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Chapter Eleven
V
I didn’t like leaving X alone in the cellar.
I’d left the wound in his leg uncovered, and hoped he didn’t lose too much blood while I was dealing with my visitor. I didn’t want him to lose consciousness again, not only because I wanted answers from him, but also because I found myself enjoying being able to speak with him. I knew I shouldn’t trust him, but I liked that I was able to bounce ideas off him, and that he was giving me advice, though I knew I shouldn’t trust a word that came out of his mouth.
Strangely, I got a sense of protection from him, as though he actually cared about what happened to me.
Was I crazy?
Yes, I must have been losing my mind. He was a hit man sent here to kill me. The only thing he cared about was seeing my corpse—he’d even admitted it himself. He wasn’t only a hit man, he was a sick-as-fuck hit man.
I’d hoped whoever was at the door would have given up and left by now, but, as I approached, I could see the shape of a man blurred by the textured glass panel in the door. My car was parked out front, so they must have assumed I was still in.
I knew the visitor’s identity from the color of the uniform he wore.
Taking a breath and plastering a smile on my face, I opened the door.
“Deputy Kier,” I said. “Dropping in on us again?”
The young deputy didn’t even smile. “It’s part of my job, Viola. Are you going to let me in?”
I hated that he insisted on using my new name. It didn’t feel like it belonged to me at all.
I stepped back from the open door. “Sure.”
Glancing down, I noticed a smear of blood on my fingers where I’d grabbed X’s stab wound. I shoved the hand into my pocket, my heart pounding. He was bound to ask questions if he noticed the blood.
Heat flooded my cheeks, so to cover my panic, and because I wanted to get my hand under the faucet, I said, “Coffee?”
I mentally kicked myself.
The last thing I wanted to do right now was offer him coffee. I didn’t like offering cops coffee at the best of times, but right now I had two dead bodies and an assassin tied up in my cellar, and it was setting me on edge. I hoped he’d say no and just leave, but instead he shrugged.
“Why not.”
I went into the kitchen and he followed. I tried not to look toward the shut cellar door, but yet my eyes kept being drawn toward it, and my ears strained for any sound that might give the game away. My eyes locked on the set of shelving built into the wall beside the cellar door, and the top shelf where I’d stashed the guns. From where I stood I could see the butt of one of the weapons, and my already pounding heart went into overdrive. I’d done my best to clear up the blood, but I knew he’d see the stain if he looked hard enough. To hide my fluster, I put my head down and almost broke into a run to get into the kitchen, hoping he’d follow without noticing.
He did.
“Is Nicolette at school?” he asked, taking a seat at a stool at the breakfast counter, though I hadn’t asked him to sit down. He was good-looking, in a clean-cut kind of way that just screamed cop. I didn’t miss the way his eyes flicked over my body when he thought I wasn’t looking. He might be a law enforcement officer, but that didn’t mean he wasn’t also a man. I was used to being looked at in such a way, but for some reason it made me more uncomfortable with him than any other guy. I guessed I knew how to deal with other men—I could threaten to cut off their balls if they pissed me off too much—but I could hardly do that with him.
I turned on the faucet and acted as though I was filling up the coffee machine, while I scrubbed the blood off my fingertips.
“Where else would she be, Deputy Kier?”
“You can call me, Leon, Viola. I think we’ve known each other long enough for you to use my first name now.”
“That’s okay. I’ll stick with Deputy.”
I remembered someone had leaked our location, and a cold shiver ran through me.
Was he the one responsible?
Had he been surprised to see me opening the door? Had he called to the house today expecting to find me dead?
I wished I’d paid more attention to the expression on his face when I’d opened the door. Had he been shocked? Reared back a little? Anything? I tried to look back in my mind’s eye to rerun the deputy’s expression, but I’d been so concerned about everything else, I hadn’t focused on it.
