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Something feels off. Very wrong as I wait in the silence. It’s an uncomfortable sensation that I can’t quite place.
I really don’t like this feeling that comes over me. A noise from around the corner grabs my attention. A footstep, maybe. A scuffle of a shoe against the floor. The hairs on the back of my neck stand up. It could be Declan over there, but why wouldn’t he have answered me?
Fear creeps up on me as I take a hesitant step forward.
“Declan?” I barely breathe, not trusting the quiet.
I pull my purse higher on my shoulder and move through the hallway. The noise ricochets through the hall again. It almost sounds like a high heel tapping.
A crease settles in the middle of my forehead. “Hello?” I call out, expecting to hear Mia maybe or another waitress.
When I turn the corner near the back room, I see them and my body goes numb. It’s a chilling sight and I don’t believe what I see.
Scarlet.
And Nate, with his hand over her mouth. She’s pressed against the wall, her red dress barely seen around his navy blue suit.I blink and what happens next is over with in a matter of seconds.
The sight of her is paralyzing. Her eyes are wide with terror, and her hands scrabble at his, which are wrapped around her throat. They get even wider when she sees me and her body struggles against Nate’s grip. Her mascara leaks down the corner of her eyes with the tears.
My purse drops to my side, my body trembling.
Panic makes my throat go tight, but a survival instinct freezes me in place. One of her heels clicks against the floor. Fuck. She can’t even get her feet on the ground. He’s choking her!
Do something! A voice screams in my head and by the time I’m able to act, it’s too late.It all happens in the span of a single breath. By the time I step forward, a scream tearing up my throat, it’s over.
“I’m sorry,” Nate whispers.
And then he snaps Scarlet’s neck. The crack resonates inside of me, paired with the sight of her body going limp, her eyes no longer blinking and her arms falling at her side.
A scream rips out of me, scratching at my throat.
My heart hammers as Nate turns to look at me, without an ounce of sympathy in his expression. With adrenaline surging through me, I turn to run and collide with a hard chest.
My body flinches, and tries to escape until I look up.
Declan grabs me, cold and cruel. He turns me around and pins me close, a hand over my mouth, the other pinning my arms down. “He killed her!”I try to scream, but I can’t. “Declan! Please!” My words are muted, my body hot and my entire being filled with terror even though Declan’s here. My mind is a whirlwind that won’t stop.
Help her,is all I can think. Even though I know she’s already dead. Tears leak from the corners of my eyes as my throat goes raw with my cries.
Declan turns my head in his hand so I have to look at him. His grip is brutal and it’s shocking when I see his face. His eyes hold a deadly anger and everything stills.
Very, very slowly, he removes his hand from my mouth. It’s not comforting. He’s still holding me too tight. Tight enough to crush me. It’s hard to catch my breath. My mind spins back through what just happened.
Scarlet is dead.
My friend. I saw her die. Nate snapped her neck. Killed in cold blood.
“Declan.” His name, a plea from me, is barely audible. I can’t breathe enough to put my voice behind it. “I’m scared.”
“My little pet,” he says, and his voice is brutal. I thought I knew fear before but ice spills through my veins. “You should be fucking terrified.”
I’LL KISS YOU TWICE
PROLOGUE
Declan
My oldest brother told me once there was a moment when he realized he’d ruined it all. Not just for himself, but for everyone he loved. Carter said it was like time had slowed down, yet it played before his eyes too fast to stop it just the same. He saw everything that would happen — the devastation, the pain, the brutality that lay ahead. And it was all too late. He’d damned us all leading us down a path with no return.
