Page 29 of Twisted

“My, my, Maisie Jane. Always were reckless, weren’t ya?”

He wasn’t sure what irked him more; her inane sense of self-preservation, or the way she figured she could find a way out of any situation, even if her plans were half-cocked. She’d get herself killed if not for him. He clucked his tongue as she backed up with a frightened sneer and held the knife in a shaky grasp.

“Get away from me, freak!” she yelled, voice booming through the depth of the night. His smirk only widened as he took another measured step forward.

“Bad girls don’t get a say, Maisie, and you’ve beenverybad lately.”

A strangled cry escaped her lips as she turned to flee, but Jaeger was faster. It only took two long strides for his outstretched arm to reach the tendrils of her silky hair, and once knotted, he gave a sharp yank backwards against her trajectory. Colliding with his broad chest, she gave a pained yelp and struggled to free herself, but his main focus was the knife; a paring knife, of all the ones she could have chosen. He supposed it made sense; small, easier to conceal and carry.

Catching her hand and pinning her squirming body to his with his free arm, he squeezed her wrist and gave it a shake, the weapon thudding softly to the brush below. She growled and kicked and clawed at him instead. Throwing her to the ground, he straddled her, capturing both hands in one of his.

She glared up at him, chest heaving, eyes shimmering with frustrated tears. He felt a rueful grin plaster his face. Her pitiful knee jabs against his back did nothing but turn him on even more. He was a hunter, and his most prized prey was wriggling beneath him. He’d take her again under the moonlight and amongst the trees. Poetic, since she was such a wild woman as of late, her facade no longer crumbling but decimated, her true form shining through who she pretended to be.

Their haggard breathing slowly calmed, and—defeated—she kept her face from his.

“When ya gonna learn, baby, I ain’t lettin’ ya go?”

That got her attention, snapping her face back to his. The fierceness of her glare cut through him. She’d make a good enforcer. Jaeger chuckled inwardly at that thought.

“You’re gonna kill me, I ain’t dumb,” she hissed. God, even in her tiny fury she was beautiful. Small pointed nose, wide, plump lips the color of a ripe apple in the fall, eyes so round and lagoon blue you wanted to drive right in. She was an enigma; a girl and a woman all rolled into one. She craved his touch, the naughty things he did to her, but she just as much seemed to want to be wild and free and childish.

He’d seen that duality firsthand when studying her from afar. Her room at her parents’ home, for instance. It remained unchanged since her senior year of high school, posters of boy bands on her walls, quotes scratched into her closet where no one would find them, stacks of movies—all Disney princess ones, of course. She’d even had a teddy bear on her bed, one Jaeger knew had travelled with her from Charlotte.

“Ain’t gonna kill ya now, wasn’t really plannin’ on killin’ ya before,” he said with his trademark smirk. She stilled beneath him as his free hand wiggled the glinting knife before her eyes.

“But Maisie, I’ll give ya the truth, always, and it’s high time I caught ya up,” he said, bringing the tip of the knife close to her wide, petrified eyes. She shivered beneath him, only spurring his aching cock to harden even more.

“Known ya for six years. Found you in a greenhouse with a man balls deep in your sweet cunt.”

She blinked up at him, her breath seeming to cease altogether, her lips parted in shock and because it was apparent her jaw still ached.

“Wanna know what I did to him for hurtin’ my girl?” he hissed, all traces of joking gone quick as the strike of lightning. He knew he’d get no response other than those wide doe eyes, so he continued on as the remnants of rage seeped through his pores.

“I waited. Sent him little reminders I was watchin’ him. Waited till he thought he was safe, payin’ for hookers in Vegas.”

Maisie shivered again, her eyes never leaving his as her brows puckered.

“I’ll spare ya the bloody details, baby doll, but he’s about six feet under in the desert. Barely knew ya then. First day I met ya, actually, but you were mine from that moment on.”

Shaking her head, pressing her lips together, a few tears escaped.

“You—you’re lyin’,” she hissed.

“You wore a purple swimsuit. Shared a Newport Menthol with me. Drunk as fuckin’ Cooter Brown.”

He could see her wheels turning, could see the shock written across her expressive brow and the spark in her eye at the mention of their favored brand of cigarette. He’d not reveal his relation to Linds, not yet. Maisie needed more time to adjust to her new reality, and Jaeger still needed to find the right angle to pursue this from.

“You…” she breathed, still in shock. “Why were you there?”

Giving a shrug, he answered, albeit evasively.

“Duty.”

Her brows puckered more at this, but he continued on, bringing the knife forward again.

“Now ya know the truth of it, so ya either come willingly as mine, or…well, there ain’t another option,” he said with a chuckle. Her face screwed up in hatred. He knew she hated being claimed, but this was the last time he’d have to do it; he had a plan, and though she might hate him for eternity, she’d never walk this earth a free woman again. She was his, all else be damned.

“Wha-what—” she stuttered, kicking her legs as he made a fist around the hilt of the knife and used his knuckles to drag the shirt up past her hip bone. Mouth watering at the sight of her deliciously bare cunt, Jaeger almost came unglued at that moment.

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