Chapter 48
48
You can run, but you can’t hide .
If the day comes that I marry Pippa, that’ll be in my vows.
I’d track her to the edge of the earth if I had to.
To damn Mars.
She’ll never escape me.
My sweet dancer underestimated me, assuming I only tracked her through vehicles and electronics. I have access to her studio cameras and overheard her conversation with that degenerate Levi the other day. I hacked into his phone and read through his texts, listened in on his calls, and knew he wasn’t flying Pippa to Hawaii as a gentleman.
My sweet dancer should’ve known that.
Now, she’s covered in some asshole’s blood, looking at me like I’m the one who lost their mind.
Before anyone arrived at the airport, I made myself comfortable in the cockpit. As soon as the pilot stepped inside, I held a gun to his head.
I could either kill Levi on the ground or in the air. It would’ve been boring, going to his house and putting a bullet through his brain. Shooting him in front of Pippa also taught her a lesson.
Plus, I can add killing an asshole on a private jet to my list.
Not that anyone will know it’s me. I already set up the perfect reason for Levi’s death. I learned he was stealing from clients and poaching from his partners. He was about to lose everyone, and not able to take it, he booked a trip on the jet—which his partners had told him not to—and shot himself in the head.
How tragic. The poor guy hadn’t sought out help first.
I pull Levi’s leg, tugging him away from Pippa, and watch him slump to the floor, a blood trail following. I’ve killed enough men to set up a suicide scene. As soon as the jet lands, Julian and Emilio will make sure it’s right, and the pilot will be briefed on the statement he’ll give the police.
I doubt his partners or ex-wife will care about his death. His daughter is better off without him anyway.
Pippa jumps off the sofa, careful not to hit Levi’s body, and scrambles as far away from him as she can. “What did you do, install a tracking device in my veins?”
I pop my neck. “Trust me, if I could, I most definitely would.” I slide my hands into my pants pockets. “When will you learn that I know everything you do?”
“I told you to stop that.”
“I told you I never would.”
“What about the pilot?”
“I didn’t kill him.”
“He knows I came on this plane with Levi.”
“He doesn’t give two fucks about Levi’s life.”
“You can’t just kill people who get in your way, Damien.”
I jerk my chin toward Levi’s body. “I can’t?” Smirking, I crowd closer to her, leaning in, and she falls back before collapsing in a seat. “I will kill anyone who gets in the way of your safety, my ownership of you, or really, who just pisses me off.” I kneel at her feet and rest my hands on her knees. “It’s a waste of your breath to preach it’s wrong to kill those deserving of death. It will never change my mind or convince me to be a better man.”
Violence is in my DNA.
It’s who I am.
So is protecting what and who I love.
“What happens when there comes a time I cross or piss you off? Will you hurt me then?” She gestures toward Levi’s corpse, where his blood is beginning to stain the flooring. “Will you hurt me like that?”
Anger is in her voice, not fear.
Deep down, Pippa knows I’d never hurt her.
“Baby, you’ve pissed me off aplenty.” I nudge myself between her legs and collect her soft face in my palm. “Even if I tried forcing myself, I physically can never hurt you. My body won’t allow me to hurt someone who’s embedded themself inside me. You’re inside my heart, and if I hurt you, it’d destroy me at the same time.”
I have limits in my violence.
I kill men who deserve it.
Never children. Never women.
She shudders, her body craving me, but she fights against it.
I brush my thumb over her cheek. “We’re going back to New York. You try to run from me again, I’ll chain you to my bed and lock you in my bedroom.” I pluck her bottom lip with my thumb. “Do I make myself clear?”
She glares at me. “Why don’t you focus less on me and more on your wedding?”
“I’ll focus on my wedding the day I marry you.”