Page 7 of Cruel Hearts

“You may not believe so, but I do have my limits. Personal ones. If she’s not the leader of a cartel or if she’s not sellinggovernment secrets to the highest bidder, then I hold the right to step aside.”

“This photo was taken last summer.”

“Then she’s the mother of a toddler.”

“I don’t give a shit what she is.”

“What’s her name?”

“Stella Mayfair.”

“Why are you willing to pay my fees to do away with this little blonde bunny?”

“She did something.”

He waits.

“She tore up my family.”

Hal brushes his fingertips over her baby bump. “And now you want to destroy hers? Or do you simply want revenge?”

The foolish woman came back to King’s Crossing. For what, I’m not sure, but it must be important.

Important enough to face me.

Important enough to die.

“Both. You were the one who taught me the value of buy one, get one.”

Thoughtfully, Hal nods. “I did.” He pauses. “Consider it done.”

Just what I wanted to hear.

I pick up my phone to call Ash but set it down again. He’s in Africa on safari hunting lions and tigers and bears . . . don’t worry, I’m not so lame as to finish.

Looking over the city, I anticipate telling Ash that while he was gone, I did a little hunting of my own.

CHAPTER THREE

Stella

Quinn shows me a place to shower. It isn’t much, but the water’s hot. While I was Ash’s prisoner, I had the best of the best. Even the trim I had last month cost over five hundred dollars. I wanted to color my hair, too, but the stylist who came to my room said it wasn’t permitted.

He did that to show me he controlled me.

I didn’t need the reminder.

I wrap a towel around my torso and step out of the shower stall. Quinn meets me holding a sleeveless sundress and a cross-body purse. “Your backpack’s too bulky, and it’s a hundred degrees outside.”

The dress is cute, light pink and covered in tiny white flowers. It’s something I would have worn before I met Zane. Before he promoted me and Zarah took me shopping. When my simple life wasn’t muddied with complicated “what could have beens.”

Quinn also lends me a fresh bra, clean panties, and white ballet flats. I can run in these if I have to. She’s thought of everything.

She’s dressed similarly to me in a dress and flats, and we look like a couple of girls going to the mall for the afternoon. I don’t have anywhere to put the gun Luis gave me, and even though I don’t know how to shoot it, I feel lost without it. Quinn carries a messenger bag instead of a purse, and she says she’s armed.

One of us has to be.

I tuck the flash drive into an inner pocket of the small purse. “I’m ready.”

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