Page 54 of Sweet Ruin

“Delilah.”

I stop, because he’s never said my name before, and because of what his voice does with it. To it. How it transforms my name from Do-It-All Dee into something shimmering and enchanting.

“I don’t think you’re understanding what I’m telling you,” he says. “Tonight, in front of his family, Connor Boyd stopped being any use to me at all.”

“Okay,” I say in confusion. “Uh, great. I mean, good for him. Or whatever. I don’t care.”

“But your name is on the loan.”

The wind goes right out of me.

“I… I… I…”

He takes one step in. Whiskey rushes into my nostrils, and snowmelt, and cologne, and musk, and fear, and darkness.

Suddenly, his smile doesn’t look so nice and pretty.

Not so nice at all.

“Your husband owed me a debt, sladkaya. I think I’ll take you as repayment instead.”

11

DELILAH

There’s probably a correct thing to say when a man informs you that you are collateral.

Huh is probably not it.

But huh is all I got.

So…

“Huh?”

Kane just eyes me.

“Sorry, it’s been kind of a traumatically full evening. I’m going to need a minute to clear some shelf space, like, mentally speaking.”

In response, he lets go of my wrist. Given what he just said—I’m taking you as repayment instead—I was braced for the hand to tighten, and then pick me off my feet and hurl me into the back of an unmarked van.

But instead, it just opens. Set free, my arm drops back down to my side like it was never anybody’s business but mine.

I rub the spot anyway. It almost feels like a burn. The kind you get from touching ice for too long.

“You know,” I say as I look at him, “I’m starting to think you were serious just now.”

He nods. “Deadly.”

“Ha. I assume that was a pun.”

He doesn’t laugh, so I guess not. But information is at a premium right now, so I plow ahead into the Q&A part of this bizarre encounter.

“Alright, so let me make sure I’ve got this all straight,” I say. “Connor borrowed four million dollars. He put my building up for it. He’s defaulting on the loan. And your solution is… to take me?”

“Correct.”

“That’s not how banks work.”