Page 18 of The Hitman's Secret Love Child

I fell back against the sofa, a roar of laughter erupting from me. “Yeah, well, you might have drunk more than me that night, but who out of the two of us ended up praying to the porcelain gods that same night?”

She cringed. Busted. “That’s beside the point.”

“Just saying.”

“Right.” She finished off the bagel. “Thank you for this. I’ve had next to zero for an appetite over the past couple of months.”

“Welcome.” I ate silently, not really sure where to begin the very long talk that we needed to have.

“This is quite the dump, huh?” She looked around the room as if seeing it for the first time. “Certainly not what I’d envisioned for myself at this point in my life.”

“What stopped you?” How did she get to be with Gabriel? Why didn’t she have the career she always dreamed of? Sure she’d been a single mom, but she was hardly a dumb girl. She could have figured something out.

She cocked her head to the side and eyed me a moment. “What do you mean?”

“What stopped you from accomplishing what you wanted? You had some pretty big dreams when we were teenagers.”

“Life.”

Life that included me, or excluded, whichever way you wanted to look at it. “We have a lot to talk about.”

“I know.”

She didn’t know as much as she thought she did. As much as I wanted to dive into the shortcomings of our failed relationship, there were more pressing matters.

“You and Austin aren’t safe here.”

She huffed. “Tell me about it, I’ve never seen so much crime.”

“No. I lied to you yesterday, what I mean is that Gabriel doesn’t want you back.”

“What?” She looked genuinely confused.

There was no delicate way to say it, so I was going to simply hit her with the truth. “He wants you dead, Robyn.”

“What?” Her brow creased as she stared at me as if I were the devil himself, her complexion going white. Maybe she wasn’t far from the truth. “What are you talking about? How do you know this?”

“I’m saying I wasn’t sent here to convince you to go back to him like I’d led you to believe.”

She sprang from the sofa, tripping over the leg of the coffee table as she tried to flee. “What are you here to do?” Despite her question, I could see she was starting to understand.

I couldn’t say it. But I didn’t have to, she could read it in my face.

“You? You were sent to...” She choked on the rest of what she was trying to say, her eyes widening in alarm. She continued to back away, not looking where she was going and tumbling backward over the armchair, coming down on her elbow and groaning out in pain.

“Robyn, just calm down.” Standing, I put my hands out to my sides, palms facing her. “Don’t jump to conclusions.”

“Conclusions? I know. I know what you’ve done in the past...” She crab-walked backwards away from me. “My god!” Scrambling to her feet, she made a run for Austin’s room.

She didn’t make it far. Circling an arm around her waist, I hoisted her up off of the ground and tight against my chest. She went wild against me. Bucking against me, her ungodly sharp fingernails dug into my arm and wrist.

“Jesus fuck Robyn! Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you.”

“I don’t believe you!” She fought even harder, my grip loosening on her numerous times and almost releasing her altogether when she lowered her head and bit down on my arm. “I swear to god, if you hurt my child!” She screeched when even biting me wouldn’t grant her freedom.

“Our child,” I corrected, Angry all over again. “Our child, Robyn. OUR CHILD!”

Despite her struggling, I managed to force her back to the sofa. My intention was to throw her onto the sofa, but it didn’t work out as planned. As she gave one inhumanly strong jerk to get out of my grip, I caught my foot in the armchair she had moments earlier, causing us both to begin falling forward onto the sofa. Robyn landed face first onto the sofa, me after her. She let out a soft gruntlike sound as my body crushed hers under it, winding her.

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