The Reaper (Dark Verse #2)

by RuNyx

“Don’t let her or anyone else get to you, Morana. I meant what I said. I have never seen Tristan as alive as I do with you. I truly believe you both have the possibility

of building something good. Don’t let anything ruin that, especially in that place. That house is crawling with people who would love nothing more than to see Tristan burn. So, be strong for both your sake.”

“Where is she?”

“And I remember the way you walked to her, wiped the blood off her face.”

"Where is she?" “And the way you stared at her in the restaurant,”

“Surprising, no? The women who can attract you? I wanted to get her married to the son of one of my partners. I even had everything planned. But that little whore spread herself good for you, didn’t she?”

“Her name,” Tristan leaned down to whisper, “is Morana.”

“Call her a whore one more time,” Tristan continued, “and what I did to my father will look like a child’s

play compared to what I’ll do to you.”

“Now, I’ll ask you one more time. Where is she?”

“She’s dead.”

“You’re lying,” Tristan spoke, his voice clear.

“I’m not,” her father replied. “I gave the order myself.”

“I don’t have any problems with you,” he told the men. “Leave now, leave alive. Or die.”

“Where is she?” “Dead.”

“I’m not lying. I gave the orders.” “Where?” “A cemetery behind the airport,” her father admitted. “My men have trailed her going there multiple times.”

“Is she your weakness, Predator?”

“After so many years, I would’ve

thought she would be the last person you would look for.”

“You know you’re risking war, don’t you?”

“You don’t have the balls for war, old man. You didn’t have the balls to protect your daughter when she was defenseless with a gun pointed to her head back then. You don’t have the balls now.”

“If a hair on her head has been harmed, I will come back here again. Not quietly, no. This time, I will come to your house, and I will kill you, and I will take my sweet time doing it.” “Don’t threaten me.”

“Why do you care so much about her?”

“That’s for me to know and her to find out,”

"No one else."

“Stay away from her, old man,” he warned, his voice hard. “Come after her again, I’ll come after you.” “Her pussy must be magical for you to…”

“One more word,” he said in a tone that sent chills over her body. “Give me just one more reason to cut out your tongue.”

“One word,” Tristan urged,

“Now, listen to me and listen hard,” Tristan uttered, shaking her father’s jaw for emphasis. “She’s under my protection. Mine. Nobody hurts her. Nobody talks shit about her. Not me, not you, not anyone. Next time I hear you call her anything less than the woman she is, I will cut your tongue out and feed it to your dogs. Next time I see you anywhere close to her, I will kill you. Stay. The. Fuck. Away. From. Her. Do you understand?”

“Good. And anytime you forget that, just remember how I killed my father when I was a boy for her. And think on and think of the people I can kill now that I am a man to keep her safe.”

She could not remember, not once in her life, anyone standing up for her.

And he had. Even before she had asked him to make a choice, he already had. Even before he knew that she knew, he had wanted to protect her. Even before she had exposed herself to him the way she had, he had wanted

her.

She deserved to

hold someone who cared for her as he did. He deserved to be held by someone who cared for him as she did.

“You,” she whispered to the space between them, “Tristan Caine, are a beautiful, beautiful man. And my heart beats for you.”

It wasn't just a kiss. It was more, much more. They broke apart for much-needed air. “Dinner,” she mumbled through a hazed mind. “I’d rather eat you,” he murmured back, kissing her feverishly once again. Morana lost herself in the kiss, let

herself drown anchored by him.

“That’s how you kiss me next time,” he told her, putting a little space between them.

“Thanks for the tutorial.”

Following him out the door, she saw Dante take note of her swollen mouth and Tristan’s disheveled hair. “Not a word,” Tristan warned, slipping back into his usual mask.

pocket and another around Morana’s shoulder as they started walking towards the mansion. Morana saw Tristan glance pointedly at Dante’s hand, which the man did not remove. Tristan looked forward again and kept walking. She relaxed into his hold.

"Tonight."

“Give them hell,” he whispered to her. She smiled. He stared at her smile for a long, long minute, his magnificent eyes glued to her mouth. And the most beautiful, precious thing happened. His cold, aloof eyes warmed.

The emotion he incited in her came from the most broken parts of her, and yet it was the purest emotion she had felt in her life. She acknowledged that he had the power to emotionally scar her in ways her father had never even grazed. He had the power, that she had given him, to ruin her for anybody else.

And that small part was her failsafe, her just-in-case. Because if that ever happened, if he ever betrayed her

and left her for the wolves, she won’t succumb like a helpless lamb. That small part of her would let her survive. It would let her build herself back up. That small part was hers, only hers. And she had no clue how to give that to him, even if one day she wanted ...

Tristan ‘The Nothing-Scares-Me Predator’ Caine had chickened out.

And he got her wet. Both sides of him—the lone boy she had glimpsed yesterday, the intimidating man she observed currently.

“Someone at the party is going to try to kill you tonight.”