Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 57257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 57257 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 286(@200wpm)___ 229(@250wpm)___ 191(@300wpm)
I tear off my shirt and lay it on the counter, then walk out to the door. I scan the trees, the road, everywhere. My gun grinds into my back as I lean into the pickup to grab the biggest box.
It turns out she has a toolbox. So, I get to work, doing the front-facing cameras first. I want a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree view.
No one gets to sneak up on her. Never.
She appears at the doorway around fifteen minutes later. I’m on a stepladder, mounting the first camera. She looks up, a camera of her own on a strap around her neck, a soft smile on her face. Nervous, flighty.
“Look what I found,” she says, then laughs adorably. “Or maybe I found it in a minute, then spent a long time just staring at it like a doofus.”
“I kind of love and hate that you use the word doofus, Sunshine.”
She smiles, a real one. “Anyway, you can get on with your work. I’ll just be, you know…”
I laugh. “So I’m the subject, am I?”
“You bet your ass you are,” she says, laughing. “You’re my hunk of the month, boyfie.”
“What the hell is boyfie?” I say, laughing harder.
“You know, boyfriend, boyfie.” She giggles, shaking her head. “That’s stupid, isn’t it?”
“I love it, girlfie.”
“We’re lame,” she says, snapping another photo. “Is this what boyfriends and girlfriends do? Do you think we look convincing?”
I grin, but something in me tightens. She was doing that as part of the game. But I’m getting too invested, can’t help it. I feel like I’m digging myself a bigger hole every time I look at her.
“I think so,” I say. “But I’m no expert.”
She sits and aims the camera at the forest. “Mira is out cold,” she murmurs. “That poor girl. She’s holding so much in. So much together.”
“I know,” I say.
“Because you saw it,” she replies. “You saw what it was like that night.”
“Yeah,” I say through gritted teeth.
“Do I…” She croaks. “Do you think I’d want to know?”
I look down at her, sunshine on Sunshine, her eyes wide, her mouth partly open, devastatingly beautiful with her hair curling across her forehead. Messy and sincere, and her. “No, Elle,” I say softly.
She sucks in a breath and nods. “Maybe not yet, then.”
Or ever.
Some things should be reserved for killers like me.
I go on in silence. She looks through the lens of her camera, changing angles, tilting her head. I don’t think even she knows how beautiful she looks when she’s in the flow like that.
As I set up the ladder for the next camera, she turns to me. “Is that what you call a pose, boyfie?” she says.
I smirk, shaking my head. There’s something undeniably magical about a woman who can take darkness and make it fun and playful.
“I didn’t realize I needed to be posing.”
She stands, aiming her camera at me. “And now that you do?”
I grin, leaning over toward the roof, flexing my arm. Her face lights up and she snaps a shot. She’s smiling from ear to ear. Her nickname is earned, hell. Sunshine. That’s what she is. Her own source of light.
“Like it?” I say.
“It’s actually… pretty hot,” she murmurs.
“Don’t do that,” I say, body going tight for an entirely different reason. “I need to finish these cameras. And the motion sensors. He’s not going to sneak up on us again.”
“Don’t talk about him,” she says fiercely. “I know he’s out there. I know it’s bad. I know I have to be scared. But can’t we just pretend… boyfie?”
Maybe she can, but I can’t forget what I am. I can’t pretend not to be a killer. What some would call a monster.
“We can pretend,” I tell her. She has no idea how grateful I am to bury it all deep. It’s what I do best, after all. I swallow the darkness of this world so that other people, better people, rays of pure sunshine don’t have to.
She grins and aims her camera. I pull another pose. She shivers, wriggling her hips from side to side, naturally highlighting the beautiful curvaceousness of her body.
She must see the look on my face. Or maybe it’s the way my abs tense up when she does that.
“You’re very good at making me… interested,” she says.
“Is that code for something?” I groan, trying and failing to return to my work.
“What do you think?”
“I think you want me to take control,” I growl. “I think you want me to climb down this ladder and do what we almost did last night.”
She bites her lip and nods, no shame in her eyes. Only excitement and hunger and maybe a little fear. Of the situation, of the world that won’t just let her live.
“If I don’t finish these cameras and sensors, something bad could happen to you,” I say. “Or Mira. I’d never forgive myself, Elle.”