Page 99 of The Devoted Game

Just before he killed her, he would eat those lips right off her face. She would scream ... her blood would be hot with adrenaline.

He felt alive for the first time in years.

Perhaps his life could begin anew once he had settled his score with Number Thirteen.

A hand clamped over his mouth. He grabbed at it, struggled to pull it away. A needle stabbed into his neck. He tried to fight, but his muscles went limp.

The darkness closed in around him.

He had made a mistake coming here ... now he was caught.

The funny thing was, he was sure it wasn’t the police.

Twenty-Eight

10:00 p.m.

Ryan reached for a slice of pizza and tore off a bite with his teeth.

He was still starving after three pieces.

The pizza box sat in the middle of the kitchen floor. Next to it was a half-empty two-liter bottle of cola. They had both been drinking straight from the bottle. For once, it wasn’t alcohol taking the edge off for him.

It washer.

He leaned against the fridge and devoured the rest of the slice. Sprawled on the floor next to him, Grace reached into the box for another piece and rested her head in his lap. His lips slid into a grin as his gaze roved over her nearly naked body. She’d dragged on a T-shirt and panties to meet the delivery guy at the door.

He wished she were naked now. He liked looking at her. Every part of her was perfect. Great tits, sweet ass, amazing curves. And that mouth ... holy hell. Ever since she’d straddled him in the garage, he’d stayed hard.

They hadn’t come into the kitchen to have sex. They had come for glasses and napkins and whatever else they might need, and had ended up going at it on the floor.

That was after doing it in her shower ... on her bed and on her sofa.

“We should get some sleep, you know,” she said after polishing off that last piece.

“First we need to talk about what happened today.”

She sat up, took another swallow from the bottle of cola, then wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “I don’t want to talk about it. Not yet.”

He figured as much. “Pierce was right. We did all we could to save Worth.”

Grace pulled her knees to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs. “Are you trying to convince me or you?”

He didn’t want her carrying this around for years like he had the Braden boy’s death. She deserved better.

“I just know how that kind of story ends, and it’s not a happily ever after. Admit you did all you could and move forward. The only thing you can do for Worth now is to find the man responsible for his death. Martin Fincher put him in that position.Heis the reason Worth is dead.”

“But he did this for you,” she countered, evidently deciding to play devil’s advocate. “And if you’d had one of the guys with you instead of me, the two of you might have been able to save Worth. I was a liability.”

Ryan had sensed she was holding herself responsible that way. And maybe she had a point. But the one thing he knew with complete certainty was that you couldn’t redo the past. It was done. Worth was dead. It happened.

Somehow, needing to protect Grace enabled him to face the tragedy differently from what he’d expected. Considerably differently from how he had confronted those in the past.

“How are you dealing with Goodman’s outing your secret?” That was another thing he worried about. For a guy who didn’t give a shit about much, he’d done a hell of a lot of worrying the last couple of days.

He doubted she’d had time to think much about Goodman and her story. This case had kept them moving from one challenge to anotherwithout a lot of breathing room. Talking about the story now might distract her from blaming herself for Worth’s death.

“Are you sure Worth didn’t send me to get you so you could play my shrink?” she asked instead of answering his question.