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“I’mnot crying.” She swiped at the tears that had fallen down her face. There was no way she cried. She hated the very thought of crying.
She quickly turned her back on him and pressed her palms against her eyes in an attempt to wipe away the tears. The bruise around her eye had started to fade.
Get a grip, Callie. Come on. Don’t let him see you cry.
She didn’t evenknow why she cried. Ruin had never made any promises to her. They didn’t put a label on what they could be, or who they were. They were nothing. None of this made any sense.
“Callie, baby, please don’t cry.”
“Will you please leave me alone?” she asked.
“Don’t ask me todo that.”
She pressed her eyes close together. What will it take for him to leave her alone?
Dropping her hands from her face, she turned back toward him. “Is this part of your cruelty?” she asked. “I’m giving you an out here. Giving youthe chance to be free and far away from me as possible. Why aren’t you taking it?”
“Because I don’t want to. I don’t want to be away from you.”
“I fell for you, Ruin. Don’t you get that? Do you have any idea how that feels?” she asked.
He stared at her.
“And I’m not just talking of the caring nature here. I’m talking some serious feelings. I was falling for you.” She pressed her lips together and let him see the tears fall. “I’m in love with you, but it’s not really you, is it? It’s a stranger. Someone I don’t know.”
“It is still me.”
She shook her head. “No, the guy I fell for is a lie. A knitting, traveling, funny guy.” She took a step back. “A guy who wasn’t sent to kill me. So please let me go.”
Ruin looked a little taken aback but Callie took her chance and moved away from him, creating a distance with each step. He didn’t follow. Ruin was letting her go.
Leaving the gates, she didn’t understand why she wasn’t feeling better. This was what she wanted—for him to leave her alone—and yet her heart felt like it was shattering.
****
Ruin’s job didn’t stop just because his life had turned upside down.There were still calls, still work he had to do.
Washing his hands of the blood,he heard the whimpering in the background, but it didn’t bother him. All he could see was Callie—the woman he was meant to kill, but couldn’t. He’d never intended to kill her, not once he saw her, got to know her, and then knew she held a lot of secrets.
Dante Morelli was already dead.Aldo had taken care of the details. This was all part of the messy cleanup. Aldo wanted to send a message to all who accepted the toll to work in his area. It wasn’t acceptable.
“Good work,” Aldo said.
Ruin didn’t say a word. The money for this job had already been transferred. Ruin was just completing a contract.
“Removethe men you have following Callie,” Ruin said, drying his hands on a towel.
Aldo sighed. “It has already been done, my friend.”
He and Aldo went back a lot of years.They weren’t exactly friends, but they weren’t enemies.
“She’s not going to talk.”
“Iknow that. I put the men on her for her own safety,” Aldo said. “I’ve gotten the daily reports that she lives a rather boring and sheltered life.”
“She lives the life she wants.” He turned toward the room.
The man hanging upsidedown, dead, had been another pimp. Dante seemed to have a liking for men who worked women.
