Page 34 of The Hitman's Secret Love Child

Chapter 14

Robyn

Boy, that was close. My hand was throbbing, the stress of this situation winning. I swear to God that I must have scrubbed off several layers of skin attempting to get the ring off. Guess I gained more weight than I had thought since prom. Finally, it came off and I released a hearty sigh of relief, but his knocking on the door sprung me back into action as I began my attempts to clean the soap and gunk off it.

“Just one more minute,” I called through the door. Once satisfied the ring was back to its original condition I slipped it into my front jeans pocket. The ring settled into the bottom of my front jeans pocket and it was a burning reminder of my intrusion.

I had a lot of new and nagging questions about the past, but asking them would only give away what I’d done. I’d have to find a way to bring up what I wanted to know for my own peace of mind and perhaps for the closure I’m sure he needed as much as I did.

Throwing open the door, I found Constantine on the other side, poised to knock again. Geez, impatient much?

“Is that blood?” I looked a little more closely, reaching for the collar of his shirt and wiping my finger across it. It still had a tacky feeling. Bringing my finger to my nose, I took a sniff; the substance had a metallic smell to it.

He looked down at the red blotch on his collar and shrugged.

I took the non-response to mean yes. “Why is there blood on your collar? Whose blood is it? Are you hurt?” He didn’t look hurt. “What happened at my apartment? What did you do?” Who did you kill? That final question didn’t leave my lips.

“We need to sit down and discuss a few things.”

The ring in my pocket was forgotten as I looked up into his face and saw the seriousness in his eyes. “Okay…”

Grasping my elbow in his hand, Constantine led me to his bedroom and directed me inside, following behind and closing the door as he cleared the doorway. “Sit down.”

He motioned toward the bed.

Wordlessly, I walked to the bed and perched myself on the edge. “What happened?” My eyes darted over to the closet, then back to meet his.

“I went to your apartment and the man who hired me was there.”

My eyes went wide as I stared at him, my mouth falling open momentarily. “Did you kill him in my apartment?” Ohmygod! Gabriel would be after me in spades now. And the police, wouldn’t I be their main suspect? It was my apartment, one that I’d fled without a word to the landlord, after all.

Constantine looked at me as if I’d grown a second head. “No, of course not!”

I released a sigh of relief. “Then what is the blood from? Are you hurt?”

“It’s from that little weasel who hired me. I didn’t kill him in your apartment, don’t be crazy, I’m not an amateur.”

I breathed a sigh of relief. I refused to allow my thoughts to linger on the statement that he wasn’t an amateur.

“I killed him in the subway washroom.”

My bubble of hope burst and I deflated both internally and physically.

Grasping my shoulders in his hands, Constantine sat down beside me. “Don’t worry, there is nothing to link it to either of us.”

Despite how horrible Gabriel’s minion was, he was dead because of me and his murderer was staring me in the face. “Did he attack you?”

The expression on his face was almost amused. “Would it make you feel better if I said that I killed him in self-defence?”

“Yes. I mean…” Closing my eyes I gave my head a shake, attempting to clear the cobwebs. It wasn’t the fact that he was dead that bothered me – he was hardly a good man. His death would no doubt be a blessing to many souls out there. My concern was that Constantine was indeed capable of murder. “This feels so surreal,” I murmured. Maybe I’d wake up any minute and discover this was just one long, drawn-out bad dream.

“Robyn, here’s the thing. You’re in the position where it’s either take them out or be on the run for the rest of your life, because I guarantee that they won’t stop until you’re dead.”

The thought sent a chill through me, causing my entire body to tremble. He was right and there was no turning back now. I should never have accepted that first date from Gabriel. Hell, I never should have married him. In the back of my mind I’d known something was off about Gabriel – why hadn’t I listened to my intuition?

“I’ll take care of you, Robyn. Nothing is ever going to hurt you or Austin again. I promise.”

I looked up and my gaze locked with his. He’d kept all those memories of us and had them tucked away. Did he look at them often and wonder “What if?” I knew I had. I’d wondered about it countless times over the past number of years. That’s what happens when you don’t have closure, I suppose.

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