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“I’m not here to come back and be your plaything!” I growled. “I’m here to tell you to fuck off—”
White-hot pain exploded from the side of my face. I hadn’t prepared for him to move as fast as he did, causing me to totally miss as he swung his arm toward me. The force of the hit caused me to stumble back, barely catching my balance enough to avoid falling off the pier.
I clutched my head, looking back at him with narrowed eyes.
There was a rock in his hand. Larger than the size of a cell phone and covered with blood. When I pulled my hand away from the side of my face, it too was covered in blood.
I couldn’t help the laugh that bubbled up in my throat.Had he planned to kill me while he was fucking me?I wouldn’t put it past him.
“Don’t act like that, Tiffany,” he warned. “You’re testing my temper, and believe me, I have a lot of it built up after the stunt you pulled.”
Oh, I’m sure he fucking did.But what he didn’t realize was that I did too, but my anger didn’t just appear that night. It had been simmering underneath my skin since the moment I was born. Since the moment I realized my parents regretted keeping their little girl. Since they forced me to his side.
My anger has always been there, but until now, it hadn’t had the chance to be let out.
“You don’t own me anymore,” I spat. “And I came here to prove it to you.”
“Oh?” he asked with a raised brow. “I think you’ll find out soon just how wrong you are.”
I took a deep breath, readying myself. It wouldn’t be long now. Seconds ticked by, the tense silence between us expanding.
My first hint that it was working was the slight swell of his lips. The skin of his neck, not splattered with blood, had started to turn red.
Then he tried to clear his throat.
“Let’s see who wins first,” I said with a smile. “Your peanut allergy, or your legs.”
This time, I gave into the voice yelling at me to run and turned to bolt back the way I came.
His thundering footsteps against the pier behind me. His heavy breathing filled the air. My heart lodged in my throat. My legs worked faster than ever to get distance between us.
Without the car waiting, it was a straight shot up the bluffs and into the small forest that lined the area. He was tall, meaning he could reach me in fewer strides. But I was faster, and after all the years of training I had for the Secret Service, climbing up those bluffs was almost too easy.
He was fighting against a timer, and knowing Russell, he would most definitely try to kill me before treating his reaction.
I prayed that he would.
I was positive that I would make it. That maybe I would be fast enough so I wouldn’t have to face him head-on… until right at the top, his hand grabbed my ankle and yanked.
My fingers dug into the rocks, a sharp pain shooting up my arm.
“Is this what you came for?” he asked, breathless. There was a rasp to his voice that wasn’t there before. He was fighting against the inevitable. “A little chase in the woods? Well, I’ll get you every single fucking time you cunt.”
I turned to him, the crazed smile that I had been keeping bubbled up inside me finally showing up on the surface. Even after all these years, his body reacted to nuts the same. His face was swelling, almost to the point of being unrecognizable.
“No,” I said with a laugh. “It’sthis.” And with a single, hard kick to the face, Russell’s body went flying downward and straight to the rocky cove below.
All these years, I didn’t know how I would do it, but I made damn sure to prepare for it. The training, the hiding, all of it prepared me for that moment.
That night would be the last time Russell Croweevertouched me again.
Yes, joining the Secret Service was a way to protect me. But it was also a way to prepare me for that very moment. To break me out of the shell I was forced into. To prepare me to kill.
With ease, I dropped down from the cliffs. Reaching down, my hand brushed across an especially sharp rock.
Russell was still lying on the ground. His eyes were wide and his mouth was flapping open like a fish out of water as he tried to fill his lungs with air.
I stood over him and looked down on him like he had me so many times. But instead of feeling the power that he must have, all I felt was disgust at the squirming creature in front of me.
