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“Oh,” I said, surprised. “Why?”
“At first, it was just to figure out if one of them sent the hitman. And then, once I was there, I realized I’d never apologized to them. I hurt them the same way I hurt you, and damn, it was eye-opening. So I just wanted to apologize to you too.”
“That’s very mature of you,” I said.
“Not really.” He glanced away with a thoughtful look in his eyes, then volunteered, “About three of them told me to go screw myself, which was fine. It’s not their responsibility to assuage my guilt. And they have no reason to trust that I was telling the truth.” He turned to look at me. “The same way I know you don’t believe me yet, but I will wait as long as it takes for you to trust me again.”
Except I was pretty sure I already did. It was dangerous and stupid, and perhaps I was an idiot, but Ididtrust him. I was too afraid to let him know, so instead, I leaned forward and kissed him.
He kissed me back passionately. The desire built slowly, and he took his time feeding it until Violet interrupted with a, “What are you doing, Daddy?”
We both broke apart, amused and surprised to find her blinking at us.
“Nothing, Violet,” he said. “Just showing Mommy a little love, that’s all.”
“Oh. You wanna see my painting?”
“Of course,” he responded, but then he shot me a look that told me the kiss was only the beginning.
Later that night, we had passionate unhurried sex before dropping off to sleep.
But sometime around midnight, I was suddenly awoken.
I wasn’t sure what woke me, but it wasn’t unusual for me to wake up multiple times during the night. In the meantime, I decided to go down to the kitchen and fetch some water.
I was in the middle of doing that when I felt a presence behind me.
Fear raced through me.
Eerily, I already knew I would face something when I turned around and saw him there.
A stranger. And he rushed to me and clapped his hand over my mouth before I could scream.
“Say one word, and I will slit your throat once and for all.”
THIRTY
NICK
I wasn’t sure what exactly woke me up.
Maybe it was the fact that I rolled over, and the other side of the bed was empty. That wasn’t unusual since Lisa usually got up sometime during the night to use the bathroom or something of the sort. But this time was different. I waited a few seconds and didn’t hear her footsteps coming up or moving around downstairs.
That was when I got worried.
I instantly hopped out of bed and started down the stairs, going as silently as I could. I began hearing muffled sounds, but I held my body still to keep from reacting to them and charging in there immediately. That would be the dumbest thing to do if there was an intruder. And then, the male whisper traveled to where I stood.
“You keep making sounds, and I’ll kill you.”
Despite everything I told myself, I nearly jumped into attack mode, ready to eliminate anyone threatening Lisa. The protective instinct beat at me, demanding I destroy the intruder right there and then before he could carry out his threat. I quelled the pure adrenaline that shot through me, letting my mind think. If I heard correctly, he was already holding Lisa, likely with his hand over her mouth. Which meant that any wrong move on my end would result in him hurting her.
Everything you do from this point on decides whether she lives or dies.I cautioned myself.Don’t do anything stupid.
Right now, I needed to somehow get close enough to see what was going on before I attacked.
“You must be wondering how I got here,” the man continued to say. “I bet you didn’t think I would get to you with those big bad guys out there guarding you. But all it took was a little delivery of doughnuts to take them all out. Can you believe it? I told them that you guys ordered them doughnuts for the night shift, and they just took it.” He tutted. “But then again, they probably never suspected it would be me. I look harmless, you see. Just an average delivery driver. And that was it. They just took it from me because they didn’t think I was a threat. I was agonizing over it all day, wondering what I would do if they didn’t take it or if they woke you guys to make sure. I was almost sure they would see through my disguise, but it was so fucking easy.”
He gave a little coughed laugh that sounded a touch unhinged. I guessed Robbie’s profile was right. Insecure and introverted. I was getting that vibe from him.
