Page 93 of Never Fall for an Angel

“Kill me, and there’s no guarantee she gets out of this alive.”

“Fuck,” he grits, letting out a deep breath. He’s silent for a moment, and I almost think he hung up when he speaks again. “Hannah’s pregnant.”

“Congratulations.” I mean it. Mason’s gone through some shit, but he’s a good man. Loyal. Big as a fucking linebacker, but he deserves this. So does Hannah.

“Thanks,” he says dryly.

“Honeymoon faze over, already?”

“Fuck no,” he murmurs.

At one point, Mason and I were close. Like brothers. He’s the reason I started working for Parker in the first place.

We all wanted the same thing: Parker dead.

“So what’s the problem?”

“You’ve met me,” he murmurs. “I’ll find a way to fuck that kid up.”

Mason doesn’t talk about his feelings. Most men don’t, but he may as well be a fucking closed door, chained shut. I can relate. Feelings aren’t something I fuck with, either.

“Kids don’t know it’s your first time being a dad,” I say, remembering something my mother once said. “They just want you to be there and to try. You’re going to be a good father, Carpenter. Hannah’s going to be a good mom.”

He’s silent for a moment. “She’ll be the best.”

“I’ll call you when I need you,” I tell him, standing from my desk. “If you show up here unannounced, I’ll shoot. I even see the whites of your eyes.”

“Christian,” he says before I hang up and I pause. “Bring my sister back.”

MILA

Mila, get the fuck down from there!”

I shiver as the wind whips my hair into my face, looking down over the edge of the hospital building.

My mother swore she wouldn’t bring me back here. She swore and then she did it anyway.

Now they’re here.

It would be so easy to jump. So easy to let this all end so no one else has to get hurt.

Why doesn’t he understand that? That my presence is only causing more pain?

I hate him. I hate him for making me love him. I hate him for lying to me about who he was. I hate that after everything he’s done, his leaving, his aiding the enemy, there’s still a massive hole in my heart where he should be.

Most of all . . . I hate that I still love him despite all of that.

“Why can’t you leave me alone?” Guilt washes through me, this feeling of loneliness gnawing at my insides until I feel like I’ll bleed to death from the inside out.

I swallow over the pain in my throat, my heartbeat racing in my chest. My head spins, the edge fading in and out of existence, and I take a step to the side to steady myself.

It would be so easy . . .

“Mila,” Christian grits, his voice filled with anger. I turn around, and his eyes look to the ledge, then they meet mine, and there’s nothing but hatred in that gaze that used to look at me like I was the only girl in the world.

“Let me go . . . please?”

“Mila, you jump off that roof, you’re killing us both. Remember that.”

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