Tales of Darkness & Sin - Pepper Winters Page 0,109
allowed me to touch this vulnerable spot. But I wasn’t really a threat to him, was I?
I leaned forward when my palm touched his cheek and kissed him softly. The look in his eyes was thunderous. My towel fell to the floor with a soft swoosh. “If you let me live, I could be yours.”
With a growl, he pulled out of the kiss and grasped my wrist painfully. “Run, Little One, run. And don’t let me catch you, because when I do, it’s over.”
He released me and I staggered back, naked and stunned. Then I whirled around and started running. I knew he’d catch me, knew running was futile, and yet I did. He caught me in the hallway. This was his game, his hunt, and I was only the prey.
His fingers clamped down on my wrist, but I was done being toyed with. I whirled on him, tried to jerk free. We started struggling and suddenly I was falling. The back of my head collided with the edge of a cupboard. I hit the ground hard. Before my vision turned black, Killer came into view, towering over me.
Not the savior I’d wanted him to be, but my ultimate doom.
Everything faded to black. Would Killer’s face be the last I ever saw? Were these the last seconds of my life?
EPILOGUE
Killer
Three months later
I was seven years old when I was sold to the devil and became a slave… a cage fighter.
I was number 781. That was my identity.
At eight years old, I made my first kill.
At thirteen, I became KILLER.
At fifteen years old, I was declared a champion in the cage.
I had been my master’s favorite. The best of the best.
When I was twenty-two years old, I murdered him…and his wife… and I became a free man.
For ten years, I took odd jobs here and there. I hunted, I kidnapped, I killed. I was the Bratva’s assassin.
Until she walked into my life and tested my loyalty.
Talia Barese was my job. I was paid to kill her…
It didn’t matter if she had wormed her way into my heart or that her vulnerability called to me… she had to die.
I remembered her face that night. The look of pure terror in her eyes as she surrendered herself to her fate before she lost consciousness. She knew there was no escaping Death…
I was the Grim Reaper and I had called her name three times.
And so, Talia died.
At my hands.
Her death was easy… and fuck, it was painful to watch.
I inhaled the salty smell of the ocean as my yacht moved with the waves. Standing next to the railing, I watched the dolphins swim along in the vast body of water. I was in the middle of the ocean, in the middle of nowhere. Far away from my reality.
Closing my eyes, I breathed in. This was freedom.
I turned around and my gaze slid over to her. She was sunbathing, in her very indecent red bikini. Fuck me, she was a temptation I couldn’t resist.
She pushed her sunglasses up, revealing her pretty brown eyes and smirked. “Are you going to just stand there or join me?”
My chest rumbled with a chuckle and I joined her, laying next to her on the towel. She rolled her eyes and climbed on top of me, straddling me. My hands curled around her hips and she smiled.
“Are you hungry?” she said.
“Fucking starved.”
She giggled and leaned in for a kiss. My lips captured hers and she moaned.
Three months ago, I had been too fucking selfish to let her go.
Talia died…
Nova took her place.
Nova Armani. My wife.
Talia
When I’d lost consciousness three months ago with Killer’s brutal face over me, I’d been certain he’d kill me. Images of my life hadn’t played out before my eyes. And even if they had, few of them would have been happy. All my life I’d felt as if the future was on hold, as if I was living with the brakes on. Always controlled by others.
Maybe everyone had that moment of no return. A pivotal instance that changed everything. For me it was the moment of my death.
I promised myself to live, take more risks, be free, and in the same instant, I worried I’d never get the chance.
Talia Barese died that day.
But I had eventually opened my eyes, my head throbbing with a fierce headache and had stared at Killer who perched on his bed beside me.
“You couldn’t let the cupboard kill me, you need to do it yourself?” I croaked.