Page 52 of Hunted Temptation
Vaughn’s lips touch the top of my head with his own heavy exhale. I snuggle closer, wishing, not for the first time, that I could crawl inside his body and stay there forever. I’m without a doubt positive that there is some kind of psychological thingwrong with me, but right now, I don’t care. I’m not sure I ever will.
“Okay, so do we kill this guy?” a woman’s voice calls out.
Vaughn’s spine straightens, and his hands fall from me as he takes a step backward. I hear a man’s voice call out in a very low tone that is laced with warning beyond measure.
“Lucille.”
When I open my eyes, I am met with Theron’s gaze. He gives me a wink but then shifts his attention over to Lucille, who, judging by the bored expression on her face, isn’t the least bit scared of her husband.
She moves toward him and stops when she’s just a few inches from his body, then lifts her hands and presses her palms flat against his chest, almost the same way I stood moments ago in front of Vaughn.
“He needs to go, Theron, and you know it.”
“Yeah,” Theron grunts, then his gaze flicks to meet Vaughn’s. “He does need to go, but the bodies are piling up.”
“They are,” Vaughn murmurs.
I move toward Theron to step between him and Vaughn, my eyes never leaving his. I can feel Vaughn shift around at my back, moving toward me. I can feel his fingers touch the small of my back, but he doesn’t pull me away or try to make me stop talking.
“Theron.”
Theron’s brow arches, and Lucille takes a step backward, her head turning to the side, her eyes finding me. She doesn’t say anything, but they both look at me, watch me with anticipation, waiting for what I’m going to say next.
“No more blood on Vaughn’s hands. No blood on your hands. This is mine.”
“No,” Vaughn and Theron say simultaneously.
“Not you,” Vaughn murmurs.
“Yes, me,” I say. “I need this. He doesn’t get to haunt me from the dead. And he doesn’t get to threaten any of you from the dead, either. Neither do any of the others.”
Lucille’s laughter fills the air around us. The supercharged air. It swirls around me, and I press my lips together as I wait for one of the guys to say something, anything, but they don’t.
With all our attention focused on her, Lucille speaks. “Let us handle this,” she says.
“I don’t think so,” Theron murmurs. Though he doesn’t say it very boisterously.
Lucille smirks as Vaughn slips his hand around my waist, his fingers digging into me and holding me still. Lifting my chin slightly, I look at her, trying to figure out what exactly she’s trying to propose.
Whatever it is, she is certain this is what she wants and that it’s going to work. “I know how to put things on lists. Nobody has to know where it came from, and none of us has to have dirty hands.”
“Wouldn’t your hands be dirty if you were typing the hits?” Vaughn asks.
Lucille shrugs a shoulder. “Only a little messy, kind of like when you have to slide peanut butter off the spoon with your finger.”
“Christ,” Vaughn chuckles. “Your woman is crazy,” he says.
Theron’s lips curve up into a grin. “I love that part about her, and also, she’s got a good idea.”
“Except her idea costs me money, and I can do it all for free,” Vaughn murmurs.
Well then.
There is that.
But then I remember something and turn around to face Vaughn. I tilt my head back, and my eyes find his before I speak.We stare at one another in silence. He watches me, no doubt waiting for me to say something.
“Use my father’s dirty money,” I say.
