Page 125 of One Secret

I try to dodge the question but she's like a dog with a bone. Her voice is pointed and persistent, stalking me from across the room.

'Cyrus?'

'Because the plan is shit!' I finally grunt in anger. 'Okay? The plan is unimportant now.'

I throw the empty duffel away from me and it flops over the rumpled bedspread, like a flag of surrender. I turn on Darcy with hot agitation, shame burning in my face.

'Coming here was a giant mistake,' I confess. 'A complete waste of time.'

'A waste of time? You came here to find—'

'I came here to find a killer, Darcy,' I growl. 'I literally came to get face-to-face with a man who murders people for a living. And I brought you with me.'

Darcy flinches. Like she's some dead weight I've been dragging along. I have to hurry to explain but I'm struggling with my words. The room is like a furnace and my shirt feels like leather not cotton. I run a hand over my buzz cut and wish, for the first time in my life, that my hair was longer just so I could have something to pull out.

'Look...' I say with a heavy slice of my hand. 'If I knew you were pregnant, this would never have happened. If I knew that I...'

I stall out on the words.

If I knew that I love you. Just a few short words. One syllable each. Hardly challenging.

You know what?

Fuck it. Just fuck it.

I square myself off in front of Darcy and deliver with absolutely no romantic finesse at all:

'I love you.'

Darcy's eyes bug out of their sockets.

'I love you,' I repeat, with equal lack of eloquence. 'Had I known it five days ago, I would never have brought you here. And it pisses me off that it took bringing you here for me to realize it. Now, because of my paradoxical shithead of a brain, we're stuck in the middle of a situation I would never have wanted you in, and all I can do is smile and play along until I can get you out. That's what I mean when I say the plan is shit. In fact, the plan is nothing. It's forgotten.' I hold out my hands like they're the cups of a scale. 'You. Gabriel.' I weigh out each of my hands. 'There is no contest here, Darcy. There is only one plan now and that's to get you home safe. Full stop. It's all I can think about. It's all I can do.'

My outburst has me panting for air and Darcy stunned into silence. Her lips part. I see her tongue trying to form words...

My cell phone rings.

Despite the shitty-ass timing of his call, I feel a wash of relief when the number comes up as withheld.

Better late than never, Jaime...

I hit the receive button and put the cell to my ear.

'About ti—'

'Get out.'

My relief evaporates. My next heartbeat pumps ice shards through my bloodstream.

'What?'

'No time to explain—'

'Then you're gonna have to make some,' I cut him off. I'm not dragging Darcy through a Caruso hotspot at high speeds and blowing our cover on a fucking whim.

'What's going on?' Darcy asks me from across the room. 'Does he have it?'

Jaime is efficient and to the point:

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