Hunting Adeline (Cat and Mouse, #2)

by H.D. Carlton

I’m going to burn the entire fucking world down until

And then Zade. The fucking wrecking ball of a man who has brought out such a burning fire within me that I crumble like ash beneath him. Yet, he made me feel so strong. So brave. He made me feel so damn loved and treasured. Just like a diamond. Although, Zade would never call me something as trivial and common as a diamond. He’d call me the rarest jewel on earth.

“You’ll get along with them great,” Jay says over my shoulder. “You all are in a business where being obscure is key, yet each one of you stands out like lollipops among moldy bread. Very lickable lollipops, too.”

Piece by piece, we both crumble, the chips falling around us in a waterfall of anguish. And I just know that when Zade picks up our scattered pieces and stitches us back together, we’ll be forever entwined.

Seeing her like this breaks my fucking heart, and all I want is to hand her the pieces and give her something to hold on to.

“Forever and always, baby,” I murmur, shooting her a roguish grin. It feels like my heart explodes when she offers a small smile in return. That small gesture feels like she just handed me the entire fucking world in her tiny palms.

“Meadows, baby. Our last name is Meadows.”

He chuckles, then he’s out of the car in the next blink. I glance around, trying to locate where my heart fell out of my ass. Surely that’s the only explanation of why I feel so empty now that he’s gone. Or the asshole took it with him. I sigh. That’s definitely what happened.

I’m ready to set this entire car on fire, content with watching it burn around us if it means I can stare at her beneath the blazing glow. The flame goes out, casting us back in darkness, only the glimmer of moonlight allowing me to see her shadowed curves.

“Our mouths are touching the same spot,” she says shakily. “Does that count as kissing?” “You tell me, little mouse. When I make you cry out for God, does that count as praying?”

“Good job, little mouse,” he praises, his voice deep and smooth as butter. “Didn’t want to join in?” He smirks. “My girl had it handled.” My chest swells. Having Zade’s love feels like a dream, but having his trust and confidence feels like a dream come true.

"Without you, I will shatter. But with you, I am indestructible."

He looks so goddamn savage, and I think my ovaries are exploding. He’s going to get me pregnant just from this image alone.

Like attracted to like—his darkness to mine. I was running from it while he was forcing me to see who I really am.

Zade and I—we don’t make sense to the outside world. Barely even in my own head. Yet I’m finding it hard to care anymore. I won’t ever justify what Zade has done to me, but I do forgive him. Not only that, but I accept him. He told me before that he wanted me to fall in love with the darkest parts of him, and I have. Every fucked-up piece of him.

“I don’t care if I need to set this world on fire until there’s no one left but you and me. The world will burn around us, and I’ll gladly live in chaos with you as long as the only person that is a danger to you is me.”

“You rescued me, and I will never forget that. And the only way I can repay you is by saving myself. Getting stronger and not letting what those sick fucks did to me control my life. I may have cracked, but they did not shatter me. My rose still has fucking thorns, Zade. Do you understand me?”

“I’ve followed you through lifetimes, Adeline. My soul needs you so badly that I’ve become a shadow, destined to hunt you for eternity.”

“You and I will never end, little mouse. Even when we’re six feet under, and our bones are dust, I will haunt your soul until it aches to be free of me. And then, I will hold you tighter.”

“I love you, too,” he rasps. Every day, we come a little closer to death—our bodies deteriorating just a little more. And if this is what dying feels like, then I never want to feel anything else.

think I could eat you alive, Adeline. Consume every bit of you while you scream beneath me. And even in death, you would still torture me. I would die of starvation because nothing else would compare to you.”

“You will never be able to live without me, Zade,” I breathe. “If you’re my death, then I’m your fucking lifeline.”

Heaven isn’t a place you go to when you die, it’s inside the person that’s worth dying for.