Page 99 of Love After Never

I see her, too. Every cracked and ashen piece.

“Fucking crazy, right? I thought you’d get the memo. With the whole safe word bit.”

Layla chuckles, the sound diminishing as automatically sucks in a hiss and lifts a hand to her side, pressing against her damaged ribs. “I was a bit slow. Blame it on being drugged.”

The urge to kiss her overwhelms me. To take her face in my hands and smooth away every bruise I helped put there. “We’re out of time,” I tell her instead. “You need to get out of here.Now. You’re supposed to be dead.”

She finally lowers the gun but still grips it tight. “Oh, I’m so sorry you didn’t finish the job.” There’s no heat in her voice.

“They think I have, and it’s a lie they have to believe. I need you to get to your apartment and wait for me there, Layla. This isn’t funny. You’ll be shot dead by Broderick’s men if they see you anywhere on these streets. So be careful. Get home, and I’ll come and tell you everything. Butthisis over. It’s over.”

“Why doesn’t it feel that way?” she whispers. She lets the gun drop to her side and I gently retrieve it, tucking it into my pants.

The same kind of trust she has for her partner, she’s placed in me. God. I do not deserve it.

She sighs. “I hate this. And I want to hate you. I want you to die a slow and painful death, Gabriel Blackwell.”

I nod. “I know you do, sweetheart. I know you do.”

“Why can’t I hate you?”

“I’ve been asking myself the same question because God knows—” I’m unable to finish the sentence.

Even on a good day I hate myself.

So it’s nothing but a surprise when Layla stares at me now with too many mixed emotions in her gaze for us to untangle. Just as it was a surprise when she admitted her feelings in the warehouse.

Sirens in the distance cut through the tension between us.

“We’re about to be caught. Get out of here,” I order.

Layla wastes no time bolting down the stairs. I drag Jade’s body down to the back entrance and my SUV, pulling out just as three cop cruisers stop on the street.

I head straight to the boss’s office and dump the body on his floor.

Broderick barely glances up from his books. “Is this a gift for me?” he asks. “Which bitch do you have today, Blackwell?”

“Yes, consider it a gift.” I nudge Jade with the toe of my shoe and she gives a low moan, her eyes flickering behind closed lids. She’s in for a harsh reality check when she wakes. I can’t find it in me to feel bad for her. “Get whatever you can out of her. She’s been working for years on a secondary rival drug ring in the city.”

“You kept her alive?” Something else comes to life in Broderick’s voice.

I nod.

“Nice work, kid.” He flicks cold eyes up at me. “And the detective?”

“Gone.”In one way or another.

“I’ll call you when I need you.”

A knot in my chest slowly starts to unwind. Dismissed, I leave and head straight to Layla’s apartment, having already gotten her address. Part one of this fucking charade is done. Whatever happens to Jade now will be so much worse than anything Layla might have done. Or even me.

I just dropped the woman off in the lap of the devil who will be sure to pay her back for her ambition.

Layla isn’t home yet so I pick the lock and wait inside. When she manages to stumble in ten minutes later, I flick the lights on against the oncoming dusk. At least that will work in our favor. So much easier to disappear under night’s cover.

Her shoulders drop and she groans, shutting the door behind her. I want to hold my arms out to her. Wait for her to come to me and never let her go.

How the hell will she ever let me touch her again?

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