Page 30 of Lovely Violent Things

“The letter was calling me out,” I say. “Heseesme, hasuncovereda secret that could hurt me.” Through the rain, I find Kallum’s eyes, gauging him closely.

After everything he just confessed… God, if he’s ultimately behind this, then he’s playing on a whole other twisted level.

When I first read the letter, I imagined Kallum had penned it; a threat to kill the victims.

I will eradicate your higher men one-by-one until you are fearless enough tofaceme.

“Why kill one of his own higher men?” I say. “That goes against his whole belief system.” Yet he killed Landry the moment he dosed him with hemlock. If the offender wasn’t one before, then he became a killer in that moment. “And then…why would he copycat the Harbinger killer…”

Kallum’s jaw sets rigid, a muscle tics along his jawline. “To make you believe it was me.”

A coldness sweeps through me, numbing me against the falling rain.

“Planting the rope at the scene wasn’t for the techs to find,” he says. “It was for you. You’re the only one who can prove I wasn’t in the hotel room, that I was at the scene. The Overman wants me out of the way, Halen.”

I shake my head. “That still doesn’t explain why he’d kill one of the victims. Especially when he needs them,allof them, for his rituals to ascend.”

His eyes darken. “Because he found someone he wants more.”

The implication hits me with a thunderous boom, the storm a deafening roar.

“He wants you, Halen,” Kallum says, emphasizing his point. “So I’m not going anywhere. Even when the carving knife conveniently turns up with my DNA to force you to confess to Alister that I was there, I’m not leaving you alone.” He sweeps the wet strand of white from my eye, gripping it between his inked fingers before he tucks it behind my ear. A forced smile touches his lips. “If you can’t trust the person, trust their intent.”

I drag in a shuddering breath, recalling how deeply I distrusted Kallum when first he said this to me. How I knew—sitting at that diner booth, staring into his clashing eyes as he held a steak knife—that I could never trust him, that he’d harm me the first opportunity that presented.

As I stare into his gaze now, there’s an open sadness there, a dejection, that feels so genuine I can taste the melancholy infusing the damp air around him.

And I could fall. Right now. Let go of obligations and consequences and even sanity, and fall over the edge with Kallum. Tumble right down into his abyss, and be lost.

Just let go.

I can’t lie to myself; a part of me wants to. That part of me which craves the surrender to oblivion that is promised in his frantic kisses and wild, feverish touches.

It’s like begging for the sweet caress of death’s kiss.

But another part of me, the one still desperately clinging to a life from my past, fears letting go of that final thread.

I’m not yet ready to be unraveled by Kallum.

“And your intent is to protect me,” I say between quivering lips, the question implied. “The villain who endeavors to be a hero.”

With a wry smile, he slips his tongue over the ridge of his teeth, then he braces the sides of my neck with both hands, his thumbs lifting my chin upward so all I can see is him.

“The villain only becomes such after he’s lost that which he cannot live without,” he says. “I’m in no need of a metamorphosis. I refuse to lose you.”

His mouth hovers so near mine, all I have to do is lift onto my toes to press my lips to his. The dare hangs there between us as he waits for me to be the one to accept him, to trust him, to seal us together.

“So, little Halen,” he says, his thumb featherlight as he brushes my cheek. “Will you trust me, or am I going to have to tie you down and force you to let me protect you.”

I place my hands to his chest, and the chaotic beat of his heart pounds against my palms. “You won’t be satisfied until I’m completely under your spell.”

A devilish smile slants his mouth. “Satisfaction is an impossible demand,” he says. “But I can be contented right this second to taste the rain on your lips.”

As his gaze hungrily traps my mouth, I’m pulled into the charged current. His lips are the lightest brush over mine, the tenderest touch, yet the fire threatens to sear us to ash.

The flash of headlights steals into the moment.

I pull back a fraction to sever the connection as the SUV coasts up the gravel road. Another pair of lights appear from the other direction, illuminating the falling rain like beads of glass.

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