Page 22 of Butcher

I wanted the time to stay with her. To delve into her, figure out what made her tick. What she was thinking all those times when she went silent on me. I wanted to know if honor and pride were weighing heavily on her. She’d taken a contract to kill me. Yet, she wasn’t trying very hard. Was her attraction to me—the same as I was feeling for her—staying her hand? Or was she biding her time? Did she savor the kill? I couldn’t wait to find out. I just needed to deal with Randal first. He was going to wish he’d never gotten into this line of work by the time I was done with him.

CHAPTER 8

Isla

That asshole. He’d seriously left me here. Tied up again. I glared at the floor imagining all the ways I was going to kill him. I’d hesitated. Again. What the hell was wrong with me? I never hesitated. It was those stupid hazel eyes of his that just drew me in and left me feeling confused and out of sorts. And that smug grin that made me want to smack it off his face almost as much as kiss him.

I sighed. Being a woman was massively inconvenient sometimes. So were feelings. Not that I had them for the overgrown ape. Nope. I wasn’t going down that road.

All this was over just as soon as I figured out how to get out of here. He left hours ago and I was stuck in this damn room with nothing to do. I was going out of my mind.

The door slowly creaked open and I stared at it, willing Butcher to walk through. Instead, deja vu overtook me.

Four heads appeared, peeking around the doorway. Except thistime, it wasn’t the kids. It was adult women, then there was some jostling and four more heads appeared. They paused for a brief moment, watching me, then eight women piled into the room all at once, getting stuck and unstuck on each other in the doorway. Their smiles ranged from sweet, to encouraging, to amused. And they all started speaking at the same time.

My head jerked back as I recoiled from the sound and the sudden onslaught of people in my space. I wasn’t used to having so many people—especially women—around me unless I was purposely losing myself in a crowd for a kill. Even then, no one noticed me. This was new, and awful.

“Girls! She can’t hear us.” They all quieted down. “Hi, I’m Seek,” the woman said. “Butcher asked us to check on you.” My eyes dropped down to where the two dogs were stationed on either side of her legs, staring at me with unblinking dark eyes. They’d slithered into the room amongst all the commotion.

“Great,” I muttered when they all stared at me with expectant looks on their faces. “Did he ask you to let me go?”

“No,” she replied with a laugh.

“Willyou let me go?” I tried.

She shook her head. Now all their smiles turned apologetic.

“What’s your name?” The bartender from last night asked.

“Isla.” It didn’t matter that I was giving them my real name now. Not since I’d already given it to Butcher.

“That’s pretty,” another woman with an accent said. “I’m Eva,” she added.

“That’s Sloane, Jenny, Dani, Jordan, Kit,” the bartender smiled at me when she was introduced, “and Gwen,” Seek said, pointing at each of them.

“You’re all with one of the bikers,” I told her, nodding.

“How do you know that?” Jordan asked, frowning.

“Oh, uh...”

“Are you hungry?” Sloane asked, stepping forward.

“Um, sure.”

She smiled and hurried from the room, taking Eva with her. The curly-haired woman, Jenny, narrowed her eyes on me. “Uh oh.”

“What?” I asked, paranoid about the way she was looking at me. Like a bug under a microscope. I stilled, wondering why worry was constricting my chest. Why would I care if these women realized why I was here? I didn’t even know any of them. So what if they seemed nice? I mentally smacked myself, trying to get my emotions with the program. Butcher had done something to me. That had to be it. Poisoned me with orgasms. Why else would I be concerned that these women would be disappointed once they found out I was trying to kill him? Ugh, if this was what being near other women got you, I’d been right to avoid them for most of my life.

I didn’t have friends. Or boyfriends. Or...anyone really. I just kept to myself. Well, I had Ms. Mittens. My cat was the only creature that truly understood me. At least, she had been, until now.

No. Stop that. Butcher doesn’t get you. He’s not yours, idiot. You’re going to kill him and be done with it.My background thoughts chose that moment to surface, and argue.Get another round of earth shattering orgasms, then kill him.

My introspection cut off when Jenny moved closer to me. She wiped a finger over my cheek—ignoring my look of shock and disgust—and then popped it into her mouth.

“What is it?” Seek asked.

“She’s sticky. Yup. Tastes like candy. Strawberry.” Jenny looked over her shoulder at the group of women. “My girls have been here.”

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