Daddy's Adorable Assassin (Daddy's Little Deviants)

Hunter paused. My heart raced in my chest. He dropped to his knees and pushed aside dirt with his bare hands.

I knew the instant he found her. He went still, his frantic movements halted.

“Petra,” he murmured, his tone low and anguished. “Oh my god, Petra. It’s really you.”

He reached into the grave and held up a wedding band. His fingers closed around the ring.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I swear I didn’t know. Please forgive me.”

He was crying, tears rolling down his face. I closed my eyes against his pain. He’d loved her. He’d loved another who wasn’t me and still mourned her. Did he still love her? How sick was I that I could only focus on that thought? Was Hunter still in love with his dead wife, and if so, how could there have really been any room for me? I wanted his love. I wanted it all.

He sucked in a deep breath, staring up at the sky as if searching for something.

“Are you going to turn me in?” I asked softly.

He slowly turned his head in my direction. Such pure hate. My heart thudded inside my chest.

“Turn you in?” he asked. “After all you’ve done? You think I’m going to turn you in and give you a chance to lie your way out of this? Virgil killed his wife because of you. You killed mine and still wormed your way into my bed. Did it feel good, Cosmo, having your bloody hands on me, making me feel alive after the pain you caused my family? I lost not only my wife but also my son because of you.”

“I didn’t expect to fall in love with you, Hunter.”

“You don’t love anyone, Cosmo. You’re a manipulative liar and a psychopath. You’re not capable of love.”

“You’re wrong. I love you. I swear I love—”

“Shut up! Shut up!” he shouted. “I’ve had it with your lies.” He stumbled to his feet and marched toward the car.

“It’s not a lie! I’ve never felt this way about anyone else before. And no one else makes me feel seen and loved the way—Hunter, please don’t.”

He came back, carrying a roll of duct tape. He tore off a piece and slapped it over my mouth. The tape muffled my screams, and the only thing I could do was plead with my eyes.

He stepped away from me, picked up the shovel, and covered the body back up.

“Because of you, I can’t even give her a proper burial. Because if I do, then there will be questions about how I knew where to find her. Questions that will show the world how incredibly stupid I was to fall in love with you. But Virgil was right. You have to be stopped, and there’s only one way.”

Oh god, was Hunter going to kill me? He couldn’t kill someone he loved, could he? He wasn’t built that way. I was sure of it. Until his wife’s grave was fully covered again, and he started digging right next to her.

I screamed, but the words were muffled behind the duct tape. I scrambled to my feet, but before I could make a run for it, he’d tackled me to the ground.

“No, Cosmo. Your victims didn’t get to run.” Hunter dragged me back to the hole by the legs and wound duct tape around my ankles. I wasn’t going anywhere.

Exhausted from fighting him, I lay on my side, groaning and trembling, feeling abused and defeated.

I was completely at Hunter’s mercy. There was no escaping tonight, not like the night when Virgil had sent those men to kill me.

When he was satisfied, Hunter dropped the shovel and took a long, deep breath. His gaze landed on me, so determined to right the wrong of sleeping with the enemy. I shook my head. He caught me by the hips, lifted me, and dumped me into the hole. My chest heaved as I squirmed and wriggled, my T-shirt riding up, baring my midriff.

Hunter didn’t do anything. I stopped moving and stared at him, the way he watched me, his gaze darkening. He still wanted me. I knew that look in his eyes. It was the one he got before he reached for me and fucked me.

And fucked up as it was, my cock hardened at this utterly barbaric thing he was doing. My breathing shallowed, and my heart pumped hard inside my chest.

If I’m going to die tonight, then just one more time, please. Let me die with a piece of you inside of me and the bliss I’d known only with you.

As if he could read my thoughts, Hunter climbed into the grave he’d dug with his own hands to bury me. He tore off his gloves and threw them onto the ground, then pulled down his sweats and freed his cock.

“I fucking hate you,” he whispered. “Hate that even after what I’ve seen tonight, I still want to be inside you. And you’re just as sick, your cock already hard for me.” He grabbed my hips and rolled me onto my stomach. For a moment, I was glad for the tape over my mouth. Otherwise, I would have been eating dirt.

“Is this what you did to Virgil?” he asked. He spat, then crouched over me, covering me with his body. And even though he wanted to kill me, I arched my back against him. If I had to die, I’d rather it be him who ended my life, not some stranger.