The Predator (Dark Verse #1)

by RuNyx

Tristan 'The Predator' Caine. They called him the predator. His reputation preceded him. He rarely went on the hunt but when he did, it was over. When he did, he went straight for the jugular. No distractions. No playing around. For all his unruffled attitude, the man was more lethal than the knife cutting into her thigh. He was also the reason she had come to the party. She was going to kill Tristan Caine. ***

"This spot, right here," he spoke quietly, pressing the tip of the knife against a spot right under her jaw on her tilted neck. "It's an easy spot. I nick you here, and you die before you can blink."

"This spot. You die but it won't be clean."

He moved the knife again to a spot near the base of her neck. "And this… You know what happens if I cut you here?"

"You'll feel pain," he continued, undaunted. "Bleeding to death. You will feel every drop of blood that leaves your body.” His voice rolled over her skin. “Death will come, but much, much later. And the pain will be excruciating."

She remembered the disbelief she had felt hitching a ride back to the hotel. Disbelief at her own guts. Disbelief at her failed attempt. Disbelief at how close she'd come. Disbelief at him.

"Death isn't the main course, sweetheart. It's the dessert."

Why did all men around her behave like nominees for Asshole of the Year?

"Fearless, as I said. It can be a dangerous thing."

Her father was a shark and she could not bleed. Not a single drop. But in learning not to bleed, she'd also learned how to draw blood.

"She stays here," he growled. Growled.

And wasn't that her life. Longing for things she couldn't reach, things that tried to reach her and came up against a wall. A glass wall. Where she could see everything, know exactly what she was missing, drown in her awareness even as the glass couldn't break.

Because just as it did now, breaking the glass meant death.

"You are safe and comfortable here," he told her in an equally quiet voice, the words heavy with meaning. "For tonight." "For tonight."

In that moment, the enemy had done what no one had ever even tried to do for her. He had made her feel a little less lonely.