Page 122 of The Truths that Deceive

“I’ve got a proposal,” he says. “If you’re willing to listen.”

Chapter 34

Calista

My head swims. Scarlett and Ivy came to hold my hand. I don’t know them, but if I ever get the chance to make friends in my dim and dark future, I’d choose them.

Ivy is sweet, and Scarlett… she’s got a lot of sass. I can tell in the way she deals with Malone, how she pushed him off even though he backed her out of the room for a few minutes, their giggles and laughter and long silences all making Ivy blush.

Her guy, Mercer… now he’s interesting as well. Mercer is cold and hard, elegance and killer rolled into one. The complete opposite of her but I can see them fit together. His eyes never left her even as he stood talking to someone else.

But they only stayed a short while.

And now…

I wait.

For word on Smith. In this private hospital that looks like it sprang from a rich person’s retreat. I might as well be in prison.

There’s no future for me. None at all.

I can hear Smith, bellowing at someone like a crotchety old man. One who slays dragons and fights Nazis and can get up and argue after nearly dying, but scratch him? He’s a cranky baby.

A giggle rises in my throat, but I swallow it down because I know it’s born from hysteria and if I let it take flight, I’ll be lost. I’ll try to run. I’ll curl up on the floor. Go on a murderous spree.

Actually, it’ll be a “blow up everyone’s lives by hacking them” spree. Because I’m not a murderer. Not unless it’s life and death for me or someone I love.

“I killed that son of a bitch.”

Not for my mother.

Not for what that asshole did to me and my brother.

Not for the girls he hurt and raped.

Honestly, I wish it was for one of those reasons. Two and a half of them are noble.

I shiver in the cool air of the private, exclusive hospital, ignoring the cold coffee sitting on the table in front of me. Ignoring the hard glare of the other man I stun gunned in the balls.

No. I did it for Smith.

Because… Because…

Shit.

I know I did it for someone I loved. For him.

At some point between when he bumped into me and planted that tracker on me in Germany to now, with me killing a man I’d never met until tonight, I might have fallen for him.

Now I’m waiting to see Smith, to make sure he’s good after he passed out, covered in so much blood.

Because I thought Eric had killed him. And when Smith went down the second time, I lost it.

From across the room, keeping his distance, eyeing me like I’m a thorn in his balls, Reaper appears. “He wants to see you.”

“Should I zap you again?”

Reaper raises a brow as he holds up the stun gun. “Mine.”

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