Page 35 of Enforcer's Obsession

I knew she was testing me, and I didn’t like it, but I chose to ignore it.

Was too preoccupied with making sure I didn’t respond to her.

That twinge of something much too much like guilt was starting to burn at the back of my neck.

Guilt.

Something else that I was far too familiar with.

I carried around four lifetimes of it.

But never like this.

Never for someone who wasn’t them.

The lives I’d taken had all but faded into memory and were completely detached from emotion. But this girl…

She made me feel something that was reserved to the deepest recesses of my soul, reserved for a place and people who were gone forever.

I fucking despised it.

Hope seemed to sense a change, and I was again reminded that this girl, no matter how naive she might look, was quite perceptive.

“Eat your food,” I said gruffly.

Her eyes widened slightly, and she did as I asked without further bidding.

I didn’t like that either.

She was skittish, jumpy, but not outwardly so.

No, her emotions were controlled, but there was an edge.

Of course there is, you fucking dumb ass. You kidnapped her.

True, but I didn’t think that was it.

Her kind of vigilance seemed almost normal for her and left me to wonder what else there was to her story.

We sat in silence as she ate the burger and fries, though I was sure the restaurant that had prepared them would prefer I use a fancier name.

“How was it?” I asked when she finished the last bite.

She looked at me, her eyes still hooded, still wary, and after she wiped her face, took a sip of water from the bottle that lay next to her, she smiled.

“This was the best burger I’ve ever eaten in my entire life,” she said, giving me another one of those smiles that made my heart stutter.

“So getting kidnapped wasn’t a total loss,” I said.

She rolled her eyes, then caught herself before she shook her head, though I didn’t miss the little smile on her lips.

“Guess not,” she said.

Then she went quiet again, waiting, before something seemed to come over her.

“I’m sorry I made such a mess,” she said.

She grabbed the trash and but glanced around the room wildly, looking for a place to put it.

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