Page 4 of Blood We Steal

Once the shock wore off, I’d been so enraged I’d wanted to kill her right there. Had even contemplated allowing Damian to do it.

But no. When Simone died, it would be at my hands. On my word. In my time.

You die when I say.

I had turned the vow over in my head countless times, the lodestone I’d held through eighteen months of confinement. I would watch the life drain from her sweet brown eyes as she took her last breath.

But not until I knew why.

Anticipation for that moment was the reason I woke up every morning.

Was the reason my dick was rock hard right now.

I didn’t try to hide my hatred, nor did I try to hide my reaction. Got close enough that there was no way she didn’t feel the hard press of cock against her soft stomach.

She didn’t react. She just kept her eyes somewhere behind my shoulder, kept her breath even, her shoulders poised.

Ready to perform once again.

This was why I kept Simone alive.

I needed to understand.

I would understand.

She flinched when I squeezed her jaw harder, but recovered quickly, and again met my eye. She arched a brow. “You think I’m lying?”

There was a challenge in her voice, a uniquely Simone challenge. But I didn’t see it in her body. Her body was relaxed, her eyes demure, yielding. Designed to fool me like she had for years.

I’d spent those same years forcing myself to look past her. Simone’s usefulness didn’t lie between her thick thighs, no matter how intriguing the treasure that lay there might be. No matter how many nights I’d wrapped my fist around my cock in the dark and pretended it was her mouth, her pussy yielding to me, pretending that the cold weightlessness of my pillow was instead her heavy warmth. I’d even accepted how pathetic it was for my control to be so tested by her. Soft, forgettable. Nothing. But I’d never given in and never let my weakness win.

I’d denied myself that pleasure and now, her only value was in the failure she reflected back at me.

My grip tightened even more and Simone stiffened under my hand, though she fought to keep the terror out of her eyes.

She had betrayed me.

Betrayed me.

I squeezed harder as I remembered her on the stand. Not much different than she was now, save for the clothes. She’d dressed the part for her performance, the discount store suit with a polyester-cotton blend pressed to perfection. Unremarkable in every way, just like she’d been every other day.

Except that day, she used that unremarkableness to put me in this prison for life.

I dropped my hand and clenched my fist, fighting to get my anger in check. Simone wouldn’t see me lose control, no matter how much she deserved it. Letting her live this long was weakness enough. Losing control was a shame I would not abide. And my vengeance wouldn’t be a rash outburst.

I would savor it.

I studied her again as she blinked. Her brown eyes were nondescript, average just like the rest of her features. Easy to overlook, just like I had before. I cataloged each millimeter of her face, again trying to understand. And I never stopped at her face. Hadn’t been able to. I’d never touched, but for years I’d looked. The heavy tits the cheap blouses tried and failed to flatten and hide. The thick thighs I imagined under my palms, crushing my head to hold me in place as I tongue fucked her, gripping my waist as I drove into her. The wide, soft ass I’d caught myself sizing to my hands more nights than I’d acknowledge even to myself. I’d cataloged every unremarkable inch of her the way I cataloged every threat.

And still, I hadn’t seen her.

“No, Simone, I didn’t think you a liar. Not before,” I finally said.

She flinched at that but recovered, her eyes narrowing ever so slightly before she forced her features back into her usual placid expression. “I didn’t lie, Rubin. Everything I said on that stand was the truth. We both know that.”

She said it like it made a difference, but it only proved my failure and again sealed her fate. I had let her in, trusted her with things that no outsider should be trusted with. Now I was paying the price.

I would see that she did, too.