Page 6 of Promise of Destruction
“Guys, Ijustgot here. Maybe you want to have a few drinks before you start trying to cut me, hmm?”
“Odd choice of words.” Khan’s dark eyes flit over me, down and then up again, looking for any signs that something is amiss with me.
I bury my face in my hands and then rake them across my temples, where the tension has been pooling all day. I should feel relieved or exonerated or something, but I’m only annoyed.
“This isn’t therapy.”
“Because you quit going!” Khan snaps, shaking his hands in the air at me like he can guide the words into my skull and make them stick. “Did you really think we wouldn’t find out?”
My lips are trembling with the words on my tongue, the sting of betrayal cold in my gut. I can feel eyes on me, hear people whispering.
“Look at crazy Ren, freaking out on the only two people in the world who care about her. Did you hear about her husband? Some say she killed him, and the guilt was too much so she tried to kill herself, too. They found her in the bathtub, you know, wearing her wedding dress? I mean, the whole thing was just covered in blood.”
The world is blurring together, the voices blending into a static hum as everything fades away.
I can feel the knife in my skin again, the blade cutting through my flesh far more effortlessly than I expected. It makes me scream, but it’s nothing compared to the other pain inside of me.
“Ren!” Marissa’s voice brings me back to the present, and with it comes the chatter again. The world snaps back to itself and I’m reminded that I live here, in this cold reality made by the hell I never recovered from.
“Fuck you both.” I say the words before considering them and spring out of my seat before they can see the betrayal burning my eyes and clouding my vision.
And as I do, I step smack into a wall of muscle.
five
Declan
Ireachouttosteady her instinctively and can’t help but be surprised how cold she is under my touch. Her bones are sharp beneath her skin without much to insulate them. When I’d spied her in the parking garage in that sinful dress, I’d assumed she was the kind of woman who was meticulous and methodical, who lived her life according to what value other people gave her.
I’m good with people, especially with reading them. I put together a profile in less than a minute of seeing her— a good girl who goes to the gym five days a week, reads romance novels in the bathtub, and has made the humanitarian decision to go vegan because she loves animals.
But now that she’s in front of me, now that I can feel her frail body under my touch, now that I can see the pain in her eyes, I realize she is someone entirely different… someone broken.
She isn’t thin because she’s chosen to live healthily… she wants the control she feels when she withholds food from herself. Sheneedsit. And I want her all the more for it. My cock twitches as I consider how beautifully broken she is and think of putting her back together, only to shatter her again. She will be beautifulcollateral damage in my quest to ruin Soren, whoever the fuck he is to her. A boyfriend, I hope. I’d greatly enjoy turning her into a little whore for me and sending him video evidence of what he lost.
I know I’m a monster, but I can’t change my nature any more than she can change hers. I was born in the dark, and while I’ve learned to hide from the shadows, I can’t outrun myself. My dark appetite for chaos and destruction always has a way of catching up to me in the end, and right now, it’s ravenous.
Right now, all thoughts of the redhead are gone, along with the temporary relief I took from her. Soren Palmer is a distant thorn in my side, a foe I will dispose of in time.
Right now, I have a new interest. And if she helps me get to him? Well, then, I’ll be killing two birds with a single stone.
“Are you alright?” I ask, brushing a hand over her dress, smoothing the skirt that lifted just a little up her svelte thigh as I grabbed hold of her. The top of her head is just level with my chest, and as she stops to look up at me, I’m struck by just how tiny she is compared to when I first spotted her in the parking garage.
Now that she’s in my arms, she’s like an injured little bird. Just a snip of her wings and she’ll be helpless in my palm.
Her eyes are like ice—sharp, cold, hollow. And that beautiful face? It betrays her as she stares at me.
I wouldn’t be surprised to discover she isentirelyhollow, full of stale air and cobwebs. I want to reach inside her and find out, but she makes it clear she wants nothing to do with me, wrenching out of my grip and brushing my touch from her skin, like I’ve repulsed her.
It isn’t the type of reaction I’m used to, but a sadistic little piece of me likes it. It’s like her gaze sends a current of lightning from her to me, and it’s gone straight to my cock. I’m painfullytight but delighting in her discomfort. She has no idea what she’s done to me… or what I will have to do to get her out of my veins.
“Don’t touch me.” She snaps, waving a finger in the air like that will stop me from doing whatever I want to her.
“I was just seeing if you’re okay.” I raise my hands, showing her not to fear me…lying.
She’s not wearing shoes, and with one hand planted on her hip and the other raised to enforce a distance between us, she looks adorably feral. She also looks more comical than fearsome, but apparently, she doesn’t need to look fearsome, because the music has cut out and I hear my name being growled from across the bar.
“Tony.” I greet the large man coldly as he comes around and puts a hand on her shoulder, his touch possessive as he pulls her into him.
