Page 9 of Dark Reasons

Chapter Three

Selena

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"Where exactly are youtaking us?" I ask after we turn down another side street.

"I'm still deciding."

Running my hand over the seat belt, I give it an anxious tug. "You don'tneedto kill me. I'm not going to turn you in to the cops."

His laugh has an edge. "Of course you'd say that."

"I really won't. I don't have a reason to."

"You watched me slit a man's throat."

"Exactly. If anything, I should be thanking you."

He takes the next corner faster than before. I catch him glancing at me. His frown pulls at his jawline, but it doesn't make him less handsome. I bet he even looks good when he ugly-cries. Do hit men ever cry? "You really wanted him dead."

"Sanford was an awful person," I say with a shrug. "I guess if I'm upset about anything, it's that you killed him before I could."

"God, you're naive," he snarls. His foot slams the brake pedal; I bounce in my seat, grimacing at how my head rattles. "Don't talk so casually about murder. Just because you held that gun doesn't mean you'd squeeze the trigger."

"I would have eventually," I argue.

"Not if a hundred fucking years went by." He's brought us near the Santa Monica Pier; I can see the Ferris wheel in the distance, the rotating seats blinking in a rainbow of colors as the sun sinks behind the reddish clouds over the ocean. He cuts the engine. "Some people are born to kill, you're not one of them."

"Guess we'll see."

Jamison clenches the steering wheel so hard his knuckles turn white. Twisting his neck with patient speed, he scrutinizes me. "You said something like that earlier. Elaborate."

Is there a reason to hide this from him?I can't see one. If he's debating on slicing my throat and tossing me off the pier, this info won't escalate it. "Sanford hurt my best friend. I thought I'd kill him, get my revenge, and that would be that. But he told me there's someone else to blame. A guy he works for named Caruso Oakley."

"Forget it."

"Forget what?"

"Finding this Caruso guy. It's a waste of time."

"It's not!" I shout, loud enough that my ears ring. Jamison goes frozen, studying me, taking in my burst of raw rage. "How dare you say that? You don't knowanythingabout what Valoria went through, how much she was tormented, how she... how she suffered."Don't cry, don't cry.Sucking in a gulp of air to wash away the heat pushing at the back of my eyeballs, I point at him. "If there are other people responsible for what happened to her, then I'm going to hunt them down. It's as simple as that."

He holds my glare, quietly challenging me. He releases a sigh that sounds like a steam engine, shaking his head in a gentle sway. "You're hopeless. Go home, it's the only way to guarantee you get to sleep peacefully on your own pillow."

"Instead of what?"

"A coffin," he says flatly.

He's trying to rattle me, but he doesn't understand how cemented I am in my decisions. "Until I avenge my friend, I'll never sleep peacefully."

Jamison grits his teeth. "I just said you could go homealiveand you didn't even hear me. You're focused on your damn revenge."

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