Perfect Ruin (Unyielding #2)(13)

But there was something more to Kai. I couldn’t put my finger on it, but it was the same feeling I had when I first smelled his cologne while in the closet. “How do I know you’re telling the truth and you won’t kill us both?”

He leaned forward until his mouth was so close to mine I could taste the scent of him on the tip of my tongue. A scent I recognized from a night I’d nearly died.

“I’ll always look out for you, braveheart,” he whispered.

I gasped, eyes widening, fingers tightening in his shirt, heart racing. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. It was him. He’d called me that.

It was like my mind was on rewind as the memory came whirling back. I’d been lying on the cool damp grass coughing and sucking in fresh gulps of air. My mind a fog, vision even foggier as I struggled to breathe. A shadow of a man leaned over me as he swept my hair away from my face with the tip of his finger. My eyes flitted open for a brief second, but everything was hazy and dark.

It was him.

I stared up at Kai, my mouth gaping. “It was you.” He scowled and started to draw back, but my fingers held onto his shirt. “It was you that night. You pulled me from the fire.”

He grabbed my wrists and clamped down on them so hard I was forced to let his shirt go. He pushed away from me.

I darted upright. “You called me braveheart. I remember.” The smell of his cologne. The sound of his voice. But it was him calling me braveheart that triggered the connection. “You said…. Oh, my God, you’d said you’d always come for me.” What had he meant? Come for me when? Why?

My mind spun out of control as the memory continued to replay. The fire was in the house I shared with five other students during my second year of university. It was deemed an accident, faulty wiring in an old house. We all got out in time, except I should’ve been dead. I’d passed out from all the smoke in my bedroom upstairs. All I remember was waking up on the neighbor’s grass with a man on his knees beside me. It was pitch dark and I couldn’t see his face, but I remembered the scent of his cologne mixed with smoke. And then his words when he said, “I’ll always come for you, braveheart.”

I thought I’d imagined him. The smell. Those words.

I’d dreamed about those words for months. I’d dreamed about this man—Kai. Holy Jesus.

I stared at him, my heart racing, emotions sparking off in every direction. He terrified me, threatened my father, was not a good man and yet… he was. He’d saved my life. Why would he do that? Why had he been watching me? “I don’t understand.”

“There is nothing to understand. Go home, London.” The air around him was dangerous, as if the moment you stepped close enough there was no escape from him and what he wanted.

He strode back to the driver’s door and opened it, his form elegant and at ease again. Casually, he took off his suit jacket and tossed it inside his car. “I’d advise keeping our little meeting from your father and the police. I’ll be in touch.”

“Our… our deal?”

He didn’t turn around as he said, “Anything for you, braveheart.” He bent his tall frame into the luxury car and shut the door and then, while I stood to the side of the path, he drove away.

I watched until the car turned onto the road and disappeared before I dove into my car and found my cell between the console and the seat. I tapped my code then dialed the police, his license plate embedded in my mind.

“Nine one one. What’s your emergency? … Hello?”

Shit.

“Sorry, I hit the emergency button by mistake.”

I hung up.





I JERKED UPRIGHT, the pale green sheet slipping from my shoulders and pooling at my waist. My heart raced and my skin was flushed from the vivid dream—of him. Kai.

Three nights.

Three nights haunted by dreams of him. Sometimes he’d be holding me, gentle and sweet, and other times, he was terrifying as he held a knife to my throat. There were parts of me that believed Kai saved me from the fire because there was good in him. That he wouldn’t hurt my father or me. That maybe Kai wasn’t as bad as I thought.

“Jesus. I’ve lost it.” What was I thinking? He had a knife. He held it to my throat. He worked for people who were obviously dangerous.

And he hadn’t been in contact in three days. I was worried he’d decided to forgo the deal. What then? What would happen to my father?

I’d called my dad numerous times a day, trying to sound normal while inside I freaked out. Kai had given him a week, that was if he decided not to take my deal. That meant my dad was safe for four more days. But it didn’t stop my anxiety. Everywhere I went, I constantly looked over my shoulder, wondering if Kai was behind me or around the next corner; if he was watching me.

God, I was driving myself crazy.

Outside was dark, but the moonlight filtered through the sheer white curtains into my loft. It was an open-concept apartment with fifteen-foot ceilings, exposed ducts, brick walls and no partitions except for the bathroom. My father had insisted I live in a secure, newer building after the fire, so he bought the loft, which was within walking distance to school. An investment, he’d said. I’d argued that it was too much even though he had the money. He’d pointed out the fact that I was on scholarship from all my hard work in high school and he hadn’t paid for my university.