Page 127 of Killer Kiss

“You’re right,” I told Riddick. “I wouldn’t kill the man I love. But that’s not him.”

Riddick laughed. “I saw you coming out of his house in Providence. My contacts at Psychos told me you were in there, fucking him like the little whore I know you are. Your mom gave me this job because you can’t do it. That’s what she told me. It quickly became obvious to me why.” He sneered at Banjo’s silent form. “I thought you had better taste, Ophelia. This guy? Really? Is that why you don’t want to marry me? Because you like them so young they could get you arrested?”

I blinked at Riddick’s confession. He’d misunderstood my mother’s words. He had no idea who Augie was or how I actually knew Banjo. All he’d seen was me coming out of Banjo’s house that night he’d followed me up to the bluffs. Maybe his stupid friends who had been at Psychos had reported seeing me with a tall blond man who matched Banjo’s description. Of course he fucking did. He and Augie were brothers. They did look alike, especially in low lighting.

I eyed Banjo, waiting for him to tell Riddick he had the wrong guy.

But he said nothing.

Protecting his brother.

They were good, these Mitchell boys. Despite everything they’d been through, despite their shit upbringings and lives that had dealt them harsh blows and cruel turns, they were good.

Even if they couldn’t see it.

I could.

“He’s not the man I was with at Psychos, Riddick. For Christ’s sake. He’s probably not even old enough to get into Psychos! You said yourself how young he is.” It was a bluff. I knew Banjo was a college senior and had likely already turned twenty-one, even if he did look younger.

Riddick cocked his head and then yanked Banjo up by his hair. “You twenty-one yet, kid?”

Fuck me. All our job bags were the same. They all started with a target bio. If he’d even read it, he would have known Banjo’s true age. My mother had wanted me to work with this man? It was a wonder he’d managed as many kills as he had without getting caught.

Riddick was damn sloppy.

Vincent would have been disgusted.

I silently willed Banjo to be coherent enough to lie.

He didn’t answer. Just groaned in pain.

As much as I didn’t like it, that was probably a blessing in disguise. Better he not be able to talk than him talk and say too much.

Riddick might have been unprepared, but he wasn’t stupid. One wrong step, and both Banjo and I would be dead.

Riddick stared at me, trying to work out if I was lying or not.

It was now or never.

I’d come here knowing there was probably only one thing that would get him to leave Banjo alone. I stepped into Riddick, picking up his hand and threading my fingers through it.

He stared down and then back up at me. A corner of his mouth lifted. “What’s this about? You’ve made it pretty clear you can’t stand me, Ophelia.”

“Maybe so, but the feeling isn’t mutual, is it?”

Riddick’s lips pressed into a line. He didn’t answer.

That was enough to tell me I was on the right track. Riddick was never silent. He ran his mouth constantly, making sure everyone around him knew he was the alpha dog.

But I’d never seen him with a woman. Never heard Jezebel talk about him with a girlfriend.

I might have once been willing to let my mother set me up because I’d been with so many men who just didn’t do it for me.

But I suspected Riddick needed it because he couldn’t get a woman by himself.

“Women run the other way when they see you, don’t they?” I asked him.

His breath came in short, angry pants through his nose, telling me I was on the right track.

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