through sucked. I was so very much in love with him, but then two years ago I woke up one day and
realized that I couldn’t stand him. I considered ending our relationship many times, but I feared what
might happen if I made such a big change in my life. I convinced myself that I hated the idea of admitting
the time I spent with him was wasted even more than I hated him. It was only one of the many ways I
talked myself out of giving up on our relationship and moving on to a new beginning. The real reason I
never ended it was that I have always hated the idea of making even the smallest changes in my life.”
He didn’t respond. Across the room, his back still turned to her, he didn’t appear to be listening to
her as he rummaged through a stack of junk mail on an end table. She glanced at the front door. It
represented freedom, but with him between it and her, the odds of her getting to it before he stopped her
didn’t look good at all. He was a larger than the average man. Even though she thought he was an ass she
couldn’t deny that his muscular build was impressive. Coming to the conclusion that he was exceptionally
proficient in the area of doing serious damage to an equally strong opponent during physical combat
wasn’t difficult. Convinced that catching him off guard by making an attempt to attack him from behind
was certain to end in getting her ass whipped and possibly killed, she decided to wait for a safer
opportunity to make any attempt to get away from him.
He faced her, but said nothing to her. The silence as he stared at her brutally attacked her mind with
a terrifyingly transparent premonition of the danger he represented to her. “Was it hate or fear that caused
you to reject the idea of a new beginning?”
The inquiry wasn’t to enlighten him. The answer was as obvious as the reason he presented the
question. Forcing her to admit the truth was an assault on her dignity, but she was determined to prevent
him from gaining any pleasure by allowing him to see that confessing she was a coward bothered her. The
ability to depict the appearance of being happy when she was miserable happened to be one of her
greatest talents. She gave him her most convincing smiled. “Now that you mention it I suppose I hated
that I feared it.”
“Fear is one of the only forces strong enough to completely incapacitate by paralyzing its victim. I
suppose it is not a stretch of the imagination to buy the notion of it causing you to pretend Sue Walters,
your best friend, was screwing your fiancé. Is it true? Did fear permit you to condone their infidelity?”
It was true. A few months ago she figured out that they were messing around, but she never
confronted them. It wasn’t the first time he had a lover on the side. She decided to ignore it rather than
rock the boat and risk being force to deal with the consequences of tipping it over. “By the time I figured
out that he was a habitual cheater I didn’t care enough about him for his unfaithfulness to bother me.”
“I believe you didn’t care about him as much as fear caused you to cling to him. My problem with
your tale is your gender. Females are insanely possessive and jealous. It’s a common fact of nature. I have
never encountered a woman able to contain her innate nuttiness during even slightly stressful situations. I
don’t accept the idea of you being so fearful of starting over that you didn’t get caught up in a whirlwind
of rage and retaliate against your girly friend. How am I to believe that your best friend committed the
ultimate act of betrayal against you and it didn’t bother you enough to in the very least mention it to her in
passing?”
“I wasn’t talking about my feelings concerning her. I was devastated when I first realized she was
carrying on with him behind my back. Discovering you never truly mattered to a person you trusted and
cared enough about to have absolute faith in was the worst thing I’ve ever went through. I cried and
carried on for weeks. It took a great deal of effort, but I forced myself to get over it.”
“They didn’t notice all your weeping and freaking out?”
“No. They were very good at keeping each other preoccupied. They never figured out that I was
aware of the affair. It hurt like hell to come to terms with the fact that Sue was never a true friend to me,
but as soon as I managed to do it I realized my mistake. I had viewed our friendship as something deeper
than she had seen it. The moment I faced the truth she was no more important to me than him. He had
spent the majority of our relationship sneaking around with other women. I never cared enough to
confront him. Regardless of Sue being the other woman I didn’t see a reason to start giving a damn.”
“I want you to tell me the real motivation behind your decision to keep your mouth shut.”
He was a dick with absolutely no redeeming qualities. Her irritation with his presence suddenly
evaporated her ability to be intimidated by him at all. She actually pushed her back away from the wall
and took a few steps toward him. “As long as another woman was taking care of his sexual needs he left
me alone. His appetite for variety lifted the burden of feeling a responsibility to service him from my
shoulders. I loved that he took off on so many spur of the moment business trips. He has been away with
her for the majority of the past six months, but I never spent a second missing him. I couldn’t have been
happier to know that he was away and getting some on the side.”
With slow and purposeful movements, he used the size of his body to force her to retreat until her
backside was against the wall again, he held her gaze captive with his. The heat and firmness of his body
pressed tightly against hers was just what she needed to be intimidated by him again. It also made her
succumb to an insane rush of desperation to get away from him. The instant she lashed out and started to
fight he overpowered her. He knocked her around for a few minutes, but he never lost control of his
emotions. He never struck out at her with enough force to leave a single bruise on her body. Recognizing
his aggression as a way to prove his power and dominance over her rather than cause her any lasting
damage she stopped fighting. Doing anything to ignite the explosive violence he was holding back by
escalating the situation was suicide.
Obviously coming to the conclusion that he had proved his superior manhood, he caught her arm and
lifted her up off the floor and shoved her down onto the couch. “Even though I believe you were thrilled
that he spent a lot of time away and screwed other women, I am not convinced that you’re as pitiful as
you’re attempting to make me believe. I have already determined that you are not stupid enough to be
oblivious to his connection to the Evolved. You can’t convince me that you never had the shit beat out of
you for doing or saying something that pissed him off at some point during your relationship. The idiot
has murdered people for looking at him wrong. It’s impossible for you to be with him for any amount of
time and remain unaware of the brutality he is capable of committing.”
“I can’t image him getting mad enough to hit me. He never so much as raised his voice at me. We
never really argued about anything. I don’t know anything about him having any involvement with a
group.”
“You are gifted in the art of telling a story of misery and tragedy. I have no doubt I would have
bought the notion of you being a weak and pathetic waste of a life if I had never taken the time to
investigate you. As a matter of fact, after our first meeting I believed that he took off with the money and
left you behind to suffer whatever revenge the Evolved deemed suitable for betraying and stealing from
them.” He pulled out a picture from the inner pocket of his jacket and handed it to her. “I changed my
mind when I discovered what was left in the wake of your estrogen fueled tantrum in your best friend’s
bedroom.”
In a state of shock her entire body trembled as she stared at the gruesome image. The amount of
blood splattered over the twisted remains of Milton and Sue made it impossible to pinpoint an exact
location of a single wound. “What happen to them?”
“Your revenge happened.”
“You’re wrong. I never would…”
“Don’t bother trying to deny it,” he said. “I don’t care about them. No one else needs to ever know
that you killed them. The only thing that matters to me is that I return the money you stole from Milton to
the leaders of the Evolved. You have six hours to come up with it. As soon as you hand it over I will walk
away with no questions asked. You will never see me again. If you do not have it when I return I will take
you into custody for murdering them and various other charges I have compiled.” He handed her a folder.
She was certain he didn’t have anything in his hands when he walked in, but she shrugged it off. It
wasn’t unthinkable to miss such a small detail because she was entirely focused on the negative vibes he
gave off from the moment he walked through the door. She opened folder and saw a federal warrant for
her arrest along with charges for the murders of Milton and Sue there was a long list of bogus charges
against her. “None of it is true.”
Yanking the folder out of her hands he closed it. Right before her eyes it vanished into thin air.
Startled by it she looked up at him, but immediately regretted doing it. His eyes, including the whites,
were entirely black. She clutched her chest as a sudden excruciating pain gripped her. It felt as if an icy
fist was squeezing and crushing her heart. “I will return in six hours. You will have my money. If you
don’t have it or you try to run you will spend the remainder of your life locked up in a cell. If that happens
you will have no other purpose than to entertain me in any and every way I desire until I am satisfied that
you have fully repaid your debt to me.”
The moment Nathan walked out and shut the door Jessie locked it. She rushed into the kitchen to
check the clock on the wall. Six hours gave her until ten in the morning to disappear from the face of the
earth. It wasn’t much time, but she planned to make the best of every minute. She knew he wasn’t
bluffing. She would rather put a bullet in her own head than be locked in a cell and tortured by him for his
amusement. She didn’t have any idea where Milton had hidden the money. The thought of trying to figure
it out crossed her mind, but she tossed the idea out as soon as it came to her. As sad as it was she didn’t
know her fiancé’s day to day activities well enough to have any hope of figuring out where he had stashed
it before Nathan returned.
INSATIABLE BREATH OF DARKNESS (unedited)
~One~
ADAM VLACLIC COULD not stop to thinking about Hanna. She turned out to be an interesting woman.
He would not mind getting to know her a little better. Actually, it was more than just being okay with it.
He really wanted to spend some time with her. As matter of fact he would appreciate the opportunity to
share lots of time with her. The next day, trying to come up with a good excuse to see her again, he
started to pace outside her room. He figured it out when his stomach growled. He would see if she wanted
to have dinner with him. He knocked on the door.
“Who is it?”
“Adam.”
She opened the door. “Why are you here?”
“I wanted to ask you if you would like to have dinner with me.”
“Why would I want to do that?”
“To eat.”
“I am not hungry.”
“That’s a tragedy.”
“I am sure you will recover. If it’s a long depressing bout of ‘poor me she did not want to spend any
time with me’, let me know I will think about sending you a sympathy card. Never. You’re a demon. I
don’t like you.” As she talked she turned her to focus on something down the hall.
He followed her gaze. He immediately spotted a male headed toward them. His soul was dark and
just plain nasty. “Do you know him?”
“He is one of their human enforcers.”
“He is not fully human. I am not sure what else is in him. Go back inside the room.” He turned to
face the man. He didn’t mind being her protector. He actually liked the idea.
“No thanks. I’m glad he is here. I want to beat his ass.”
“Should I be jealous?” he asked.
“You are very strange.” When she stepped past him and started to walk away Adam placed a hedge
of protection around her as he followed. He decided to permit her to stand up to the bastard, but he
refused to allow her to get hurt again.
“Who the fuck is that?”
“No one.”
In a silly sort of way she’d hurt his feelings. “No one?”
“He’s Adam,” She moved her gaze to Adam and smiled. The expression of her being amused was
magnetic. “Better?”
A geyser of jubilation bubbled up in him. “I thought you could’ve used a nicer tone.”
A spark of playfulness flickered in her eyes. “You thought wrong.”
“Go outside and get your ass in the car, you’re coming back with me.”
“You’re still here? I’m not going anywhere with you.”
“You don’t have a choice.” He took an aggressive step toward her, but the hedge around her
prevented him from getting within reach. “Stop fucking around with me. Get your ass outside.”
“Go away. I am not going anywhere with you.”
“You are their whore. You can’t escape them.”
Adam felt the sting of his words. He wanted to do something. Like speak up. No. Beat him up. No.
Not that either. Kill him. Yep. Kill him. The idiot needed to die. He would. Unfortunately he felt Hanna’s
need to deal with him. So he remained a silent, boring unmoving guardian. Unless the moron tried
something more aggressive. That would be good. Awesome was a more accurate word.
“I have already managed to get away from them. You’re just pissed because you were too dumb to
figure it out before I was gone.”
“You’re a stupid lousy whore. I don’t know why they want you, but they do. So get your ass out in
the car.”
“You know I think it’s odd that you would call me a whore, but I understand you believing that I’m
lousy at it. Considering how totally awesome you are at bending over and taking it in the ass.”
“Good one.” Adam believed in giving credit where it was due. She was really starting to intrigue
him.
“You’re such a bitch.”
“Not as great of a little bitch as you.”
“He’s a slow learner. He’s handing them to you.” Adam said.
She nodded. “It happens more often than not.”
Adam wasn’t as amused as he pretended to be. It wasn’t easy to listen and refrain from ending the
encounter. It was nearing a tipping point when all of the sudden the man lunged to grab her. Of course the
hedge knocked him on his ass. It pissed him off. He got to his feet and tried again. The same result but,
thanks to a quick shove of energy cast off by a wave of Adam’s hand, the idiot was hurled several feet
further and his back crashed against the wall.
She rolled her eyes at Adam. “Really? I told you that I wanted to deal with him.”
Doing his best to look innocent Adam shrugged. “You can’t blame me for him kicking his own ass. I
didn’t touch him.”
“That’s your story?” Hanna asked.
Adam nodded. “As long as I stick to it. No one can prove I did anything.”
“I think they’re looking for him.” Hanna pointed at two officers walking towards them.
The man took one look and ran down the hall. With a wave of his hand Adam tripped him. The
officers cuffed him. They had their work cut out for them. He was thrashing and screaming like a crazy
man.
“You were doing something to keep him back.”
“Nope.”
“I know you did something to prevent him from knocking me on my ass. And I know you tripped
him. Thanks. I owe you.”
“That’s two. You still owe me for saving you from the fire.”
“One and half since half the time at the fire you were a massive gigantic ass.”
“What about dinner?” he asked.
“It’s late. I’m tired.”
He nodded. “What about tomorrow? Would you consider going out to dinner with me?”
“No.” Shaking her head she turned around to open her door.
“Wait.”
She faced him. “Let it go.”
“Actually, I just wanted to give you my number.” He wrote his personal number on the back of a
business card and handed it to her. “Call me if you change your mind.”
She tried to hand it back to him. “I won’t.”
“Keep it. You owe me.”
“Taking your number will settle the debt?”
“Sort of. Taking it will give me hope. I figure if you give me hope, it will make us even.”
***
Hanna looked around the room and laughed. It was filled with flowers. She didn’t remember any of them
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