31. Sebastian #2
Squatting down next to her, I keep some distance, not wanting to get scratched again. “You have hurt a lot of innocent men, and now it’s time for you to pay.”
“Pay?” Her eyes widened with panic.
“Yes,” I say.
“So, that’s what this is? Are you guys even killers?” Wendy breathes heavily. “How did you get into the Society?”
“We joined with one goal in mind: to take each one of you down,” Stevie tells her.
Wendy turns her beady eyes to Stevie. “I’ve always been attracted to dangerous men. They’ve hurt me one too many times to count. All men deserve to be punished. As a woman, I’m sure you can understand that.”
Stevie blinks a few times before responding. “No. You’re evil, Wendy.”
“Look who your boyfriend is. He may say he’s not hurting innocent people, but there will come a day when the darkness—”
“Shut the hell up!” I sneer.
Tears spill from beneath her eyelids. “Darkness in us always stems from daddy issues.”
“Any last words? Remorse?” Christian steps in, offering her one last chance to speak.
Tired of listening to her nonsense, I quickly slip my gun from behind my back and point it directly at her.
“Please don’t!” she begs.
From the corner of my eye, I see Stevie turn away, burying her face in her hands.
And then I pull the trigger. Even though the silencer is on, the echo still ricochets off the walls.
“Oh my god!” Stevie yelps.
“I fucking hate talkers.” I roll my eyes. Then I turn to Stevie, her face is red, and the rise and fall of her chest is rapid. Without a thought, I put my gun behind my back and grab her, pulling her into me tightly. “You did so good.”
Her body trembles, but she looks up at me with a smile. “We did it.”
“Yeah.” I push her hair to the side to place a long kiss on her forehead.
Wendy’s body lies hunched over, one arm hanging high above her head, handcuffed to the lamp.
Christian bends to check her pulse. “Okay, well, we don’t have Hayden or the night crew with us because they’re still an hour out of Seattle. We’re going to have to dispose of her body ourselves.”
“Yeah, I figured.” I was already thinking of ways to sneak her out of the hotel. “What if we stuffed her body into her suitcase?”
“There’s a service elevator right outside the door to the room,” Stevie adds.
Christian unlocks the cuffs, her arm dropping to the side. “According to my security contact, we still have fifteen more minutes until the blackout in surveillance coverage sets off alarm bells.”
“Let’s get this monster stuffed into her luggage,” I say.
While Christian begins cleanup, I take Stevie into the bathroom for a moment of privacy.
“Why did you guys come in?” I ask.
Stevie folds her arms across her chest, rubbing her lips together. “I don’t know. Maybe when I heard her try to kiss you in the elevator, something snapped, and all I could think about was her disgusting hands on you. And thinking of all the men she hurt before.”
She is more like me than I thought. Her protective instincts took over, driving her decision-making, and that’s not something everyone has, especially when blurring the lines of justice.
Rubbing the back of my neck, I grin at her admission. “She didn’t kiss me.”
Her pupils flare with something darker. “I know. But there was no way I was going to let her try again.”
Although we were able to get the job done, things could have gone sideways.
This thing between Stevie and me is all new to me.
I’m not used to anything getting in the way of how I complete my missions, but she and I will need to have a conversation about what that looks like going forward so we don’t risk ourselves.
Stevie’s eyes find the wound on the front of my neck. “That bitch,” she mutters, dropping to the floor and digging through the bottom cabinet.
“It’s fine.” I glance at myself in the bathroom mirror.
She pops up from the floor with a large bandage in her hand.
Most hotels have first-aid kits. Stevie rises on her tiptoes, getting closer to me.
She leans, bringing the top of her head to my chin.
Her scent is intoxicating. I close my eyes and breathe it in while her soft fingers fix the Band-Aid in place. “Much better.”
Stevie lowers her hand, but I catch her wrist and raise it to my lips. “Thank you,” I say, pressing a gentle kiss on the flicker of her pulse. Her eyes bounce to me, and I can’t help but trace the delicate features of her face with my obsessive gaze.
“Sebastian, get your ass out here and help me,” Christian yells, pulling us away from each other.
A few minutes later, the three of us enter the service elevator with Wendy’s body shoved into a large suitcase. The doors slide open and there’s a man standing in a security uniform to greet us.
“Perfect timing,” the man says. “Head to the left, then down the long hall to reach a blue door. That will take you back out to the alley.”
“Thanks, Dominic,” Christian says to the security guard before leading us out the back entrance. “I owe you one.”
I let Stevie into the passenger side of my car before helping Christian put the suitcase into his vehicle.
“To the water?” Already aware that’s where he’s going.
Christian cocks his head to the side with a smile. “Out to sea she goes.”