Page 53 of Inescapable Darkness

I freeze as my forearm, the one that was bracing her shoulder blades, comes back red. Staring down at that crimson smear, I know exactly what it is. Blood.

My gaze snaps back to her. “You lied to me.”

She winces while an apologetic expression blows across her face. “Yeah.”

“Fucking hell. The next time I see Mikhail, I’m going to—”

“Don’t,” she interrupts, shooting me a pleading look. “He will only take it out on me.”

“No, he won’t. Because I will fucking kill him.”

“Please. Just… let it go.”

I flex my hand, itching to hunt down Mikhail and carve him up until he’s begging for death. But the pleading look on Isabella’s face stops me. She really doesn’t want to get involved in our war with the Petrovs. And I don’t want to drag her into it either and make her a target.

“Fine,” I force out. “I’ll let it slide.If…” I begin, stressing the very conditional nature of this bargain, “you at least let me patch up the wound.”

She rolls her eyes in what seems like half exasperation, half amusement. “Fine.” Then she jerks her chin towards the kitchen side of the room. “The first aid kit is in the cupboard under the sink.”

After giving her a nod, I head back and close the front door before going to the cabinet she specified. I don’t even need to search for the first aid kit. It’s right there on the side. One of those normal home kits people have. Not the extensive first aid kit fit for a secret assassin that I’m sure she has stashed somewhere else. I pull it out and then close the cabinet door while I straighten again.

When I turn back to face Isabella, she is just sitting there on the couch, watching me. My gaze drifts down to the tight black t-shirt she’s wearing.

“You’ll need to take your shirt off,” I say, the words coming out a bit more hesitant than I had planned.

She looks down at her body before meeting my gaze again, and I swear some heat creeps into her cheeks. “Oh. Right.”

Grabbing the hem of her shirt, she pulls it over her head. Then she folds it up and places it on the pale wooden table in front of the couch. I know that I shouldn’t, that it will only bring trouble, but I slide my gaze over her body again.

She’s now sitting there wearing only a black lace bra and a pair of jeans shorts that barely cover the top half of her thighs. Blood rushes to my cock. The curve of her breasts in that bra combined with her toned shoulders and legs makes her body a perfect mix of soft and hard.

I give myself a mental slap. Focus, God damn it.

This time, I know that I see some red flush her cheeks.

Fuck, did I show any of that on my face?

However, before I can figure that out, Isabella shifts her position on the couch so that she’s twisting away and has her back to me. I sit down on the white cushion next to her. After putting the first aid kit on the low table before me, I turn back and study the cut on her shoulder blade.

It is a very shallow cut, and it has almost stopped bleeding already, but rage still sears through me at the sight of it. All I want to do is to hunt down Mikhail and make him pay tenfold for every drop of blood he spilled. But I can’t. Not without putting Isabella in the line of fire again.

Something inside my chest deflates.

This is why I can never let anyone get close to me. Why I’m terrified of it.

Because everyone who is close to me always ends up getting hurt.

First it was Eli.

My heart almost cracks at just the thought of that.

Eli. My brother in everything except blood. The one I grew up getting into all kinds of shit together with. And getting out of shit together with too.

It was just like any other weekend. He was sleeping over at our place, in my room, because I had already passed out on the bed he usually sleeps in. And then they came. Kidnappers who were there for me but who took him instead. They held him captive and tortured him and humiliated him until his mind snapped. And it should have been me. It fucking should have been me!

Then a few years after that, the assassins came. They killed my parents but let me live.

And now, the Petrovs went after Isabella just because I invited her to sit at our table while we had lunch.

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