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Walk away without looking back.
I swallowed thickly and started to step away from him, but at the last second rocked forward and hurried toward him. “Take me with you.”
A look of horror flashed across his face so fast I almost missed it before his cold, emotionless mask could replace it. “No.”
“Please,” I said soft enough that Beck wouldn’t hear me, and hated how weak it made me sound. I glanced quickly at Beck, then looked back to Kieran as I continued toward him. “It doesn’t have to be forever. All I’m asking is for you to take me to Texas with you.”
“No—”
“I can keep myself safe. You can lock me in a hotel room if it’ll ma—”
“I said no, Lily,” he snapped, his booming voice echoing off the walls in the house.
I jolted back, stumbling over myself to get away from him when he suddenly stalked toward me.
One of his arms shot out to block Beck from coming between us, but his stare never left me as his large hands grasped my shoulders and pulled me close.
Everything about him was magnificent and terrifying. The strength in his body and his grasp. The chilling combination of love and promised death that poured from him as he looked down at me, that beast inside him crying to be freed. And yet, all I wanted was to stay in this moment for an eternity. It didn’t matter what led to us being in this position, I’d never been in his arms this way . . .
I’d been waiting for this—begging for this—for as long as I could remember.
Kieran’s entire body was vibrating and his eyes were on fire, but his voice was hushed and pained when he asked, “Why do you keep fighting me when all I want is to keep you safe? Can’t you see what you mean to me?” His eyes bored into mine, desperate and begging for me to understand. “I won’t let a Borello within seeing distance of you. Now try to imagine the kind of men our contact in Texas and his associates are if I’d never let you in the same state as them. These men steal women. They buy multiple stolen women and keep them. If you were there, even hidden away, I would be too dis—”
“What?” I asked under my breath, jerking in his hold. “They what?”
There was no response, but I didn’t need one. Kieran’s expression told me more than I wanted to know.
An image of a woman, kicking and screaming as she was hauled into a van flashed through my mind. And then the image morphed to the woman standing in front of a room full of perverted men, leering at her as she shook and cried for someone to save her.
I felt sick.
“And you knew? They do this and you knew when you started working with them?” The bliss of being in his arms had vanished, and suddenly I wanted nothing more than to get away from him. I tried to pull from Kieran’s grasp but he pulled me closer.
“You don’t understand.”
“Don’t tell me I don’t understand, Kieran. There’s nothing to understand,” I said with an incredulous laugh.
“Lily . . .”
“How could you let that continue?”
“I tried to sever the ties with Texas. I’ve tried dozens of times,” he said in a rough tone.
“Oh, have you?” Disbelief dripped from my words.
His jaw ticked, but he didn’t respond as that beast inside him fought to be unleashed.
“You just met with my dad . . . so, on his orders you’re now going to Texas to silence this guy if he isn’t already dead. Right?” I asked, but didn’t wait for his response. “And all because he didn’t accept a shipment and has been missing for a week.”
Kieran blew out a harsh breath through his nose, his mouth forming a tight line.
“Whoever this contact and his associates are, you know who they are, and you know what they do. You’ve known.” Leaning closer, I whispered, “You’re an assassin, Kieran. If you’d ever really tried, he would’ve been silenced years ago. They all would’ve.”
His mouth twitched into a frustrated grin that bordered on a grimace as he released me, one of his hands moving to rub at his jaw. He started to take a step away, but stopped. “I had an important job here.” His questioning stare quickly ran over my body before meeting mine. “At least I thought I did.”
That same crushing pain from earlier came on so strong and fast, it nearly knocked me back.
I couldn’t take in a deep enough breath, and I couldn’t speak as he turned and left.
