Page 141 of Twisted Temptation

"Dante."

Her voice cracks on my name as she runs straight to me. She locks her arms around my neck and buries her face against my throat.

I wrap my arms around her, pulling her into me until there is no space between us, until I can feel her heartbeat against my chest, until I can believe she is safe.

My relief hits me with a flood of warmth, and my knees almost go from under me.

"I'm here," I murmur against her hair. "I'm here."

Her breath is hot and ragged against my neck. I close my eyes and hold her, feeling her heartbeat, feeling her relax into my embrace when I kiss her hair.

"I knew you'd come," she whispers.

Hearing her say it unravels the emotion in my chest because it means she trusts me. She knows I will burn the world to get to her.

I pull back to cup her face. "Always."

That’s when I see it. Her swollen left cheekbone and the split at the corner of her mouth with dried blood in it.

Everything in me goes quiet.

And just like that, the relief and warmth leave me, vanquished by the knowledge that someone put their hands on her.

"Who did this to you?" My voice doesn't even sound like mine.

It’s cold and brittle and full of deadly promise.

Her eyes stay on me. "He did."

A cold, murderous rage rises inside me, and I can already feel Anton’s blood on my hands.

Behind me, Anton clears his throat.

I press my lips to Sunny's ear. "Close your eyes."

When I turn around to face him, I reach for the Ruger in the dead zone at the base of my spine—the spot Flynn's hands patted around when he patted me down—and aim it at Anton.

Anton doesn't flinch.

Instead, he smiles. The thin, arrogant smile of a man who thinks he’s in control.

"What do you think you're doing?" He almost sounds amused. "My men will kill you both before you get a shot away."

He’s so fucking sure that the world works the way he thinks it does.

But it doesn’t, and it hasn’t for the entire time.

The sound of a gunshot ricochets through the room, and the soldier standing beside Flynn drops dead to the floor.

Anton swings away to look and sees his soldier fall to the floor, dead, with Flynn standing beside him, gun in hand.

He looks confused. Unsure who shot his soldier. Me or Flynn.

"Flynn, fucking shoot her,” he screams. “Fucking shoot them both.”

Flynn doesn't move. Instead, he looks at me.

“You just couldn’t help yourself, could you?” he says with an eye roll.