Page 4 of Carved Obsession

“And you would like me to make them suffer.” His words are a question and a statement all at once.

I nod, regardless.

The silence settles once more. I don’t peg him as a man of many words, yet this quietness is charged with tension I can’t decipher. It coils around my bones and muscles, tightening and pulling me further into the belly of the beast, closer to him. Like some fucked-up calling toward some crazy-ass destiny.

I have to leave before I make yet another stupid decision.

“What now,kitten?” He takes a small step into my personal space and only a couple of feet separate us.

But that’s not what startles me. The term of endearment does. Or is it a taunt?

“Now we mind our business. I’ll be on my merry way, and you can carry on withthe culling,” I say, laughing at my own words. “But seriously, it sounds like it’s imperative for yourmissionto be brought to its natural conclusion.”

I’m just about to take a shaky step back when the ground threatens to break open and swallow me whole. Because the stranger smiles. An earth-splitting smile tainted with malice and promises of bloodshed, yet so devastating that I struggle not to fall into that crevasse. If I do, he’ll have me forever. And the last thing I need is another charming asshole to ruin my life—figuratively or not.

“You seem intelligent enough to know that I can’t let you go. Not after you witnessed this.” Menace vibrates through his voice and straight into my nerves as he closes the distance between us and touches the barrel of the gun to my stomach, dragging it slowly upward.

Before I can stop it, a slight whimper breaks between my lips.

Our eyes widen at the same time—mine with embarrassment, his in surprise. I bite my lip, laughing as I enjoy the confusion wrinkling his forehead.

“I wasn’t expecting anything less than that,” I say with an amused confidence, which is growing at an alarming, reckless rate.

For some reason, the prospect of this man killing me—or trying to, anyway—thrills me, further fueling that reprieve I sought when I found myself in this predicament.

A loud bang shatters the silence, and I whip around as he takes a step to the side to look past me.

“Don’t. Fucking. Move.” He punctuates each word with such dominance that I almost obey him as he rushes out of the alley in search of the disturbance’s source.

But obeying him is the last thing I will do. For a smart man, it’s pretty silly of him to think I’ll simply stand here and await my execution.

With a sly grin on my face, I shake my head, watching his beautiful, tight ass move out of sight.

“Until we meet again,” I whisper into the night, then slip away in the familiar shadows.

Chapter 1

Carter

One hundred ninety-eight days and nine hours.

One hundred and ninety-eight more than it should have taken me to find a simple woman.

One who caught me killing a man.

Caughtisn’t quite the right word, is it? She stood and waited. Urged me on, with wickedness shining in her dark eyes. It’s imprinted on my retinas. Just like the recklessness pulling at the corner of her lips and that slight fear I could clearly see in her tensed body, not strong enough to hold her back.

Death was not new to her. Murder wasn’t either.

Yet I wish it was. Her expression was bright, enthusiastic, pure in an unhinged kind of way, and I really want to know how it looked the first time she witnessed it.

I shake the thought away before it grows roots. It’s not the only peculiar one to have sneaked through since I lost her that night.Since she escaped me.

It makes no sense. With my research and hacking skills that make criminal organizations fucking shake, I should have been able to find her by now.

It’s unacceptable.

“You’re lost in thought.”