Page 4 of Vicious Hearts

“We’re in the middle of a conversat—”

Only then do his eyes lift from me to the man behind me. And suddenly, his face pales. The sneer drops from his lips as pure, unadulterated fear bleeds across his eyes.

“My sincere—”

“I don’t want your apologies. I want you fuckinggone.”

The man in front of me nods so vigorously it almost makes me wince. Then, without another word, his hand is gone from my wrist as he spins and hurries across the room and out another door.

Then, we’re alone.

Just me.

And the monster I’m here to kill.

One second ticks by, then another. My skin tingles from the malevolent energy humming off him against my bare back. Slowly, I swallow the lump knotted in my throat, steel myself, and turn to face him.

The second I do, every nerve in my body jangles. Every inch of my skin prickles and shivers. Every ounce of my willpower forces me not to shake as my gaze drags up over his black suit with the black shirt beneath it—no tie.

Over the immaculately trimmed scruff on his razor-sharp jaw and angular cheekbones.

Over the sinfully dangerous lips.

Over the mask, half gold and half matte black, with gilded roses and Irish knots adorning the edges.

Up to the piercing, venomouslylethalgreen eyes cutting into me like two blades.

Cillian Kildare: head of the Kildare Irish crime family, literal psychopath, infamous devil.

And tonight, my prey.

I swallow again, raking my teeth over my bottom lip as I give him my best seductive look. Or at least, as seductive a look as I can manage, given the unblinking, slightly unhinged, psycho way those sharp green eyes are stabbing into me.

And it’s then, staring up into his strikingly gorgeous face and those dangerously sociopathic eyes, that it suddenly hits me exactly how unready I am for this. Despite all my preparation. Despite all the brutality and training hammered into me as a child.

It all comes crashing down as I lock eyes with the second most dangerous man I’ve ever stood before.

But I have to do this.

Ihave todo this.

So I smile again, batting my eyes at him from under the mask as I reach up to toy with my blonde locks.

“Thank you, for—”

“Don’t,” he growls quietly, his eyes still leveled right into mine.

I shiver. It’s like being stared down by a fucking tiger in the middle of the jungle at night.

“Really, I want to say thank you for rescuing me from that—”

“I didn’trescueyou, little girl,” he murmurs darkly, his eyes glinting right into my fucking soul and instantly turning me to molten lead. “I simply saw something I wanted, and I came totake it.”

My lips clamp shut, my body tensing up to try to stop the shuddering as the heat throbs in my core.

Stop it. Just keep talking. Keep him interested, so that you can get him alone.

“So, I’m what you want—”

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