Page 98 of Alien War Daddy's Got Rizz
Exhausted.
But her spine’s still stiff. Still proud.
“How far have you gone?” she asks, voice low.
I lift a brow. “Define far.”
Her chin lifts. “How many bodies?”
The room goes quiet.
I don’t blink.
“Enough,” I say.
Her face folds, just slightly, like she didn’t want to know, but had to ask anyway.
“I didn’t kill anyone who wasn’t in the game,” I add. “No civilians. No freelancers. Just snakes.”
She swallows. “You sound so—socoldabout it.”
I tilt my head. “Would it be better if I wept while I did it?”
“Grau—”
“No,” I snap. “You asked. I’m answering. You want to know what I’ve done? I’ve ruined men who thought they were untouchable. I’ve set fires no one will ever trace back to me. I’vedismantledthe machine that tried to swallow you. Because that’s what it takes.”
Her voice is barely audible. “Why?”
I step closer.
She doesn’t move away.
“I didn’t do this to win you back,” I say. “I didn’t do it for closure. Or for pride. Or even justice.”
I lean in just enough so she hears the snarl under my breath.
“I did it because no one touches what’s mine.”
Her eyes flare wide.
Not with fear.
Withrecognition.
Because that was always the unspoken truth between us, wasn’t it? That beneath the politics, beneath the history, beneath all the fucked-up feelings and missed chances and brutal silence?—
—there wasus.
And it never really stopped beingreal.
I see it hit her. Like a blow to the chest.
I step back.
Because if I don’t, I’ll touch her.
And if I touch her, we won’t finish the conversation.
