Page 55 of The SongBird's Love

“What do you expect me to do? You know I hate them!”

“...Why don’t we kill them, then?” asked Loir with another one of his creepy smiles.

“What are you saying? ...I can’t kill a Zodiac like that...”

Eden took one step back. The mere thought was terrifying.

She wasn’t scared to kill someone but she was terrified at the thought of going head-to-head against a man like Dante De Luca. If she had ever considered herself strong, she knew which fights not to start. Eden never wanted to start a fight that would put her life in someone else’s hands.

Loir slowly rolled his chair closer to her.

“Think about it, Eden... Don’t run away anymore. Just a tiny, cute little bullet and the Italian will be dead. No more issues... no more hatred.”

“I won’t stop hating him or the next Tiger just because this one is dead. It won’t bring Adam back!”

Suddenly, they heard a ruckus upstairs. Loir chuckled.

“Sounds like the party has come to us,” he said.

“Loir! You can’t let them catch us!”

“Why not? They have money and pizza. I’m really hungry right now. That would be perfect!”

“They might kill you!”

“I’ll ask for the pizza before they do, don’t worry. Oh, and the pepperoni... and mushies... “

“Loir!”

Eden ran to his keyboards, trying to activate some defense of some sort, but nothing happened. She had never used Loir’s computers before, and maybe they were even modified to only work for him because literally nothing happened no matter what she did.

“Loir!” she insisted.

“Oh, I need to pack my teddy bear...”

His chair rolled away from the desks as sudden bangs were heard on the door. Eden was totally speechless! They were banging against the main garage door, the one that was completely blocked. How long before they’d burst it open? Maybe five, ten minutes?

She had time to run. Completely ignoring Loir, she ran to the other door, which opened up onto the street. According to Loir’s cameras, they weren’t there yet. If only she could run fast enough to get out of there and make her way to another territory...

The door opened wide just a second before Eden got to it. She froze there, holding on to her dog with her heart beating like crazy.

Dante was standing in the frame, a large smile on his face, his golden eyes glowing.

“Hi again, Eden. I missed you.”

She stepped back. There was no sign of any injury on him, and that’s when she understood. The way he had taken off his jacket and the sudden attack on his own territory. She should have known it was all fake. He probably had faked an injury to let her think she could run away too.

He was perfectly fine. Fine and holding a gun when he stepped inside.

“I told you, didn’t I?”

“You said you’d leave me alone if I survived...” she hissed.

“Yes. I said that, but you heard the second part too, didn’t you?”

Yes, Eden had heard it. Even if she hadn’t heard it, Dante’s lips had moved so clearly, she couldn’t pretend. They moved again, repeating those words that had made her run away.

“If I catch you again... you’ll be mine forever.”