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“Fuck!” he complains as he spits out a bloody, broken tooth fragment. “If you’re going to kill me, just kill me.”
“You sound surprisingly eager for death.”
He spits blood and shrugs. “I’m dead either way. I failed the mission.”
I feel Cora inching closer. I hold out an arm to stop her and she lays her hand on my wrist. It’s a small gesture. Just a light touch. But it is far more distracting than it should be. Same goes for her strawberries-and-cream scent poisoning me more and more with every breath.
“Who sent you here?” I grit out.
He shakes his head. “I can’t tell you that.”
“You’re dead either way,” I remind him. “No point in being shy now.”
“I’mdead, either way, yeah. But my family is another matter. If I tell you who sent me, they’re dead, too. Unless…”
In the corner of my eyes, I see Cora’s brows draw together. There’s a small scrape along her jaw from the glass. I barely stop myself from reaching out to dab the blood away.
The man swallows. Then before I can say anything else, the man lunges forward at her.
She doesn’t even have time to react before I grab the assassin by the throat and throw him back on the stainless steel countertop.
“I’m sorry!” Cora gasps as she lunges backward. “I didn’t—I thought—”
“Don’t apologize.” I squeeze the man’s throat. He wraps his hands around my wrist, but it would take three of him and a fucking miracle to make me loosen my grip. “That’s his job. Come on now,mudak. Apologize to the lady.”
His mouth opens, a wheeze leaking out of his collapsing windpipe.
I hold him tighter. “Hurry. Apologize before it’s too late.”
His tongue looks swollen in his mouth. His eyes are bulging. He looks like an overripe tomato ready to pop.
“Ivan,” Cora breathes in warning.
She has mercy for the man who lunged for her, who shot at her—but I don’t. If he doesn’t do what I ask, he’ll die right here. Right now.
No one is going to touch Cora before I get the chance to figure out what is running through that gorgeous head of hers. What secrets are hiding behind those green eyes and pouty lips.
“S-sorry,” the man finally rasps out. His eyes are rolling back in his head as the word oozes out of him.
“There. That wasn’t so hard, was it?” I let go and he sucks in air in great wheezing gulps. “Now, tell me why you shot at her.”
He hacks up a phlegmy cough. If he was going to live to see tomorrow, he’d be sore.
As it is, that won’t be a problem.
“Target practice.”
I growl in frustration, my hand itching towards his neck again. “Don’t fucking play with me,mudak. You know what I want to know.”
He presses a hand protectively to his neck and nods. “I was sent here to make sure she died…so you two couldn’t get married.”
Fuck.Cora is indeed involved—but it’s not because of anything she did.
It’s because of me.
“Married?” Cora spits. “We aren’t—Why would anyone think we were—Who sent you here?”
I lean forward, looking into the man’s bloodshot eyes. “Answer her question.”
