Page 25 of Killer Attraction

“Did you know who I was when you walked up to me and started talking to me at the wedding?”

I watched as Nate’s mask slipped into place. He said he never lied to me, and maybe that had been the truth. But I’d never asked such a blatant and direct question before. Maybe it was his way to keep from lying. It was unnerving to see and I shuddered at the sight.

“Put. The. Knife. Down.” I said each word on an exhale as I steadied my gun at him. “Don’t make me shoot you, Nate. Be smart about this.” Despite my bravado, I wasn’t sure if I could actually shoot him if it came down to it. But I hoped he didn’t know that.

“Let’s talk about this,” Nate said, as though I were being unreasonable.

“Sure.” I shrugged. “We can talk about this down at the station once you’re processed.”

Nate threw me a wry smile. “Now, now, little bird. We both know that isn’t going to happen.”

My heart pounded in my chest. He was going to make me shoot him.

Fuck.

The next thing I knew, Nate was taking a step towards me, and I pulled the trigger. But he was too fast, anticipating my move and the shot went wide as he spun out of the way.

I blinked as my brain tried to process the movement, and that gave Nate the opportunity to turn things around on me. He came up behind me and wrapped one strong arm around my throat while the other grabbed my hand and pried the gun from my grip.

My stupid brain’s first instinct was to lean into him and tilt my head to the side to give him access. But it only took a second for reality to sink in, and I threw my head back and caught his nose. He grunted but didn’t let go.

Unfortunately, I had forgotten about the knife in his hand until he moved the position of his arm so the blade was pressed against my jugular. I swallowed past the lump in my throat and immediately stilled.

“Good little bird,” Nate chuckled, his breath tickling my ear. Despite our situation, my traitorous body lit up at his praise. “We can either fight or fuck, whichever you’d prefer, though I think you know which I’d rather.”

Bile rose, and I gagged as I swallowed it back down. “Actually, I’m not sure I do,” I threw back at him.

His nose nudged at the soft skin behind my ear, and he licked a stripe up my neck. “There’s a hint,” he whispered as sparks lit up my body, betraying the fact that I, too, would rather fuck than fight. But I wasn’t naive enough to believe he wouldn’t kill me as soon as he was done.

With Nate’s mind on sex, I took the opportunity to throw myself to the side. It was a risky move, and I still got nicked by the blade, but it was better than getting my throat slashed. I scrambled towards the kitchen that was in front of me, figuring there had to be more knives I could use to defend myself.

But I didn’t get very far before I felt a burning in my side. I ignored it and kept going but quickly felt something damp against my shirt. When I looked down, I noticed my side was covered in blood and there was a large slit through my shirt.

No, not just my shirt. My fingers probed, and I let out a hiss as I realized the asshole had sliced my side open. The blade had been so sharp I hadn’t even noticed.

I looked up at him, shocked. Though, I wasn’t sure why. Maybe I had still hoped he’d been telling the truth when he said he’d never hurt me. Maybe I’d been lying to myself and trying to make myself believe he loved me, too, and that meant he couldn’t hurt me.

Either way, I’d been wrong.

I backed up and leaned against the island, never taking my eyes off him. But I was getting weaker the longer I stood there. I knew it would only take him a few seconds before his long strides brought him into the kitchen with me.

Then he’d kill me.

“You don’t have to do this, baby,” I whispered as I started to sag, my elbows braced on the counter behind me.

There was a flicker of sadness in his eyes before he shook his head. It should have given me some sort of comfort to know there was a part of him that didn’t revel in killing me. But it was a poor consolation prize.

“I’m sorry, little bird,” were the last words I heard before pain and blood loss pulled me under into the cold, unfeeling darkness.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

NATHAN

I watched in a daze as Aiden slumped in my arms. The blood oozing out of him mixed with the blood on my hands. I grimaced at the realization. Aiden deserved better than the desecration of having his blood mixed with that of someone who didn’t matter.

As gently as I could, I laid him on the ground and went to the sink to scrub the blood from my skin. There wasn’t much I could do about my clothes but they weren’t a priority at the moment. When my hands were as clean as I could get them, I made my way back to where I had left Aiden.

My heart raged at the sight of him hurt and bleeding out on my floor. Well, that wasn’t a fair statement. The likelihood of him bleeding out from that wound alone was pretty small. Didn’t change the fact I didn’t like to see him hurt—even if I was the one who had done it to him.