Chapter Sixteen
Collin
“Col, I have to tell you something,” my angel whispered to me once we got into the car.
Her voice was off, but then again, she had been on edge since we stepped into the mayor’s home. My eyes shot up to the rearview mirror to find Nick looking at me. He nodded after a moment and the partition rolled up, providing us privacy.
I sat back in my seat, the lights of Boston flashing through the windows as we passed by. Karina was sitting to my side, close to the window, as if afraid of me. My thumb stroked my bottom lip as my eyes trailed down the length of her dress.
“What is it, Karina?”
She wasn’t looking at me. No, her baby blues were focused on the city, her hands folded tight in her lap. She was on edge.
“Come here,” I demanded, the hairs on my neck standing up.
Something had happened. Her neck twisted, and she looked at me, her bottom, red painted lip trembling.
In a flash, I leaned over, undoing her seatbelt before dragging her to sit on my lap, her legs resting on the seat.
My hand cupped her face as I looked up at her, wondering if bringing her to Boston was the right move.
The look in her eyes mirrored the one she had when she woke up chained to a wall. I swallowed the knives in my throat, all thoughts of victory vanishing.
“Baby—”
She stopped me, her lips meeting mine. One thing I had learned about my angel was that she liked kissing me—and I, her—but every kiss she gives me seemed like her last. Those soft lips molded against mine as her arms wrapped around my neck.
A low groan left me as my arms snapped around her waist, holding her to me.
Her tongue invaded my mouth with a gentle force that rocked my dark soul, and the whimper that followed was a flickering light.
I let her kiss me, relishing in the fact that she even wanted to—after everything I had done.
There was a knock on the window, and she jumped, pulling away from me. We were back at The Ritz, Nick stood outside the door, his back to the window.
He was one of the first to pledge loyalty to me, and I allowed him to drive us. After years of being alone, I found it hard to trust men. Nick knew this but was stuck by my side in the shadows. He was a drifter, a convicted felon, out for good behavior.
I told him the men who pledged loyalty to me quickly needed a bullet in the shoulder, because they didn’t know the meaning of loyalty.
But I would teach them.
“Col?” Hands cupped my face, and the angel in my lap came back into focus. Slowly, I brought my finger up to her head, brushing a lock of her blonde hair out of her face.
“Yes, angel?” I asked softly. “What did you need to tell me?”
“I—”
A second knock sounded against the window causing my jaw to tense. Though I respected Nick, I had no issues snapping his neck this evening. He opened the door, his eyes meeting mine.
“Sir, perhaps you would like to go inside?”
I squinted my eyes at him, a silent conversation happening between us. Ears and eyes were nearby.
Romano’s men.
“Let’s go inside.”
Once we were back in our hotel room, I shot a quick text to Nick, giving him his instructions for the night as my angel walked into the bedroom. After locking the door and I followed Karina.
“Is Romano here?” she asked, leaning against the windows to stare out in the night.
“His cousins,” I answered, not bothering to lie to her anymore.
She came to the city with me, killed for me, questioned Roman for me.
This morning, I returned when the hour was still early, and she was sound asleep in the middle of the bed.
I pulled a chair up and watched her, like I had done almost every night for the last few months.
When she woke, I feared she would break, the darkness I had exposed her to catching up to her.
But she didn’t.
She wanted to be with me.
“The brothers who were at your house?” she breathed, her eyes going wide.
Dumb and Dumber…Ray had sent them to St. Louis to make sure the hit on Aiden Connors was fulfilled. At the end of our little trip, I had learned that they wanted my angel. Anger boiled in my blood, my demon howling for death as my jaw clenched.
The need to resurrect the brothers just to kill them again was strong. Sadly, I wasn’t into witchcraft.
“You don’t have to worry about them anymore,” I barked, my words coming out harsher than I'd intended as I began to close the distance between us.
“Are you sure?” she asked, fear present in her eyes as her voice shook with uncertainty.
Bloodlust took over. I snapped, closing the distance between us, my lip curling up in a snarl.
“Do you want the truth, Karina?” I quipped as I crowded her against a wall by the window, bracing both of my hands beside her perfect head.
Her blue eyes were filled with tears, and I hated the ache in my chest they caused.
I hated it. “I killed them, slaughtered them like the animals they were,” I spat, leaning down in her space.
She flinched at my words. It was small, but I caught it, but the pounding in my ears zeroed in on my rage.
Killing them was a pleasure I would gladly do again.
“They spoke about you like you were theirs. They had looked at you like a trophy, asking me questions about you and your pussy,” I barked, getting even more furious with every word that fell from my lips.
She shook her head, but I pressed on, confessing this dark, bloody truth to her.
“I lost all control. I killed them in the middle of the runway without a second thought. I didn’t care about the consequences; all I cared about was making sure their eyes never landed on you again.
I shot one in the throat and one in their dick.
You were mine then. You are mine now. No one looks at you, no one touches, you except for me. We clear on that?”
She looked away from me, and I let her, giving her the space she needed. My feet remained planted in front of her, stubborn as a tree, not willing to move, her body an inch from mine. Her vanilla scent drowned me. I pushed another stray hair out of her face as she stared at Boston.
She'd always wanted to go to Salem, and I wanted to take her, to be the one to see her bright smile. Tomorrow. After all of this was done, Karina Jones would get to see Salem. She loved the history of it.
My beautiful angel was such a history buff. It was something I lov—
“Col, I have to tell you something,” she admitted, still avoiding eye contact with me.
The demon inside me chuckled, mocking my foolishness as everything started to make sense. I knew this was coming; her friends were there tonight. I felt it. My angel got away from me, and when she came back, she was…on edge.
She betrayed me.
I knew she would, but there was a microscopic part of me that hoped she wouldn’t, especially after I bared my soul to her last night, telling her how I felt, confessing to her that I knew about the letter she sent to Haley.
I sighed, backing away from her and straightening my suit jacket, ignoring the pit in my stomach. “When?”
“What?”
“When will they be here?”
Her brows came together as she took a step towards me, those overpriced, too fucking sexy for their own good heels clicking against the wood floors.
I would buy her a dress made of gold if she fucking wanted it.
I ignored her and turned to the liquor cabinet.
I didn't drink, but tonight, I needed it.
“Col?”
“Don’t fucking call me that,” I spat venomously before gulping down two fingers of whiskey, my throat welcoming the burn it provided. Her gentle hand landed on my bicep, causing me to slam the whiskey glass onto the table.
“What's wrong with you?” The attitude in her voice caused the chord to snap as the sting of betrayal whipped against my skin, reminding me of Romano’s lessons. Spinning, I caught her jaw in my hand, bringing her up and close to me, her hands digging into my suit as panic coated those eyes.
“When is the superhero squad going to arrive, huh? I knew I would never truly have you! You lied to me!” I roared.
“No, Col—”
“Don’t,” I bit off, shoving her away. She fell back into a chair, her head hitting the plush backing. She looked up at me in shock. I stood over her, my hands in my pockets. Wordlessly, I pulled my gun out, releasing the magazine to check the ammo. “When will they be here?”
“That’s not what I was going to tell you!” she yelled at me, rising to her feet, her eyes blazing.
“You probably were just giving me time to run, right? Let me tell you something, angel, I will sl—"
“Collin, I was raped,” she said flatly.
What?
I was frozen, the gun slipping from my fingers. She caught it., shoving the magazine back in and loading a bullet into the chamber before setting it down on the bar.
What did she just say?
She looked up at me and shrugged. Shrugged.
“Do you remember that day when you ran into me in the lobby of that building? In downtown St. Louis?” she asked casually, like she didn’t just tell me someone touched her—hurt her...
Someone hurt Karina.
My angel.
My baby.
My fingers flinched at my sides as I recalled the memory. She had a bruise on her face.
I nodded once as I stared at her, a vision in her dress.
It was the color of blood, the fabric wrapping her body in a gentle caress.
She turned to look out the window, giving me her back.
Her hair fell down her shoulders like a curtain of silk; she had taken it down in the elevator on the way up to the room.
She hugged herself, providing comfort I couldn’t. I didn’t deserve to comfort her. I would never forgive myself if it happened when I knew her.
“It happened before I met you,” she said softly, stopping my thoughts of self-destruction. Something in her voice made my body react in a way it shouldn’t. There were a lot of things I shouldn’t do when it came to Karina Jones, but yet, here I was, giving in to her temptation.
My feet moved on their own, not stopping until my chest was against her back.