Chapter 46: Alluring Darkness: Chapter 46

“How long is Jace going to sulk?”

Amusement pulls at my lips, and I glance down at Raina. “Probably only for another week or so.”

“A week?” She raises her eyebrows at me. “This morning, I swear I could hear him lamenting all the woes of the world from halfway across the house. You sure a week is all it takes?”

“Yeah.” I chuckle. “He has a very short attention span.”

After we killed Gabriel and finished threatening Shelley, we made our way towards the edge of the forest where most of the instructors were waiting. We had to report Gabriel’s death, and hand Shelley over to the university staff, as soon as possible. And get Raina to the hospital wing.

My blood boils every time I look at Raina’s face. Bruises cover her skin like a gruesome patchwork of red and purple. That fucker Gabriel didn’t deserve the quick and painless death he got. He deserved to be taken to a secluded location and then tortured for weeks on end until he was begging me for death.

But with his gun to Raina’s head like that, there hadn’t been a lot I could do without putting her life at risk. I’m still trembling just thinking about that absolutely insane plan Raina came up with in the cave. One mistake, and it could have ended in disaster. Though I have to admit, it did make my heart swell knowing that she trusts me so completely that she’s willing to let me shoot a bullet mere inches from her head.

Sun beats down on the stone steps where we stand watching the parking lot. A gentle breeze pulls at Raina’s long black hair, making it flutter slightly around her face. I once more study the bruises marring her skin and the now stitched-up wound from where Gabriel hit her with his gun.

Another wave of fury roars through me, and I once again curse the fact that he got such a clean death. Though I suppose it would have been difficult to explain it to our instructors otherwise.

When we showed up at the edge of the woods with a beaten-up Raina and a terrified Shelley, we told them what had happened and that Gabriel was now lying dead in a cave. Because of the death, the instructors decided to cancel the tournament. Which is why Jace is currently sulking like a toddler.

He had been looking forward to his first tournament for weeks and doesn’t understand why one person’s death would change anything. We’re all hitmen, after all. And to be honest, I agree with him. If Raina hadn’t been hurt, I would’ve felt the same way. But when she was standing next to me with blood and bruises on her face, all I wanted to do was to throw her into the car and race her to the hospital wing. Which is exactly what I did. Fortunately, nothing was broken. But the bruises, that it turns out she has all over her body too, are bad enough.

“At least she kept her word,” Raina comments, and nods towards a figure crossing the parking lot.

I follow her gaze and find Shelley hurrying across the pavement while throwing nervous looks over her shoulder. When she sees us, her steps falter, and she almost stumbles into the car she was sneaking past. Snapping her head back around, she picks up the pace.

“Yeah, at least she did,” I reply.

Shelley kept her promise and spilled everything to the instructors. She told them about how Gabriel had planned to kill both Raina and Connor as revenge for the role Harvey Smith had played in his father’s death, and how he had recruited her to help. Then she had explained exactly what happened in the cave and that shooting Gabriel had been the only option.

All six of us had been called in to give our statements too, but since everything lined up, there were no repercussions for Gabriel’s death. Rather the opposite, in fact.

Since Blackwater has a strict no killing policy, Gabriel’s surviving family members were forced to pay a steep fee for his crimes. And Shelley was expelled because of her involvement.

A smirk blows across my lips when I think about the look on her face when she heard the news. Or even better, the look on her face once she received a phone call from her father.

Because he didn’t want to fall out of favor with our family, and by extension the Morelli family, he apparently decided to take preemptive action and disown Shelley. As far as I know, he has three other kids, so cutting Shelley off was apparently not too difficult for him. It made my fucking day, though.

As did watching Raina threaten her in that cave.

Tearing my eyes from the fleeing Shelley, I look down at Raina while a sly smile plays over my lips. “Did I tell you just how fucking hot you looked back in that cave?”

She snorts and glances up at me before raising her eyebrow in a dubious expression. “When I had a gun to my head?”

“No.” I give her shoulder a soft shove before pulling her back to my side again so that I can lean down and kiss her temple. “When you were threatening to kill Shelley.”

A smug expression spreads across her features, and she grins at me. “You thought that was hot, huh?”

“Very.”

Her green eyes glitter with mischief. “If you want to see it again, I could always try it on you.”

I place my fingers on her jaw, tipping her head back, as I lean down and whisper against her lips, “Careful now, princess.”

She chuckles against my mouth, her warm breath dancing over my skin. I steal a gentle kiss from her lips and then draw back again.

When I meet her gaze, there is such a serious expression in her eyes that my stomach flips. She studies me as if she is trying to read answers behind my eyes.

“Earlier, I told you that my heart belongs to you,” she begins.

Dread floods my chest. Fuck, is she going to take it back? Because I couldn’t protect her from Gabriel? Because I failed to do the one thing that I should have—

“But you never said it back,” she finishes.

Stunned surprise flutters through me, and for a moment, I can’t get my mind to work properly. I told her that I can’t breathe without her. Is she seriously unsure of whether I love her or not?

“So I just wanted to know where we stand.” She shrugs, as if it’s no big deal. But I can practically feel the tension in her body. “Does your heart belong to me as well?”

“No.”

Hurt flickers in her eyes, and she starts to turn her head away. I quickly grab her chin and turn it back to me.

“My heart does not belong to you.” I hold her gaze with a steady expression. “You are my heart.”

Her mouth drops open slightly, and emotions flood her eyes. It makes my own chest tighten too. Leaning down, I kiss her deeply. Her body melts into mine.

Then I draw back.

And she punches me in the chest instead.

Her small fist doesn’t actually manage to cause any pain, though. In fact, she shakes out her hand as if she felt that punch more than I did.

“Bastard,” she snaps. “That’s for making me worry.” She glares up at me. “I actually believed you when you said no at first.”

I trail my fingers from her jaw and down her throat. “Then I guess I will have to spend the rest of my life teaching you even more thoroughly just how much every single part of me belongs to you. Because know this, princess…” I wrap my hand possessively around her throat and then bend down to speak my next words directly against her lips. “I am never letting you out of my sight again.”

“Good. Now, are you going to kiss me or—”

An explosion tears through the air.

I shove Raina behind me, shielding her with my body as fire erupts from halfway down the parking lot. Flames lick the air and smoke billows up from a red sportscar, making hellish light dance over the other cars around it. Even from this distance, I can see Shelley’s already dead body lie slumped in the driver’s seat.

Stunned shock pulses through me as I stare at the scene before me.

A smug chuckle comes from beside me.

With my eyebrows raised, I turn to face Raina again. Light from the flames dance in her eyes and a villainous grin decorates her lips as she watches the fire consume both the car and the now dead woman inside it.

“Was this you?” I ask, surprise still clanging through my skull.

Raina’s grin widens. Then she looks up at me with a mock innocent expression. “It really is fascinating what a few chemicals can do.”

A baffled laugh tears from my chest. Cupping her cheeks, I lean down and kiss her wicked mouth while the flames from the explosion dance in front of us. My entire chest is pulsing with incredulity and crazy fucking love for this absolutely unhinged woman.

Pulling back, I drape my arm over her shoulders instead. And then we stand there, watching the fire burn like the devils we are.

Raina Smith is insane.

But she is my insanity.

And my salvation.