Page 62 of Risky Passion

The words rattled in my skull, igniting something I couldn’t control. I plucked the gun from my waistband and aimed it at his ugly fucking face.

“Wait! What are you doing?” Cooper’s hands shot up, his voice shrill with panic.

“Don’t talk about her like that,” I said, my voice raw with fury and trembling on the edge of breaking. “Do you hear me?”

My finger hovered over the trigger. I would shoot him right now if I didn’t need his help getting Alice into the trunk.

“Jesus, B, calm the fuck down!” he shouted, his voice desperate. His shaking hands seemed to glow in the moonlight.

“Calm down?” I barked, the words ripping out of me. My body trembled as I glared at him, seething, the gun unwavering in my hand. “You treat her like she’s trash. Like she’s nothing.”

“She’s dead!” he yelled, his voice cracking, his desperation turning to anger. “She doesn’t care what happ?—”

I shot him in the gut.

Cooper staggered, clutching his stomach, his face contorted in agrotesque mix of shock and pain. Blood spilled between his fingers, dark and viscous, dripping onto the dirt in glistening spots under the pale moonlight. He dropped to his knees with a muffled grunt, his breaths coming in short, sharp gasps that rattled like a broken engine.

“B . . . what the fuck!” he gurgled.

I stepped closer, the gun still raised, my grip steady as steel. My shadow fell over him, long and distorted in the moonlight.

“I warned you,” I said, my voice cracked like ice under pressure. “I warned you to respect her.”

He tried to crawl away, dragging himself across the dirt like a wounded animal. His blood smeared behind him in thick, dark streaks, marking the ground with every desperate inch he gained.

“Please,” he choked out, his voice raw, broken. “Please, B . . . don’t kill me.”

A faint sound from the orphanage made me freeze.

I spun toward the building but kept my gun aimed at Cooper’s head. My heart hammered in my chest as the shadows inside seemed to ripple and shift, twisting like they were alive and watching. But they’d been doing that forforty goddamn years.

A faint creak echoed through the still night, the kind of sound that wormed its way into the back of my skull; too soft to place, yet loud enough to chill my bones.

Is someone in there?

I stared into the darkness, my breath caught in my throat, and every instinct telling me to get the hell away from there. “Goddamn place is cursed,” I muttered.

Cooper writhed on the ground, clutching his stomach and moaning like every other bastard who learned too late there was no salvation.

Ignoring him, I dropped to a crouch and rummaged through his pockets, brushing against his blood-soaked pants until I found the car keys.

“B, please. Help me,” he said, his voice wet and broken.

“Shut up!” I snapped, and resisting the urge to kick him, I popped the trunk and tossed out everything that was inside.

My hands shook as I turned back toward Alice’s body and crouched down.

I’m sorry, my love.

With my back the way it was, there was no easy way to do this. Every inch of me ached as I gripped Alice's tarp-wrapped body and with a guttural shriek tearing from my throat, and a mix of agony and blind, fucking rage, I hoisted the top half of her body onto the edge of the trunk.

She wasn't Alice anymore. She was weight, dead weight, like a sack of dirt in my arms.

The thought hit me like a live grenade, the pin already pulled. I fought to shove the pin back in, to keep my mind from exploding, and forced myself to keep moving. I shifted her bulk, rolling her into the trunk with a grunt. The tarp crinkled, catching on the edges of the car, but eventually, she slid into place with a dull, finalthud.

My hands moved on autopilot, working quickly but carefully as I adjusted the tarp, smoothing it out and tucking the edges around her like I was wrapping her in a blanket. I made her as comfortable as I could, wanting to believe I was giving her peace again.

When I finished, I stood there, staring down at her form. My chest felt like it was caving in, my breaths shallow and ragged. The world around me blurred into nothing; just me and the unbearable weight of Alice still suffering, even in death.

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