Primal Pursuit - Page 151

“And remove my only chance at what? Getting out of here alive? Killing those who hired you?”

“Or…I could shoot you.”

“You let me live once.”

“I’m not a good man.”

“We both know you’re not going to shoot me. It’s…” She pauses. “It’s complicated between us.”

Oh, fuck me, Rabbit is something. And she thinks she has feelings for me. I know she does. But she shouldn’t.

I sigh. “Feelings, Rabbit? They’re dangerous things to have.”

Her head jerks, and…shit. Was she expecting me to…what? Beg? Profess?

“I…you…” She inches back. “You don’t? Because…I wish I didn’t, but I do.” She swallows again, and something shifts inside me.

“Rabbit, you shouldn’tfeelthings for me. Look at me.”

“I am.”

“What I did to you.”

“I liked it.”

We’re not talking about her parents, and I’m not going to push that. She’s a little too vulnerable there. To push that is the wrong kind of cruel. She already knows exactly what I did. She doesn’t forgive me, either.

“Are you asking if I have feelings for you, Poppy?” I think about it. What’s there is big and violent and so elemental I’m not sure what it is. I’m not done with her. I still want to suck her bones dry, drink from her soul, bathe in the blood of her heart like it can heal me when I don’t need fucking healing.

She’s staring. Waiting. And…fuck.

“What I feel for you is dangerous, Poppy.”

I turn, pace, then come back.

“You want someone to love you, and I’m not it. It doesn’t matter what I feel or what’s going on inside me. You’ve been on your own since you were, what? Fifteen? Sixteen?”

She sucks in a breath. “I ran when before I was sixteen. I stole…you know I stole. That has nothing to do with it.”

“Actually, it has everything to do with it. So, let me get this straight. Your fucking bitch aunt knew what her husband was doing to you? Played a nice song that now makes you sick? And don’t say it doesn’t. It’s got to.”

“Something like that.” Rabbit looks away, and I want to wrap her up in Kevlar and give her all the weapons. Fuck soft blankets and kind words and therapy. I want to take her there, make her feel like she’s the queen of avenging angels, and then I want to kill them for her. Slowly.

I’m not sure with how much agony. But it’ll be off the charts.

“And him? What did he do while your aunt drowned out his sins with music?”

She doesn’t answer.

“Rabbit, I know you don’t want to talk about this. But Ihave a reason.” I do. It might do harm, but I have to. “Part of my job is to follow, observe, learn patterns. And I remember your uncle. I saw how he’d watch young girls in a way that was that was a whole lot of ick. Back then, I was new. I couldn’t do shit about it because he wasn’t part of the job.”

She’s so still she could be carved from ice. “And me? You watched him watch me?”

“No. I never saw you. Only in pictures, and when you hid in the closet, through the slats. Point is, I remember the veneer of slime. So I’m asking you what the fuck did he do?”

“I told you.”

“Broad strokes, Rabbit, that’s what you told me. Broad strokes. I want the details.”