Page 44 of Wilde and Deadly

“I was supposed to do it that night,” she admitted quietly. “It was my second chance.”

His eyes almost bugged out of his head. “Second? What was the first?”

Her gaze dropped to the floor, unable to meet his eyes as shame burned up the back of her neck. “Your parents’ Fourth of July barbecue last summer.”

“You’ve been planning to kill me forsix months?”

“No.” She winced as she pushed off the wall. The adrenaline was wearing off, and the pain from her injuries was setting in again. “I mean, yes, technically, I was supposed to be planning it. I was supposed to do it before you took control of Wilde Security. But I already knew I wouldn’t. Both times.”

Davey’s expression was unreadable. “So instead of killing me, you fucked me. Both times.”

She flinched at his harsh tone. “It wasn’t like that.”

“Then what was it like?” he demanded, his voice rising. “A couple nights of mind-blowing sex and suddenly you decided to grow a conscience and not to kill me? How romantic.”

“It wasn’t just the sex,” Rowan snapped, the frustration spiking into something dangerously close to heartbreak. “It was you, you idiot.”

God, why couldn’t he see it?

“The way you look at me, like I’m more than just a body to warm your bed.”

Like I matter. Like I’m worth something.

“The way you hold me after, like you never want to let go.” Her breath hitched, but she refused to let the words die in her throat. “It’s never been just sex between us, and you know it. That’s why I took the job in the first place. I never planned to kill you. I took it to protect you. And now, because I didn’t do it, they’re coming after me and threatening my family.”

His laugh wasn’t really a laugh. It was sharp, jagged, more like a broken edge of glass.

Her stomach twisted. She had expected the anger, the betrayal. But this? This cold, distant, hollow sound—this was worse.

“Protectme?” His voice was softer now but all the more dangerous for it. “By accepting a hit on me? That’s some twisted logic, Ro.”

“I knew if I didn’t take the job, they’d just hire someone else. Someone who wouldn’t hesitate to put a bullet in your head. At least with me, I could control the situation, buy some time to figure out who was behind it and why.”

“You don’t know who hired you?”

“No. The job came through an intermediary.” She raised a hand to touch him, but he knocked it away and put the length of the room between them.

“Don’t. You’re gonna have to give me a minute here because I’m having a hard time wrapping my head around the fact that the woman I love was hired to kill me. I mean… fuck!”

She stayed back and watched him pace, noting his limp was more pronounced than usual.

Finally, he stopped moving and let out a humorless laugh. “Jesus Christ, Ro. You really know how to fuck things up, don’t you?”

“Excuse me?” She stepped into his space and jabbed a finger at his chest. “You should be thanking me.”

Davey’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Thanking you? For what, exactly? For not killing me? For lying to me for months?”

Rowan’s finger curled into a fist against his chest. “For saving your life, you ungrateful bastard. If I hadn’t taken that contract, you’d be dead right now.”

“You should have told me.”

She scoffed. “Oh, sure, that would have gone over well. ‘Hey Davey, just so you know, someone wants you dead and hired me to do it. But don’t worry, I’m not going to follow through. Want to grab dinner and fuck?’”

Davey ran a hand through his hair, frustration evident in every tense line of his body. “At least I would have known there was a threat. I could have protected myself. Instead, I’ve been walking around with a target on my back for months, completely oblivious.”

“And what would you have done if I had? Gone charging in like some alphahole to save the day? You would have gotten yourself killed, and then all of this would have been for nothing.”

He grabbed her wrist, pulling her hand away from his chest. “That wasn’t your call to make. I had a right to know someone wants me dead.”

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