She was an asset. That was all.
He would remind himself of that fact a thousand times a day if necessary. In planning on killing him, she had betrayed them. Their sham of a relationship was shattered, and all that remained between them was devastation and lies.
Footsteps whispered on the floor.
Ryker’s chest tightened as her scent grew stronger. When he looked up, she stood just outside the kitchen. Pot lights cast a silver glow on her too-frail body.
She looked like he felt inside.
Broken. Shattered. Destroyed.
She wrung her hands in front of her, a dejected look on her face as she stared at the floor.
The confident vampire Ryker had fallen in love with was nowhere to be seen, and for some reason, that bothered him nearly as much as everything else.
Get a fucking grip.
The vampire he’d fallen in love with had been a lie. She’d been a murderer, a rebel sympathizer, an adversary.
What kind of idiot fell in love with and married their enemy?
A flash of watery rage coursed through Ryker’s veins as he recalled exactly how stupid he’d been.
His mask cracked, and he snapped, “What?”
Brynleigh flinched, and for a moment, he felt bad for how he’d spoken.
This whole situation was a clusterfuck, and it was making him question everything.
A small voice niggled in the back of his brain that he should hear her out and listen to her reasons for why she acted like this, but he wasn’t ready for that. He just needed to get through this. He could think about her reasons later. Maybe. He wasn’t sure she even deserved that.
Brynleigh licked her lips, her face growing paler with each passing second. “I… I was wondering…”
She stumbled over her words, and his heart twisted before he realized he was supposed to hate her.
They were opposites in every way, and by the gods, she’d fooled him.
His wife was akiller.
Gritting his teeth, Ryker hardened the walls around his heart and waited for her to continue.
“I need to feed. If you’re not going to ki… can you find me some blood?” Black eyes met his, and he was taken aback by the level of despair within them. “Please.”
That last word was little more than a whisper as it left her lips,and she stumbled back a step. As if she wasn’t sure how he would react. As if she thought he might lash out at her.
Despite the bricks surrounding Ryker’s heart, his life-giving organ ached. Gods above, he was being an ass.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Brynleigh.” He didn’t think he could, even if he wanted to.
Hating her was hard enough. Being angry at her was killing him, too. Hurting her?
It would destroy him.
Releasing the counter, he moved to the cooler. Aware of his size and the fear leeching off the vampire, he slowly lifted the lid.
He pulled out a few bags of blood and slid them across the counter.
“Of course, you can feed. I’m not a monster.”