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“The most dangerous of them all,” I snarled. “I’m your worst nightmare, little girl. The wolf at your door. I would eat you as much as I would devour a succulent piece of meat. Just because I helped you at the funeral, don’t mistake me for someone you can trust,” I reiterated. “In fact, trust no one, Summer.”
“And you don’t?”
“Don’t what?”
“Trust anyone?”
“Trust is the one commodity I can’t buy, because it doesn’t exist. Everyone will betray you for their own selfish purposes—it’s only a matter of time.”
Her lips parted in surprise. “You don’t trust a single person?”
“Why should I? Trust only leads to disappointment. I’ve learned to be my own fortress and protector. Trust is a trinket people use to manipulate and further their own self-interests. People are blind when they trust, while others take and take, always dissatisfied. We don’t even realize how starved we are for true meaning in this life. They don’t realize happiness is just silencing our wants and opening our hearts instead.”
“And are you?”
“Am I what?”
“Happy?”
I scowled. “I don’t need happiness. It’s not what I’m searching for.”
“And you think that opening my eyes is your way of doing something good in the world?”
“No, darling. I told you, I’m no better than them. I have no desire to feel love. Or do good in the world. I’m just like them—I take what I want.”
“And what is that? Why are you even here? Did you even know my father?”
Resentment burst through me. She didn’t even know me, and yet, I knew her like the back of my hand. Could envision every twinkle of her eye and twitch of her lips as a child.
I swallowed it down, forcing indifference—like I’d done so many times in the past.
“I’m here to warn you of your present danger. I don’t need to reveal the reason why,” I forced a coolness into my voice. “Whether or not you act on it, is up to you.”
Giving me a scathing glare, she reached up and, clasping her fingers around mine, slowly peeled my grip from her hair. Once I was loose of her tangles, she stepped back, putting much needed space between us, and I inhaled a sharp breath, feeling the pressure inside me loosen.
“I need you to leave.” Her voice was low, cold, calculating. Controlled. “Now.”
She said nothing more, just stood there staring at me, fully expecting me to do as she asked.
"As you wish," I replied, placing her shoes back in her hands before giving her one last warning look. Then I turned, and strode away.
Every step from her felt like a betrayal—to Douglass and to my oath.
The barely restrained anger inside me simmered to the surface.
I needed an outlet for the dark and insatiable beast inside me, and I had the perfect outlet.
Tonight, someone was going to pay for crossing me.
CHAPTER 7
Rook
The metallic smell of blood filled my nose as it splattered across my cheek and neck. Pain surged from my knuckles, up my wrist and arm, but the sickening, gurgling noise filling the air made it worth enduring. I shook it out, a low snarl issuing from my throat. “Motherfucking hard-headed asshole.”
Sadness and anger surged inside me, begging me to unleash its power. Douglass was dead. The desperation and despair of my feelings, choking and overwhelming, had driven me to extremes: I needed an outlet and the man before me was the perfect solution.
Sweat spots tainted his once crisp button-up shirt, and body odor permeated the air. Pale skin swelling and bruised, a deep blue and black. Dark, shadowed eyes filled with death.
