Free Project: Killer (Project Series Book 1) by J.L. Beck Page B

did… I didn’t know if he would look at me the same after all of this.
    I didn’t know if I could pull the Killer out of him without being killed myself.
     

nine
    killer
     
    She looked at me like she was sorry, like I was the beaten down dog—as if I wanted her fucking sympathy or something.
    “Maggie. Killer. Killer. Maggie.” Gauge introduced us even though he didn’t need to. I had already had my hands wrapped around her neck. I was positive we were past introductions.
    I tipped my chin up acknowledging her all while watching the way her facial expressions changed. They went from shocked to sad and then to neutral as if to hide her real feelings. I wasn’t sure I wanted to talk to her—to bring up my past. The looks that shadowed her face told me I was going to get emotions I wasn’t comfortable with.
    Calm.
    No words were said by either of us, which caused the tension to pull taut like a rubber band. Her eyes bled into mine. The brown was a softness that reminded me of coffee and chocolate. Her hair was messy and had a small curl at the ends of it.
    “Killer.” As she said my name, I almost groaned. Her full lips had spewed questions I didn’t want to answer just days ago. Now, with her lips saying my name, I was ready to cut the shit and do whatever I wanted with her. Fuck her. Make her bleed.
    “Killer agreed to behave with you. Your first few sessions will be in here with the rest of the men just to make sure all is okay between the two of you. Then, once things die down a bit, you can have some alone time.” Gauge talked to us as if we were children.
    “That’s fine with me,” Maggie said. Maggie. As I rolled her name off my tongue a number of times in my mind, I realized I had heard that name before.
    I cracked my knuckles watching her eyes grow wide. Was she scared of me? She should be. I was worse than any monster she had ever heard about.
    Gauge shot me a warning look as he walked away leaving us with one another. The guys around the room stared for a short time watching to see what I would do next. To everyone here, I was the ticking time bomb. No one knew when a memory was going to hit me, or when I was going to go off the rails in a blaze of fury.
    Maggie took a step back until she was against the far wall. From there she slid down it, sitting with her back against it. I followed suit, making sure there was distance between us. I didn’t like people touching me. More than that, I needed distance between us. My mind was racing, and there was nothing stopping me from taking her now.
    “Why did you try to kill me?” Maggie asked behind a shield of dark hair. Her question startled me, yet at the same time, it humored me. I wanted to laugh. That was her opening question? I suppose she deserved an answer.
    “I didn’t try to kill you. I tried to kill your friend. You got in the way. I was already too far gone to stop, so…” I trailed off. I didn’t know what else to say.
    “Then why did you stop?” She looked up at me this time, her own eyes holding heat that I hadn’t seen before. Her body was small… Almost too small. She was wearing a light gray shirt and a pair of black jeans. Not what I remembered her wearing the last time I saw her, which only meant someone had gotten her some clean clothes from somewhere.
    There was no saying what she looked like underneath it all. My body reacted to the thought though. My cock grew hard at the mere thought of stripping her bare and fucking her until she screamed—until her body withered beneath mine until she begged me to stop.
    “I don’t know...” I growled. I knew why I had stopped, but I wasn’t going to tell her why. I didn’t trust her. I never would. Trusting humans was one of the most senseless choices I, or any of the other guys in this room, had ever made. To trust was to put your life in someone else’s hands. I had done that once before and look where it got me.
    “Oh, I thought maybe it had something to do with a