Page 50 of Dark Torment

JONATHAN

I’mman enough to admit when I’m a dumbass. This is one of those times.

You would think years of law school would teach me when to read a situation and keep my mouth shut, but I one hundred percent didn’t do that this morning.

I thought that the drive to her shop would be a good time to discuss this whole killing thing. Nope, I was wrong.

So wrong, in fact, that she’s refusing to talk to me while she’s working.

She knows I’m watching out for her, and where I’m located. Every now and then, I can see her glaring at me through the window, too.

I know that a lot of today’s behaviour is probably that she didn’t sleep. Neither did I. I sat up all night wondering how she would feel about my being a killer.

Would she ask me to give it up? Could I, for her?

I think I could, but it also doesn’t seem to be where her mind is at. Though, she’s thrown me into a confused tailspin more than once over the past couple days.

I know that this is all too much for her. Finding out someone wants you dead, and that it may just be the only blood family you have left… it would be a lot for anyone. Too much, especially for someone as naïve to the darkness as she is.

She hasn’t been burned by others outside of Ben and her father or been around enough people to be hurt.

She’s never been with a man, or even wanted to be as far as I can tell. Just knowing I was the first person to ever taste that pretty mouth is enough to drive me mad.

And the passion she unleashed this morning with her anger? I was so fucking hard for her while she yelled at me. It was proof she didn’t fear me or what I could do to her.

Whether or not she realizes it, she trusts me. I won’t let that be in vain. When she goes to bed tonight, I’m going to pay Ben another visit.

It’s about time I took a different approach.

* * *

Liv fell asleep almostthe minute we got back to my place. I knew she would. That’s why I insisted on grabbing some fast takeout, so she’d at least have something substantial in her stomach.

We talked a bit on the way home, too. She apologized for being snappy this morning, and I told her I thought it was a good thing. She shook her head but smiled a little before turning in her seat to look at me.

As soon as she knew she had my attention, she told me she didn’t want to know what I was doing to Ben, or really anything else that I’d done or will continue to do, and it shocked me.

I figured she would want to know at least a little, or tell me she didn’t want to date a killer. But she didn’t. Instead, she said she knew I was a good man, and it took everything in me not to laugh.

She caught it anyway and rolled her eyes. She said that part of the reason for her lack of sleep was wondering if she should trust me, and that she felt like she could. That she didn’t understand it, but the idea of playing it safe and walking away didn’t sit right with her.

It didn’t sit right with me, either. I can’t imagine my sunflower not being in my life, which is why I’m headed to the bunker now. I need answers, and Ben is where I’m going to get them.

“Hello, Benny boy! How are you feeling?” I chirp at him. I’m in a great fucking mood right now.

My girl has agreed to give me a chance. I know she’s safe in my house, and I’m about to do something I’ve rarely had the opportunity to do.

Ben glares at me as I toss my duffle bag onto my workbench. He hasn’t eaten in a while, or drank anything, either.

He’s most definitely lost weight he couldn’t really afford to lose. Then again, I think he knew he was never leaving this bunker. Not alive, anyway.

“Cat got your tongue?” I ask with a smirk. “Because I know for a fact I don’t. The last person I asked that question down here? I did have his tongue.” I smile as his face pales a bit.

There’s a difference between being locked in a cell and starved, and being physically harmed. It takes a sick fuck to do either, but it takes someone with a certain level of coldness inside of them to truly hurt another human being in such a way.

Ben just realized I’m not just a twisted fuck who gets off on watching people die, and that he’s had it relatively easy until now.

I open the bag and pull a sleeve of crackers out before tossing them to him. “Eat up. Can’t have you dying on me yet. Liv would never forgive me for that,” I say to him, and he narrows his eyes in suspicion.

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