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When he didn’t answer right away, I knew. I closed the suitcase, fighting back the tears. I wasn’t going to let him know how devastated I was.
“She was enjoying it. But I didn’t fuck her. Storm was in there. He fucked her. I just needed…I had to…I was strung tight, and I needed a release. She was willing, and…DAMMIT! I shouldn’t have done it, but I had to do something. I had to clear my head. Burn off some of the shit clawing at me.”
He hadn’t fucked her.
GOD! Why did I feel relief? There was so much more wrong here. Like the fact that he got off on doing it. His lies. His lies. I had to remember his lies!
He grabbed my upper arms and pulled me back against his chest. “Is he making you leave me? I’ll stop it. I will. I need you to let me explain.”
I wouldn’t melt. I wouldn’t give in to him. I didn’t trust him anymore. That was gone. Without trust, what did we have?
“He gave me a choice. I chose to leave. I’m not your job anymore.”
His hands tightened on me. “You were not my job, Rumor.”
“YES, I was. Stop lying to me. Please just stop. I’ve had all of it I can handle. You followed me, King. FOLLOWED ME from my house that day. You were at the service station to get me. It has been a lie since the moment I met you. And…and I let myself believe you. Think there was more.”
I closed my eyes and tried to break free from his hold, but I couldn’t. He wasn’t easing up.
“I followed you. My job was to get you here. But it became more than that. I got to know you. We became friends. We became more.”
Every word out of his mouth was bittersweet. I wanted them to be true, yet they had come from a man I could never trust again. Too little, too late.
“Stay with me. Don’t go. Don’t leave me,” he pleaded close to my ear. “I’m sorry, sweets. I am so fucking sorry.”
And here I’d thought, my destruction couldn’t get any worse.
“I can’t,” I told him, even as the words felt as if I had just ripped out my own heart.
“Don’t say that. You can. He gave you a choice. Choose me. It’s not a job, baby. It was in the beginning, but it hasn’t been for a while. It changed. I changed. You changed me.”
No, no, no, no. I wouldn’t listen to this. I had to save myself this time. I had to put myself first. Protect what was left of my heart—if there was anything left at all. He wasn’t my future. He never was going to be. He was in the Mafia. They all were. I didn’t belong in this world. I wanted to be free.
“Let go of me,” I said, jerking away from his hold, and thankfully, he let me this time. I stumbled forward slightly but caught myself and bent over to zip up the suitcase.
“I won’t let you leave me.” He said the words as if he meant them.
“You don’t get to decide that.”
The voice wasn’t mine. I straightened and looked at the door, where Blaise Hughes stood. The energy in the room changed, and it felt suddenly dangerous. I looked at King, who took a step between me and the door. What was he doing? That man was the boss. His boss. Mafia bosses killed people. I’d read the books. I knew that much.
“She’s had a lot dropped on her. I should have been there. She needs time,” King told his boss.
“Are you correcting me, King?” There was a deadly threat in Blaise’s voice.
Panic gripped me, and I moved quickly, getting around King to stand in front of him. His hands shot out to grab me, and I looked back at him.
“STOP!” I warned him.
He was not going to get shot by the Mafia boss over this. I turned back to Blaise.
“I am coming. Just, please, don’t make him say anything more he will be punished for,” I asked him.
I prayed there was a soul somewhere inside this man. He had a kid whose soccer game he wanted to get back to. He’d said he worshipped his wife. He had a heart. I had to make sure he used it.
Blaise looked from me to King. “Get her things, Huck,” he said, stepping aside as the massive man entered.
I moved back, basically plastering myself in front of King. I was afraid he’d do something stupid, and I didn’t think the Huck dude had a heart or emotion. He was a killer, and I’d be damned if he killed King.
