Page 24 of Battle Lines

Heartbreak lingered in those last three words and decided me.

Apparently, it decided the assassin as well cause he went for Loverboy. The garrote in his hand would be around his throat—or would have been if I hadn’t crashed into him, picked him all the way up and carried him at speed to the balcony doors I’d opened earlier. I flung him out, sent him flying across the alley to hit the building next door.

Well… technically he hit one of the balustrades.

The man never made a sound.

One minute he was there and the next, he hit the ground below.

Rest in pavement, you son of a bitch.

A lamp crashed to the floor and I turned to find Loverboy standing there in the dark, fumbling with his phone.

“Don’t,” I told him. “I wasn’t here. You didn’t see anything. The mess on the street will be cleaned up.”

Fear locked the other man up.

That happened to some people.

Right now, it would keep Collin’s erstwhile lover alive.

“I don’t know what the Reeds were paying you. I don’t care. Find a new job. Find it tonight. Move.”

His sharp indrawn breath was all the answer I needed.

“There’s money in the drawer with the cufflinks. Untraceable.”

“You—you killed that man…” The broken words almost made me smile.

“I was never here. So if someone was killed—it wasn’t me.” I spared a glance over my shoulder. It also wasn’t my best work.

Efficient though.

With that, I headed for the door.

“Wait—”

I paused.

“That’s—that’s it?”

Pivoting, I faced his silhouette. My eyes were well-used to the shadows of the room. I could make him out. The way his chest rose and fell and how he flexed his grip.

“You’re not going to say anything to me about Collin? About—”

I waited.

“I—he broke up with me. That’s because of you.”

I said nothing.

“They know…”

Well, clearly, or they wouldn’t have sent someone to tie off this thread.

“I never wanted to hurt him.”

Want had nothing to do with it.

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