Page 19 of Breaker

I’ve been here too long, tucked away from reality, and I’m losing my mind. Sane people don’t fuck the men who are holding them captive. Sane people don’t crave another night with them. And sane people certainly don’t have this bone deep ache to bury their face in the chest of the killer standing before them until the pain, the longing, the fear, goes away.

“You can’t go back yet,” Reaper says, his use of the word yet snagging in my head and freeing me from my downward spiral. “It’s not time.”

Hope blooms in my chest, easing that ache he’s put there. “Yet?”

Ignoring me, Reaper turns his back. He doesn’t even try to get the keys from me.

How quickly he trained his kitten.

“She needs me,” I say, voice wavering.

He doesn’t answer.

Rage snakes through my mind at his blatant dismissal. How can he be so callous when he promised her? He promised us? We’re his.She’shis. My chest heaves, eyes stinging,remembering, him promising her. Us. I don’t even know what that means, belonging to them, to him, but I’ve never felt so wanted.

Wanted as a tool, Delilah.A way to get revenge on Rune. I need to remember that. I’m a means to an end. I’m their revenge and that’s it.

They can all make promises, vow to protect, fuck me into believing they want nothing more than us, but they sent her back.

They took her from me.

Again.

“When is a good time, Reaper?” I snarl. “After she’s hurt again?”

He pauses in the doorway, back growing rigid. Over his shoulder, he says, “When you are trained and prepared for the mission.”

“What mission?” I snap. “You have yet to tell me what you want me to do.”

Of course he doesn’t answer.

“What if he hurts her?” The way my voice cracks angers me even more. When his shoulders droop, rage splinters through me.

How dare he act like he cares?

I growl as I march forward, gripping his arm to force him to look at me. He lets me turn him, lets me shake his arm like I can shake some sense into him. Convince him to send me back now, right this minute. Instead of responding with venom, his onyx eyes seem to grow tender, his whole body softening under my grip.

“You can go back when I know you can defend yourself—“

“From who?” I snap. “You really think my father would hurt me?”

All that softness snaps, gone in an instant, and he somehow looks larger than before. I don’t have to see his face to know he’s angry. Rage leaks from him with every controlled breath. “You have no idea what Rune’s capable of when he’s cornered. When he feels slighted. When he wants revenge.”

“Revenge?” I ask, my brows knitting. “On you? For taking me?”

His hands flex, but he says nothing.

“I can handle Rune,” I say, letting go of his arm.

His humorless laugh does nothing but pour gasoline on my rage.

My neck throbs from my thundering pulse. “Youliedto her.”

Fury flares his eyes. “You understand nothing,” he snaps. “Do you really believe I —“

“You promised her,” I say, cutting off his next few words. I don’t care what they are. He’s just spewing excuses. “You promisedme.”

“I told you we’ll get her.”

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