Chapter 8

Eight

ANGEL

The ground crunches under my feet as I track her through the woods. She was careless and tracking her is easy, even in the dark. But maybe that’s the point. Is she leading us into a trap?

Those first five minutes felt like the longest five minutes of my life. I might have been against this from the start, but there is something a little thrilling about chasing her. I was glad Max agreed to the rules. It wasn’t that I needed rules, but the illusion of safety settled my anxiety. Especially where the Quinn’s were concerned. Conor and Cillian had been great in bed, hands down, some of the best sex I’d ever had, but they were scary. Like, I’d rather die than stick around scary. They didn’t have rules and they didn’t have any morals to hold them back. They calculated odds and risks and did what they wanted without a care for anyone that might be caught in the crossfire.

Max was different. Yes, he was dangerous, but he at least felt empathy and guilt and I was pretty sure I was in love with the guy.

My phone buzzes in my pocket. Speak of the devil, and the devil shall appear.

Max:

Any sight of her?

Nikita:

Nope, angry face emoji.

I snort. Niki hasn’t been this obsessed over anything and I really hope he’s not the first one to find her.

Me:

I’m tracking her but not found her yet.

Max:

Keep your eyes peeled.

Nikita:

eyes emoji

The guy cracks me up. He barely uses any words to text, instead preferring emojis to communicate. Sometimes I just don’t think he likes words at all. He didn’t talk much before his run in with the hitman for the Caruso Family. In fact, I think the guy says more now with his hands than he ever did with his mouth.

A twig snaps to my left and my senses go on high alert. I take a deep breath and exhale slowly, not making a sound. A breeze passes by carrying a hint of lemon and a tang of blood.

She’s close.

I take off in her direction, my feet thudding on the ground, and I hear a gasp and the sound of leaves crunching as she starts to run.

“Found you,” I croon as I get closer. I spy a flash of red hair behind a tree and dart towards her. She’s fast and I’m having to push to keep up. She weaves between the trees and then disappears.

Silence descends and I come to a stop next to a large oak tree. I close my eyes and take a moment to listen.

“Come out, come out wherever you are.”

I step forward slowly, moving in the direction I’d last seen her but she’s good at this. I can’t hear anything. No rustle of movement. No heaving breaths.

Just silence.

I pause again and wait. I’m a patient man, and for her, I’d wait forever.

I know he’s the other side of the tree. He’s literally three feet away and my heart is fucking racing. I can’t slow it down. I’m concentrating too much on keeping my breaths quiet.

If he just steps forward a little, I might be able to attack him and take him out for a few minutes so I can run again.

Come on, Angel. Just one more step.

His sandy blonde hair comes into view, and I don’t wait. I don’t even think. I just move.

He doesn’t see me until it’s too late. I kick the back of his knees and he falls to the ground with a yell. But then I squeeze his neck between my forearms. He wriggles and bucks, but I hold tight.

“Hey, Angel. Did you miss me?” I goad, a little breathless with the exertion, but I keep my hold.

He throws an elbow backwards into my ribs and I grunt.

I lick my tongue up the side of his face. “You’re gonna have to do better than that, sweetie.”

“Fuck you,” he gasps and throws himself backwards, slamming me into the ground.

The thud knocks the wind out of me, and I have to fight to keep hold of Angel. I wrap my thighs around his ribs and squeeze, constricting his ability to breathe. I might not be in the family business, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t trained by the best.

My father hired the best tutors that money could buy and ensured that I could take care of myself should anything like this ever happen. I can also handle a gun well, but I much prefer blades. It’s the intimacy of killing with a blade that got me. How close you had to get to kill someone with a knife. It’s poetic or some shit.

Right now, I’m fighting Angel, and I’m fucking winning. He’s tiring. His attempts to break free were getting sloppy and I know it won’t be long until…

Angel’s body slumps and goes limp. Perfect. I stay still a few moments more just to make sure he isn’t playing me for a fool, and then I slowly let go. I don’t want to kill the guy, but I sure love the fact that I’d manage to take one of them down. It’s thrilling. Exciting. Makes me want to fucking jump and dance and sing.

An idea pops into my head, and I bend down to find his phone. I pull it out and hold it in front of his face to unlock it, then find the camera. Setting it to the video function, I hit record.

I lay down beside him and film myself licking the length of his face. Fuck, he tastes good. Like strawberries and cream and something a little wicked. I look at the camera. “Hey boys, come find me. I want to play.” Then I blow them a kiss and drop the video in their cute little group chat. I really wish I could see their reaction.

I watch the screen as my little rabbit blows me a kiss and the grin across my face is as wide as the proverbial Cheshire cat. I bet Maxim is fucking pissed that Angel is lying on the ground, out cold. But I think the thing that will piss him off the most is that he likes the fact that Echo has managed to take out Angel. The guy is fucking mercenary and there he is, splayed out on the ground while a pint-sized hellcat licks his face. I fucking love it and I can’t wait to make her pay for it. I look at the location on the phone and even though I know that Echo will leave the phone with Angel so we can find him, it’s the last place she was so I head that way. I’ll leave Maxim to deal with Angel and look at the area she was in. It’s not far from the river, and, if I were her, I know exactly where I’d go next.

I put my phone back in my pocket, falling in love a little bit more with her. I’ve never felt so obsessed with someone. She takes up all my thoughts until every breath I take is to an image of her. I want to possess her. Own her. Fucking carve my name into her skin so she knows she belongs to me.

I pick up the pace to a jog and I head in her last known direction. My heart pumps furiously in my chest with pure excitement, and pure fucking need.

I want to shout her name, to put the fear of God into her as I chase her down, but I can’t do that and I curse the day that Tony Caruso stole my words. I slow down as I approach the river, knowing that this is where she’ll most likely be, setting up some kind of hiding place to take us by surprise.

I know she’s here. I can sense her. It’s like my body goes into overdrive as soon as I’m near her. I take a deep breath and hold still for a moment behind a large tree at the edge of the river. The water rushes down its winding path, crashing against rocks and it’s the only sound for miles.

Then I catch a glimpse of her. Her hair is wild, her makeup smeared under her eyes. She’s fucking beautiful and, for a moment, I just watch her step around the tree, completely oblivious to my existence.

She steps closer. And closer. Then she’s merely a hair's breadth away and I hold my breath. Staying silent until she steps in front of me.

Then I move.

I grab her shoulder and slam her backwards into the trunk of the thick tree. My hand slams over her mouth to stop her scream and I see the wildness in her eyes that sets my pulse racing. I take a moment to wonder if Maxim has a way to monitor my pulse. Does he know how fast my heart is beating? Does it excite him? Does it turn him on?

She stares at me for a fraction of a second, her eyes wide and fear burning brightly. I notice the moment her survival instincts kick in. Her pupils dilate and she takes a deep breath through her nose. This woman isn’t going down without a fight and I am fucking here for that.

I pull the knife from its sheath at my hip and place the tip against her throat. Her breaths are uneasy but that beautiful glaze falling over her eyes tells me how much she’s really enjoying this.

I step backwards and pull my hand from her mouth. “ Run, little rabbit. Run.”

I hope she runs. God, my cock is tenting my pants just thinking about her running away from me. She smiles uneasily as she looks from me to over her shoulder. She’s so close to the river, so close to freedom that I bet she can taste it like a visceral thing.

She takes one last look at me then spins on her heel and runs. Fuck, she’s fast.

I count to ten, fifteen, twenty before I take off after her. She’s a lot faster than I thought and I can’t help but admire that.

Her head snaps over her shoulder, her gaze colliding with mine as I get closer to her. I need to pick up my pace to catch her, but all too soon, my hand fists in her long red hair.

She yelps as I tug her backwards and she loses her footing, falling to her hands and knees. She immediately starts crawling, trying to get away from me but I’m not going to let that happen.

I grab her ankle, loving her scream as I pull her towards me. She uses her free foot to try and kick my face, but I miss her foot every time. I crawl over her body, pinning her to the dirt by the nape of her neck. She slaps wildly and kicks her feet but it’s useless.

I rip her panties off and stuff them in my pocket, my prize for later. She bucks and squirms, but I don’t let up. I grind my erection down into her ass and God, I want to sink into that tight heat. I want to know how wet she is for me. How much she enjoys being chased and hunted. I want to sink my cock into her and fuck her cunt until she screams and squirts all over my dick. I don’t know if she’s a squirter, but I’ll make her fucking squirt for me.

I wrap my hand in her hair and yank her head back. I present the handle of the knife to her lips and start to push it into her mouth.

“Suck it,” I try to sign around the handle. She must understand because she lets me push it into her mouth. I’m too wound up to care about my finesse when signing. I just want to sink my cock into her. I want to hear her scream as I fuck her into the dirt and then I want to leave her a satisfied mess when Maxim comes along and to have him know it was me. I want him thinking about how my dick will feel in his ass because I’m going to fuck him later. I want that. Want him. And I want her.

I’m too far gone for sensibilities and sound judgement. I’m running on pure animalistic fucking need .

I pull the handle of the knife out of her mouth and press it against her fluttering hole. I know this is going to hurt, and part of me doesn’t give a shit. She’s fucking soaked. I can see her pussy glistening in the low light, and I want to lick her, taste her, sink my tongue deep into her, but not right now. I want her to be full of lust and fear and horror.

I spit against her hole, having some kind of decency and then push the handle of the knife into her ass.

I can tell it’s tight. It takes a few moments before I can get it past the tight ring of muscle. She gasps and looks at me over her shoulder. There are tears in her eyes and my cock hardens at the sight.

“Take it out,” she whimpers, but there’s a hint of a moan buried beneath it. She likes it.

I shake my head and tug on the sharp blade, watching in fascination as her tight little hole tries to hold onto it. Using the thin guard that sits between the handle and the blade, I pull the knife out and push it back in. After a few thrusts, Echo starts to moan and push her hips backwards.

I get to my feet, and she looks over her shoulder at me, her eyes wild and glassy.

“ Kneel. ”

She swivels on her knees, moving slowly with that knife in her ass. I’ll take it out when I fuck her, but until then, it can keep her tight little hole stretched for me.

Tears roll down her cheeks and she looks beautiful with her mascara smeared beneath her wild eyes.

“ Open.” I open my trousers and release my aching cock.

“No,” she replies, but there’s a small curl to the corner of her mouth.

I slap her face and grip her chin. I dig my fingers into the hollows of her cheeks and force her mouth open wide. Then I shove my dick straight past her plump lips. She immediately gags when I hit the back of her throat, but I don’t let her adjust. I hold myself there for a minute, loving how she swallows around the head of my cock, how her warm, wet tongue massages the underside of my dick. But most of all, I love those fucking tears.

I pull back and let her take a deep breath, but I slam back in. I wrap my fingers in her hair and hold in her place while I fuck her face. She coughs and splutters around my dick and I use my grip on her hair to fuck my hips forward.

Her fingers dig into my thighs, and I know she’s broken the skin. The sting smarts a little, but it all adds to the orgasm that I can feel building at the base of my spine.

I pull out of her mouth, not wanting to cum down her throat. I want to be deep in her ass when I orgasm. Then I want to fuck her cunt and fill her up over and over until I get her pregnant. Fuck. I hope she’s not on birth control. The thought of her belly round with a child makes my heart lurch.

She looks disappointed as I step backwards.

“Turn around and bend over. ” My hands tremble as I think about finally sinking my dick into her.

She complies and I see tiny little red slices where the knife has caught her thighs when I fucked her face.

Fuck. She looks beautiful painted in red.

I grab the hilt of the knife and tug. Echo whimpers as I pull it from her body, and I can feel her ass trying to hold onto it. I tuck the knife back in its sheath and then part her ass cheeks. What a fucking sight. I lean closer and blow on it, loving how it flutters. Then, in one motion, I lick from her clit all the way to her asshole.

She tries to scramble away but I slap her thigh and pull her back into place. She kicks her foot back and she manages to catch the inside of my knee and I lose my balance. She’s up and running again. I can’t have that.

I leap to my feet and chase her deeper into the woods.