Page 70 of From Hell

“The woman you were with at the ball. I spied you sneaking off to the library with her.” She tuts. “Punishing Christian when you were doing the exact same thing yourself.”

My eyes narrow at her. It’s unlike my sister to want something, but it feels like that’s where this is headed.

“Relax,” she breathes. “I’m not going to tattle. I was glad to see you having fun for once.”

“She’s…someone I once went to school with.” I was going to say someone unimportant, but the words just slipped out.

Matty grins. “First love or first fuck?”

I give her a blank look. “She can’t be anything. A means to an end.”

A look of disbelief slides across her face as she scoffs. “I don’t buy that for a second.”

Irritation flickers deep in my chest at her reaction. “You know why.”

“You’re not a fucking robot, Jax. I can’t believe I’m saying this, but…” she takes a drag of her cigarette. “You need to be more like Wolf.”

“Like Wolf?” I snort.

“Yes, like that bastard. Live a little before you dry up and become an empty shell like Dad.” She chuckles, biting her thumbnail.

We don’t speak for a few minutes.

Then.

“Did you do it?” she asks softly. “Wolf said you did.”

I stare at her in the dark. “Do what?”

“Kill the bastard?”

“He was a liability,” I explain.

“Good,” she huffs, putting out her cigarette with the toe of her designer heel. “The fucker deserved it.”

* * *

The lights areon as I pull on the main road to her house. Killing the engine, I wait. People are leaving. Her father and some woman. She hugs them both and then watches them go. She waves as they drive off, and their car passes mine in the dark.

I wait until she’s settled and ready for bed. Through the amber-lit glass, she moves through the kitchen to the living room, checking doors and locking windows. Her hair is scraped back into a ponytail, and her face is fresh from any makeup. She looks as innocent as the stars and shines just as brightly.

I watch her until she realizes the curtains remain open, letting all the bad things in, and then she crosses to the window, looking out into the darkness with a frown on her forehead.

She can’t see me. My lights are off, and there are no streetlamps here. As she scrapes her teeth over her lower lip, biting down, she snatches the curtains closed, taking away my viewing pleasure.

Earlier, when I caught her, she was divine, but her reaction wasn’t what I was expecting. I thought she would run and cower, I hoped she would fight and lash out. Instead, she submitted to me and opened up like a flower in bloom. Her terror was a delight to taste, but her desire was a drug that brought my darker side surging to the surface. It knocked me for six. She wasn’t supposed to see that side of me. Not yet. But I can’t control myself around her. It’s obvious.

And now, here I am, starting a shift at the hospital in less than ten minutes, and instead, I’m parked outside her house. Watching her. It doesn’t help that I see my little fox moaning beneath me whenever I close my eyes.

She haunts me, just like I plague her.

We’re meant for each other.

“You’re not going to give up, are you?”

“Over my dead body.”

I. Did. Not. Expect. That.