Page 67 of Soul Of A Villain

Jack gently gripped Londyn’s hands while her arms were still looped around Oliver’s neck. Using a master handcuff key, he clicked open the metal restraints and tossed them aside. “She needs medical attention for those cuts. They’re bad, but there doesn’t seem to be any other injuries besides the lacerations and the bruises to her face.”

What about her psychological wounds? What about those mental bruises she now has from this and from what I’ve done to her?

“It’ll have to wait. We gotta go. Now.” Oliver bit out. He would figure all that out later. Once Londyn was safely away from this cesspool.

Jack nodded in agreement. “Everything is secure. Teams are doing cleanup, and once we are gone, no one will ever know we were here.”

“Londyn, look at me.” Oliver slid his hands into her dark hair, cradling her face so he could stare into her eyes. “I don’t want you to look anywhere other than at me, do you understand? Focus on me. Only me.”

Londyn wiped her mouth with the back of a trembling hand, her face screwed in disgust. “He-he had his... I tried to stop him, but he…” A low cry escaped her, and Oliver’s heart nearly burst with sorrow.

“Shhh, dove, shhh. You’re safe now. I’ve got you. I’m not going to let anything happen to you,” he soothed, softly kissing her pink, bruised lips. “Just concentrate on me. God, I don’t want you to see what I had to do to reach you. Do you understand? I don’t want you to see the monster I became. The massacre I left in my wake. So, will you do this for me? Look at nothing but me as I carry you out of here.”

“I can walk…” she protested in a weak voice that made his lips curve up in a rueful smile.

“So stubborn and willful. My headstrong little dove. I’m carrying you, and that’s the end of it.” Oliver gathered her closer until Londyn was crushed against his chest. With her face buried in his shoulder, he carried her out of Hell.

ChapterThirty-Eight

Londyn

Oliver cradledLondyn against him as the blacked-out SUV raced along the narrow mountain roads to the private airfield. Only when they were safely in the air did he finally loosen his grip.

Londyn was silent as he laid her on the bed in the back of the jet. He gently removed her jeans and sweater before settling her against the covers. She would never admit it, but she had peeked while he carried her away from Diamond Lake Ranch. Blood was everywhere. Dead bodies lay in grotesque heaps, sprawled over furniture and littering the once gleaming wooden floors. There were so many that she lost count, and she squeezed her eyes shut when she witnessed his men dragging some of the bodies by the arms to form piles.

Oliver plumped the pillows behind her head, smoothing her hair from her face. It was hard to believe, but just thirty-six hours before, she had lain across this same bed while her husband fucked her to prove that she was his.

“Once you’ve rested a bit, I’ll help you get a shower,” he said in a low voice. His subdued behavior and careful movements only added to Londyn’s anxiety. He was treating her like a fragile porcelain doll, and she hated it.

“I’m not made of glass, Oliver,” she whispered, grabbing his wrist to mesh their fingers together.

“I know.” He laughed softly, raising her hand and kissing her knuckles. “But maybe, right now, I am.”

She dragged him closer, burying her head in the curve of his neck. “I knew you would come for me. Even when it seemed hopeless, I knew you would come.” She felt him trembling, and her heart reacted, swelling with love.

“I slaughtered everyone who stood in my way, Londyn. Innocent or guilty, if they were in my path, I cut them down to reach you.” Oliver’s voice was muffled, the words coming out hard and pained as if he hated himself for what he’d done. “I didn’t care, either. All that mattered wasyou.”

Londyn half laughed, half sobbed. “If it weren’t for you, I’d still be trapped there. Or dead.”

“I wanted to keep them alive… those men who hurt you, especially Franklin. I wanted them alive so I could hang them from the hooks down in The Den’s cellars. I wanted to slowly gut them, watch them bleed out, and hear their cries for mercy while I made them pay for every bruise, every tear, every cut, and every scrape they gave you. But my rage took over. I didn’t even think as I ended them. I didn’t stop to think that my impatience gave each one of them the easy way out… a quick and painless death that did not equal their crimes.” Oliver leaned back so he could stare into her face. “If I had lost you, I would have slaughtered every living soul in that complex. And then I would have turned the gun on myself. Because I wouldn’t be able to face a world without you.”

“You didn’t lose me. I’m still here. I’myoursfor as long as you want me.”

“That will be forever, dove. You are mine, forever. You are my calm and my storm, Londyn. Sunshine and rainbows. Sin and salvation. You are everything, and I won’t give you up. Never ask me to let you go because I won’t. My entire fucking world revolves around you. I may go to Hell for my selfishness, but I’ll drag you down there just to keep you by my side. I love you, Londyn. I love you so much that it hurts. Nothing you do or say will ever change what I feel for you. But I’ll always be the villain in our fairy tale. Because the day I purchased you on that auction block and you became mine, the worst day and night of your life—that day was the beginning ofmylife.”

He hesitated, and Londyn saw the vulnerability he tried concealing from the world. He never wanted anyone to see his weakness. A small part of him still saw love as a liability, but he couldn’t help himself when it came to her. She recognized that, and she melted even more for him.

“Oliver…”

“I should let you go.” He laughed softly at himself. “If I had a drop of decency, I would. But I can’t. Iwon’t. I’m a heartless bastard. I’m cruel. Selfish. I do awful things to people. I’m a murderer. A thief. A depraved degenerate. And I have no right to think you will ever love me, but I’m not sorry for taking what I want when it comes to you. I’ll never be sorry.”

Londyn kissed him with such fierceness it felt like her heart would shatter. “I’m not sorry either, Oliver. I can’t be because I do love you.Allof you. Even the darkest, scariest parts of you. You say I belong to you… well, you belong to me, too. And if anyone thinks they can ever come between us, I’ll kill them before you have a chance to do it and wear their teeth as a necklace.” Her gaze fell to their hands, and her lips quirked with a smile. “Now. May I have my ring back? I don’t feel like I’m truly your wife without it on my finger.”

Oliver slipped the blue diamond off his pinkie, sliding it and the wedding band onto her ring finger. “When I saw the blood on it, I vowed to hunt every man involved in your abduction. The two deputies responsible for the car accident have already paid with their lives, but still, I went through Hell thinking the blood staining that diamond came from you.”

Londyn quickly explained what happened on that dark, quiet Georgia road, filling in the missing pieces so Oliver had a clear picture of the crash and what followed. His arms wrapped around her as she revealed the plans Adam had for her and the fact fellow law-enforcement officers had joined the second sale.

“I’ll never put you in that kind of danger again, Londyn. It was reckless and arrogant to think my name alone would give you enough protection.” Oliver’s jaw tightened with determination, and Londyn wondered if he was already planning to eliminate even more people on her behalf. It was useless to argue the point that his decision to take her to see Paris made it worth any risk.

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