Chapter 38
CHAPTER 38
ZYRAN
The stars are bright tonight, but they don’t shine as much as my butterfly.
From my spot across the lot at the drive-in theater, I watched the scumbag she was with wrap his arm around her shoulders. I didn’t miss the way she tried to scoot away from him without him noticing.
For the past twelve months, I’ve sat back and watched her bury her pain in the affections of other men. Going on back-to-back dates for a whole year just to try to get me out of her head, meanwhile, it’s my name she calls out when she comes in the dark, long after her dates have left, failing to give her an orgasm. They don’t know what she wants, so they can’t give her the pleasure I know that only I’m capable of.
They don’t know that I watch her every move, that I follow her everywhere she goes to make sure she’s safe.
Well, they don’t know until I tell them—until I’ve got them tied up and begging for their lives, right before they find their deaths at the end of my knife.
My obsession with Kiara never ends; it bleeds into every aspect of her life. Every single man she meets is subject to in-depth background checks. It’s how I knew that Jax, her first date, was a registered sex offender with an appetite for underage boys, hiding behind adult relationships so people would think he’d changed.
Liam, her tenth, served time for his mother’s murder. He escaped from prison last year and had been on the run since, leaving a trail of bodies in his wake.
And John, her current date, has a history of abusing his partners.
Why my butterfly seems to attract the scum of the earth is beyond me. Kiara needs me to vet out the bad guys, even if it means leaving my own trail of bodies behind me.
I followed behind them from the theater back to her place. If it weren’t for the tiny microphone I’d hidden in the lining of her purse months ago, I would have thought she was taking him back to fuck. But I could hear the resignation in her tone. She wants nothing to do with him, and if he so much as lifts a finger toward her…
Well, his death is already planned, so it really doesn’t matter either way, but if he does anything to hurt her, I’ll hurt him ten times over.
Before I jump out of my car, I sit back and wait. Watch.
Kiara’s body language makes it clear that she just wants to be left alone, but John can’t seem to take no for an answer.
I grit my teeth as he runs behind Kiara and forces himself inside the house.
That’ll do it.
I hop out of my car and run up the driveway. John kicks the door closed, but I’m there less than five seconds later, flinging it open and tackling the bastard to the floor.
“Zyran!” Kiara calls out on a gasp, but I don’t even look at her.
The sight of John grabbing her sends me into a murderous rage.
“What the fuck, bro!” he shouts, trying to elbow me in the neck, but I whip my head to the side to avoid the blow. I grip his hair and slam his head into the hardwood floor, causing him to groan and go limp beneath me.
“Zyran, please,” Kiara cries. “Stop!”
Finally, I look up at her. She’s shaking violently, arms wrapped around herself protectively.
“Please, don’t kill him,” she whispers defeatedly.
“Why not, butterfly?” I ask, standing up and walking to her. She doesn’t take a step back like I expect her to, but she doesn’t reach out to touch me, either.
Her dark brown eyes search my face for a moment, and I see the battle there, the struggle to keep me at bay, while also wanting to take me back. My heart skips a beat at the knowledge that she still wants me. Of course, I’ve known this whole time that she does, but it’s different actually seeing how she feels in person.
“I don’t know if I can continue to live with that,” she says quietly, eyes filling with tears. “That’s why I lost my best friend, Zyran. It’s hard to sleep at night knowing that you’ve done so many horrible things.”
“And yet you still love me, no?”
She opens her mouth to protest, but nothing comes out. I know she loves me; she just needed space to figure things out, and I was glad to give it to her, but now that I’m back, I’m not fucking going anywhere.
I step closer to her until she’s pressed against the wall. My fingertips dig into the wall on either side of her head, bracketing her in. Much like our first night together, she puts her hands on my chest to push me away, but the effort is weak.
Pressing my nose to the side of her throat, I inhale her delicious scent. Her head falls back against the wall, giving me better access to do what I really want.
I open my mouth and clamp down on the delicate flesh of her neck with my teeth. Kiara cries out from the pain, but grips my shirt to pull me closer. Her breath hitches when I lick over the bite mark I just made.
When John groans again, I look at Kiara and ask, “So, what do you want me to do with him, baby?”
I could let him go, or I could let Kiara call the police, but my blood is thrumming with the thrill of a kill in my veins, and all I want is to dig my knife into his stomach and twist it until the life seeps out of him.
“I’m not watching,” Kiara says, turning around and covering her face with her hands.
“I wouldn’t want you to, anyway,” I assure her as I take my knife out of my boot and straddle John with my knees on his arms so he can’t try to hit me. When his eyes are finally able to focus on me, his face twists in anger.
“Who the hell are you?” he spits. “Get off me!”
I don’t say anything as I press the tip of the knife to the pulse point against his neck. His eyes are wide with fear.
Not so tough now, are you, asshole?
“Listen, man, I’ll do whatever you want. You need money? Is that it?”
I dig the knife a little bit deeper and twirl it around, causing blood to bead up beneath the blade. John whimpers like the pathetic bastard he is.
“Please,” he begs, crying now. “Please, man, just tell me what you want? Is it Kiara? You can have the bitch for all I care.”
Bitch.
That’s what he thinks of my butterfly?
A fucking bitch?
Kiara turns around and gives him an offended look. My anger must show on my face because his eyes widen to huge saucers right before the tip of the knife drives into the side of his neck.
His garbled screams are music to my ears, but it’s not enough. I need more. He needs to suffer.
Keeping the knife in place to prevent him from bleeding out, I go into the kitchen to grab another one.
“I thought you said you didn’t want to watch,” I tease Kiara as I come back out of the kitchen and return to my victim. She’s looking down at him—or rather, at the knife protruding from his neck—with something like fascination.
She takes a tentative step away from the wall and shrugs. “I got curious. And I can’t believe he had the nerve to call me a bitch after he tried to…”
Kiara wraps her arms around herself again as she comes to terms with the fact this is the second time she’s almost been assaulted—the second time I’ve saved her.
I hold out the knife to her. “Would you like the honors?”
“Absolutely not,” she fires back quickly, stepping back again.
I crouch down next to John and dig the knife into his neck even deeper. Amazingly, the fucker is still alive.
“Do you even know anything about him, Kiara?” I ask her, looking up at her.
She shakes her head. “Not much.”
Looking back down at John, I shove the second knife deep into his stomach and twist like I’d been aching to do all night. Blood squirts onto my face as he coughs and chokes on it.
“Zyran—” Kiara starts quietly, but I cut her off.
“He’s sent every single one of his partners to the hospital, Kiara,” I say fiercely. “Three women, all tiny and fragile, just like you. He even beat one so badly she was in a coma for a month. So, tell me why I should let him live, butterfly? Why I should have let any of the others live, too?”
Her eyes widen at the last question. “What?”
I rub a hand across my face and stand up. John is still whimpering, so I stomp on the knife sticking out of his stomach to put him out of his misery. Seconds later, he’s gone.
“They were a rot to society, Kiara. They would have ended up hurting you in some way, and I’d never be able to live with myself knowing I could have done something to prevent it.”
“But they didn’t hurt me,” she argues.
“Not yet. But they would have,” I tell her gently. “I did it for you, baby. Everything I do is for you.”
Her bottom lip trembles as her eyes fill with tears. I cradle her soft face in my hands and stroke her cheeks with my thumbs.
“I love you, Kiara,” I say quietly, before crashing my lips to hers.