Page 43 of Wilde and Deadly

“Maybe later,” she said with a faint smile.

He whirled back to face her. “You were supposed to kill someone.”

Her chin lifted. “Yes.”

“For money?”

Rowan’s eyes flashed with defiance. “It’s what I do. It’s what I’ve always done. I’m good at death.”

His stomach twisted. How many times had she walked into this apartment, dropped her bag by the door, stripped him down, and fucked him like it was the only thing tethering her to reality—only to walk right back out into a world where she ended lives for money?

And he’d never had a goddamn clue.

How long had she been living like this?

Who had she killed?

The thought made his blood go cold.

“Who was your target?”

She hesitated. Not a flicker, not a beat— a full hesitation. Long enough to make something in his chest lock up.

“It doesn’t matter.”

His breath hissed between his teeth. “The hell it doesn’t. If someone’s after you because you didn’t complete a hit, I need to know who and why.”

She stayed silent. Jaw tight. Shoulders squared. Refusing to give an inch.

His patience snapped, and he grabbed her by the shoulders, giving her a hard shake. “Dammit, Rowan!” His grip tightened, his voice rough, raw, breaking open. “Who was the fucking target?”

Her eyes blazed, but it wasn’t just defiance he saw in the golden depths. Not just fury. There was desperation. Maybe even fear.

“Rowan, tell me.”

“You. Okay? It was you.” She shoved his hands away. “So still think you love me?”

eleven

Rowan watchedthe shock hit like a blow, rippling across his face, freezing him in place. His blue eyes widened—not just in disbelief, but with something worse.

Oh, God.

He hated her.

For a long, suffocating moment, he didn’t move. Didn’t even breathe.

Then his jaw clenched. His hands curled into fists at his sides, and he took a step back.

Away from her.

“Me,” he said, his voice flat, emotionless in a way that made her stomach knot. “You were hired to kill me.”

She nodded, her throat tight. “Yes.”

“So when you came here at Christmas…”

She remembered that night so clearly, the last night they’d spent together. The way he’d felt beneath her hands, the taste of his skin, the sound of his ragged breathing. He’d been so surly after returning from his family’s party, his lip split from Cade punching him, and he’d taken his bad mood out on her in all the best possible ways. And, yes, she’d shamelessly used sex as a distraction because that was also the night her father hired WSW to find her, and she’d been so afraid he’d take her back to Dad’s compound in Wyoming. She’d tied him to his bed with Christmas lights and slipped out while he shouted at her to come back.

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