Page 24 of Reaper

“Well, it’s business, so I expect you to send someone to handle this corpse.”

He balls his free hand into a fist, as his eyes darken while continuing to argue with his brother.

“What do you think I’m going to do, Bones? If he sends another, I’ll kill him. If he sends one hundred, I’ll kill every last one of them. He was going to hurt my girl to get to me. How would you react if it were Athena?”

“On the beach,” he says before disconnecting the call.

“Let’s go, we’re going inside. Someone will be here to take care of this.”

Leaning down, he lifts me into his arms.

“I don’t want you to hurt your feet,” he says, when I arch an eyebrow in surprise.

He winks at me, with a devious grin on his impossibly handsome face.

“Put your arms around me, baby.”

I huff in annoyance, but hold on to the back of his neck and warn him.

“Don’t try anything, Nico. I’m not fucking around.”

He chuckles as he squeezes my ass.

“I’m going to feed my sexy little killer before I do anything.”

There’s no doubt that this crazy man thinks what I did is wonderful, but I don’t agree. There’s nothing okay with taking someone’s life, even if they are a bad person. I hate what I did, and knowing I’ll probably need to do it again doesn’t sit well with me. It’s becoming clear that death is the only way I’ll ever get rid of Nico for more than a short time. He said he’d never let me go, and I’m beginning to believe him. I don’t get what it is, but he seems obsessed with me. None of it makes sense to me because he’s hot. He could easily find another crazy woman to kill through life with him, but I’m not her.

He walks, carrying me through the trees for what feels like hours, until I finally spot the lights in the house. Glancing around, I realize we are at the front of the house, as he carries me over the cobblestone around the massive fountain, and up the steps. He sets me down just inside the house, and I take in his stunning home.

The foyer is large, with red Spanish tile, and a giant crystal chandelier above my head, creating a soft glow over the area. As I follow him, we end up in a living room that feels too large to be called something so ordinary. It’s bigger than my entire apartment. The floor is white tile, but I can tell by a simple glance that it’s expensive. The walls are a moody looking blue, with a large painting of a little boy playing with a puppy. My eyes stay locked on the portrait, and it piques my curiosity, because it doesn’t look like something I’d expect to find in his home.

He stands beside me when he notices where my attention is.

“That’s me. My mom is a bit of an aesthete. We have a family friend that’s an artist, and he did this one.”

I resist the urge to touch the amazing picture, but say, “You looked so normal. Happy.”

Turning to him, I watch him shrug, and he narrows his gaze at me.

“What’s normal, living dead girl? And I am happy. You think, because I enjoy ending lives, that I’m living some kind of miserable existence? I have demons as much as the next guy, but I’m not unhappy.”

While I hear the words coming out of his mouth, I still can’t agree with him. There must be some deep seated reason he does the things he does. People aren’t born into this world as serial killers. Something happens along the way, that shapes them into the evil creatures they are. I’m curious what his damage is, but I’m still more interested in getting away from him.

“Nico?”

He stares into my eyes like he is lost.

“Will you please let me go?”

He strokes his fingers down my cheek, causing a shiver to run down my spine.

“No. Never. Unless you kill me and, fuck, living dead girl, I hope you try.”

“Psycho,” I reply under my breath, which only makes him laugh again.

“That’s my brother.”

I arch an eyebrow in confusion and he explains.

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