Page 40 of The Hitman's Secret Love Child

Chapter 16

Robyn

It’s gotta be here. It’s gotta. It took me all evening, but I’d finally found a moment while Constantine was watching a movie with Austin to sneak into his room and search for the ring I’d lost. After the movie, Constantine wanted to put Austin to bed so I should hear him coming up the stairs and down the hallway.

I pulled my hand back from under the bed and peered under again. Nothing. His room was very clean and tidy so if it was on the floor I would have it by now. Tears filled my eyes and I batted them away with the back of my hand. What would I do if I couldn’t find it? Eventually he’d find out it was gone and the only person who could have taken it would be me.

Maybe I should just come clean?

Oh yea, good call. By the way Constantine, I was rummaging through your stuff and decided to pry up a false bottom of your drawer and wear the ring I assume you bought for me, I mocked myself.

I groaned out loud. I was royally and truly fucked!

“Lose something?” I heard Constantine ask. I swear to God my heart stopped and fell to my stomach hearing Constantine’s voice. The man was insanely stealthy, I hadn’t heard him coming in. Popping up from behind the bed, I blew a lock of hair from my face that had fallen over my eyes.

“Ummm. I…” Then my eyes spotted it as he raised his hand, the back of his hand facing me, the ring on the tip of his pinkie finger. My mouth fell open. “What? Ummm…” Boy, was my vocabulary stellar right now. But he had me, hands in the cookie jar so to speak and I had no idea how to deal with this situation.

His expression was blank; even his eyes refused to give away what he was thinking or feeling. Staring at him, I didn’t know how to play it. Obviously the gig was up.

“Instead of trying to come up with a lie that I’ll see through in a second, you might as well try the truth on me. Were you attempting to gather stuff to sell and make a run for it?”

Anger flooded me, washing away the embarrassment and guilt I’d been feeling. Planting my hands on my hips, I glared at him from across the room. “First off, I would never steal from you! Second, if I needed money to the point where I need to sell something then I’d sell one of my handbags or some of my own jewelry!” Had Constantine not come along when he had I would have – it had been on my to-do list – but I wasn’t about to tell him that.

“Then why were you going through my things? You had to have done some hardcore digging to find this. We both know where this came from.”

I didn’t answer and his expression continued to be unreadable. What if he threw me and Austin out on our ears? We’d be dead within 48 hours. At least I would be, Gabriel would give mercy to Austin and raise him as his own. The thought of my child getting mixed up in the shady life that Gabriel lived made me sick. Fuck, I was a stupid, stupid woman.

“So, my question to you is why were you nosing through my stuff?”

The anger within me deflated as quickly as it came on. I was the one at fault here, not him. Might as well lay the truth onto him. “Look, I’ve been a pretty bad judge of character in the past. Considering the circumstances, I felt I needed to make sure that we were safe here.”

“So then why did you take the ring?”

“I didn’t – exactly.” I sighed and came around the bed, plunking myself down on the edge. “I was being nosy. I just happened to notice the fake bottom in the drawer and my curiosity got the better of me, if someone tries to hide something that badly then it’s something important, so I opened it and found –”

“Its contents,” he said for me.

“Yeah, and then the ring case. I don’t know what came over me. I saw the ring and tried it on and the damned thing wouldn’t come off…”

A hint of a grin touched his lips, though I could tell he was doing his damnedest to hold it back. “So that’s what all the grunts and groans were about in the bathroom, and here I was thinking you were constipated.”

“No, I wasn’t constipated, Jesus that’s crude.” I scowled at him. “I was trying to pry it off my chunky-assed finger.”

A roar of laughter erupted from him. “Your fingers aren’t that chunky.”

“But they are chunky.” I held my hands up in front of my eyes and examined them.

“My God, you’re as impossible as you were back then.” He turned from me and entered the walk-in closet. “Fucking impossible.”

It took me a moment, but I slowly slid from the bed and followed him into the closet. I wasn’t sure if he really wanted me to join him and I was still under the umbrella of my embarrassment, but I gathered myself and followed him. I still had questions and considering he’d laughed instead of thrown me out on my ear, or worse, I took the chance that he may be willing to give me some of the answers I sought.

He was in the process of replacing the ring in its case when I entered. “Why did you keep all this stuff?” Might as well just cut to the chase.

“Does it matter?”

“Yes, it might.” I leaned against the doorjamb and thrust my hands into my jeans pockets. “That ring, was it meant for me?”

He looked up from the ring, which was now snug in it’s case, and at me. “What do you think?”

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