Damaged (Boys of Winter #2) - Sheridan Anne Page 0,23

hold them back as I quickly run out of space. I will not let him see how weak he’s made me. I raise my chin. If this is it, if today is my last day on earth, then I’ll be going down with my head held high. “Just make it quick,” I tell him, my heart thundering so fast that it couldn’t possibly be healthy, but what does it matter?

Carver narrows his gaze and steps right into my personal space. His natural, manly scent wraps around me and I instantly long for the connection that pulsed between us every time he was near. My body craves his touch as my mind silently begs for him to hold me. Maybe if I’m a dead woman, I might be able to talk him into kissing me just one last time.

“I’m not here to kill you,” he says so naturally, as though talking about my death is a normal occurrence between us, though lately it really has been.

My brows furrow as I meet his dark stormy eyes. He looks so angry, so worn down and tired. It’s almost as though he’s the one who hasn’t been sleeping. “I don’t believe you,” I tell him, noticing how his hand flinches at his side, trying hard not to reach out and take my waist just as he always does, but at this point, he’ll be damn lucky if he ever gets this close to me again. “You’ve already tried to kill me twice. Third time’s a charm.”

“What the fuck are you talking about? I’ve never attempted to take your life.”

I sputter, unable to believe what I’m hearing as I tilt my head back further and point out the dark bruising around my throat. “What the hell do you call this, Carver? Because it sure as fuck didn’t feel like an accident.”

“You had just murdered my father. You don’t know this fucking world, Winter, not like I do. I had to do it. I had no fucking choice.”

I scoff. “Just like you had no choice to send those twelve hitmen against me in the woods.”

His brows shoot straight up. “Are you fucking insane? Or don’t you remember that I was the fucking idiot who was standing at your back, making sure that your ass got out of there alive?”

“You can’t deny how convenient it was,” I spit.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You’re one of the eight, Carver. How am I supposed to believe that you didn’t drag me into the woods to set me up? You got me alone in there, fucked with my head, and then left me to fend for myself. You’ve been a shady fucker since the moment I met you. Who knows, maybe you’re playing the guys too. It was certainly a good show you put on, racing back for me and playing the hero to claim you saved my ass. It sure makes you look pretty fucking innocent.”

He shakes his head, his eyes blazing with anger as the insistent feeling in my gut demands that I trust him. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

I scoff, more pissed than anything. Hell, even if he didn’t have anything to do with the attack in the woods, I’m still not going to back down because I’m a stubborn ass and he deserves every bit of my fury. “I am so fucking over you assholes telling me I don’t know what I’m talking about, because from where I’m standing, I’m the only bitch who has the story straight.”

His jaw clenches and his eyes burn with anger. “If I wanted to kill you, you’d have been dead a long fucking time ago, Winter. I’ve had you alone, sleeping in my bed night after night. It would be as easy as waiting for you to fall asleep before snapping your fragile little neck. Don’t fool yourself.”

I step into him, cutting straight into his personal space just as he’d done to me, and force him back a step. “Then why the hell are you here?”

He silently watches me for a moment, thinking harder than any one person has the right to before his eyes tighten. “Tell me what my father said to you that was so bad you had to fucking kill him.”

I scoff, my disbelief forcing me back a few steps as I stare at the guy who could have meant the world to me. “Are you fucking kidding me? After everything we’ve been through, you don’t trust what I said in that fucking council chamber was