Page 34 of Silent Vendetta (Vendetta Duet)

His face was full of pain and hurt that made me paranoid. What if he knew I’d grabbed the cell phone and this was a test to see if I’d let him leave when I had it?

“I’m sorry for all of this, Luna. When it’s over…” Hunter held the back of his neck, looking at the ground. “Don’t let my mistakes stop you from the path you’re on.” He raised his pained gaze to meet mine. “You’re too beautiful of a person to not spread your love around. The world would be robbed if it didn’t get your light, Luna. Don’t put it out because I screwed up.”

Damn it, my eyes were blurry now.

This was the selfless Hunter that I had fallen in love with, who never wanted me to suffer.

“I don’t deserve you,” he said. “But it doesn’t change the fact that I’d burn the world down for you.”

His words, laden with emotion, left me reeling. How was it possible to feel so cherished by someone like him?

He stepped a few feet closer to me, my body aching with a different pain. The pain of not embracing my former love.

“All your life, you’ve felt people don’t love you enough to fight for you.” Hunter stepped closer. “Know this, Luna: I’d kill for you. I have killed for you. When I’m gone, never forget how much you’re worth fighting for.”

Hunter brought his hand up to my cheek, making me gasp at the spark created by his touch.

“Remember,” he said, “so long as your heart beats, there was one person out there willing to stop any heartbeat that ever hurt you.”

I should not want his words to sprinkle inside me like seeds and grow. But they did. And I wanted to water them and nurture them and allow them to consume my body. To replace my cells with nothing but those words.

And I should not be devastated by the wordwas. Therewasone person willing to end anyone that hurt me. Was—past tense.

“I love you, Luna. Nothing will change that.”

But everything was changing. And I couldn’t control it, nor did I know how badly I’d be damaged when this car accident stopped flipping.

“I don’t know how I feel,” I admitted. “I know how Ishouldfeel. But everything just feels so…muddy right now.”

Hunter’s eyes brightened, but after a few seconds, the corners of his mouth drooped, and he shook his head back and forth.

“You deserve somebody better than me, Luna.” He swallowed. “I’m a monster. I relish enacting justice when justice isn’t served, and I enjoy inflicting pain on the men who’ve inflicted it on others. I want them to suffer, just as they’ve made their victims suffer, and I want them to feel the same fear, too.”

I shuddered at the confession he got off on his kills, and then my chest burned because after everything he’d confided, I realized I probably knew him better than anyone else. I mean, look at the brokenness etched across his features right now. I bet the real reason he’d never gotten close to anyone was because he didn’t feel worthy of being loved.

In the expanding silence, the familiar chime of my cell phone reverberated through the room like a dangerous toll.

The color drained from Hunter’s face, and his features darkened.

“Give me the phone, Luna.”

Fight or flight. Flight won. I sprinted toward the bathroom—the cold touch of the cell phone’s screen clutched in my palm—where the subtle scent of lavender was invaded by his distinct musk scent when he caught me.

Embarrassingly easily.

He wrenched the phone from my grasp, its smooth surface scraping my skin. Then, towering over me, he stood rigid, every line of his body radiating a sense of betrayal.

CHAPTER18

Luna

Hunter gave me one last look before storming out of the bedroom and slamming the door behind him.

What the hell was that click?

It better not be what I think it is!

I ran and tried to turn the doorknob to open the ancient beast, but it wouldn’t budge. Instantly, all my confusing emotions washed away, as did my fear, and the only one that was left was hot, boiling anger.

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