Page 36 of Dangerous as Sin

“But I learned, Tino. I won’t disappoint you ever again. I promise I can still be saved. Don’t give up on me.”

I kissed her hard, my fingers gripping at the ends of her short hair. Then I cradled her face between my hands. “I wish you’d figured it out a little earlier. It’s too late now.”

The flicker of hope I tasted in her kiss faded, and fear smudged her face. “No. Tino, please.”

“Shhhh. Basta, Angel. It has to be done. Now, shut up and watch or I’ll cuff your other hand and ankles, too.”

I had to use force to move her off of me before I returned to the redhead. I told the whore to strip and then I took off my pants myself. I folded them, too, and put them with the shirt, and then I ordered her to put them away on the farthest chair from the bed. “I don’t want them to get dirty. They’re new.”

“You’re the boss.” She did as I said. When I sat, she went down on her knees between my legs.

Angel began throwing one of her tantrums. I leaned in and whispered something in the woman’s ear. When my gaze returned to Angel, she was pulling at the cuffs so hard blood stained her wrist.

I rested my head back against the chair as the woman’s head bobbed between my thighs while I grabbed her hair. Angel’s gaze and mine hooked. She was a lioness, wounded yet not ready to go without causing some serious damage.

She opened the drawer and took the knife. Then she tried to unlock the cuffs with it. She screamed and screamed, frantically scratching the keyhole with the blade, failing miserably.

With a howl, she dropped the knife, and then her catching breath grew quieter. She took a glance at me and blinked once. Everything felt as if moving in slow motion and suddenly at the speed of light. She let out a breath, looking down from my face and at the drawer.

I leaned my head back farther, letting go of the woman’s hair, and closed my eyes, knowing what was to come.

Bang!

Blood and brain matter splattered on my face. I didn’t need to open my eyes to know for sure. I knew the texture and the smell like the back of my hand. There was a thud on the floor; the woman dropped dead.

Angel shot her. My Angel took the woman’s life. My sweet Angel crossed that last line of humanity and murdered a person.

I wiped my face and opened my eyes. She was still holding the gun, a trail of smoke fading from it. Her stare froze at the dead body drowning in a pool of blood on the floor. “He’s mine. Do you hear that, bitch? Mine.”

“Tino,” she said so softly, so darkly. “You’re mine.” She nodded to herself. “Say it. You have to say it. Only mine.”

“I’m yours, Angel.”

She squeaked a grunt. “Did I… Did I just kill her?”

“Yes, Angel.”

“She was touching you. I warned her, but she didn’t listen. She was taking what was mine. I had to… I have to protect what’s mine.”

“You didn’t have to kill her, Angel. That was a choice you made on your own.”

“But she was blowing you.” Her voice took a dark turn.

“No, she wasn’t. I whispered in her ear, telling her to pretend she was blowing me.” I couldn’t stand another woman anywhere near me. I made Angel a promise long before I took her never to touch another woman. A promise I intended to keep for life. “But even if she was, Angel, you didn’t have to kill her. You chose to because you wanted to. Because you liked it.”

She grimaced, blinking rapidly. “You… You made it look like she was… You knew… You fucking knew I’d…” She slapped her thigh multiple times. “You put the gun in the drawer right next to me because you knew I’d go for it.”

“I put the knife, too. If you tried a little harder, you could have uncuffed yourself or you could have thrown it at her leg or ass or any spot that would just wound her and not kill her. But you went for the gun.”

“You…” Her breath quivered on her lips. “Why do you keep doing this to me?”

“I had to show you. You had to cross that line to see the truth.”

“I’m a killer. The girl you’ve been trying to save for years is a murderer. Evil. I can’t be the girl you saved instead of your daughter. The fantasy, the obsession no more. There’s no saving me no more,” she said as if in a trance.

“It’s a good thing I was done saving you, Angel.”

“What does that leave us, Tino? I lost everything. I ruined everything.”

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