Page 52 of His Virgin Angel

Chapter Ten

Piper woke with a gasp as she sat up on the sofa. She recognized her apartment, and glancing down at the clothes she wore, she saw she’d been changed.

“I burnt the others. You were out completely. I was a little worried,” Jack said, sitting on the coffee table in front of her.

This was a man who had killed, and she should be afraid of him, terrified. Staring at him, all she wanted to do was throw her arms around him, but she didn’t.

He killed people.

Jack sighed. “I was always hoping to avoid this.”

“Avoid what?”

“The way you’re looking at me. I never thought I’d hate someone being afraid of me, but with you, yeah, it fucking sucks.”

Tears filled her eyes, and before she could stop them, they cascaded down her cheeks. When he made to touch her, she flinched away, and she hated herself.

He looked hurt by her action. “I should have expected that.”

“Jack—”

“It’s okay. Guys like me should expect this. I mean, we’re not allowed to have the good girl, the angel, are we?” He sounded so distant and in pain.

“I don’t know what you want from me.”

“To hear my side. You’ve only heard Ronald’s side, and he’s been my enemy for a long time.”

“You killed people?”

“Yeah, I’ve killed people. In my defense, they were all bad.”

“What about my mom?”

He looked down, and she just knew.

“Ronald said that you hurt people that hurt me.”

“No one was ever allowed to touch you.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because you were completely fucking innocent, Piper. Not just because you were a virgin. In your mind, in your heart, you cared for fucking strangers. The day I met you, I was sitting on those steps because the woman I was with had cheated on me, betrayed me, and I was waiting for the guys to do the cleanup.”

“The cleanup?”

“You’re not stupid, Piper, you know what I mean.”

“Wow.” On that day she’d tried to offer a killer comfort. Why did it hurt so much? And why did she still want to throw herself into his arms, and forget about everything? She wasn’t afraid of him.

Shouldn’t she be afraid of a man that killed people?

“I was this man for a long time, Piper. This is the only way I know how to be.”

“Are you like a crime person, a bad guy, I don’t know,” she said.

“I own brothels, deal drugs, deal guns, fights, and I even own a few restaurants.”

“So yes.” She wiped away the tears.

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