Page 49 of Depraved Truths

I grind my teeth as she fills me in on what Allie saw the night of Paisley’s disappearance.

“Why didn’t she tell someone?” I shout in outrage. “Why didn’t she tell me?”

“One of them threatened to kill her and her family. She was terrified.

” I glare at her, and she flinches. “How long have you known about this?”

“About what Allie saw that night? Only a few weeks. The thing is, she didn’t realize it was them. Allie only figured it out yesterday, just before Dalton assaulted her. I haven’t been able to ask her more about it, and we can’t right now. She’s already devastated about the baby.”

“Fuck!” I hurl myself from the truck, my fist connecting with the tailgate in an explosion of fury. “How could you not tell me?”

Tessa follows me out of the truck. “Eli, please stop and talk to me.”

“Talk to you? Oh, now you want me to talk to you when you couldn't be bothered to tell me about this possibly monumental thing until now?”

“I’m sorry, I’m so sorry.” She wraps her arms around me tightly, and I instantaneously feel the anger slowly fading into a low simmering rage. Guilt starts churning in my gut, I shouldn’t have yelled at her. I hate secrets, but it wasn’t Tessa that held this from me for years, it was Allie. Leaning into her embrace, I rest my head against hers. A few deep breaths later, I pull back and tuck a strand of blonde hair behind her ear.

“I’m okay.”

She sees the damage to my right hand and gasps. “I hope you didn’t break anything. Let me take a look.”

Reaching for my hand, she examines it as I extend my fingers, allowing her to inspect my knuckles.

“It probably isn’t broken, but let’s ice it to reduce the swelling.”

Despite everything going on right now, I let out a slow grin. “You’re sexy with all that doctor talk.”

Flushing a little, she clears her throat, and my smile broadens. “I know you probably don’t want to hear this from me, but maybe you need to step back. Your emotions may interfere with your reasoning.”

“And you have your emotions in check, baby?”

“Maybe not,” she admits. “But I have a little experience with this.”

“You forget, Little Killer, I’ve been in combat. And I have quite a bit of experience with torture and interrogation.”

Heat fills her eyes, her gaze dropping to my lips and lingering there. I lick my lips, and her eyes follow the movement. Instantly hard, my cock strains against my zipper.

Down, boy.

“Stop looking at me like that, Tessa, or I’ll fuck you right here in front of God and everybody else.”

She smirks. “Maybe I would like that.”

My mouth crashes down onto hers in a rough, brutal assault, and I reach between her legs to cup her pussy, soaking wet through her leggings, eliciting a low moan from her.

We pull apart, panting. “Youwouldlike that, wouldn’t you, Tess?”

She kisses my neck, biting down into the flesh. “Yes,” she breathes out. “But we have things to handle first.”

Dropping a quick kiss on her lips, I back away, and my mind returns to the task at hand. I’m going to make Dalton wish he had never laid a fucking hand on my sister or Allie.

“Let’s do this.” She heads to the passenger door to get back into the truck. “Oh, and Eli? I love you too, Stalker.”

Barely having time to process her words, I hop into the driver’s seat, and we take off toward the warehouse. She reaches for my hand, careful not to touch my knuckles, and I glance over and see her eyes shining with emotion.

At that moment, I knew our love was meant to be, regardless of our depravity.

As the warehouse comes into view, I pay close attention to our surroundings. The building was previously used to store boats owned by locals. But a few years ago, when the marina was bought out and upgraded, most of the business went there, and my uncle moved on to other ventures.

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