Page 101 of Hunting Pretty

I heard a wetpopand the offending body part came loose and I pulled it away.

I sat back on my heels, wiping the back of my hand over my sweaty forehead, admiring my nice clean incision. He could hardly complain that I’d butchered him.

I slapped Cormac’s cheek, hard.

He muttered, rolling his head.

“Wake up.” I smacked him again, even harder.

He woke with a gasp.

Before he could start screaming, I held the piece of him over his face. “Look at her again and I’ll take the other one.”

He began to scream again as he clutched at the rawwound I’d left him, blood dribbling out between his fingers. “What the fuck? What the fuck did you do?”

I delivered a message, that’s what I did.

I felt no regret at all. I was prepared to punish any man wholookedin Ava’s direction.

In fact, I wanted to cut more out of Cormac, stake out more of my territory. Carve Ava’s name and mine all over his body so he’d never forget whom she belonged to.

But I had to leave this asshole alive.

Ava wouldn’t like it if I killed him.

And besides, leaving bodies was messy. Bodies meant questions and police stomping around the place, kicking things over and messing up my plans.

I fucking hated self-control.

I wiped Arya on his pant leg and resheathed her. I held Cormac’s little gift in my gloved hand as I stood and turned to leave.

“You’ll pay for that,” Cormac’s screeching voice called out after me.

I stopped at the doorway, swinging the body part I’d taken from him in my fingers like it was a set of keys.

I glanced back at him, lying on the floor in a crumpled heap, blood all over his cream Brooks Brothers sweater, and scoffed.

“Oh no. You’re terrifying,” I mocked with my free hand on my heart. “I’m terrified.”

To my utter surprise, Cormac laughed. “You should be. This is bigger than you could imagine.”

The hairs on the back of my neck rose.

I shoved my skittering fear away. He was just posturing. Flinging meaningless insults at me.

“Try not to bleed out before the ambulance gets here.”

I pushed open the door, ready to disappear into the night, safe in the knowledge that I’d hacked all the security cameras in the area so that Cormac wouldn’t have any hard evidence against me.

But the last thing Cormac said to me curdled my blood.

“You can’t protecther.”

AVA

I’d gotten used to waking up every morning to a fresh Belladonna Lily on my bedside table, a sign that my stalker had been there while I slept.

What did it say about me that it made me feel… watched over.

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