Page 117 of Alluring Darkness

And in that moment, when she is kneeling before me like that and looking up at me with that delicious fear in her eyes, I realize that I quite like playing God.

46

ELI

“How long is Jace going to sulk?”

Amusement pulls at my lips, and I glance down at Raina. “Probably only for another week or so.”

“A week?” She raises her eyebrows at me. “This morning, I swear I could hear him lamenting all the woes of the world from halfway across the house. You sure a week is all it takes?”

“Yeah.” I chuckle. “He has a very short attention span.”

After we killed Gabriel and finished threatening Shelley, we made our way towards the edge of the forest where most of the instructors were waiting. We had to report Gabriel’s death, and hand Shelley over to the university staff, as soon as possible. And get Raina to the hospital wing.

My blood boils every time I look at Raina’s face. Bruises cover her skin like a gruesome patchwork of red and purple. That fucker Gabriel didn’t deserve the quick and painless death he got. He deserved to be taken to a secluded location and then tortured for weeks on end until he was begging me for death.

But with his gun to Raina’s head like that, there hadn’t been a lot I could do without putting her life at risk. I’m still trembling just thinking about that absolutely insane plan Raina came up with in the cave. One mistake, and it could have ended in disaster. Though I have to admit, it did make my heart swell knowing that she trusts me so completely that she’s willing to let me shoot a bullet mere inches from her head.

Sun beats down on the stone steps where we stand watching the parking lot. A gentle breeze pulls at Raina’s long black hair, making it flutter slightly around her face. I once more study the bruises marring her skin and the now stitched-up wound from where Gabriel hit her with his gun.

Another wave of fury roars through me, and I once again curse the fact that he got such a clean death. Though I suppose it would have been difficult to explain it to our instructors otherwise.

When we showed up at the edge of the woods with a beaten-up Raina and a terrified Shelley, we told them what had happened and that Gabriel was now lying dead in a cave. Because of the death, the instructors decided to cancel the tournament. Which is why Jace is currently sulking like a toddler.

He had been looking forward to his first tournament for weeks and doesn’t understand why one person’s death would change anything. We’re all hitmen, after all. And to be honest, I agree with him. If Raina hadn’t been hurt, I would’ve felt the same way. But when she was standing next to me with blood and bruises on her face, all I wanted to do was to throw her into the car and race her to the hospital wing. Which is exactly what I did. Fortunately, nothing was broken. But the bruises, that it turns out she has all over her body too, are bad enough.

“At least she kept her word,” Raina comments, and nods towards a figure crossing the parking lot.

I follow her gaze and find Shelley hurrying across the pavement while throwing nervous looks over her shoulder. When she sees us, her steps falter, and she almost stumbles into the car she was sneaking past. Snapping her head back around, she picks up the pace.

“Yeah, at least she did,” I reply.

Shelley kept her promise and spilled everything to the instructors. She told them about how Gabriel had planned to kill both Raina and Connor as revenge for the role Harvey Smith had played in his father’s death, and how he had recruited her to help. Then she had explained exactly what happened in the cave and that shooting Gabriel had been the only option.

All six of us had been called in to give our statements too, but since everything lined up, there were no repercussions for Gabriel’s death. Rather the opposite, in fact.

Since Blackwater has a strict no killing policy, Gabriel’s surviving family members were forced to pay a steep fee for his crimes. And Shelley was expelled because of her involvement.

A smirk blows across my lips when I think about the look on her face when she heard the news. Or even better, the look on her face once she received a phone call from her father.

Because he didn’t want to fall out of favor with our family, and by extension the Morelli family, he apparently decided to take preemptive action and disown Shelley. As far as I know, he has three other kids, so cutting Shelley off was apparently not too difficult for him. It made my fucking day, though.

As did watching Raina threaten her in that cave.

Tearing my eyes from the fleeing Shelley, I look down at Raina while a sly smile plays over my lips. “Did I tell you just how fucking hot you looked back in that cave?”

She snorts and glances up at me before raising her eyebrow in a dubious expression. “When I had a gun to my head?”

“No.” I give her shoulder a soft shove before pulling her back to my side again so that I can lean down and kiss her temple. “When you were threatening to kill Shelley.”

A smug expression spreads across her features, and she grins at me. “You thought that was hot, huh?”

“Very.”

Her green eyes glitter with mischief. “If you want to see it again, I could always try it on you.”

I place my fingers on her jaw, tipping her head back, as I lean down and whisper against her lips, “Careful now, princess.”

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