Page 14 of Devil
“I was on the streets when I left the foster home. Some guys came fucking with me and I killed them. It was reflex, as if it had been lying dormant all those years until the right moment presented itself. I found out it was a gang initiation and when the boss found me and his guys tried to take me out, I killed them too. Survival of the fittest, little demon.”
She scrunches her nose. “They didn’t come after you again?”
“Yes.”
“And?” She’s leaning forward, her unrelenting curiosity peaking.
“I killed the boss.”
She gasps. “What?”
I can’t help but chuckle. “I’m the boss now. Everyone else is either loyal or too scared to fuck with me.”
She leans back into the cushion, folding her arms across her chest. “So, you’re a fucking gang leader? Like a ‘rob old ladies and rape women kind of gang’?”
My grin disappears. “No. I stopped all street gang activities. We deal in guns only. We’re a crime organization now.”
She exhales deeply, relief evident on her face. “That’s it?”
“That’s it.” I agree.
“How many people have you killed?”
“Too many to count, Nova.”
“Oh.” She studies me for a moment. “It was you at the foster home that night, right?”
“Yeah, baby. That motherfucker wasn’t going to touch you again.” I growl.
As soon as the sound leaves my throat, she crawls across the couch, climbing onto my lap. She grips the hair at the nape of my neck, leaning in to kiss me.
Fuck.
I’m trying to take things slow, but she’s making it fucking impossible. She pulls away slowly, her haunted eyes meeting mine.
I know she was sexually assaulted multiple times when she was younger. I have my suspicions she burned her mother’s house down with her inside, and her lover. I picked up on things she said when we were in the foster home together. But still, I need confirmation.
“It’s time for you to answer my questions now, little demon.”
Her brows furrow. “What questions?”
Wrapping my hands around her waist so she can’t run, I lean into her ear. “You burned your mother’s house down.”
She jerks back as if I slapped her, staring into my eyes. I quirk an eyebrow, and she nods.
I trail my thumb across her bottom lip. “Men have mistreated you.”
Where I expected tears, all I see is rage and it fuels me to share more of my life with her. She nods again, confirming what I suspected.
“I killed Lancaster for mistreating you. I killed Emmett for touching you. I killed that guy who grabbed your ass in the bar a few months back.”
She gasps. “I thought he stopped coming in because I went off on him.”
I shake my head, and she crashes her lips to mine. She’s pouring her soul into me and I’m greedily soaking it in. I finally have my girl back for good and nothing will tear us apart again.
She pulls away, her chocolate eyes boring into mine. “Why didn’t you talk to me? I mean, you never spoke until the night you left.”
Gripping the back of her neck, I pull her close, our foreheads touching. “I stopped speaking when I was sent to the fosterhome. My parents beat the fuck out of me on a daily basis. They starved me. Locked me in my room. I was glad to be away from them, but I was terrified to be in a strange place with people I didn’t know. I shut down.”