The hell he would.“Should the guards drag your ass out?Or do you want to be a big boy and walk out on your own?”
Gage’s lips flattened.He stomped away.Atlas watched him go, his body full of its own fury and his hands clenched because he really wanted to take a swing at the bastard.
Gage swung back around, pausing near the columns that marked the edge of the dining room.“I know what you are,” he snarled at Atlas.
Oh, right.He’d practiced this part with Theodora.Atlas knew exactly what to say.“I’m a victim.” A low, dangerous rumble of sound.
Theodora had just stepped to his side.Her jaw dropped at those words.
“Now get the fuck out,” Atlas ordered Gage.“And stay the hell away from my fiancée.”
Gage stormed out.The guards followed because they would know to make sure the Fed and his associates were fully escorted from the property.Not like anyone got to take a free search of the place without a warrant.
The silence in the dining room stretched.And stretched.
Finally, Theodora’s heels clicked as she moved forward.“I don’t think you should use those particular words again.”Hands on her hips, she angled to face him.
He quirked a brow at her.“You told me to say them.”
“Yes, but somehow, when you say…I’m a victim…it comes out as a threat.I have no idea how, but it just does.You might as well have saidI am a killer.”
He shrugged.“Didn’t say that.”He’d never make that confession to a Fed.
“Right.Because you aren’t one.”She blew out a hard breath.“Are we going to sign the NDA before I leave?”
The NDA, right.He’d almost forgotten.
Atlas glanced back at Lily.“Ready to sign your life away to me?”
Fear filled her expression.
Shit, bad word choice.“Ah, Lily?—”
“Give me the NDA.”Flat.
Theodora opened her briefcase.She’d had it on the floor near the right wall.She pulled out the paperwork.“I, um, also have a standard contract for you, too, Lily, one that will prove I’m your lawyer going forward.”
“I’ll sign it, too.Just show me where.”
But Theodora hesitated.“You should really read these.Thoroughly.How about I leave them and you can read them and then sign tomorrow?”
Too late.Lily flipped through the papers and slashed her signature next to the Xs.Then she slapped the pen down on the table.“Great.I gave you my life, Atlas.”Her hands folded across her chest as she faced off with him.“What do I get in return?”
Tension burned between them.Me.You get me, Lily.
“Uh, do you want him to sign an NDA, too?”Theodora asked with a faint cough.“Because I’m your lawyer now, and I can draw up one for him.If there are things that you don’t want him to discuss about you and your relationship?—”
“Make it,” Atlas pounced on that offer.Anything to put them on equal footing.Anything to get Lily to open up to him.To share with him.To banish the pain that he saw in her eyes because he wanted to take it away.He needed to take away all her hurt and fear and make her feel safe.
Lily’s safety mattered to him more than anything.
Shemattered.Dangerous.So very dangerous.
Theodora left them alone.The clicking of her heels faded away.Lily didn’t move.Atlas felt nailed to the spot.
“I signed,” Lily told him.“So now are you gonna tell me where you buried the bodies?”
So cute.He hadn’t buried them.If he had, then Landon Russell’s body never would have been found near that hiking trail.“No, this is the part where I put a fucking ring on your finger.”His breath heaved out.“Lily Gallo, you’re mine now.”
