Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)

by Brynne Weaver

Being a serial killer who kills serial killers is a great hobby… Until you find yourself locked in a cage.

“I didn’t gouge them out, Butcher. I plucked them. Delicately. Like a lady.”

“You know what they say, Blackbird. ‘It’s all fun and games until someone loses an eye,’” I whisper. “And that’s when the real fun begins.”

“That woman you were watching…?” My fingers tighten around his throat as he desperately nods. “She is mine.”

Broken teeth slice his lips and fall to the driveway like chips of porcelain. Like memories I want to forget. So I fight them away. I grit my teeth and hit harder.

This mess of torn flesh and exposed bone? This is in my soul. I’m fucking feral at the core.

“No one competes with Sloane.” Rowan’s eyes anchor on mine, dragging me into the depths of a navy sea. “She just hasn’t realized it yet.”

His hand folds over the back of my neck and he presses a kiss to my forehead. The touch echoes long after his lips are gone.

“I can’t lose you.” “Then you’d better kiss me,” I whisper back.

“Getting revenge for hurting my girl, of course.”

“You’re all the best things to me, Sloane. No matter how many bruises are in your heart or on your skin.”

“Pick a safe word. Do it now.” I swallow. Hard. “Chainsaw.” He huffs a laugh, a burst of warmth against my core. “How fitting, love. Now be a good girl and find something to grab on to…” he says, then passes one long, slow lick over my center. “...Because I’m about to destroy you.”

“Did I get the raven you left on the table tattooed on my back?” His smile is teasing, but there’s a hint of shyness in it as he finishes my thought. “Yeah. Appears to be the case.”

“I would kill for you, and I have. I would do it again, every damn day. I’d turn myself inside out for you. I would die for you. I don’t just like you, Sloane, and you fucking know it.”

“You might be psycho,” I say with a grin as her eyes narrow, “but you’re my psycho, and I’m yours. Got it?”