Merciless Hunter (Dark Syndicate 4)

33

Olivia

Istare at my trembling hands and push my head back against the wall.

I’ve been sitting on the floor in the bedroom for a few hours.

All day I’ve been shaking as images of how my death will happen ran through my mind.

I haven’t spoken to Aiden since yesterday.

He didn’t come to bed last night after that conversation with Maksim.

At first, I thought it was best I don’t see him. Then I realized not seeing him wasn’t good either.

I wondered if perhaps he was distancing himself for a reason. Like maybe it would make it easier to kill me. Maybe he’s one of those criminals who need to do that. It’s like when you give an animal a name and treat it like a pet, you give it meaning. When it’s not that anymore it’s easier to not feel anything when you end its life.

Perhaps that’s how he’s thinking of me.

It’s raining outside, raining heavily with thunder and lightning illuminating the sky.

It would be a dramatic night to die, but very fitting. Mom told me I was born in a storm.

But unlike when she had Eric, Dad was there. He delivered me because they didn’t get to the hospital in time. That was probably my one moment of real value I had from the father who never really belonged to me.

Now I’m going to the place where he is.

I wonder if Aiden will kill me himself or get someone else to do it.

Maksim maybe, since it was his idea.

I nearly jump out of my skin when the door opens and my gaze lands on Aiden.

I push to my feet because I don’t want to die on the floor.

He stares back at me with a softness in his eyes I’ve never seen before and conflict takes me.

That stupid confliction in my soul comes back to screw with me the way it has since I met him.

Part of me wants to run to him for the safety I feel when he wraps his arms around me. But I’m not safe with him, and there’s no one to keep me safe from Aiden Romanov.

In his habitual way he scans over my body, looking at my face first, then my breasts and down the rest of me.

Even now in my state of fear and fucked up mind, raw arousal pulses at my insides and that’s when I hear that voice telling me to run again.

Run away from this man who made me feel things I didn’t know I could feel. Run away from this man who saw I needed something. What he would have seen was I needed to be rescued.

I needed to be saved.

The more heated his stare the louder I hear the voice screaming at me.

I have to get out of here.

Not just to save myself, but to save my heart too.

I shouldn’t feel like this for a man I just met. Not for a man like him.

He walks over to me and instinct makes me flinch away from him when he reaches out to touch my cheek.