I Promise You (Scarred Executioners #2)

by Lexie Axelson

My chest is fucking sore, and I’m in so much pain, but nothing could compare to the pain I felt to hear Ari beg them to kill her. Fuck. I will collect each and every one of these evil mother fuckers souls.

Everyone draws their weapons, and I finally see my girl. She stands, shaking and crying. She has her hands over her ears and her beautiful brown eyes meet mine like she’s pleading for me to get to her. I swallow the pain in my throat. I will hold her again. I just have to get through Omar’s army first. Easy.

“I need to get to her,” I tell the team through the mic, reloading my rifle. “Go! We’ll cover you…get our girl,” Kane responds and a part of me resents when he says “our,” but he no longer means it in that way. “Bane, don’t make me put a fucking bullet in your head, too.”

My boots hit the frozen floor, there’s still a few inches of snow, and I grimace when I remember my Ari is running barefoot on this. I’m taking her to my house, and we will spend the next few nights by my fireplace after this is over. I will not let her out of my sight for the next fucking century.

“Mr. Death, I know you’re here,” he mimics, and I smile. I’m grinning from ear to ear as he searches for me. “I might not make it out of here tonight,” You sure as hell won’t. “I’ll make sure to take your whore with me.” His tongue will be cut from his throat for talking about my girl like that.

“This is for Ari.” I do what I say and retract his tongue from his mouth, slicing it off. Cuts through like butter and blood begins to pour like a waterfall onto my hands and his body. “And this is for Paul.” I slice his throat.

“Are you hurt?” I hug him back, crying into his chest. “I’m freezing,” I shiver through crying whispers, and he holds me tighter. “I’m thirsty…so thirsty.” I’m still in my red dress from the ball. It doesn’t cover anything. I haven’t had any type of warmth or coat since the dance. I’m getting hypothermic. “I’ll get you warmed up right now, baby.”

I look into his light blue iris. The way he wears his disguise; he looks like the actual Grim Reaper with his mask on. A scythe symbol covers his mouth, and my wide-eyed man stares into my soul, so intimidatingly gorgeous.

“Danny, you’re alive…you found me,” I sob through chattering teeth. My shaky palm reaches to touch his face. I’m covered in blood and so is he. The blood is splattered all over his disguise and eyelids. “You were never lost...” he breathes. “I told you, there’s nowhere you could go where I couldn’t find you.”

His hands reach underneath his shirt, by his collar bones, and he takes off his dog tags from his neck as my back is still pressed hard against the tree. He places them over me, so I’m wearing them as another necklace on top of my cross one. The cold metal kisses my skin, and everything changes to slow motion. “Marry me.” He brushes my lips with his fingers, rigid with purpose.

“Baby, marry me.” My mouth opens ever so slightly, not believing the words coming out of his mouth. I stare at him, trying to figure out if this is a dream. When I watch his stone-cold eyes search mine vehemently. I know it’s real.

I can’t handle it when he does this. I melt every single time. Even more so through his mask. Because even though I can’t see his face, his eyes tell me everything. They tell me what his soul needs and what he’s feeling.

“It’s okay to be scared. Fear isn’t a weakness, angel. It means you’re still alive.”

“I promise you; I’ll always find you. I will always protect you. You are mine forever, Ari Natalia. I will save you from the darkness that lives in this world and the darkness that troubles your soul. I love you, Ari. I’m so in love with you.” He said it. And he’s proposing.

“This isn’t a ring, but I can’t wait any longer.” He grabs the dog tags over my icy hand and holds it tight. “I’m proposing to you, Ari. Be my bride.” He picks me up, and my feet no longer touch the ground. I’m straddling him as he pushes my back against the tree, and I hold on to him tighter.

A small bubble of laughter escapes me through the tears. “Now you say it? We’re covered in blood, and there are dead bodies right next to us. Now you say it?” “I don’t see the problem.” He grabs my hair gently, pulling my head up so that I’m facing the night sky and twinkling stars.

“I’ll get on my fucking knees and crawl to you if I have to, baby. I’ll burn this whole world for you...

He unzips his pants, unbuckling his belt, and I’m growing more impatient to feel him. We’re both covered in blood from our chests up. Dead bodies surround us both, yet the feelings below my stomach crave him dangerously. I want him right here and right now.

Then he gets close, closing the distance, and I can feel his body heat. My gosh, he feels so warm. I want to smother myself against his massive body. All his muscles tense up against me when he positions himself at my entrance. He enters me, and I moan out loud. “Yes, infinity times, yes,” I breathe out. Thrusting, he groans into my ear.

He’s fucking me passionately against the tree in the dark. “I thought I lost you,” I cry out as my back shifts with every pound he gives me. “You’re not going anywhere anymore. If I can make it happen, you’ll have my last name first thing tomorrow.”

He takes off his mask and pockets it. It should be illegal for him to look this good. His dark blond hair ruffles out, and his cheeks reflect a reddish hue from the freezing night, and his beard hugs his sharp jawline. “I need to kiss you.”

He looks down at me like I’m the prettiest thing he’s ever seen. He looks forever tethered as he intertwines my hands in one of his hands, lifting them above my head as his lips crash against me. He’s devouring me, deeper and deeper. Our lips brush against each other, his tongue finding mine, clashing together like two worlds finally becoming one.

I smile against Danny’s chest, and he holds me tighter as my dream fades out. The last thing I hear before I’m overtaken by sleep is, “I’m done with this team. I’m taking her home.”

He grabs my hand and looks at the ring on my finger. “You’re never taking this off,” he murmurs as he lets my hand go. He trails kisses all the way down my chest to my stomach.

The need to dominate me consumes him. He wants me to submit to him as always, and I will. But I’m not the only one submitting tonight, and I’ll show him that.

“Baby, you smell so good...taste so fucking good.” He breathes onto the skin of my neck, then he sucks on my nipple again as he moves inside me. Holding it tight in his palm, squeezing my chest, I throw my head back and close my eyes tight as his grip tightens. The pain is world-shattering. I’d let him do anything to me.

His eyebrows furrow when I lift myself off of him to tease him. “Jesus Christ, Ari…” he growls with lustrous need. “Get back down,” he demands impatiently. I smirk at his stunned anger.

“Promise me you won’t ever hide the things you don’t like about yourself to me? I want the vulnerability and the sadistic parts of you. You can be every variant of yourself with me. I hope you know that,”

“Just don’t run. Because I plan on destroying your ass while you wear my hands like a choker necklace until you black out.”

“On second thought, maybe you should run. My ranch has lots of land, and I would love to see you try it. Because when I catch you.” He pulls my hair harder, causing me to cry out in pain and lust. It drives my head to be pulled backward, and I hiss from the tug. He keeps thrusting himself inside me as he grips my hair. “You’ll pay the price, Mrs. Rider. You’re my wife. And there’s no escaping the devil, little angel. You’re in my hell now.”

His fireplace continues to crackle. I’m finally at peace, and I didn’t have to sleep or drink countless wine bottles to achieve it. I’m warm. Danny is the fire I constantly keep burning myself with.

Usually, when you play with fire, you get burned and don’t do it again. But Danny makes the pain feel good and normalized. He holds me like I’ll never shatter again, and if I do, he’ll be there to find every piece and put me back together.

I never thought I would be a man that believed in God after everything I’ve experienced in my career. But watching my angel come into my life in a time I needed her. She obliterated my demons by saving me from my fucking self.

If it weren’t for her, I probably would continue the life of a selfish asshole, drinking and killing my life away. And now she’s cradling two innocent souls I’m committed to protect for as long as I live. How could I not believe in heaven when Ari’s existence is evidence of it all?

Her hands tug at my hair strands on the top of my head as her soft weeping moans fill our bedroom. “That’s my good girl. You sound just as sweet as you taste, baby.”

When my hand touches her purple stretch marks, she flinches, tensing up. I raise my brows in confusion. “I’m sorry. Is it bad that I don’t like them?” she murmurs, tightening her grip on my fingers, wanting to push me away. “Don’t be ashamed of your body, baby. You have these because of me. Just another reminder that you’re mine. These parts of you are my favorite.”

“You’ll always be beautiful to me, little angel.” She hasn’t looked more beautiful to me, knowing that her stretch marks are there because of me.

“I love you, Mrs. Rider,” I tell her as I slow down my movements, emptying every single drop of my come inside her. “I love you, infinitely.” I could listen to her say those words over and over again and I would die a happy, fulfilled man.

God, I’m a lucky bastard with a wife like her. “You’re my ocean because to me, an ocean has always been a place of tranquility, serenity, but most of all, natural beauty. Your waves represent patience, second chances, and ever since I met you, you’ve washed away all of my doubts…my demons. Our love is like an ocean, limitless and never-ending. Our story will always have more to explore.”