KILLER: An Unfit Hero Novel

by Faiman, Hayley

  I watch as both of them walk out of the store, as I bring my gaze back to my register, I press my lips together at the sight of Mark who is almost glaring at me angrily. He doesn’t say anything right away, instead, I continue to feel his intense anger directed toward me.

  Thankfully, it isn’t for long. I quickly clock out, count out my drawer and go through my closing procedures. Hitching my purse over my shoulder, I begin to walk out of the store, but I don’t get far.

  Mark’s hand grips my shoulder and squeezes, jerking me backward. He looks down at me, his body trembling slightly. “No other men,” he growls. “You want to play with that, whatever the fuck he is. That’s fine, but nobody else. I’ll see you tomorrow, be ready for me, Tulip,” he snaps.

  I stand there, blinking as he releases me and turns to walk away. He’s completely lost his fucking mind. Shaking my head from side to side, I just stare slack jawed, until I finally shake myself out of my stupor and quickly walk out of the store.

  “He touches you like that again, I’ll have to tell Louis and I don’t think he’d be very happy to know that your boss was manhandling you,” Wyatt drawls.

  Spinning around, I notice that both he and Rylan are leaning against the side of the building, their arms mirroring one another, crossed across their chests. I gulp, nodding my head a couple of times.

  “He scares me,” I admit.

  “Louis shouldn’t ever scare you, Tulip. What he did, that was an accident and the doctors had already warned the guy,” Rylan explains.

  Tilting my head to the side, I can’t help but wonder what exactly they’re talking about. I was telling them that Mark was finally beginning to scare me, but they were talking about Louis.

  Taking a step toward them, I open my mouth, then snap it closed, only to open it again. “What do you mean, I shouldn’t be afraid of Louis?” I softly demand.

  “Who were you talking about?” Wyatt asks.

  “Mark, my manager, but tell me what you meant.”

  Both Rylan and Wyatt share a look and then shake their heads once. They bring their gazes back to me, and then I watch as their eyes shift over my shoulder and they jerk their heads as they push off of the wall.

  “Go to your man,” Wyatt murmurs.

  Turning my head, I look back over my shoulder to see that Louis has pulled into the parking lot. “Tell me what you meant,” I demand.

  Rylan jerks his chin behind me. “Ask him. Thought you knew, otherwise I wouldn’t have said shit, because it ain’t none of our business.”

  Then they both push off the wall and walk away from me. Narrowing my gaze at them, I watch them walk over to Wyatt’s truck before I spin around and begin to make my way toward Louis’ pickup truck.

  Climbing inside, I slam the door closed and let out my breath in a whoosh. I don’t know why I’m so mad. Maybe it has to do with the fact that both Rylan and Wyatt know that Louis is hiding something from me. Maybe it has to do with Mark harassing me all freaking day long. Or maybe it’s because I know that whatever this is between me and Louis is most likely close to an end.

  Whatever it is. I’m pissed.

  LOUIS

  I watch as she jumps into my truck and blink at the obvious frustration that she so clearly wears on her face.

  “You want to talk about it?” I ask.

  She looks at me, her gaze narrowing, and I know without a doubt that something is incredibly wrong with her. She doesn’t speak right away, but I don’t demand that she does either. I want her to be ready to talk through whatever is bothering her.

  “Your friends thought that I would be scared of you for some reason. What aren’t you telling me, Louis?” she demands as soon as we begin to drive down the road that leads to my house.

  My hands jerk the wheel to the side, and it takes me a moment to get the truck back on course and catch my breath from her question.

  “What did they tell you?” I ask, wanting to know how hard I should beat them.

  She’s quiet for a moment. “Nothing. Just that. When they realized that I didn’t know, they said goodbye and left. They were backing you up, but I want to know why.”

  Inwardly, I curse. I was planning on probably telling her tonight anyway, but now I don’t have much of a choice and nothing makes me want to not do something more than not having a choice in the matter.

  Pulling up to my house, I shift the truck into park and look over at her. Tulip’s body is trembling and it feels like so much more than just what Wyatt and Rylan mentioned to her. Something else is going on, but I can’t ask her, she wants to know about me right now.

  “Come on inside and I’ll get dinner started and we can talk.”

  Slowly, her head turns and her watery eyes meet mine. Fuck, I want nothing more than to pull her into my arms and demand that she talk to me. Something is wrong with her, I can feel it down to my bones.

  I don’t ask her anything though, not yet. Instead, I jump out of the truck and jog over to her side to help her down as well. She silently slips down and hand-in-hand we walk into the house. Inhaling a deep breath, I start to lead us into the kitchen, but she tugs on my hand.

  “I need to know now, Louis. I feel like I’m in the dark and I don’t like that.”

  Nodding, instead of guiding her into the kitchen, I take her into the living room. She releases my hand and chooses to sit down in a chair, instead of on the couch. I don’t blame her, I wouldn’t want to sit next to me either and after she finds out the truth, she will not change her mind.

  Sinking down on the sofa, I place my forearms on my knees and lift my eyes to meet hers.

  “I’m a killer.”

  Her eyes widen and I expect a look of disgust to fill her features, but it doesn’t appear. Instead, she only tilts her head to the side and knits her brows together.

  “I need more than that,” she whispers.

  Shaking my head. “I just realized not very long ago that you didn’t know. I thought everyone knew, especially everyone here in Gallup.”

  Clearing my throat, I lift one of my hands and rub my palm over my bald head. “My last fight. I punched him. It was hard, but no harder than normal. We were nearing the end and I wanted a tap out so fucking bad. I needed that victory. I was fucking hungry for it. I chanted in my head, kill him. Kill him. Kill him. Over and over. I always chant that to myself,” I ramble.

  I expect Tulip to run away from me, but as she slowly stands, she doesn’t turn away. Instead she takes a couple of steps closer to me, then right in front of me she sinks down to her knees. Clenching my fists, I bring them to my side. I don’t deserve to touch her, not someone so fucking pure and innocent.

  “Then what happened?”

  “I did it. My chanting. It came true and I knocked him out, but as I was cheering in victory, something else happened. He fucking died. Right there, on live television in front of thousands of spectators. He fucking died. He left behind two goddamn kids, little ones and a wife. I did that, I made them fatherless, I made their mother a widow.”

  Tulip reaches out and wraps her hands over my knees. She squeezes and forces my gaze to flick down to hers. I wait for her to say something, anything as the guilt fills me and threatens to escape my entire fucking body.

  “You didn’t really kill him though, did you? I mean you delivered the punch, but it wasn’t your fault, was it?”

  “No,” I croak as tears fill my eyes. “The doctors had warned him. He wasn’t even supposed to be fighting. He’d lied on all his documents, kept the diagnosis a secret, but it doesn’t matter, I still killed him.”

  Tulip shakes her head a couple of times. “I could tell you, a million people could tell you that it wasn’t your fault, but you’ll never believe it. You have to truly accept for yourself that you were not at fault. Until then, the guilt will continue to eat you alive, Louis.”

  “You don’t think I’m a monster?” I ask.

  She smiles sadly, shaking her head. “Never,” she whispers. “Not ever.”

&n
bsp; Then, she surprises the fucking shit out of me when she rises to her knees and leans forward, touching her mouth to my own.

  “This is why you don’t want to go back into the ring?”

  “Yeah,” I exhale.

  She nods, nipping my bottom lip gently as she rises and sinks down against my thigh. Wrapping her arms around my shoulders, her tongue traces my lips in one slow sweep. “You’re going to be fantastic. You’ll go in there and dominate. You will be the Louis Kingston, then you can come home and just be my Louie,” she breathes against my mouth.

  Growling, my hands grip her waist and I squeeze. “Damn fucking straight I’m your Louie.”

  Without another word, I shift us so that she’s on her back and right there in the middle of my living room, I make love to Tulip slow and steady, until I can’t take it another second, then I fuck her until we’re both screaming in ecstasy.

  Chapter Thirteen

  TULIP

  Dinner forgotten, we somehow made our way into Louis’ bedroom. Now, I’m lying against his sweat soaked chest, my fingers tracing patterns against is smooth skin.

  Closing my eyes, I can’t help but replay in my mind the way that he looked so tortured when he told me about his fight, about the man that died. The guilt that he feels hasn’t faded since that day, I can tell by the way he looked absolutely sick about everything.

  I meant it when I said that he was going to go into that ring and dominate, but I did lie a little in the second half of that sentence. He’s not going to come home and be my Louie. Not that I don’t want him to, I just don’t think that he will. I don’t believe that he’ll come home to me after this fight.

  Honestly, I think that this is what I’m meant for in his life. I’m meant to help him through his pain, build him back up and then send him off to conquer the world. He’ll walk away from me and I’ll die inside, but he will be happy and healed, that is all that matters.

  “I came back here to get my head on straight. I started drinking a lot back in Nevada. It was getting pretty fucking ugly and I was isolating myself. I’d seen Beaumont do it, and knew that I was following the pattern. I was depressed and felt so fucking guilty, still do feel guilty. I talked to a doctor, but nothing he was saying or prescribing was helping me.”

  Lifting my head, I rest my chin on his chest and look up into his face. His eyes are pointed straight ahead instead of looking down at me. I don’t mind, I’m not sure that I can handle his gaze focused on me right now.

  “Are you, dry now?” I ask.

  He lets out a sigh. “I haven’t even wanted a drink. I’ve been focused on working out and you,” he murmurs, sliding his hand up the center of my back before he tangles his fingers in my hair.

  My breath hitches when he dips his chin and his green eyes find mine. They’re sparkling, alive and I knew it would be too much, but I can’t look away as he focuses his gaze on mine.

  “Me?” I breathe.

  He jerks his chin in a nod. “Yeah, Tullie. You.”

  Without another word, he shifts his body so that his lips are able to touch mine. His tongue slips inside of my mouth and I moan as he sweeps it through, tasting me. His fingers tighten in my hair and he tugs my head back slightly, breaking the kiss.

  My breath hitches when I feel his lips travel the length of my neck, stopping on my collarbone to gently suck my skin there.

  “You make my mind calm. You help me sleep. You just make everything better,” he rasps against my flesh.

  Closing my eyes, my head falls back and I debate not telling him exactly what he does to me, but then I decide to do just that. Mistake or not, it doesn’t matter, I have to tell him or I’m going to explode on the inside.

  “You’ve always made me feel, Louis. You make me feel everything,” I exhale.

  He growls against my skin, his lips nipping my collar before he shifts me onto my back, his hand still tangled in my hair, tugging my head back and forcing my neck to arch even more for him.

  His lips make their way to my breasts. I open my eyes slightly to watch him as he begins to feast on me. His gaze lifts to mine beneath hooded lashes, and my breath hitches at the fire that I see behind his green eyes.

  Parting my legs, I sink my teeth into my bottom lip when his hips fit perfectly between my thighs. “I want to taste you,” I breathe.

  He pauses, his lips lifting from my breast with a pop, then they slowly turn up into a small smile. “You don’t ever have to ask for that, baby,” he says with a widening grin.

  I think that he’s going to roll off of me, but he doesn’t. Instead, I gasp as he turns around and straddles my face with his thighs.

  “Open, baby,” he practically purrs. I’m in shock. Complete shock, so I just do what he’s asked of me.

  Opening my mouth, my eyes close as he begins to guide himself inside of me, but not too far. I moan when I feel his tongue against my clit. I lie there, my legs spread as he begins to eat me, at the same time shifting his hips to fuck my face.

  I’ve never done anything like this before.

  It feels forbidden and naughty.

  I feel alive.

  It doesn’t take long for me to come. It feels like only the second swipe of his tongue has me crying out around his length. He doesn’t stop lapping my center as his hips continue to move up and down, inching his way farther down my throat with each thrust.

  When he finally comes, it’s with a long groan, his tongue flattened against my clit and I can feel the vibration throughout my entire body as his climax slides down my throat.

  He doesn’t stay there for long, pushing up, he shifts off of me and rolls onto his back, his face next to my feet. Suddenly, I feel shy and a little embarrassed for what’s just happened between us. I’ve never, ever, done anything like that and now I don’t know what to do or say.

  “Tullie?” Louis asks, though it sounds like he’s trying to fight a laugh.

  I shift my gaze down his long, strong, built body, I lick my lips as my gaze then travels up his chest to meet his sparkling green eyes. “Yeah?” I croak.

  His lips are turned up into a grin and he shakes his head as his hand slides up my leg, his fingers wrapping around my thigh with a squeeze.

  “Phenomenal, baby,” he murmurs.

  “I’ve never—”

  Louis squeezes my thigh again, interrupting my words. “I know.” He dips his chin, his lips still turned up. “But promise me we’ll do that again?”

  I sink my teeth into my bottom lip, unable to take my eyes off of his. Louis sits up and reaches out for me, wrapping his hand around the side of my neck. His thumb traces my bottom lip, his gaze staying on mine.

  “Best I ever had, Tulip. That’s you, baby. The best,” he rasps as he slides his hand down my neck and presses it to the middle of my chest, between my bare breasts. “Inside and out, you’re it. The next twelve weeks will be difficult, but with you by my side, I know that I can conquer the whole fucking world.”

  My eyes tear up at his words, because I know that he’s right and I also know that at the end of the twelve weeks, once his world is conquered, he won’t need me anymore and that makes me indescribably sad.

  Lifting my hand, I wrap my fingers around his wrist and flex my fingers, my gaze still focused on his. “You got me, Louie. You have all of me.”

  LOUIS

  After dropping Tulip off at the grocery store, I groan knowing that my meeting with Gary, Troy, and Aaron is next. Though Aaron being here doesn’t bother me at all, as my trainer, I’m excited to get back into full-on fight training mode.

  Even if I’m dreading the actual fight, I really do enjoy the preparation leading up to the ring. It gives me the structure and schedule that I crave.

  Pulling up to my house, I’m not surprised to see all three of them waiting for me on my front porch. I sent them a text as I was leaving to take Tulip to work, letting them know that I was ready to get this shit over with.

  Opening up my truck door, I jump out and slam it behind me
before I jog toward them.

  “You’re out early,” Troy, my agent, points out.

  Shaking my head, I shove my key in the front door and unlock the house before I push it open and step inside. “Had to get my woman to work this morning,” I say with a shrug.

  “Woman?” my publicist, Gary, practically shouts.

  Stopping, I turn around in my living room and look over to him. “Yeah, I’m dating someone, you got a problem with that?” I ask.

  He grimaces and I know then that he does. I’m not sure why he should give a fuck who I stick my dick inside of, who I have next to me in bed. But judging by the look on his face, he very much fucking cares.

  “Just tell me,” I sigh.

  He clears his throat, lifting his hand to run his fingers through his thinning hair. “Women like to think of you as available. Then there’re men who like to see you get the famous woman that they themselves want. If you want to publicly date someone, it needs to be someone that men want to bang and women wish they looked like.”

  I blink at his ridiculous words. Then, unable to control myself, I let out a burst of laughter. “You’ve got to be fucking kidding me, right? Who gives a fuck who I have in my bed? I fight, it’s what I do. It’s all that anyone should give a fuck about that, and even then, right now, they should be disgusted with me.”

  Troy shakes his head, taking a step toward me. “Trust me, right now you are the hottest topic everywhere. The fact that this fight is coming up, it’s fucking trending everywhere. Everyone is watching you, waiting to see what will happen. And who you’re fucking is a hot topic, too.”

  “Well, I’m here to tell you that it isn’t anyone’s goddamn business.”

  Aaron clears his throat and I turn my focus over to my trainer. “Actually, I don’t think you should be fucking anyone. If my opinion matters, I think you need a clear head and no bitch ever gave a man that shit. You need to focus on your stamina, your endurance. What you don’t need to do is blow your load twice a day in some woman.”