Page 30 of Twin Deception

That was the only reason I was supposed to be in her life. To end her.

I’d be damned if someone else tried to do that before me.

And I wasn’t sold on the idea of following through with it at all now.

Kill Isabel?

I didn’t want to. I was too busy wanting her to excite me. She was the first person to intrigue me, to make me curious for more and more, and I wasn’t in the mood to lose that yet.

Gripping the man’s hair, I yanked his head back and toppled him.

Enough was enough.

If Isabel hadn’t run yet, she’d be soaked and scared.

If she was gone, too terrified by the violence, I had to hunt her down again. And now.

I grabbed my knife from the sheath on my belt and dragged the blade over his neck. Standing behind him, I slit his throat, fisting his wet hair. Before he could try to prolong a single second of his life, I hauled him toward where my gun had fallen and fired two shots down into the top of his head.

He was dead.

He was gone.

Let anyone who saw his corpse know what would happen if they thought to touch Isabel.

Heaving out hard exhales as I caught my breath, I dismissed the flick of water off my face. Drenched and aching, I let my heart slow and my body decompress from the frenzy of the fight.

A whimper sounded to my right.

I whipped my head around.

Isabel sat hunched next to a dumpster. Hugging her knees, she stared at me in shock.

She hadn’t run.

Eyes wide with terror, she shivered and sat in a tight ball.

She was still here.

And as I stepped away from the man who’d touched her, I vowed she wouldnotget away again.

12

ISABEL

Istared at him breathing hard. Like a demon. A monster.

But he wasn’t either. My stalker couldn’t be my enemy if he went so far to protect me. To save me. To spare me from the horrible, crude things that man said he wanted to do to me.

Rape me.

Cut me up.

Defile me.

Killme.

That man came out of nowhere in this alley and wanted to take me how he saw fit andkillme.

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