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He dragged in a rough breath and his green irises flashed red.“If that fucker somehow manages to survive tonight, I’m going to personally drag him into the pits of Hell.I’ll be the one to chain him to the burning stone and make sure he knows nothing but suffering for the rest of eternity.”

“Okay,” I said, trying to keep him calm.Poe would be knocking on my door any moment, and Jagger was struggling to let me out of his sight, let alone descend into the sewers with a demon who’d made it clear he wanted to make me his—to sit in a room full of powerful demons who had a taste for human flesh.

Scooping up my mask, I walked toward him.

“Not any closer,” he said huskily.“You come closer, I won’t be able to stop myself from touching you.I won’t let you leave.”

I stopped.

“Every part of this, letting you walk into danger tonight, letting you put yourself in danger all these weeks, goes against everything in me.I gave you time because I fucked up and you needed it, but when we finish this tonight, we’ve got shit to talk about,” he said roughly.

My heart thumped in my chest.“We do.”

“No more being apart, Sutton.I’m done with that.”

“Okay,” I said, because so was I.I forced a bright smile, shoving all the fear down deep, trying to ease Jagger’s as well.

He shook his head.“Don’t do that, don’t hide from me.You never need to hide any part of yourself from me, baby, and you sure as fuck don’t need to try and protect me.”

He saw right through me so easily.Jagger saw all of me, and he still wanted me.I’d been waiting for that my whole life.

Someone pounded on the door downstairs.

“I have to go.”

He growled, nostrils flaring.“You fucking come back to me, sunshine,” he said, then he stepped back, letting me pass.

I nodded, then rushed down the stairs before everything I was feeling welled up inside me, before I ran and wrapped my arms around him and let him take me away from here.

My stomach churned when I opened the door and looked up at the twisted demon there to take me to their horror show.

His gaze sliced down my body and his lips thinned.“You’re wearing the same dress.”

“Sorry, I’ve been busy at work.I didn’t have time to go shopping for something different.”He wasn’t happy, not at all, and fear coiled through me.

“You trying to embarrass me?”he said coldly.

“No, of course not.”No one had actually seen this dress?—

He grabbed the back of my neck and shoved me toward the car.“Get the fuck in.”I didn’t know what was going on, but his mood was freaking me out.

Lars sat in the driver’s seat and glanced at me in the rearview as I scrambled into the back seat.He was enjoying my humiliation.Either that or he’d already blown my cover and I was being driven to my death.

“Go through East Claymore,” Poe said to Lars as he got in, then pulled out his phone and started texting.

We drove for only a short time, when Poe told him to stop.He pointed to a shop, a woman’s clothing shop.“Knock on the door, they’ll have something for me,” he said to Lars.

Lars nodded and rushed to do what he was told.A terrified-looking female opened the door, demon by the looks, and shoved something at him before disappearing back inside.

Lars strode to the car and handed it to Poe, who then tossed it at me.“Put it on.”

A dress.It was flimsy, silky, and there wasn’t much of it.“I’m okay how I am.”

His hand shot out and he jabbed me in the side, knocking the air from my lungs.“Put it on,” he said in a now eerily calm voice.

Was he testing me?I had no choice but to do as he said.I worked my dress up over my hips and pulled it off.I felt Poe’s eyes on my body, and I desperately tried to cover myself, while I flipped the new dress, trying to get it the right way around.I looked up and Lars was leering at me in the mirror.“Eyes forward, asshole,” I fired at him.I may not hold any power in this situation, but I wasn’t going to just sit here in my fucking underwear and let that asshole creep on me.

Poe said nothing, watching intently, taking in every scar on my body as if he liked the way they looked, as if he wanted very much to add to them.I shoved the dress over my head and yanked it past my hips.He reached out and ran the backs of his fingers over the silky blue fabric at my side, right over the spot where he’d struck me, pressing on it and making me wince.