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“It doesn’t matter.”

“It does.”

“I can’t let you get caught up in my mess, Zion.” Izel begins to relax into me, her body no longer tensing as my hand rests against her waist.

“You’re not a mess, Red. Whatever is going on I want to help. I don’t care who is after you, I will protect you.” Gripping her chin, my thumb nears her mouth where I desperately want to shove my thumb and make her suck.

Izel looks between my eyes, as though she’s trying to find a lie that I’m not telling. My obsession, my need for her is growing uncontrollably.

“Don’t make promises you can’t keep.” Izel whispers, licking her lips, causing herself to touch my thumb with her tongue. I don’t know how I didn’t realize my thumb is now tracing the outline of her mouth. But fuck, I want her mouth on mine. I want to taste her mouth, to have her tongue shoved down my throat.

“I always keep my promises, Red.”

“Why do you call me that?” she asks, not bothering to remove my thumb from her mouth.

“Do you know what the first thing you said to me was?”

Izel shakes her head.

“Fuck, you’re big.” I smile. “Then you asked about the key to get you out. Most people get nervous, get scared of my size. Especially when they’re so much shorter than me–”

“I’m not that short, I’m five three.” She mock glares.

“Love, I’m six-seven. You’re short to me, but that’s okay. I call you Red because it fits you. You can be a soft red or a dark red, you make your own rules.”

“You’ve only known me for a week.” She tries to defend the fact I don’t know her. But that doesn’t work for me.

“I know more than you might think. You love dill pickle chips. You only like the red and green Skittles, and you hate chocolate. You love coffee, it doesn't matter if it’s iced or hot, you have to have at least a cup a day. You have a serious sugar addiction. You love green apples, though you only eat half of it. You sleep with your mouth open, and your hand cupping your cheek. You take showers like you’re burning in Hell, and you will do anything for Gabriel.”

Izel opens her mouth then closes it like a fish out of water. For the first time I think I finally found a way to shut her up without shoving something in her mouth.

“I call you Red because you stopped me in my tracks, and though I shouldn’t feel the thing I’m feeling I can’t stop myself.”

“What are you feeling?”

“Like you’r–”

Heavy footsteps sound on the stairs before Gabriel yells, “Let’s go! I need to get some donuts!”

Izel sighs, rolling her eyes. While I’m moments from shoving Gabriel in the basement so I can take her upstairs and violate her. But as much as I’m irritated with Gabriel interrupting us, I’m thankful because I wasn’t thinking. Getting involved with her can’t happen.

I’m a hitman. I live in a dangerous world and having someone you care about will only bring harm and death.

I can’t lose her.

I won’t.

So, stepping away, I drop my hands from her body. Izel's face drops and I hate that I’m the cause of her hurting. But it’s for the best, it has to be.

“What’s the deal with the mask?” Gabriel asks Izel. They’re both walking ahead of the cart, and the one thing I learned very quickly is that they're children. Sure, when Izel and I went into Walmart to get her some clothes, we were in and out. But now I’m realizing it’s because I dragged her to the aisle, she picked her size out really quick, and we left.

I figured they wanted to get clothing and some personal things. But I never imagined, two boxes of donuts and another two bags of dill pickle chips. Gabriel grabbed a blanket that he felt while we passed and screamed it was the softest blanket he had ever felt in his life.Izel shook her head but did it with a smile on her face. And I would do anything to keep that smile on her face. I don’t care what it takes. She is going to smile for the rest of her life.

“I don’t know, why don’t you ask him?” Izel lies, smiling back at me. Gabriel huffs but doesn’t ask, instead turning down an aisle of books and begins browsing around.

Izel stays back, though her eyes never leave his sight.

“Is he scared of me?” I ask.