Page 12 of Sinister Promise

And I was going to be the only one who played this game with her.

"Please," she begged. "I'll do anything. Just let me go."

"Anything?" I raised an eyebrow. "That's a dangerous offer to make to a man like me. A man who just blew someone's brains across the marble."

Her body started at my cold-blooded admission.

Slow and steady, I moved forward, herding her to exactly where I wanted her.

Forcing her back until she hit the wall and opened her lips to let slip a little squeak of terror.

I lifted my hand, brushing a stray curl that had fallen out of her cute ponytail from her face, not with my fingers, but with the still-warm barrel of my gun.

Her breath hitched, and she flinched away.

"You should be afraid," I murmured. "But you should also know that for weeks I've made sure no one else laid a hand on you. I've been watching over you, Alina.Protecting you. So you can understand how angry I would be, now that you have put us both in a very…difficult…position.”

“I promise, I won’t tell a soul about what I saw.”

I raised an eyebrow. “You promise? Well that changes everything as long as you promise.”

Perhaps it was cruel to taunt her, but then again, I was a cruel man.

I tilted my head, studying her.

Her pulse hammered violently against the delicate column of her throat.

Even terrified, she was beautiful.

But there was something else beneath the fear.

She enjoyed being hunted by the big bad wolf, whether she realized it or not.

By dawn, she'd know exactly what belonged to me.

Her fear.

Her body.

Her obedience.

I'd carve my name into her soul until she couldn't remember a time before she was mine.

I smirked. This was going to be so much fun.

"The question,moy kotyonochek, is what am I going to do with you now?"

CHAPTER 4

ALINA

Pavel trailed his gun along my ear as a scream caught in my throat.

I wanted to cry, to beg, to fight—to do anything but whimper at his touch.

Fight or flight should have kicked in.

All those true crime podcasts I'd binged while working, the ones I thought would save me if I ever faced a killer.

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