Page 41 of Cruel Ice

“I hate hospitals.”Marley stared up at the ceiling as she made this declaration.

“Then why did you stay with me last night?” Declan asked as curiosity stirred within him. When it came to Marley, he was discovering that he was far more curious than he’d ever realized. He had a deep need to learn everything about her. Every single secret she possessed.

How many scars do you have, Marley? And would you like for me to kill the bastard who put them on you?Because he would. He could. Easily.

She didn’t look his way. Just kept gazing at the ceiling as if it held all of the secrets in the world. It didn’t. It was a shitty ceiling with white and gray speckled panels and two overly bright, round lights that beamed down on her.

After a long moment, she admitted, “I stayed because I was protecting you.”

And that’s the same reason you got shot tonight. Your need to protect me. I need to break you of this bad habit, Marley.He wasn’t worth protecting. “Sebastian Glass,” he prompted. He should have gotten the background check on her sooner. There was too much he didn’t know about Marley.

James usually worked much faster when it came to gathering intel. But Declanhadput the man on tailing Keith as priority one. For all the good that surveillance had done.

Declan pulled out his phone. Fired off a text to James.I want every bit of data you have on Marley. I want it now. Marley…and some piece of shit named Sebastian Glass.

“I don’t need you to kill him. Sebastian Glass is sitting on death row. The state will take care of the job soon enough.” A soft sigh. “Are you really going to make me stay here all night?”

“Yes.”

“Don’t let the nurses come in every three hours.” Disgruntled. “You know they do that crap. Checking your blood pressure, temperature—all the things. I don’t need it.” Adamant. “I just have some stitches. I should be home.”

The home that had been trashed? Not likely.

“You needed it,” she muttered. “You actually needed to stay overnight for care. You were the one who’d been drugged. I just got zinged by a stray bullet.”

Zinged, his ass. “Why didn’t you tell me that you’d been shot?”

Her gaze finally pulled from the ceiling. Her head turned his way, and those deep, dark, utterly unforgettable eyes of hers locked on him. “I didn’t want to be a bother.”

“What?” He almost jumped from the damn chair.

She winced. “That was probably louder than you intended it to be. You’re usually creepily quiet.”

Usualdidn’t apply to any of his interactions with her. And she wasn’t going to distract him. He knew her words had been a deliberate distraction. “The fuck you didn’t want to be a bother.”

“Right.” A nod. “The fuck I didn’t want to be. And, at first, I wasn’t even sure I’d been hit by a bullet. A lot was happening in that alley. My priority as your PI was to keep you safe.”

Screw that. “You need new priorities.”

A faint line appeared between her brows. “Are you firing me?” Real alarm flared in the darkness of her eyes. “Because of this little zing?”

Did she have to keep calling it a zing? When she’d been bleeding all over the place, it had hardly seemed like a freakingzing.

“Marley—” Declan began.

“Don’t fire me.I’mthe one who spotted the shooter, remember? I can do this job.”

He rubbed his chest. “I know you can.” Only there wasn’t really a job. “There’s something I need to tell you…” How to be delicate? Tactful? He had zero clue. Mostly because he’d never been delicate or tactful a day in his life.Marley, I was bullshitting when I said I wanted you to help me find the SOB behind my abduction. Really, you’re in danger. I want you close so that I can protect you.

Except he’d done a piss-poor job of protecting her so far. She was in a hospital bed. Looking heartbreakingly fragile. “I want to scoop you up,” he confessed, voice rough. “Run the hell out of here with you and get you far away from any threat.” He could put her on his private plane within the hour. By dawn, he could have her out of the country. Maybe he could take her to some tropical island where she’d have twenty-four, seven protection and then he’d be able to actually breathe without feeling this tight knot in his aching chest.

But Marley just tilted her head to the side as she studied him. Then she said, “If you understand the killer and his methods for selecting victims, you can protect people.”

Declan blinked.

“At least, that was the premise I followed when I was studying for my Ph.D. My thesis was on using victimology to helppreventpeople from being chosen by predators. Because that’s what some of the most dangerous killers do…theychoose their prey. Specific prey. It’s not some random event. Specific people are chosen for specific reasons. Sebastian Glass murdered three women. Three that were confirmed kills. We always suspected there were more, just like Parker said.”

Declan found that he could not move. His body seemed to have turned into stone.

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