PROLOGUE
I’m not stupid.
Though I wasn’t a straight A student, I got good grades in college and not only did well on tests, but I actually understood the material. I finished on time, didn’t waste my parents’ money, made some good friends, and ended up with a decent job that paid the bills.
I never considered myself a rash person. I was the exact opposite of spontaneous. I always thought things through before I did them. I rarely opened my mouth without thinking first. I thought about the impact of my actions on other people before I did anything.
Then I met him.
The alarm in my head went off immediately.
I ignored it.
“Stay here,” Aiden commanded. His fingers tensed around the grip of his weapon. “Don’t get out of this fucking car for any reason, you hear me?”
I couldn’t answer. I still couldn’t breathe, much less speak. I’d never so much as seen a gun in real life unless it was holstered on a police officer’s belt, let alone been so close to one. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the gleaming black metal.
Aiden opened the driver’s side door and started to get out, the gun clasped tightly in his hand.
“Aiden?” I managed to croak as I tore my eyes away from his hand and back to his face.
He paused, halfway out the door.
“I’m so fucking sorry,” he said again.
“What are you doing with a gun?” I whispered. I felt like my body was trying to shut down, and I wondered what going into shock felt like. For a second, the phone call from my mother informing me of Dad’s heart attack filled my head. At this moment, the feeling of all my blood leaving my veins was similar to how I had felt when she had told me he was gone.
I focused on Aiden again and couldn’t understand what I was seeing.
Everything my subconscious had been warning me about Aiden Hunter began to fill my head. All this time, I’d been telling myself not to judge him. All this time, I’d been convincing myself that everything was fine, that he was fine. Since the moment I had met him, I’d been trying to convince myself that the only danger was in my head.
But it wasn’t.
The Aiden in front of me wasn’t the man I had known the past week. His face was barely recognizable. His eyes were dark and full of hatred. His jaw was locked, and his teeth were clenched. He had gripped his hands into fists, one of which held a deadly weapon. This man was not the one who cooked breakfast for me. This was a man consumed with raw fury.
Echoed words from Lance’s girlfriend flowed through my head: “I have never seen him mad, personally, but I hear it’s not pretty.”
No, it was not pretty. It was not pretty at all.
And with that, my life was forever changed.
ONE
The alarm went off. I fumbled around for the snooze button, smacked it multiple times until the noise stopped, and then dozed until it went off again.
I groaned, yawned, and stretched before shoving myself out of bed and starting my day. The normal routine began—pee, shower, wash my hair twice because that was what the bottle said to do, make coffee, eat oatmeal with blueberries in it, and drink a protein shake so I didn’t have to lie to my mother if she called and asked if I had. There was absolutely nothing unusual about my morning.
There never was.
I gathered up everything I needed to take with me to work and quickly surveyed my condo. Nothing was out of place. The throw pillows were at the proper angle against each of the arms of my neutral-colored couch, the remote control was right at the edge of the coffee table, and each of the coasters was properly stacked in their tray. From the bookshelf, a conglomerate of heroines surveyed the room as if their twelve-inch forms could protect the place from intruders. Princess Leia and Queen Amidala from Star Wars were joined by Wonder Woman, X-Men’s Storm, Spider Woman, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
“So, what’s your plan for the day?” I asked Buffy. “Got some vampires to take out? Maybe a few demons?”