Page 22 of Buried in Blood
She taps her chin, acting like she is thinking. She’s so fucking adorable.
“Hmm… Let me guess… Damien?”
I nod.
She’s got that fucking right. But she’s fucking crazy if she thinks I am letting her anywhere near that fucking psychopath.
He already took one thing from me. I’ll be damned if he takes anyone else.
12
Damien
I don’t wipe the blood from my mouth.
I let it drip. I let it stain. I let it prove that he’s still weak enough to swing, but not strong enough to finish. He’d never fucking kill me. Pussy.
I open the door of the car.
“Get in the passenger seat,” I command. Harmony obeys.
I grin as I slide into the suburban, calm as ever.
Harmony’s sitting there stiff as a corpse, hands folded in her lap, eyes forward like a fucking trained dog. Good. She knows better than to speak when I’m vibrating like this.
I only know that because she flinches when I move, speak, or look at her a certain way.
“Your friend’s little protector has a temper,” I say casually, running my tongue over the busted corner of my lip. “Did you see him shaking? Fucking adorable.”
She doesn’t answer.
I don’t need her to.
I put the car in drive, the leather creaking under my grip. My knuckles ache. My heart is still calm. It always is after a little chaos. A little truth.
I blast the song, “Genocidal Humanoidz” by System of a Down.
“You know what I love the most?” I murmur, more to myself than her. “Watching men destroy themselves. The ones who think they’re composed—controlled. It only takes one thread. One name. And boom. They blow up.”
Destiny.
I don’t say it aloud. I don’t need to. It’s still echoing in his house. Still clawing through his chest.
I tap my fingers against the steering wheel. “He didn’t even ask for proof. That’s the best part. He just believed me. You know why?”
I glance at Harmony. She meets my eyes for a split second. That’s brave. Stupid, but brave.
“Because he knows what I’m capable of,” I whisper.
She looks away again. Smart girl.
The air between us feels like it might split open and bleed. I can’t stop smiling.
Everything’s in motion now. Destiny was always the key. Not just her name—what she meant to him. You take the softest piece of a man and you twist it until he can’t breathe. Then you let go.
That’s how you break an empire.
I pull into a gas station. Not because we need fuel—because I want to.
