Hunting Adeline (Cat and Mouse, #2)

by H.D. Carlton

Claire looks over her shoulder then, and I notice a man approaching with a deep hood over his head. I can only tell his gender because he’s built like an upside-down Eiffel Tower. Massive, broad shoulders stretching the robe, the seams nearly bursting, and then dramatically tapering down into chicken legs. Dickhead skipped leg day so often that he can’t even see them anymore because they’re so skinny.

Not only am I a threat, I am catastrophic.

I shrug. “As long as you still make me Uncle Z.” He scoffs, peering over at me as if I’m cracked. “You seriously think I’m going to have kids after seeing this shit every day?” I shrug a shoulder again, pursing my lips. “Why not? Uncle Z will keep them safe. I can be their personal bodyguard. They may not like it, but I’ll fucking do it.”

if she were to die… the world would die with her.

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. I should’ve told him that I…

“Don’t lose your humanity yet, Zade. Addie is strong, and she will survive this.” I stare at her, and I wonder if she can see something inside me that I can’t. “It’s already gone.”

Men have this funny habit of thinking they're entitled to women, especially when they don't respect them. As if their respect is a determining factor on how women deserve to be treated.

“You’re supposed to say I smell like flowers.” “Baby, there are flowers out there that smell like straight ass. So sure, you smell like those flowers.” She stares at me for a beat, and then her face cracks, and a full-blown grin stretches her lips. Fuck. I’m so in love with her.

“Meadows, baby. Our last name is Meadows.” “Yours. Don’t get ahead of yourself. You’ll be expected to beg.” There’s no stopping the savage grin from gracing my lips. “I love to beg.”

“My entire world revolves around you. If you want mint chocolate chip, then that’s what I want, too,” he had said. “Do you even like it?” “I like you, does that count?” “No.”

Finishing with the brush, he sets it down on the bed and gathers my hair together. I nearly choke when he begins braiding it. “Where the hell did you learn to do that?” I ask. I’m tempted to twist around like a dog chasing its tail, just so I can witness this. “Ruby taught me,” he answers quietly. “There was a young girl that I rescued a few years ago, and she wouldn’t let anyone else touch her but me at first. She loved braids in her hair, so I learned how to do them for her. Got pretty fucking good at it, too.”

“You will always be the little mouse, and I will always hunt you. I’ll patiently wait until you’re ready for me to touch you, but make no mistake, Adeline, it’ll still hurt when I do.”

“Shut up, or I’ll start screaming other men’s names and I promise I don’t need your dick anywhere near me to do it.” Challenge sparks in his eyes, signaling that this conversation is quickly taking a nosedive. “You really want to cause mass extinction for those names? Moan them, little mouse, I dare you. Whichever ones you choose, not a single man by that name will fucking exist anymore. How about we start with Chad? We can definitely live without the Chads in the world.”

“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?”

The world could fall to pieces around us, crumble to ashes as the cigarette did between our lips, and I wouldn’t notice.

Tobacco fills my lungs, instantly calming me. I inhale death in order to erase the urge to create it.

Having Zade’s love feels like a dream, but having his trust and confidence feels like a dream come true.

“She’s a good dancer,” I defend, refusing to be embarrassed over appreciating another woman’s beauty. “Didn’t notice,” he replies.

"I may own every breath in your body, but make no mistake, Adeline, you own mine, too. I am yours to command. To bend and break. To mold and manipulate. Do you think that makes me weak? Or do you think I'm strong enough to admit that even though my body can physically live on without you, I would never get my fucking soul back?” His hand slides into my hair and fists the strands tightly. "Without you, I will shatter. But with you, I am indestructible."

“Stop… stop fucking touching me.” I hear him swallow. “That’s like asking me to cut out my own fucking heart.” “If I can live without one, so can you,” I snap.

“What you’ve forgotten is that the heart beating inside your chest isn’t fucking yours,” he snarls. “It’s mine. And if my heart has stopped working, then pull that trigger, little mouse. Kill the rest of me. I’m nothing if I’m not the reason you breathe.”

“You were never a whore for those men, little mouse. You know why?” “Why?” I whisper. “Because they never owned any part of you. They took what they did not possess. That doesn’t make you a whore; that makes you a survivor.”

“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.”

“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.”

“Does anything about the way I love you feel tragic?” I ask, brushing my lips across her jaw. “Yes,” she whimpers. “But only because one day it will end.”

“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.”

“Someday soon, little mouse, you will not be able to see anything else. I will be the only villain in your story, and the only one who has the power to make you scream.”

I’m so fucking in love with her, and while my love is brutal and ruthless, it’s also nurturing. Choosing when to be kind and when to let go will always be an uphill fucking battle.

“I love you, Zade. Sometimes I can’t fucking stand it,” I say, my voice raspy and uneven. “But it was the only thing that kept me alive. You saved me. Even when we were apart, you saved me. And I hope to God you never stop hunting me.”

“Sometimes, I wish I’d never met you. Because now that I have, now that I’m in love with you, I’ll never be able to carve you out. You said I’d bleed out before that’d ever happen, and you were right. And I hate you for that.”

“Sorry, baby. He touched your ass, therefore, I needed to kill him.”

Sometimes I struggle with loving myself, too. But you know the one person who will? Who will always love me unconditionally? It’s my criminal boyfriend.

“I 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.”

“You… I have the IUD,” I say. It would be difficult to tamper with that. Not unless he physically pulled it from my body. “Do you?” he murmurs, his deep voice low and challenging. He poses the question in a way that suggests he knows the answer to that question better than I do. My nails dig into his shoulders, and when realization begins to set in, I push at him. Of course, he resists against me, a steel fortress that even a nuclear bomb couldn’t crumble. “You didn’t,” I snap. “You sleep so heavily sometimes,”

WHAT THE FUCK

“When I do get you pregnant, you will know about it,” he promises, though it sounds like another threat. “You will watch me pull the IUD from your body myself.” That… oddly makes me feel better. And I need therapy.

Yeah you do

“Have you guys seen my pink knife?” Sibby screeches from the kitchen, frantically opening and closing drawers and cupboards. I’ve grown to care for Sibby deeply, like an irritating, psychotic kid sister. But fuck, I’m going to have to find a home and job for her. Give her a purpose in life outside of annoying the ever-loving fuck out of me.

She walked into this place firmly believing she could conquer the world if only she gave Zade the one thing he’s been working so hard for. Doesn’t she know? Zade is a God. And the only one who will conquer this world is him.

Addie thrashes violently, her hand coming within scant inches of my face as an agonized scream releases from her tongue, followed by what sounds like Xavier’s name. My vision blackens, and I’m furious that the monsters polluting her nightmares aren’t me. I’m the only monster allowed to haunt her fucking dreams.

“I will chase away your demons, Adeline, and they will run and hide because I’m fucking scarier.”

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