Chapter Three

Alaric's POV

I can't believe the nerve of that girl!

A bullet on her head should have been easy and less work than playing around with her stupid games. But the very small humanity that still clings on me says otherwise.

She looked so fragile. 

And besides, I can’t deny that something in me stirs from its deep slumber just by looking in those warm brown eyes. It holds the innocence and vulnerability that my sweet Lauren once possessed. But I can't afford to fail and fall on her trap. It might just be a mask she expertly wears to lure and control her victims. 

Hah! Innocence my butt! 

There’s nothing innocent on those big doe eyes. I saw the way it flickered below my belt. It was lustful. And I rather not play that game. As far as I am concerned I am still on a mission.

Revenge. 

A very slow death would be a fun way to end the bastard who took away my family from me. The bastard who had killed my wife and daughter mercilessly.

The girl might saw or heard something before James had been shot. I can't fail this time.

The thought gives my resolve a boost to extract and finish what I have started. I turned off the cold shower that I’ve been having for the last thirty minutes. Then dried my body with the fluffy white towel. A frustrated huff escaped my lips when I saw my towel cabinet.

This would be the last of my clean towel. My laundry skyrocketed in the last two weeks that I had been busy hunting the bastard. 

F*ck!

My lead has ended last night. It was a dead end. James. He was supposed to meet me and gave me new information but the bastard’s men got there before me. He killed James and my hope of uncovering his mask. 

But I am not done and never will be. Not until I got the price of the lives they took from me. My jaw locked in annoyance and suppress anger.

How can I be a fool to fell for their deadly games?

After their death, all I can think was to find the suspect and give them the justice they deserve.

They came on the worst day of my life, five years ago. They promise alliance and revenge but I’ve been played and used all those years.

I was a trained assassin and was working for The Guild for five years but everything shattered like glass when I found out that I have been stalked even before I was relieved from being an army sniper. 

They had planned everything all along. The assassination and my recruitment after the car bombing. 

I was broken and desperate for the blood of my family’s murderers that the General assigned another army sniper and that I would be relieved from my duty. 

The Guild. 

They ruined me. And I would ruin them slowly then all at once. But first I want to know and see the face behind those voices, those orders. The face of my family’s murderer, the head, the anonymous, the boss. 

Then they would all crumbled to the ground and turned to dust after I am finished with them. The rage and hunger for their blood are what makes me wake up every day and move further. 

It was the heat that fuels the burning desire of slaying the ghost from my past that ruined my future—my family's future. They snatched that away from me, from my daughter and my wife. 

They destroyed my world and I would make sure to destroy theirs and much more. I want them to kneel, to beg for forgiveness for their lives and for those they love. I would destroy them as much as how I had been broke. I would make them taste the pain of dying from inside, the pain of reality, and the helplessness. 

That’s what they had done to me, what I have felt for five long years. The numbing slap of pain and dark emptiness inside me. 

And I let it consumes me.

I am going to let them watch the slowly fading life of those they care for. The emptiness and helplessness of just watching, bound and broken.

I slipped on my pants and a black v-neck shirt.

Then snatch the gun from the table and walked out of my room.

•••

My face was masked with chilling indifference that I perfected a long time ago and I knew she can see and felt the tension evaporating from my pores. 

As my eyes zeroed on her face, the fear and the anger I had expected weren't there and it never came. But what I saw when I looked into her face both fascinate and irritate me more. Her face contorted in confusion and pure sadness. 

A gut-wrenching sadness automatically shifts the heavy air in the room into a melancholy beating of our hearts. 

She's not afraid of me or the barrel that securely wraps around my fingers. And maybe the idea of dying right here and right now. But her eyes told me the questions that her lips cannot form, the feelings of losing something you dearly love and not knowing the reasons behind it. Her silent plea. 

Damn her beautiful doe eyes.

‘She's a strong woman and a stubborn one.’ My nose scrunched up at the thought.

She was still tied but I did not hear her complain. I held her captive for no apparent reason but there's no trace of anger behind those innocent eyes or beautiful string of profanities thrown to me. 

Instead, she watched me confused and upset yet the fire that burns behind those eyes was still there. Alive and blazing with such eagerness to spread thru me, not to destroy what was left but to melt the coldness that hardened my heart and soul.

Her gaze was still locked on the gun clutched in my hands. She did not say a word, she did not have to, her eyes said it all.

And she waited.

I know it's cruel. She was an innocent mixed on this game but I don't have any other choice than to gamble on a sliver of hope that she heard something from last night. I can kill her, yes, but I just can't and never would. I refused to be like them, to be the man damned to burn on his sins and misery. 

I pointed the gun at her head, her eyes widened a fraction then as quick as her reaction came it was replaced with a resigned face. Her body seemed to sank deeper on the bed, her eyes still trained on the gun. I hardened my stance. 

She's my prey and I am the predator. 

“Now. Tell me. What did you see or hear last night.” I asked in a dangerously calm voice. She wet her dried lips then cleared her throat. She opened her mouth then closed again then shook her head.

“What!? Tell me!” Now I am almost losing it. She cleared her throat again.

“I hadn't seen anything last night but I heard the gunshot and no, I never saw anyone except you. And that was when you pointed your gun on my head.” Her voice was soft and calm, with no trace of bitterness and deception.

I shook my head, disbelieving.

“Don't fool me! Tell me!” I shouted but she didn't even flinch.

She shook her head.

“There's nothing to tell. I already told you everything.” She said, intently staring at me.

“So I think this is already goodbye.” I clicked the safety of the gun. Her gaze didn't waver, still locked on the gun.

“Are you going to kill me now because I know nothing or you're just scared that I will tell on you for kidnapping me? Because honestly, I am not even sure if you killed someone last night or just another of your kind.”

There's a truth behind those words yet there's no bitter judgment for who or what I am.

Well, that hit a nerve.

Who is this girl? Why she has this effect on me?

“If you kill me now, please kill me while looking into my eyes, so you can justify that you did the right thing and not just another mistake.” She said calmly.

Then I felt something that I've never felt in a long time. Something picked my hardened broken heart. The way she said those words were not because of anger but maybe, just maybe she still believes that somewhere deep inside my cold, lifeless exterior there is an actual human soul. That despite how broken I am there is still a heart that cares. 

I have grown to hate these feelings when it was suddenly ripped away from me. I looked at her straight in the eyes and I felt her smile, her eyes shone like the thousands of stars in the universe. It was there but unattainable.

“Can I strike a deal before you kill me?” In the haze of the moment, I heard her asked.

I grunted.

“I...um... I want to complete my bucket list before I die.” She said almost hesitant.

“Which is?” I asked coldly. She flinched. 

“I can be your servant.” She squeaked. I clicked the safety of my gun before tucking it away. I raised my brow in silent question.

“I mean, it is on my bucket list.” Now she looked uncomfortable and embarrassed, her face match the flaming halo of her head.

“I know it is stupid, that's what they all say but I don't really care.”

I nod in understanding remembering my stocked laundry.

“Okay.” I agreed, nodding my head.

“Okay. You mean yes?” I narrowed my eyes in her direction. 

"Yes. But you'll stay here, inside this apartment, and no running away." I clarified.

She just nodded her head in compliance.

“But how will you know that I will keep the end of the deal, it was obvious you don't trust me. Then besides, how will I know that you won't kill if you feel like it?” She looked so innocent asking those questions. It almost made me smile.

“You will keep the end of the deal I am sure of it,” I said mysteriously.

Then I walked out of the door. Leaving her with her mouth still hanging open. 

•••