Ruthless Creatures by J.T. Geissinger

It makes me wonder what else he noticed.
And why he was looking so closely in the first place.
“You’ll notice that I’m not glancing up and to the right
now when I tell you that you’re starting to scare me.”
He was about to take another step forward, but stops dead.
He says vehemently, “I’d never hurt you. Proven by the
fact that I didn’t tell the feds I thought you and this Reaper
character were involved.” His eyes darken. “Because if I did,
you’d be sitting in a black site military cell right now, in
handcuffs, being questioned by a guy named Snakebite who
gets off on the sight of blood and the sound of a woman
screaming.”
It’s official. Chris has gone off the rails.
“And it’s not me you should be afraid of. I’m just a guy
who wants what’s best for you. I can tell you, Nat, with one
hundred percent certainty, that what’s best for you is not
Kazimir Portnov.”
So he knows Kage’s real name. He has found out about
him.
That makes my anxiety explode into panic.
If Kage finds out that Chris went to the feds, and the feds
now have eyes on him…maybe he won’t come around here
anymore.
Maybe I’ll never see him again.
I’m panicked for the space of a few heartbeats, then I’m
consumed by anger.
How dare this guy—who I barely spent a few months with,
who I never even screwed—pull this petty, territorial, caveman
bullshit.
I step back across the threshold of the open door, grab the
shotgun propped up against the wall in the corner, and stand
facing Chris with the barrel of the rifle gripped in my left
hand, the buttstock resting on the floor.