Total pages in book: 71
Estimated words: 77171 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 77171 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 386(@200wpm)___ 309(@250wpm)___ 257(@300wpm)
I straighten slowly. My hands aren’t steady. That’s new.
I look at her.
She saw it.
She saw what I am. What I’ve been trained to be. The beast.
I just took out three big men, one of whom was armed.
And I’d do it again in a fucking heartbeat.
I take a step back.
Just one.
Because I don’t know what else to do.
Because I don’t know what comes next.
Because whatever this was—whatever we are—just collapsed under something neither of us can walk away from.
And the worst part, the part I don’t let form all the way, is that even now…
Even standing in the middle of this, knowing she’s in danger…
I still don’t want her to go.
That’s the sin.
Not what I did on that dock.
Not what I did last night.
Not what I just did to these three men.
This.
Wanting her anyway.
46
DELANEY
Samson makes a call. I don’t know who he calls, but I know whoever it is will take care of these three still lying on the porch unconscious.
I told myself I came because I needed his protection. Because I was violated twice—once when they broke into my home and once a half block away from the club.
But the truth?
I came because I wanted to. I wanted to be with him.
And now I see both versions of him at once.
The man who held me.
The man who doesn’t hesitate.
The man who killed Halstead. My father.
He takes one step toward me. “Are you hurt?” he asks.
I shake my head, not trusting my voice.
He nods once. “I told you to stay in the car.”
I should step back. Create space. Put distance between us.
I don’t.
Because I know I’ve seen all of it.
The moment he didn’t hesitate. The moment he chose. The moment he attacked a man who was holding a gun on us, a man who had two other guys backing him up.
Samson certainly wasn’t choosing himself. If that were the case, he’d have gotten back in the car and driven away with me.
He didn’t think.
Didn’t weigh it.
Didn’t question it.
He made sure I was protected and then he risked his life.
And that changes everything.
47
SAMSON
The night doesn’t settle. Even after my people have seen to the men’s wounds and cleared them away.
I half expected Delaney to demand I take her back to her place, but she didn’t.
Instead, she went to her suite, showered, and returned wearing some silk lounging pajamas. She stands in front of me now, her damp hair hanging around her shoulders, alive and unbroken and looking at me like she sees something she didn’t before.
I step closer, open my mouth—
But she places two fingers on my lips. “I don’t need to be saved.”
“I know.”
And I do.
That’s not what this is. That’s not what any of this meant. But words aren’t enough here. I don’t have the words to say what I’m feeling, what she’s come to mean to me.
She watches me closely, as if she’s measuring something she hasn’t decided on yet.
I exhale slowly.
The truth is sitting there.
Waiting.
There’s no way around it now.
“You want the truth?” I ask.
“Yes.”
“That night,” I say, “I was told Halstead was the right man. I wasn’t given options. I wasn’t told to question it. I was told where to be and what to do.”
She swallows, and her eyes glisten a bit, but no tears fall. “Go on.”
“I got there and everything lined up. The access point. The timing. The way he moved. The way he positioned himself. I didn’t hesitate. I struck.”
She nods.
“I didn’t stop to confirm. I didn’t stop to question. I did what I was there to do.”
I pause. She inhales.
And I deal the final blow.
“I killed him.”
“I know,” she says.
“I can’t undo that.”
“I know.” She steps closer.
Close enough now that I feel her heat. That same pull.
Still there.
Still wrong.
Still unavoidable.
“I didn’t let myself say it,” she says. “I had pieces. Enough to see the shape of it. Enough to understand what it might be.” She swallows hard. “But I never put the word to it.”
“Why?”
“Because then I’d become a daughter.” She casts her gaze to the floor. “I couldn’t let emotion be a part of this. What I was trying to do. If I thought my father, I wouldn’t have been able to look at anything objectively. I wouldn’t have been able to build a case. I wouldn’t have been able to stand in it.” She shakes her head. “I would have drowned. So I kept it separate. Kept him separate. He was simply a name. A file. A case.”
Damn.
A name. A file.
Or in my case…a target.
I nod because I understand that more than I should. I did the same thing in a different way.
“I didn’t question him,” I say. “Because everything told me I didn’t have to.”
“You were used,” she says.
I hold her gaze. “Yes.”
I want to say so much to her. But with everything that sits between us now, I’m not sure I can. I never should have gotten this close.