Dead Man Walking (The Fallen Men #6) - Giana Darling Page 0,50

his chin, then slid it into his back packet while also lowering me to the floor, pushing me behind him as he started toward Eric.

“Priest, no,” I protested just before he slammed Eric into the wall with an arm banded across his chest and a knife pointed at his throat.

“Who the fuck has access to this place?” he demanded.

“Just Bea, me, Mrs. Appleton because she owns the building, and maybe…” He gasped as Priest pressed the knife tighter to his Adam’s apple. “Maybe Catherine! She runs Honey Bear Café.”

“You let someone in here you shouldn’ta?” Priest asked as he ran the blade up his neck, so close he collected the ends of Eric’s stubble on the steel. “Or maybe it’s you. Fixated on pretty Bea, not a chance in the world of gettin’ in there with her so you resort to perverted ass shit like this to get her attention? Huh?” Another flick of the knife opened a thin slice along Eric’s jaw from below his ear to his chin. Priest shifted to run his thumb firmly over the wound just to hear Eric’s pained curse. “Which is it and I might kill you quickly. Don’t believe much in mercy, but we could make a trade.”

“Fuck!” Eric cursed.

“Priest.” My voice was heavy, so heavy it stayed his questing, blade-wielding hand. “Stop this. Eric did not have anything to do with this. He’s my friend. A good man and a good Christian. Please, put him down.”

“You think just ’cause he prays to God, he’s a good man?” Priest questioned icily. “Religion teaches you to sin and worry ’bout the consequences later. Teaches you to ask for a forgiveness that will always be givin’ by the grace of His goodness no matter the crime. Repent, repent. Sin, sin.”

Priest snapped his teeth so close to Eric’s face, it looked like he might chomp off a piece of him. Eric trembled so hard, his shoulders and head knocked loudly against the wall.

Downstairs, there was a loud commotion, and I figured they’d heard my scream, called the police, and they were on their way up. That or, hopefully, Lion was coming.

“You’re right,” Priest concluded on a low, menacing purr. “Asshole doesn’t have the balls for somethin’ like this. But he coulda helped whoever did this. And I’m gonna find out.”

“Priest.” I tried again, stepping forward to place a hand on his back.

He stared at me over his shoulder, eyes a swirling mass of green-tinged violence. He was gone to the darkness inside him, so ready to kill Eric, it was almost a foregone conclusion. I shivered lightly as I moved my hand over the leather of his cut, feeling the quilted, iron-hard muscles tensed in his back.

“Priest,” I whispered softly as boots thundered up the stairs down the hall. “Violence isn’t justice unless you can prove it’s founded.”

He cocked his head sharply to the side, that gesture that made him seem so inhuman. “What do I care about justice? He scared you, touched you. Even if he didn’t do this, which is a fuckin’ long shot, I still want him to suffer.”

“I don’t,” I asserted, stroking up his back into the ends of his hair so I could give it a tug, hoping to ground him with my affection. “Let him go, please. I just want to go home. With you.”

Priest hesitated, his entire big body thrumming with indecision as he battled his impulses. Eric barely breathed, eyes wide and gone to black with fear.

Finally, after an indefinite moment, Priest turned back to Eric, studied his face, and then reared back to headbutt him in the face.

I gasped as he stepped away, Eric collapsing against the wall, holding his broken nose as blood gushed down his front. He was swearing, the words distorted by the blood in his mouth.

I looked up at Priest who was watching me for a reaction, his breathing calm and even, his face in repose, but his eyes gleaming like the edge of a blade in firelight.

Being with Priest was like adopting a wild animal. I could try to domesticate him, train him, even love him, but at the end of the day, he was still a wild animal with vicious teeth and claws. It was in his nature to use them.

And it was in mine, I found, to let him.

I held out my hand for him in answer to his unspoken question. He stared at it, then brushed it aside as he lifted his own to wrap around my throat