Page 36 of Unlawful Seduction

A few seconds passed and the unknown stranger remained in the shadows, the dim light only accentuating one side of his face. At least it was easy to tell he was rugged.

Why was he remaining completely silent?

He took another step and I crowded closer to the backside of my counters.

“Just go. I won’t say anything.” The strong tone in my voice was fading. Why had this man killed the other if he only intended on taking my life in the end?

He remained in the shadows, the only real movement I could see the rise and fall of his chest. I had two choices. I could try to run around him, bolting for the door. Or I could use the weapon on him. There were two problems, the first being I’d never manage to leave the premises before he grabbed me.

The second weighed heavily on my mind.

I couldn’t injure someone on purpose even if it meant possibly saving my life. I just wasn’t made that way.

But he didn’t know that. The third choice was ugly, but the only one I could make.

As my best friends would say, fake it ‘til you made it.

I lunged forward, wielding the knife with both hands, a primal roar in my throat. Pinging sensations in the back of my mind told me exactly who’d saved my life.

He snagged me easily before I got within a foot of him, snapping his hand around my wrist and holding my arm into the air as he pried the rather dull blade from my fingers with the other.

Then he pushed me back against the stove, the move finally illuminating the man who’d likely saved my life.

Beckett.

Beckett

I had to admire the doc’s chutzpa. Few people after being brutally attacked would have enough clear thinking left to organize a method of killing a possible second attacker. However, the moment I’d caught the whites of her eyes, I’d known she wouldn’t have gone through with driving the blade in.

Even so, I wrenched the knife from her hand, tossing it onto the floor several feet away.

Her breathing remained ragged as she continued to fight my hold.

“Slow down,” I barked.

“Fuck you. What’s going on? Who was that?”

“A very bad man.”

Mallory’s body was shaking and she managed to break free, stumbling backwards.

“I’m curious, doll face. Do you have a clue who that man is?”

“Are you fucking out of your mind? I came home to him being inside my house! My house.”

My thoughts drifted to the photograph.

“Look closely.” I turned on a light and she immediately winced seeing the angle of the man’s head where I’d snapped his neck.

She looked away and I closed the distance, forcing her to look at him. “He’s remarkably similar to a man you took a picture with.”

Her eyes opened wide, and she smashed her fists against my chest. “What the hell are you trying to say?”

Her reaction wasn’t faked. I allowed my gaze to travel over the length of her body, hissing the moment I noticed blood.

“You’re hurt,” I told her. Seeing the bloody gash near her scalp, the desire to kill the man all over again swept through me.

She acted as if she had no idea what I was talking about, instead staring at the blood soaking my shirt. “You broke through the stitches. We need to fix them. You could get an infection.”

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