Page 12 of Drowning in Darkness

My stomach free-falls, my chest tightens, and I can’t breathe as I study the only woman who has succeeded in stirring something inside me. “Is this a joke?” I choke out. Images of me supporting her slight weight as her life hung in the balance dangle before me, along with the memory of the resignation in her eyes that she wouldn’t survive the night. Never again should she feel that kind of fear.

“No,” Camryn says. “Remember, you just said to let this run its course as bait if we can keep her safe.”

“Not this woman,” I snap. “She’s been through enough.”

“Then who? If not her, who deserves to be in his orbit?”

No one does. My moral code is nonexistent as is, but don’t put someone I’ve vowed to protect in front of me and expect me to color in the lines.

“It leads me to question if he recognized her before they crossed paths,” Agent Thompson muses.

Of course, he knew. He can’t take my sister since I have a strict no-touch list and she’s on it. I never thought to add to it. She doesn’t run in his circles, so why would I?

“Bring her in,” I demand.

Camryn shakes her head. “There’s not enough to do that. Plus, it might compromise my source.”

I curl my lip. For the first time, I see the bureaucracy ruling her decisions instead of her sense of justice. “We aren’t here to play God with people’s lives. Bring her in, Agent. I’m serious.”

“She’s living in the pool house on the Alderidge’s land. She’s safe.”

I know where she is. Always. Stalking issues aside, I’ve persuaded myself I’m keeping an eye on a strong yet vulnerable woman I’d never get closer to. How the hell did I miss this? I’ll tell you how—I took my eye off the ball to engineer a raid for the benefit of the bureau.

“I’ve never asked anything of you, but she needs to disappear. Now.”

“You don’t hold any power here,” Camryn reminds me. “This isn’t a transaction. You walk free as our puppet. Cross me, and I won’t hesitate to withdraw that freedom.”

I grin, all teeth, and let her see the darkness beneath my flesh. “You could try, agent,” I drawl. I snap my fingers. “One moment you’ll be closing in and the next, I’ll vanish like smoke. I may walk free at your discretion, but it’s my choice at the end of the day.”

“It will be the end of your days if you don’t comply,” she snarls.

“Bring. Her. In.”

“No. But I will take responsibility for her protection.”

“Camryn,” Agent Thompson warns. She lifts her hand to stop him.

“I’ll hold you to that,” I snap. “She gets hurt, and I’m done.”

“Deal.”

Fuck. Stephanie King is being hunted by the scum of the universe, and I will die before I let anything touch her, including myself. She deserves light and love. I can’t even be in the same room as her and not battle the demons that plague my soul, telling me on some level she is mine.

Now, how do I tell my sister that her sister-in-law-to-be is being stalked? She’ll cook my balls for lunch and feed them to that crazy dog of hers with a smile on her face.

I rub a hand down my face. I don’t like it. There’s something twisting my stomach that says something is about to go wrong.

“Don’t do anything stupid,” Camryn warns.

“Like?”

“Warn her.”

That’s not stupid. That’s protection. “Fine.”

“Or her brother.”

Hunter King? Not for all the tea in China would I deliver this news to him. “Never occurred to me.”