dresses. I ignore the three people seated with me at the leather booth tucked away in a private corner, my eyes scanning a venue that is in stark contrast to the clubs Adeline would often drag me to.
I somehow miss the garish lights and thumping music, the toxic mix of sex and alcohol in a far less civilized setting.
Where is Adeline?
They’ll be arriving on their transfer flight right now...
My hand clenches the drink I’ve been ignoring, nerves on edge, my mind tracing the itinerary of their honeymoon flight.
Paris.
Milan.
Venice.
Athens.
Bali.
Only a handful of the places Grant will be taking her, keeping her out of my reach for three months.
It hadn’t been easy to steal the information. Grant’s life is locked down tighter than Adeline’s had been, but I managed to learn that much.
Three months without her.
Three months I can’t keep an eye on a woman I’ve watched for years.
Letting go is harder than I’d imagined.
A hand slides up my thigh, breath against my neck, a mouth brushing my ear. “Where are you right now?”
In New York, walking through JFK Airport en route to terminal B, Gate 32, International Flight 3569, destination: Paris, France.
My fingers curl against the cool glass. “Nowhere.”
Glancing over, I meet Lincoln’s concerned expression, his arm wrapped around the shoulder of a buxom blonde, fingers casually stroking her skin, eyes focused on me, disapproval evident.
“Ari’s having a bad night,” he explains, that far too observant gaze sliding to the brunette at my side.
She giggles. “Oh yeah?” A squeeze of my thigh. “Maybe I can make it better.”
I doubt it.
There has to be some overseas contracts I can take...
“Ari.” Lincoln’s eyes meet mine in warning. “Why don’t you take Regina somewhere more private?”
Turning my head, I lock my stare with a set of hooded green eyes, drop my gaze down to a set of lips that are pulled into a seductive grin. They aren’t blood red like Adeline’s, the shape wrong.
“Listen to your friend, Ari.”
Her hand squeezes my thigh again, fingers ghosting my cock. Promises. Promises.
My hand slips down to hers, grip brutal. She winces, her lips parting, white teeth glimmering. If she can’t take a little pain with her pleasure, she won’t survive me.
Something inside me turns feral, toxic. I’m not sure I have control of it. Control of myself. Visions of Adeline flash in my head. Her dancing. Her habits. Her photographs. That fucking music she always listens to that drives me completely mad. I am swimming in her.
Drowning.
I slam down my drink and push to my feet, sliding Regina out to stand behind me.
Lincoln calls out to me as we walk away. “Good boy, Ari. It’s about time you listen.”
Except, I’m not listening. I’m spiraling. Diving. Climbing. Spinning. Breathing. And fucking dying. Only to come back with a desperate gasp of air, my soul writhing as if half of it has been sliced away.
On the outside, I am calm. A predator sliding through the room, slick as oil. A ghost unseen. The crowd moves around us as we slip through, bending, ebbing, shuffling out of place. Regina’s fingers squeeze mine, anticipation warming her skin.
She doesn’t understand the danger that is holding her, the whisper of death. I’m not in my right mind, the headspace too vast, skies bleak, the distance fucking vacant.
Nothing can fill it.
Nothing that is in reach anyway.
Good boy, Lincoln had joked. Will he say that again if this woman doesn’t come back from the alley where I’m leading her?
He should have known to leave me home. To let me linger in the shrine I’d created.
Lincoln should have put a gun in my hand and pointed to my next victim. It would have been a hell of a lot safer than this.
Stepping out a side door, we find ourselves in a service alley. The air is sticky, steam rising up from grates in the cement, trash bins blocking one direction, and the scent of rotting garbage a perfume bursting against my nose.
A lone lamp flickers above our heads, fly control devices glowing blue on the brick walls, an electric snap each time a poor bastard flies too close.
Easy romance is never pretty, and the beautiful ones, the ones worthy of your time, those are cleverly disguised nightmares. They elude you while tearing you to shreds, refusing to let go.
Adeline is beautiful.
But this woman, she is easy.
The filth doesn’t slow Regina down, though. But then that’s how dirty fucks always work. The scenery never matters, just how quick you can get off and get on with life.