Handing her the computer, I watch as she looks at the screen in confusion, before pain and fear overtake her beautiful features. She reads and rereads the contract I accepted in order to protect her, until her entire body is shaking.
Moving off the chair, I slowly take the computer before kneeling in front of her, taking her shaking hands in mine.
“Liv, baby, look at me,” I whisper, and she bursts into sobs, trying to pull her hands from mine, but I don’t let her.
“You… you took a contract t—to k—kill me?” she sobs, her words broken with tears, and I shake my head vehemently.
“No, Liv. No. I took the contract to buy time so I could trace it back to whoever put it out. So I can takethemout. I took it to keep you safe, baby,” I swear to her, and she’s shaking her head as tears stream down her face.
“You’re a killer? Y—you weren’t ki—kidding?” she sniffs, her cries still making her entire body tremble.
It’s fucking killing me to see her like this, but it was inevitable. “I am, baby. I know that’s not something you want to hear, but last night made it impossible for me to hide this from you,” I whisper, my heart cinching when I think about someone breaking into her home to kill her.
If I hadn’t been down the road monitoring her, I never would have made it to her in time. I came so close to losing her, and that terrifies me more than anything else ever has.
“Last night?” she whispers, lifting her shoulder to try and wipe some of the tears off her face. “What happened last night?” She’s still crying, but it’s slowed down a bit.
I squeeze her hands in mine, looking into her eyes to try and convey how much she truly means to me. “I did something a few days ago that tipped the original poster’s hand. They sent another hit out.” I swallow as her face crumbles even more. “But it was a shit contract, Liv. The person they hired this time wasn’t top notch. They got desperate,” I explain, moving slowly to stand and sit down on the couch beside her.
Her face scrunches in thought as she tries to understand all of this in her mind, but she’s too innocent and perfect to truly understand how dark some people can be in this world.