Page 69 of Savage Hunter

Her words drive a foot long blade into my soul, killing me an inch at a time.

“You don’t have to fight. You have every right in the world to go to New Orleans and keep yourself safe with the others. You do not have to take on the world. Help Nova. She’ll need you. I’ll pick you up once it’s safe.”

“And how long will that be? Have you forgotten this isn’t all about just my mother? Ghost’s baby girl. Persephone’s sister. They need help, too.”

“The other Savages can rescue them. Remember, you volunteered us for that mission. I can easily pass it right back to them. Now that I know where Ares’ brothers are, I know where to find your bitch of a mother. She will be dead within a day. In. Do the job. Out.”

Her lips move into a smile that doesn’t reach the brightness of her eyes. “Or you get killed. Both options are highly probable.”

“Such little faith in me?”

Her heavy sigh breaks my heart.

“When nasty shit can happen, it usually does.”

She traces the edges of the inked skulls on my chest with the soft tip of her finger. The small contact frays the edges of my control. I inhale through my nose and hold her scent deep in my lungs. Her hand drops, and she steps around me and heads to the bathroom. Tears are in her eyes when she looks back.

“I won’t let you be alone if things go sideways. If you die. So do I.”

I follow her, leaning my weight on the frame. Die with me? Fuck that. We are not Romeo and Juliet. I won’t let her within one hundred miles of danger. I don’t know how I’ll do that yet, but I’ll find a way.

“You’d die for me, baby?”

Fierce determination shines back at me. “In a heartbeat.”

“Sweet, baby.” I take her chin in hand. “But not fucking happening.”

The shields she keeps erected between us crack. I visibly see the fractures form when I cup her face and she leans into my touch. Her emotions are probably all over the place. Shit. Mine are, for sure. But if she gets hurt again, I will lose the last thread of sanity and won’t stop spilling blood in her name.

“I need to secure the car and the contents. If anyone comes to the door, don’t answer it. I don’t need to knock, I have the key.”

I feel the burn of her gaze between my shoulder blades. On the other side, I scrub my face and try to count off the reasons we can’t hit the Southern border and not look back.

Moments like this make me happy I’m the villain and not some fucking sappy ass pushover.

Fourteen

Avery

Icouldn’t save myself on the night my mother offered me up to the Society, but I can save myself from the coming heartache barreling my way.

Wolfe’s gentle caresses make me want to be someone I am not. The second he called me a good girl I stumbled into the trap my heart set for me and nearly gave in to the need to hear him praise me just one more time.

Pathetic. Trash. Tarnished royalty.

Their snarled taunts plague my thoughts. My heart constricts. It’s several minutes before I can take a deep breath again. I plunge my fingers into my hair and pull on the roots until the pain helps the memories fade.

But for one fleeting moment, I was the naïve girl falling for the forbidden older man all over again and it was bliss. And then I couldn’t breathe. Being her is dangerous to who I need to be.

Avery. Strong. Quiet but in control.

I’m weak when I am Harmonia and every time he uses her name, I feel the tug to be his good girl. No matter how much I want to be that innocent again, that can’t happen. She died the second those van doors closed me inside. No one can hold that amount of control over me ever again.

It’s because you don’t trust him, my inner voice sing-songs.

I pull on the roots again until she shuts up. I’m getting real tired of that nosy bitch always inserting her two cents. I bury my face in my hands. I’m losing my mind. I have to be.

I crack the bathroom door open and watch Wolfe leave the hotel room.

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