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Preacher went still. “He took away your freedom, and in some ways, he still has it.” He cupped the back of her head, massaging her scalp.
She closed her eyes in relief. He was the source of confusion, this sudden loss of balance—as though turning her world upside down and inside out was what she needed to finally make the decision to do what she should have done a long time ago. “So, you understand why I have to do this.”
He curled his hands in the strands of her hair and gave her head a little shake. “Clarity comes with acceptance.”
“To have a future…with you, I need to kill my past, lay it to rest. He took my life, my innocence. He’s still doing that to other girls, hollowing them out like he did to me.” Preacher caught her along the jaw and tipped her head up so he could see her face. His gaze was intent. Guilt unfolded in her, and she stared at him, unable to speak the words crowding her lips. How many times had they hurt each other in their ignorance?
“Tell me everything, Luna. There are no more secrets between us.”
Luna, herrealname, and when he said it, he gave her substance, but she was still Karasu and would probably always be that dark raven in the shadows, minus the hunger. With Boyce Carmichael, she suspected she could mesh the two halves of herself forever. “He made me a ghost,” she whispered. She met those gorgeous gray misty eyes filled with compassion and heat. “What I found with you makes me want to be real again. Whole. Ending Savic’s sick empire is a start back on the path to my family. I want to go home again, Boyce.”
She felt his nodding, his cheek resting against the top of her head. He stroked the nape of her neck, and she settled deeper into his embrace and released a long sigh.
The next thing she knew she was alone, and dusk had infiltrated the room. She could hear him in the kitchen and the aroma of heating food and brewing coffee woke her up. Her stomach grumbled.
Heaving a sigh, she threw back the comforter and got up. Entering the kitchen just as the microwave beeped.
“Hello, sleepyhead.”He pulled out a dish, poured her a cup of coffee, and set both in front of her. He slid another plate laden with food into the microwave.
“Hi, handsome,” she said with such blatant affection, his mouth kicked up at the corner. The thought of being away from him even for a minute made her heart ache.
He joined her at the counter and dug in, then sipped his coffee. “It’s going to look much better after some food and more sleep, babe. Now eat up so you have the energy to fuck me right later.”
Later on, they did just that, making every second count. In the early morning, they made love again, slow and easy, their passion still wild and beautiful, but tempered by their feelings for each other and the unspoken commitment between them.
They showered and got ready to go. He had to get to the airfield for his oh-eight-hundred flight, and she was catching a Company jet in just thirty minutes.
Then it hit her—until she was done with her mission, this was it. This was all the time she had left with him. In a matter of minutes, she would be gone, her future uncertain. But there was nothing uncertain about what she felt for Preacher.
She wrapped her arms around his neck as the time ticked down. “I’ve got to go. You have a safe trip and I’ll text you when I can.”
He nodded. “You stay safe, babe. I’ll see you when I see you.”
Then it was a whirlwind as she found herself buckled into the Gulfstream jet, the big, jumbled bowl of La Paz fading from below her. She held on to what they had, a soft glow in her heart. She was going to get this done as quickly as possible. Langley was depending on her; so many innocents across the globe were both in Savic’s and NSH’s destructive paths. Her purpose was clear.
She hardened everything, except for that glow. That she held onto.
* * *
One Month Later,Manila, Philippines
Karasu and Gonchaya found Savic in the Philippines in Southeast Asia in the western Pacific Ocean. The island country was actually an archipelago with more than seven thousand islands and islets, about five hundred miles from the coast of Vietnam. More accurately, he was in Manila, hunting in the slum ofBagong Silanganwhere his kidnapping of young girls went almost unnoticed and unreported.
When he was done for the day, he would retire to his hidey-hole in the warehouse district of the capital. Karasu heard the sound of the souped-up mustang before she caught sight of it pulling up in the alley bordering an auto body shop. Vans had been running all day, dropping off his victims.
She wiped the rain off her face and rose to her feet and grinned in the downpour as she recognized Savic packing enough firepower to do some real damage. In the past, she would freeze, frozen by the fear of his past deeds. But now, she was the hunter, and she would run him to ground, for herself, for her government, for all his victims.
He would lose his shit if he knew she was hiding in the shadows. Part of her almost hoped he put up a fight, but the coward would surrender before she had the chance to put any type of metal in him.
She almost favored her knives. That would be much more satisfying.
She pulled a coil of 7mm climbing rope out of a pocket in her sleek waterproof, bulletproof catsuit.
“There’s five inside, K.” Gonchaya’s gruff voice sounded in her ear. “All armed to the teeth.”
That was a formidable, rabid pack, considering the kind of men Savic employed. “One at a time, G.” That was their plan for them not to have a clue where she was and how she was killing them off, and then she and G were going for Savic.
And when it was over, she’d be done. That glow in her heart flared, but she tamped it down. No, not yet.
