Page 6 of My Beautiful Sin

“Dammit, El, you need to stay away from this. From bumping up against any lingering remnant from my father’s enterprise.”

“I’m not a child, Devlin. This is my—”

“For fuck’s sake,” he snaps. “I’m not playing protective caveman here. But I need time to talk to my sources quietly. You start digging, and you’re going to let whoever sent that note know that they’ve struck a nerve.”

I’d been about to speak, but that silences me. He’s made a good point. Just not the point he thought he was making.

He’s right that if I start looking around, the sender will know I’m interested, and the odds are that they’re arrogant enough to believe they can win me over. And that means that a few inquiries may be just the lever I need to start an avalanche of information.

“Fine,” I finally say, coolly. “You may be right.”

But what I don’t do is agree to lay low.

Chapter Three

Devlin caught the back of her T-shirt as she started to move past him, pulling her to a stop. “Have you forgotten how well I know you?”

She looked over her shoulder, her whiskey brown eyes pointedly fixed on his hand knotted in the gray Army Special Forces Tee. “Problem, Mr. Saint?”

“You need to drop this, Ellie. Let me handle it.”

“Hmm.” She looked him up and down, a cool gaze so different from the way she usually looked at him. He was certain it was the look she’d used when she’d been in uniform—hell, it was probably part of her uniform. The key component in her transformation from petite woman to hard-ass cop.

Now, he assumed it was the look she used when interviewing a recalcitrant source. It wasn’t a look he’d expect in a bedroom, but he couldn’t deny that he liked it. She was strong, and always had been.

But she was stubborn, too, and it was at times like these when that trait could be a real pain in the ass.

“You’re the one who said I have people I can talk to,” he pressed. “Let me do that.”

“I have people, too,” she retorted. “And, to once again point out the obvious, the message came to me. There’s a chance it has nothing to do with you.”

“Bullshit.”

Her shoulders sagged, and when she said, “Goddammit, Devlin,” he thought he’d won, but then she bent forward, tugged her head and arms out of the shirt, and continued on toward the bathroom, completely naked with him holding the shirt.

“El—”

“We’re not having this argument,” she said. “You want to keep me here, fine. You’re bigger than me. Hell, use the damn shirt and tie me to the bed. But barring that, I’m going to do what I think is best, and you can do the same. And what I intend to do is identify the fucker who’s sending me anonymous notes like that’s going to scare me.”

She turned again and disappeared, slamming the door behind her. He started to follow, but stopped, opting to calm down before he did. She was strong-willed, and so was he, and God knew she didn’t back down from what scared her. On the contrary, she faced it dead on.

He should have known better than to try to persuade her to back off because she might stir up a hornet’s nest. Ellie poked hornets’ nests just to feel the rush. And he understood why better than anyone.

The trouble was, she didn’t understand how large and how dangerous this particular nest could be. His world was precarious and there were many people who would like to see him fall. She poked in the wrong place, and she could end up trapped inside a deadly swarm.

So many secrets. So many lies.

He told himself over and over that the less she knew, the safer she was. Because the more thread she had, the more she would pull, and the more likely it was that his world—and the world they wanted to build together—would unravel along with them.

She might not fear those dangerous places, but he did.

He hadn’t before. Until she’d re-entered his life, he’d been more than willing to flip danger the bird. Because what did he have to lose?

Now he was vulnerable, where before he’d been steel. Now he had a soft spot. And God knew he would kill anyone who hurt his El.

He wanted to tell her everything. Wanted to hold her close and watch as she curled up against him, her eyes shut as she took in all of his secrets. He had a fantasy that she would understand. That everything he did, everything he was, would make sense to her.

But he couldn’t quite believe it.