Read Online Early Sins (Dangerous Games Book 0) by Jennifer Bene - Free Book Online

front of her where the cars inched by in the morning rush. Her white blonde hair was tucked into a soft hat, hiding it from sight under the hood, and she tried to keep her head down as he exited and she renewed her hunt.
    Stop for a cigarette, asshole. You know you want one.
    Joe had always reeked of cigarettes on top of her. His breath heavy with it against her cheek. A shudder rushed through her as she followed him, her grip on the gun tightening almost painfully. It took a conscious effort to ease back, to swallow the bile in her throat at the memories, and focus on her target.
    He’s a target. Just a target.
    Half a block shy of the rundown mechanic he worked for, he stepped into an alley to light up – right on time for his routine. Coiling her finger around the trigger she let the steady flow of people carry her forward, head down, her steps moving her one by one closer to the man from her nightmares. When he was within sight she flipped the safety off, easing towards the right of the sidewalk so she could aim without hitting someone else.
    ‘ If you have to fire in a public place, do it discreetly, and then react with the group. Don’t respond until someone else does, then mimic them. Move with the crowd. Fade into it, and leave.’ Smith’s words were as much a part of her as the memory of Joe’s voice against her ear.
    Clenching her teeth she raised her gaze and saw him, eyes angled down towards the ground where he was dragging his shoe through muddied snow, and then he raised them. Brown ones, like the color of the filthy runoff in the middle of the alley, brushed across her skin. Her knees almost buckled and her grip on the gun in her pocket went slack, with a shift she managed to move herself to the other side of a woman carrying a sack of groceries in her arms. Pulse racing, lungs tightening, Camille walked past the alley. Past Joe Wilson. Past the mechanic shop, and on and on and on.
    Her hands were shaking too much to touch the gun and so she let it hang, heavy as her shame, in the pocket at the front of her hoodie.
    Eventually she stumbled towards a small park, dropping onto a bench where the damp wood soaked up into the seat of her jeans. The tears came then, like a storm held back by spun sugar, wracking her with sobs that she silenced by biting down on her knuckles.
    Weak. So fucking weak.
    Useless, weak, piece of shit!
    There was no end to the names she called herself as she rocked on that bench, screaming inside her head over the wasted moment. The wasted opportunity to end him.
    She’d had the chance, and she’d failed.
    Failed.
    When she finally forced herself to stand, wiping her nose, she could feel the cold biting through the wet jeans, and it all felt like the right level of miserable for someone as pathetic as her. The walk back to the hotel was freezing, and long enough that it gave her ass a new appreciation for warm, dry clothes, but it also let her think over what had happened. Slowly. Picking it apart like someone from a distance.
    She’d been too close to him. It had been too crowded. That was it.
    She just needed more space so she could pull the trigger, more room to breathe. Then she could kill him. He would never touch her again, she’d make sure of that, and then she would be able to banish him from her dreams too.
    Just a change of clothes, a moment to regroup, and she’d go back. She knew just where he’d be this afternoon, and it would give her all the space she needed.
    As soon as the door opened to the hotel room she knew Smith was back. Shit . The air was heavy with humidity from the shower, there was a fresh newspaper on the table, and she could smell his aftershave floating in front of her. Instead of the usual frisson of excitement she felt that he was back, this time she only felt fury.
    She wasn’t done .
    She hadn’t finished.
    “C?” His voice was brighter than usual as he stepped out of the bedroom, naked from the waist up, putting all that carved muscle on