Page 21 of The Devil Within

‘Like you.’ It was a statement, not a question.

They stared at each other. His face was still devoid of emotion, still the biker.

‘How do you even… ’ She couldn’t find the words to finish the question.

‘Become a killer?’

Her stomach lurched and heat radiated uncomfortably throughout her body. She nodded.

The set of his face became harder still.

‘The first time was about four years ago. A supplier had gotten greedy, thinking he could double-cross The Devils.’ Alex looked at her the whole time he spoke.

She couldn’t imagine it, not the Alex she fell in love with. But a part of her wanted to know more. ‘How?’

He frowned. ‘Why does it matter?’

‘Howdid you kill him?’

‘Small blade, four quick jabs.’

She shuddered, not having to imagine the blood. She sagged against the wall, weighted down by the images in her head. But she didn’t look away as he studied her, she couldn’t. She was in too deep now.

‘If it’s any consolation,meeting you changed everything. I didn’t realize how much until that night, at the pub.’

‘What do you mean?’

‘He knew about you. The mark. He said, ‘I’ve got a woman too. I can’t leave her to fend for herself. You wouldn’t leave yours.’’

She raised an eyebrow.And yet, that’s exactly what you did.

‘He knew you were straight, not someone from our world,’ Alex explained, pain shadowing his face. ‘I was an idiot to think I could keep you a secret.’

‘And then you killed him?’

Alex stared at her, confusion etched into his face.

‘The last conversation he had was about me, and then you killed him?’ Her disgust dripped off every word. ‘I am the reason that man died - just like I am the reason that man died in my flat last night?’ The thought made her want to vomit.

He looked away.

‘Is that why you broke up with me?’

He chewed his lip and nodded once.

‘But why were you so cruel?’ She breathed the question, the same question she asked him twelve months ago. She hadn’t recognised him that night when he’d finally shown up and brutally ended their relationship without warning.

Alex leant forward, his elbows on his knees, and scrubbed his hands up and down his face. ‘I thought if you hated me, you wouldn’t want me to come to London with you.’ He looked up at her again. ‘I was trying to keep you safe.’

The memory of their final exchange in Sydney brought the tears back. His barely contained fury had diffused like poison through the air. The contempt he’d shown her had transformed him into someone she couldn’t reach. Couldn’t reason with.

Safe, he said. He wanted to keep her safe.

Yeah, I felt so safe after you took my heart and smashed it into a million pieces.

She could still feel the force of the door slamming, the shock and despair taking her legs from beneath her and the air from her lungs. Sarah had cried for two days straight, unable to get out of bed.

‘I knew I couldn’t do it anymore. I didn’t want to kill him. I didn’t want to kill anyone.’ He leaned back against the wall. ‘Once a Devil, always a Devil… until death, do we part. I knew there was no point talking to Zep, I wouldn’t have seen the day out. You don’t just leave. No patch-outs.’

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