Page 7 of The Hitman's Secret Love Child

Chapter 4

Constantine

Perhaps I shouldn’t have stormed into her home like I had, but had I stood there playing twenty questions with her, we’d be here all night and time was of the essence. I had five days left to complete the objective. For all I knew, Gabriel had hired a second hitman. Not exactly likely or probable, but possible.

I wasn’t willing to take that risk.

That being said, perhaps over the years she’d become as crooked as he was and she was getting what was coming to her. I’d make that decision after having a talk with her. Hopefully I could still read her as well as I could back when we were teenagers.

You didn’t see her taking off on you coming, a voice in the back of my head chimed in. My jaw clenched as I thought about it. No goodbye, no nothing, she just took off. I’d spent months, nay years, wondering what happened and why she’d done what she had. I had thought we were in love…

“My husband… Ummm.” She shifted uncomfortably from one foot to the other, still standing by the open doorway. She let out a loud puff of air and bowed her head. “Yeah.”

“We need to talk.”

“This doesn’t make sense.” Raking a hand through her hair, she closed the door, walked across the room and stood at the end of the sofa. “We haven’t seen each other for six years; how do you know about that?”

“Sit down, Robyn. Like I said, we need to talk.”

She planted a hand on her hip and glared at me. “Running into me this afternoon wasn’t an accident, was it?”

I sighed, grasping the back of my neck and giving it a squeeze. The muscles were insanely tight; I needed a deep-tissue massage. “No, it wasn’t.” I motioned to the sofa. “Sit down.” She was making me nervous standing over me like she was.

“Have you been stalking me?” She refused to sit.

I shot up off of the sofa so quickly she yelped and took a step back. Grabbing her by the upper arms, I spun her around and forced her to sit down on the sofa. “Sit and I’ll explain. Even after all these years, you know, you still have an issue with doing as told.”

“How dare you come into my home –”

Leaning down, I placed my hand over her mouth. “Just shut it for a minute. I didn’t come here for my health. I want to see you just about as much as I’m sure you want to see me.” God, this woman! Why did everything have to be so damned hard with her? I’d spent so much time over the past years obsessing over all her good qualities, I’d forgotten the few traits that used to annoy the living bejesus out of me.

Her brow furrowed, the wind seemingly deflated from her sails.

“Nod your head if you understand me.”

She hesitated a moment, anger flaring up into those bright green eyes of hers, and then nodded. Robyn was a natural redhead and she had the stereotypical temper of one.

“Good, now we’re getting somewhere.” Giving her a nod, I sat back down on the other end of the sofa. “So, I’ve got some questions for you and I’m sure that you have just as many if not more for me.”

She didn’t answer. I took her non-verbal response as agreeance. “Okay. Good.” I ran my hand through my hair and took a minute to gather my thoughts. On my way here I had a whole speech prepared along with a list of questions. Everything I’d formulated in my mind dissipated as I looked at her. All anger had disappeared from her expression and now all I saw was fear as the color drained from her complexion.

She gave me a moment before speaking. “What’s going on here, Constantine? You’re working for Gabriel, aren’t you?”

I shrugged. “I wouldn’t say that exactly.”

“What do you mean by that?” Her voice cracked as she spoke and her body began to tremble. “Why are you working for him?”

She looked so small and fragile. All I wanted to do was pull her into my arms, stroke her hair and tell her everything was going to be okay, like I had done so many times in the past. But I had no idea if it was going to be okay. I needed to know what she knew and what she was planning on telling the FBI. She may have told them already – though I didn’t think so.

“Okay, I’ll give you answers, but I need honesty from you first.”

“Umm. Okay.” She placed her hands in her lap and laced her fingers, but kept fidgeting, looking up at me with confusion and suspicion. “What do you want to know?”

“What is going on with you and Gabriel?”

She frowned. “Nothing. I mean… We were married.”

I cocked a brow up at her. “So you’re divorced?”

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