Page 60 of Depraved

I never wanted to tell her any of this. She’s too sweet and pure to accept what I am at my core.

“I don’t have to do anything,” she refutes. “I accept you, Brandon. For all that you are. After all that you’ve done. I’m not capable of hating you.”

My fingers flex into her waist, clinging to her with the bloodstained hands that will never be clean.

I can’t let her go.

By some miracle, I haven’t lost her. She hasn’t turned from me in disgust.

She grasps my shoulders, directing me to my feet. My forehead rests on hers. We exchange ragged breaths. I can’t get close enough.

“We’re alike. We’re meant to be together,” she murmurs. “We have each other. That’s all that matters.”

I shake my head, even as I yearn for it to be true.

“What you did to Carter doesn’t compare to my sins. You protected yourself.”

“So did you,” she insists. “You were shot. I hurt you so badly. But you survived. You did what was necessary, too.”

I’m not ready to accept it, but I’m selfish enough to nod my agreement.

I’ll do anything as long as she keeps touching me so tenderly.

I won’t risk driving her away. I’ve given her this one opportunity to choose to leave me, and she didn’t take it.

She’ll never escape me now.

15

KAROLINA

Finding out that Brandon was an assassin doesn’t change my feelings for him.

Maybe that’s crazy, but I can’t deny the love that still swells in my heart when I look deep into his familiar blue eyes.

Finally, there are no more secrets between us.

He was scared to tell me about what he’s done, but he was even more afraid to tell me about the horrors of his childhood.

He thinks his blood is tainted; he thinks he’s inherently evil.

I’ll prove to him every day that he’s not a bad man.

Yes, he’s killed people, but they were all criminals. They would’ve hurt others, and he stopped them.

The same way he stopped Shirley and Charlie from abusing more children.

I can’t hate him for that.

I still love him, despite everything.

The words tease on the tip of my tongue. I’m almost ready to declare my feelings for him out loud, but there are still matters to resolve before we can truly start our lives together.

His enemies are still a threat to me.

It all makes so much more sense now.

He’s more than just a brutal underground MMA fighter. If he was an assassin, of course he made enemies.