Page 43 of Gifts

My heart comes to a standstill. I don’t know what’s come over me, but I’ve lost my breath. I look away and stare into the amber flames and try to focus on something—anything but Asa, but he makes that impossible as he keeps informing me about my past.

“I know about the debt, about the trouble he had at work, and I know you’re barely holding onto this place.”

Oh, fuck. I don’t look at him. I can’t.

“Keelie, look at me.”

I shake my head. I don’t know why it’s so devastating for people to learn about David’s secrets and lies, but it is. Even though it wasn’t my doing, it makes me feel weak and vulnerable all over again. I hate it and whisper, “You had no right.”

Still not looking at him, I hear him sigh and shift closer when he lowers his voice. “Maybe.”

My eyes shoot to him and I pin him with a glare.

“Okay,” he amends. “I probably had no right. But when Knox told me his dad was dead, I utilized what access I had to learn about you.”

Biting my lip, I look back to the fire and swallow over the lump in my throat.

“I’d do it again,” he adds.

Huffing a breath of air, I shake my head. “It’s good you’re so confident in your actions, Asa. What the hell do you do that gives you access to the ins and outs of high school counselors?”

He doesn’t miss a beat. “I train men who are hired to take out threats against our country and our allies.”

With that, everything comes into focus and my head jerks. He’s moved his chair so he’s facing my side and has leaned in close.

I frown. “Take out?”

“Yes.”

“Kill?” I breathe.

He doesn’t move a muscle and his eyes are intense. “Yes.”

Well, okay then. I guess that makes the second mortgage and two additional loans David secretly took out on our home right after he emptied our bank and retirement accounts to support his gambling addiction seem … less exciting.

I look away and wonder what’s happened to my life. Four years ago, the man I married moved me from Alexandria to the boonies—against my wishes. I’m a city girl. Living in a brownstone with a patio garden is my idea of being one among nature. But no, just after Saylor’s first birthday, he found this dilapidated farmhouse and insisted we move—even though I didn’t want to—making me promises of rebuilding, refurbishing, clean air, and smaller schools.

I had to revert back to my education degree and take a massive pay cut because both of us couldn’t commute into the District with two small children. I gave up my job as an education lobbyist on Capitol Hill with the largest textbook publisher in the country. I loved that job and was good at it. But in the end, he was a gambling addict, on the verge of losing his job and ended up ruining us financially. Little did I know, he used all the equity we had from our previous home and squandered it with bookies and in closed-room high-dollar tables, leaving me with a jumbo loan on this place. His lies piled up and I still hate myself for being fooled for so long. That was all before he ended up at the bottom of a pileup on the highway, bequeathing me a mountain of loans that were tied to our home. Damn him.

Now I’ve invited a new man into my life who trains men to kill others. What does this say about my choice in men?

He breaks into my thoughts, not at all calming them whatsoever. “And before I trained them, I did what they do.”

I look to him and feel my eyes go big.

“For eight years,” he adds.

I feel my mouth open and then shut before it drops again. I have no words.

“Told you I’d be honest with you, baby.”

I shift in my seat and can’t help myself from crossing my arms protectively. “What does that mean? You know, for now? That sounds dangerous, or, at the very least, as if you’re inviting danger into your life.”

“I’ve taken all the precautions necessary. There’s no danger, Keelie.”

“How do you know that?” I feel my insides tense. I’ve already had one man’s actions ruin my life. It took a long time, but I’m better off on my own. I certainly don’t need some retired contract killer to bring me a whole different kind of drama.

“Because I worked with the CIA and still do. I’m not some thug off the street offing people for cash. I don’t take unnecessary risks. I’d never do that to my family, and I wouldn’t do it to you, either.”

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