Severed Ties: A Dark Stalker Romance (Tainted Love Book 1)
Severed Ties: Chapter 32

Clara’s eyes flare with something like annoyance, but she has no choice in this. I’m not above kidnapping her to keep her safe.

“I want to go back to my apartment,” she huffs, crossing her arms over her chest defiantly.

The panic from before has been replaced with rebellion, and I much prefer this side of my little fawn. Normally I like my women submissive, but Clara’s fight is one of my favorite things about her. It will make it all the more satisfying when she falls to her knees for me.

“Too bad.” I shrug and push myself from the coffee table.

We need to move. We’ve been here for too long and just because the phone he used to call her is on the other side of town, it doesn’t mean he’s there with it.

She looks up at Ace like she thinks he’s going to save her, but for the first time since we were kids protecting our foster siblings from the horrors of our reality, he looks like he actually cares about the well-being of another human being. His worried gaze flickers from me to Clara and back again and even though I hate seeing his eyes on her, I’m relieved to have someone on my side with this.

“No. I’m not going. This is ridiculous.”

I let out a frustrated sigh and spare my brother a look. “Keep me updated.”

He nods once and considers the two of us for a second before sitting where I was just a few moments ago. “Clara, I want you to listen to me for a minute.”

She glares at him but doesn’t respond, so he continues.

“I know you’re being stubborn and independent right now and you don’t know how to let anyone else take care of you, but Tommy is going to keep you safe. You need to trust him to do that, even if trust doesn’t come naturally to you.”

Before she can respond, he stands and walks back to his desk, his eyes darting around from screen to screen. “I’ll keep an eye on him and get the other information you wanted.” Clara may have given us more than we had before, but it’s not enough and I need to know what we’re up against if I’m going to properly protect her.

“Thanks, bro.”

He nods once but doesn’t bother turning back to us as I wait for Clara to make her decision. She’s coming with me one way or the other. It’s up to her if she walks her ass out of here of her own volition or if I carry her out and shove her in the trunk so she won’t try to escape on the drive back to my place.

“What about my stuff?”

“I’ll go out and get it once I know you’re safe.”

“I don’t want you riffling through my things.”

I let out a frustrated sigh and squat down in front of her. I grip her chin between my fingers, putting a little extra pressure to ensure she knows how serious the words that are about to come out of my mouth are. “Fawn, I know this is a lot. I know this isn’t something you want to accept or deal with. But this is happening. You can make it easy on yourself or hard, but either way, it’s happening.”

“Fine.” She sighs and shoves to her feet, dodging me before I can wrap my hands around her hips. “It was nice to meet you, Ace.” Even in her anger, she’s ever polite. She’s the complete opposite of me in every way, and perhaps that’s part of her appeal, part of the reason I’ll stop at nothing to keep her safe.

She’s quiet all the way back to my apartment. It’s located on the other side of Frost Industries to hers, meaning if she needs anything, I won’t have to be away from her for very long at a time. I’ve known flight risks in my time, but I have a feeling, given half the chance, Clara would be across the country before I realized she was gone.

I’ll chase her of course. I’ll chase her to the end of the goddamn earth before I’ll let her go. Because she’s mine and there’s nothing that can keep us apart, not even her.

I slow the car as I approach the alley that leads to my parking space. It’s hard to get an apartment with one parking spot, let alone two, but I managed it with the help of Storm. Name-dropping someone like him does wonders for your application.

Clara looks around as we pull into the underground lot and come to a stop. There’re a few of my neighbor’s cars, but not that many people live in this building, which is just the way I like it. People are unpredictable, and they can be bought, so the fewer neighbors, the fewer ins an enemy has to get to me, and now, in turn, Clara.

“Where are we?” she finally asks when I cut the engine.

“My place.”

I don’t stick around to answer any more of her questions. If there’s one thing I know about my little fawn, it’s that she’s a curious little creature, and she’ll follow me because she wants to understand me. It’s probably too late to break to her that there is no getting to know me. I’m not someone you get to know. Never have been and I never will be.

I push through to the door and don’t bother holding it for her. She’ll only be a few steps behind, and as I expect, the door doesn’t have time to swing shut before the sound of her tennis shoes on the linoleum behind me fills the hallway.

I bypass the lift and head straight for the stairs. My apartment is on the fifth floor, which is the top, but I try to avoid the beat-up old elevator. Too many of my neighbors have been stuck in the damn thing.

By the time we reach the top floor, Clara’s breathing is heavy and labored as I unlock the three dead bolts on the door.

“Were they having a sale on locks when you bought the door?” she snarks.

I chuckle and shake my head. She’s got a smart mouth for an innocent little fawn about to step over the threshold into the wolf’s lair. “Something like that.” I shove the door open and step inside, holding the door to allow her to go ahead of me.

I’m not sure what she was expecting, but her expectations are clearly very different from the reality in front of her. Her eyes widen as she takes in the dark space, all sleek modern lines that are at complete odds with the rest of the rustic building.

“Not what you were expecting?”

Her eyes drag away from the living room area, and she shakes her head. “No. It’s very…clean.”

I raise a brow in question, and she continues. “Not that I don’t think you’re clean. I just kind of assumed with your line of work you’re in that your apartment might be more…reflective of that.”

“Serial killers can’t live in nice apartments?” I smirk.

Her pale cheeks turn the most delectable shade of pink, and I can’t help but stare. I want to see the same shade cover her whole body, to watch as pleasure and pain morph together until she can’t tell where one ends and the other begins. There’s no end to the things I want to do to Clara, and the more time I spend with her, the more I realize it won’t be long before I succumb to those baser instincts.