Page 48 of Fast Kill

Dammit. He still didn’t know how this had happened. His plan should have worked.

How had she woken up and found out about the carbon monoxide, anyway? He’d disabled the detector personally before she’d gotten home from work.

He’d been in total shock when she’d walked out her front door in the pouring rain a few hours ago and headed straight to the agent watching her house. If Dillon had been in a better position, he could have shot her too. But the angle had been bad and he hadn’t wanted to risk taking a shot and missing, wounding her and alerting her to his presence. Carbon monoxide poisoning had seemed so much easier. So peaceful for her. Painless. Actually having to put a bullet in her head…

Dillon kept going, driving two more blocks before turning right and doing a big loop back around to make sure no one was following him. When he came back around the front of the building, the dark blue SUV that had brought her here was leaving.

It had only been here for a minute, long enough for Dillon to circle around. Tugging the brim of the ball cap lower over his face, he drove past the building again and kept going. They’d have agents watching the building now, and maybe cops too. The hard knot of anxiety beneath his ribs expanded. Everyone would be on high alert tonight, so making a move would be stupid and likely get him killed.

The window of time Carlos had given him was closing fast. If Dillon didn’t fix this within the next twenty-four hours, his boss would send someone else after Taylor, and…

No. Bad enough she had to die. He wouldn’t let them torture and rape her on top of it.

Time was running out for her either way, but it was also running out for him. If he failed to find and kill her by the deadline, it was only a matter of time before he wound up on the hit list as well.

He glanced at the clock in the dashboard. As of right now he had under twenty-four hours to end this so he could get out of the country and back to the protection offered by the cartel. Failure wasn’t an option. Not unless he wanted to become another one of its countless victims.

Either he finished this, or he risked it all and enacted his emergency exit plan.

Chapter Fourteen

Could this day be over yet?

Taylor paused to stretch her neck muscles in an attempt to ease the kinks in her neck and shoulders, then reached for yet another file stacked on the coffee table in the apartment. Home sweet home for the foreseeable future, at least until Dillon was taken into custody.

But she wasn’t convinced that even that would end the threat against her.

The DEA was now using her as an expert witness to help them build a case around Dillon’s involvement with the cartel. Her boss and other investigators had interviewed her for hours today already, going over timelines and everything she knew about Dillon.

Logically it made no sense, but a tiny part of her was still conflicted about turning on him, wrestling with her conscience while she tried to reconcile the memory of the teenage boy she’d known and worshipped with the man who’d tried to kill her last night.

That was impossible though. She’d been working since seven that morning, stopping only to force down some toast with peanut butter and some fruit for lunch. It was after dinnertime now and she was starving, not to mention exhausted.

She felt more alone here than she had at home, and even Nimbus wouldn’t come out to keep her company. He was molting in the corner of the bathroom right now, next to his litter box and food dish. He hated change and disruption as much as she did.

Her phone chimed. She picked it up, warmth and relief filling her when she saw Logan’s message. He’d told her he would stop by after his doctor’s appointment. I’m on my way up. You hungry?

He was here already?Starved. If you brought food, you’re my hero.

That’s me. Lumberjack hero. Hang tight.

She had just enough time to tidy up the coffee table before he knocked. She pulled open the door, her heart doing a little swooning thing that she was becoming more and more used to. “Oh, wow, look at you.”

“Wore this just for you,” he said proudly, carrying the bags inside, his limp still noticeable.

He looked exactly like the lumberjack she’d imagined him as the first time she’d met him. The red and black checked flannel shirt was unbuttoned over a white T-shirt beneath, and he’d rolled the sleeves up to expose his roped forearms. She wanted to run her hands over those arms in the worst way.

“Left my axe in the back of Zaid’s truck, but I can go get it if you want. You know, if that would really do it for you.”

Hereally did it for her, axe or no axe, even though they were opposites in so many ways and she kept telling herself there was no long-term future for them. Not when she was so emotionally closed off and afraid of the intimacy she craved with him. Real intimacy, the kind that a committed relationship required, meant trusting a partner enough to open herself up and share every part of her, even the dark or ugly parts. The prospect was still too terrifying.

She couldn’t tell Logan. She wasn’t sure she wouldeverbe able to tell him. Both men she’d trusted in the past had hurt her, in different ways. The shame she still carried from that terrible night long ago when she’d been taken away from her home prevented her from laying herself bare to someone. She couldn’t give her whole heart to Logan if she wasn’t honest with him. And holding back meant certain disaster for their budding relationship.

Taylor forced a bright smile to hide her gloomy thoughts. “Nah, it’s okay. I’ve got a good imagination. I’ll just picture you with it.”

And without clothes, since she’d done that countless times over the past few weeks anyway.

“Okay. Let me know if you change your mind.” He waggled his eyebrows at her, and actually the idea of role playing with him seemed like it could be fun instead of ridiculous. And it might even be hot. Not that she had any experience with that sort of thing. “I brought Thai food. Hope that’s okay.”

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