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Straightening, I listened. I guess my luck was changing.

If you consider almost getting shot lucky, then I was rolling in the pot of gold at the end of the proverbial rainbow, and not only because I wasalmostshot. But because of sheer willpower, by wandering the streets for weeks—the same four city blocks over and over again—I think I had finally stumbled across her next target at the right time.

Dumb luck wasn’t how I liked to work, but it had saved my ass more than once before, so I guess I shouldn’t question it so much.

Turning, I faced the bar across the street, the front of another biker clubhouse. It seemed incredibly ballsy to take on two such places in such a short period of time. Surely, they would be on high alert given the incident at the other clubhouse only a few weeks ago. But even so, I don’t think they would be on the lookout for someone who looked likeher.

The window shattered as another shot rang out, and I zigzagged across the road, dropped to my stomach and crawled the last few feet to the front door, still sitting ajar. Pushing it open with my fingertips, I slid my way up the outside wall, my back pressed against the bricks, and snuck a peek inside.

It was her.

Of course, it was.

Her eyes practically glowed with the glee adorning her face as she took down the biker with the gun, bending the metal barrel in her palm and laughing as he cried out in terror. There was nothing I could do to save the men in the room from her, and more than I probably should I was relying on her past pattern of not killing. But like clockwork, she didn’t kill them. She only took them down one by one until the remaining fled, taking their fallen comrades with them.

Despite the detachment with which she attacked, as though her body moved on instinct alone, and the pleasure she seemed to take in the fight itself, I’d admit it only to myself it was impressive to watch. She moved with a strange grace, considering the violence of her actions, as though this was nothing but a dance to her, a playful flirt between her and her victims.

Cursing, I pressed my back flat against the bricks again. My eyes had been wandering over her body, taking in her curves, the pinch of her waist, everything down to the dimples on her cheeks.

I’d chosen partners poorly in the past, but checking out ademonwas a new low even for me.

Why was I attracted to women who were bad for me? Did I crave the chaos? I had long ago accepted I couldn’t control the world any more than I could control those who lived in it. Maybe by choosing partners who were bad news, who lived as though there was literally no tomorrow, I was hoping some of that freedom would rub off on me or perhaps I hoped they could stamp down the remaining need to control flaring inside me every now and then.

Yeah, I’d had a lot of time to think about this.

The need for freedom from my desire to control was a need that would never be fulfilled.

I had no control, but that didn’t stop me from craving it.

I couldn’t even control my own body anymore, forced to partially drag one leg almost uselessly behind me, a constant reminder I wasn’t able to manage the situation enough to avoid or even see the explosion coming.

I hated it—the reminder, the truth, the reality of the situation—I hated it all.

So, when someone like her was about, not a care in the goddamn world,beingthe force of chaos that drives the rest of us mad when it interferes with the lives we’ve tried so hard to structure, Ihated it.

It was almost like I hated her before I’d even met her.

Fuck, I didn’t need tomeether.

This wasn’t a date—she was a demon.

This was a mission.

Her attractiveness was literally not even a consideration.

Fuck.

Cursing again, I’m sure she saw me, a flash of yellow eyes and a grin before I had finished turning away from the door.

“Yeah, you better run!” she cried out. The vacant bar rang with her empty laughter—spokenhah hah hahs. I thought she was talking to me until the telltale sound of the last of the men stumbling out the back echoed through the bar. Waiting until the sound of their boots tripping over the broken pieces of tables and chairs subsided, then after a beat, I flung myself around and into the doorway.

And was met with one hell of an uppercut to the chin.

I went down, unable to maintain my balance. My ears were ringing, and spots of light burst in front of my eyes.

Fuck me! She’s gotan arm on her.

“Wait, you’re not part of the club.”