Page 4 of The Villain

I cranked off the engine and got off my bike in a swift, angry movement. There was no way she knew Ivans was a criminal—no way she’d smile like that at him if she knew the truth. Not a damn chance. A lot of things could change over the course of decades, but not that. Not the way she valued integrity.

The red door opened, and through it stepped a sight that stole my breath. Almost twenty years later, and she looked the same as the day I’d left her.All willowy grace, smooth skin, and hair spun of sunshine. There were all kinds of beautiful, but for me, there was only ever one definition of breathtaking.And I was looking at her.

I stood dumbstruck, watching her fumble to lock her door and then move toward her car, a small duffle over her shoulder.

She must’ve either forgotten the bag inside or had only stopped home for a minute to grab it. It looked like a gym bag, but she was already wearing gym clothes.

Was she taking clothes to Ivans’s house?

Goddammit.A surge of emotions that I lacked bothpractice and a right to feel swept over me, and I quickly channeled them into my pace, closing the space between us.

“Athena!” I called, my voice deeper than usual.

She stopped and turned just a few feet from her car. Her eyes met mine, and air rushed from my lungs like I’d been punched in the gut.

The wind dragged a strand of hair over her face, catching on her parted lips. She might look like an angel, but she had a mouth made for sin. Full, pink lips, the bow on top promising they were as kind as they were soft. Heat injected into my veins, melting away the cobwebs and cold that had lingered there for a decade.Damn, those lips.

Lips I’d tasted. Lips I’d dreamed of. Lips I’d fought over when other guys talked about her in a way I didn’t like.

Time didn’t stop; it turned back. It spiraled like a top out of control, winding back the clocks, unraveling the fabric of decades until we were just teenagers. Until the moment I’d last seen her, standing here on this very lawn.

“Don’t say goodbye,” she’d begged, her hands clutching my shirt and tears streaking her cheeks.

I jolted, and the memory dissolved into the present moment.

Athena’s jaw went slack, the first touch of recognition sparking in her gaze and reaching for her mind.

And then everything went to hell.

A loud boom. A force that threw me back.Fuck!

My head slammed into the ground, pain erupting aseverything went black. The blast knocked my consciousness straight out of me fora split second.

I came to with a heavy breath, consciousness returning full force asheat and debris sprayed over me in a way I wished I wasn’t familiar with. My eyes opened to a violent show offlames and fragments and destruction, her car an exploded mass of tangled metal.

Fuck!

Ears ringing, I forced myself to move. Years of training and even more years of experience that no training could prepare for had me on my feet and looking for her.Looking to protect her.

I found her in an instant, all that sunshine streaked in ash, curled in a heap on the lawn.No.My heart dropped into my stomach, beating like a bird in a cage.I stumbled toward her lifeless form.She’d been close to her car—closer to the source of the blast that was now a flaming metal cage, plumes of black smoke blotting the gray sky.

“Athena!” My voice was raw, breathing in too much of the thick smoke as I kneeled beside her.

Soot, but not a lot of blood. Nothing glaringly broken. I carefully took her wrist, releasing a breath I hadn’t realized I’d imprisoned when the faint thump of her pulse met my touch.Unconscious, not dead.

Instantly, a second truth struck with even more force.She was alive, butsomeone had just tried to kill her.

“Athena…”

Distantly, through the ringing, I heard the sounds of sirens and calls for help. I scanned the surroundings, starting to see people approaching the scene. Neighbors. Random cars stopping along the road.

Shit. I had to get her out of here.

Her soft whimper broke through the noise—it broke through everything. I froze, watching her eyes work their way open. It was only for a split second that she looked at me. A split second where she looked right at me, but didn’t see me.

“Help…me…” Her whispered voice cracked, and then she faded once more.

“Dammit,” I muttered, carefully lifting her and carrying her away from the burning car.

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