Page 23 of The Echo of Forever

This time our gazes clashed, hers filled with what looked like pain.

Interesting.

“I think you’re pretty as fuck,” I added, needing to get that shit off my chest. “We’d make some pretty ass babies, don’t you think?”

She scoffed, and I let my smile loose as I pushed from the chair and approached for a better look.

The night we stood toe to toe outside the compound with her car’s headlights keeping us from blending in, I’d been smitten.

But now that we were in more natural light, I wanted to catalog her features. Especially when I might not ever get the chance again.

Forever was deep, dark across the board. Hair, eyes, and skin, much like my own.

She had high cheekbones that not even a frown could hide. Her top and bottom lips were meant to be sucked on, especially glossed and darkly lined as they currently were.

I rounded the bar and let my gaze peruse her athletic frame. She was thick in all the right places and, more than likely, cut up under the black, form-fitting gym set she wore.

“How tall are you?” I asked, not caring about the blade she’d slid from her sleeve. “My guess is about five-foot-nine.”

Forever stood just below my chin in sneakers. Not too tall or short compared to my stature.

“Is that what you wanted to ask?”

I turned toward the liquor shelf and reached for something dark.

“Nah. Just making conversation until you get to the reason you’re here.”

She laughed and moved away from me, taking up residence where I stood before.

“What’d you do to get on their bad side?” she asked.

I grabbed a glass from under the bar and poured a shot of whiskey.

“Do you typically interview your marks?”

“When their file comes with barely any information, I do.”

“And if I choose not to answer, then what?”

She smiled, and the urge to stick my tongue down her throat surfaced.

“Either way, you have to die.”

I hummed.

“Because you never go against your people, huh?”

Forever shrugged, but her lack of verbal response made me wonder why she wasreallyhere.

I decided to switch gears.

“Something hurting you?” I asked, leaning into the bar to get another good look at her.

She frowned but couldn’t disguise the flinch that followed, then immediately began to back away.

“See you soon, Demetrius.”

“One day you’ll call me Echo,” I said, not waiting for a response I knew wouldn’t come.