Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

NEO

B eing on the run as a killer means you can't get used to anything. Everything is always new and thrilling. The one thing I have gotten used to, however, is the filthy, stupid girl that is on the run with me.

She's the exception to the rule. The one thing I don't leave without when I hear sirens. The reason I breathe.

Over the last year, we traveled the United States, killing for fun sometimes and other times killing with purpose. She's pulled me out of my shell and my motivation. So much so that I now lean into her brand of insanity. Following her direction and plans as if they were law.

Today, we move again.

"What's next on your tour of the States, stupid girl?" I ask, sinking my teeth into an apple. The juices fill my mouth, and I swallow as Lyla looks up from her MacBook screen and watches my Adam's apple bob.

Sometimes, I wonder if I didn't break her too much. Kick her into the dark a bit too far.

Other times, I know she's just the right amount of fucked-up and toss those notions out the window.

"A man in Kentucky molested his daughter, but the lack of evidence is getting the case thrown out."

"Do you want to figure out if he truly did it?" I ask, leaning over the back of her chair.

She feels my presence like an animal feels that of a phantom, and she sits up straighter in her chair, making me grin.

"No. The implication alone is enough for me. Even if he didn't do it, the evidence they found of abuse in the home means he's risen to the top of my list."

"Mm, I love it when you're bloodthirsty." I wrap my hand around her throat from behind.

She sighs and leans into me.

"I know, but we need to get on the road. I was rather messy last night, and in a town this small, we're likely the only ones in this run-down shit-shack of a motel that raise any red flags."

She's right, even if I want to tell her otherwise. More than anything, I want to watch her red-painted lips wrap around my cock and slide down to its base. Listening to her gagging on my dick is my favorite pastime.

"Plus, we're only a four-hour drive from where I need to be tonight," she says.

She closes her MacBook, slides it into its case, and tosses it on the bed.

Grabbing her hair before she can make off to load the car, I yank her back to me, turning her around as I use my other hand to grab her pussy.

"Just promise me I get to fuck you today, and I'll do your bidding," I growl.

Her eyes light, pupils constricting under the haze of lust .

"I fucking promise," she says, and the sinister smile she gives me has a wicked energy skimming through my spine.

"Then lead the way, stupid girl."

After a five-hour drive, which included gassing the car and stopping for food, we're sitting under the shadow of an oak tree across the street from Ed Johnson's house. He was released only this morning.

Lyla is antsy in her seat, and I have just the thing to calm her down. Part of me knows she won't simmer until she gets her fix of death.

"What are we waiting for?" I ask her.

She points, and I narrow my eyes, leaning forward as I perch my hands on the top of the steering wheel.

Two children are at the table in front of the window. They both look to be doing their homework, and Ed is in the kitchen, nursing a beer behind them.

"Ah," I say. "Didn't account for them?"

She nods. "I did. They only get supervised visitation right now. Part of his release terms. We'll wait for the grandma to leave with them before we move in."

Somewhere along the line, Lyla had taken my vigilante streak further than I ever could, becoming the voice of those who could no longer speak or fend for themselves. I've always had a specific brand of blood I liked painting my skin with.

I drove us wherever—if it was newsworthy, and Lyla deemed it worth our time.

She's become quite the detective .

"So, we're on a stakeout?" I ask, settling back into the seat.

"We're on a stakeout." She says it as if it's our first one.

We've been on hundreds at this point.

I close my eyes. "Mm. Tell me when I'm needed again, stupid love."

I feel her slide across the car, settling her body over my lap before her lips find mine. "You're needed."

I grin against her kiss, encircling her moan with my tongue as she breathes into my mouth. My hands rise to her hips as she grinds over my hardness.

"Am I, then?"

"I always need you, Neo."

"Stupid girl, I'll still need you when I'm six feet under."

She chuckles. "What will you need me for, then?"

I shrug, gripping her hips firmly in my hands and watching her bloom as her head falls back and she moans.

"That. I'll need you for that."

"To moan for you? Neo Wade, do you want me to haunt you?"

I grasp her throat, tugging her back to my lips as I dust mine across hers ever so slightly, relishing in her speeding breaths.

"You already haunt me, stupid girl. With every fucking breath you take. Every moan. Every time that your pretty little cunt grips me tightly. You've haunted me from the moment you crawled across my floor at that godforsaken asylum."

"Fuck, the things you say," she grumbles, crashing her lips to mine.

The kiss turns heated, and it's not long before I open the door .

"Get out," I tell her, and she eyes me with a gleam of defiance, noting the tone of my voice before she complies.

I get out, pocketing my keys as I undo my jeans and let my cock hang free. "Get on your knees, stupid girl. Worship me like I'm your god."

She falls to her knees, looking up at me as she licks the pre-cum from the head of me. "I don't believe in God at this point, Neo."

"Fuck," I grit out, fisting her hair as I pause her torment. "Then worship me like you do the names on the pages of your notebook of death."

"Book of the Dead." Her lips turn rueful. "I like that."

She looks like an Egyptian princess veiled in the surrounding night as I shove her onto my cock, spearing through her throat like a man out of control.

"Mmm," she mumbles around me, and I arch forward, wanting to be as deeply rooted inside her as I fucking can.

"That's a good girl. Suck your god's cock like a good little whore." My taunting words will only drive her higher.

On cue, she adds a hand, driving me wild.

"Goddamnit, stupid girl. Teeth, use your fucking teeth."

She scrapes her teeth against my skin as she fucks me with her hand right behind them.

The bite of pain takes me to another plane as I grip her hair to the point of pain, hearing a delightful squeal from her.

This is what remains of the fiend who wants to maim Lyla Wade.

The beast that dwells beneath my skin is finally as obsessed with her as I am, and the only time he rears his head to punish her is in times of pleasure and only because he knows she likes it .

I haven't gone soft, by any means, but for her… Fuck, I'd crawl across glass for her touch.

I'd use my dying breath to call her stupid girl just one more time to watch her eyes light.

"Fuck, Lyla, you'd better…" she doubles down, teeth sinking into my cock, and I lose myself, thrusting forward and coming down her skilled throat as she swallows each pulse like a thirsty little whore.

She wipes her mouth when she's cleaned me thoroughly, standing and cupping my face.

I growl, using her hair to turn her around, slamming the front of her body into the car as I come up behind her like a predator.

I pull down her pants, if only to see my name branded on her silky skin.

I slap the brand. "You made me come too quickly. You know I hate that."

"Guilty," she squeaks as I press her face into the cold metal of the car with one hand, using the other to reach around and rub over her clit.

She's so fucking wet.

"My filthy little love, you've wet yourself."

"Seems that I have," she breathes out.

I grin, nuzzling my face into her hair like a man deranged as I inhale her scent, cock filling with blood all over again.

"Fuck, your velvet cunt is so perfect." My fingers tease her clit before moving home to their true destination.

"Neo, please," she begs, and I answer by sliding two fingers inside her.

"Ahh," she whimpers, pressing back into me with trust and need.

Fuck, I am so addicted to this woman. All when I knew no one in the world would ever match my energy, or ever understand me for who I am at my center.

"You never listen to me," I whisper in her ear, fucking in and out of her fervently, reveling in how she bucks on my hand greedily.

"Because I'm a stupid girl," she groans.

"Are you? Sometimes, I think you play me like I'm your fiddle."

"Neo, shit, so close, Neo…" She's riding my hand like she didn't come only hours before arriving here when I couldn't help but finger her while I drove. Her screams kept my mind busy as the highway spread before us like a monotone song on repeat.

"Maybe I shouldn't let you come. Maybe you need to learn a lesson."

"Please, no. Let me come, love."

Ahh, the magic word. The one she rarely uses for me, but the one I'm weak to. It's my kryptonite coming from her lips.

"Not fair," I grumble into her ear, nipping the shell with my teeth as she shatters, screams buried by my own as her walls ripple around my fingers delicately, and I imagine myself inside her.

"Tell me, stupid girl, how are we supposed to gain anything if we're not paying attention to the house?" I ask her when she turns and bares her perfect center to me, lifting a leg for easier access.

When I slide inside her, she grips me like a vise made only for me, and my forehead meets hers as our fevered breaths become a fragrance all their own, a psychotic mix of pheromones and restless energy.

"I'm paying attention to what matters," she says, and my lips slam against hers, gobbling up every little moan, every little flutter around my cock.

"You're what matters in my world, stupid man," she says against my lips.

I let out a dark chuckle. "And you'll always be what matters in my world, love."

The night drawls on, and we lose ourselves in one another twice more before we return to our stakeout of Edward Johnson.

When the grandma finally leaves with the kids in tow, Lyla's fast asleep on my lap.

The lights in the house go out as I let my stupid love sleep.

After all, the hand of death needs to be steady, not weary.