Page 128 of His Ruthless Match
His hand snapped the man’s arm behind his back in one clean motion, forcing him to his knees. Then, with terrifying calm, he wrapped an arm around the man’s throat and twisted.
A sharp crack.
Silence.
The body slumped like dead weight, collapsing onto the tile with a final thud.
I stood frozen, breath sawing in and out of my chest. My fingers were shaking. There was blood on the floor. On the counters. On Jareth.
He turned to me, eyes like cut obsidian. He didn’t say anything.
He didn’t have to.
Whoever had sent that man hadn’t expected Jareth to be here. And now someone knew I wasn’t just a lawyer.
I was a target.
My knees buckled, and I gripped the counter for support, my breath coming in shallow gasps. Jareth turned to me, his chest heaving, his eyes still burning with intensity.
“Are you okay?” he asked, crossing the room in a few quick strides. His hands found my shoulders, his touch firm but grounding.
I nodded shakily, though my entire body was trembling. “I think so.”
His gaze softened slightly, and he brushed a strand of hair from my face. “You’re safe. It’s over.”
I glanced at the body on the floor, bile rising in my throat. “What if there are more of them?” I whispered. “What if?—”
“There aren’t,” Jareth interrupted gently but firmly. “Not tonight. I’ll make sure of it.”
He was calm, too calm, as if snapping someone’s neck was just another Tuesday for him. And maybe it was. But for me, it was a reminder of just how far out of my depth I really was.
“You’re hurt,” I said, glancing at the cut on his side.
Jareth shrugged, brushing it off. “It’s nothing.”
“It’s not nothing,” I insisted, tentatively touching the skin beneath the wound.
“Later,” he said. “Right now, I need to get this cleaned up and make sure no one else tries to get in.”
I nodded. “Okay.”
He pressed a quick, firm kiss to my forehead. “Stay here. I’ll take care of everything.”
As he moved to deal with the body, I sank into a chair, clutching the still-warm coffee mug in my hands. My heart was racing, my mind spinning, but one thought stood out above the rest: I had never felt safer than I did with Jareth standing between me and the rest of the world.
35
JARETH
The metallic tang of blood hung in the air as I stared down at the corpse sprawled on Eva’s pristine floor. My breathing was calm, measured, as if this were nothing more than routine. And for me, it was. But Eva’s soft gasp from across the room reminded me that this wasn’t her world. And I hated that she’d witnessed so much that she never should have been exposed to.
She had her arms wrapped tightly around her torso as though trying to hold herself together. Her wide eyes darted between me and the blood seeping into her expensive flooring. “I still can’t believe you just killed him like it was nothing. In the middle of my apartment.”
I shrugged. “He wasn’t here to sell fucking cookies, Delgado. He was going to hurt you. Kill you, more than likely.”
Her lips parted, but no sound came out. Her gaze flicked to the broken glass scattered near the balcony and then to the body. “This isn’t normal. None of this is normal.”
I walked over to her, placing a hand on her shoulder. She flinched slightly but didn’t pull away. “Eva,” I said, my tone low and steady, “focus. You’re safe now. That’s all that matters.”
