the long length of his thigh. I twist my head from side to side to relieve some of the crushing pressure on my jaw.

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