Page 44 of Silent Vendetta (Vendetta Duet)

“I have no choice.”

“If you do that, it sends the message to the judge that this case isn’t important enough to me.”

“Legally, that doesn’t matter. The judge will still hear your case loud and clear when he’s back.”

“We both know what a huge pain in the ass it is for a judge to move a case up in his schedule. If I don’t accept the updated time, he’s going to be irritated as hell, and we can both argue what’s legal or not, but you know as well as I do that a judge’s opinion weighsheavilyinto some of his verdicts!”

“We’ll have to cross that bridge later.”

My Little Leopard marched up to me and grabbedmychin this time. Holy hell, the fire from her grip made me want to throw her on the bed and ravage her.

“You will not take this from me,” she snapped. “I am showing up to that court date. I am going to prepare for it. This is the most important thing in my life, Hunter! If you care about me at all, you will not do this.”

“We’ve talked about this. I can’t let you go.”

“If I have to choose between looking the other way—notreporting you to the cops for three days—and having the first legitimate shot at getting my father out of prison, I choose my father. I don’t even care if that makes me a bad person. The police will catch up to you soon enough. So, I swear. I’ll say nothing, Hunter. I won’t tell a soul. Let. Me. Out.”

She didn’t see it now, but I wasn’t robbing her of the chance to get her father out of prison. I was just making sure she was safeandhelping him at the same time.

“The best chance of getting your father out is having my private investigator work it.”

“So have him work it. But in the meantime, let me go.”

I couldn’t do that. When it came to her father, all of Luna’s rational thinking went out the window. She might be okay with spending years in prison for being an accomplice after the fact by not turning me in, but I would not let that happen to her.

Her cries and pleas grated on me, challenging my resolve, but I would protect her. Even if she hated me for it.

And she was forgetting one very important point.

“This isn’t just about your father,” I reminded her. “Franco said someone hired him to kill you over your dad’s case. We have to figure out who that is and why they’d be willing to kill you over it.”

“I don’t trust Franco Hopkins, and I’m not letting something that lunatic said scare me intonotfreeing my dad!”

“It wasn’t just what he said, and you know it. Someone sent you a letter, telling you to drop the case or you will be killed. I can’t let you out of my sight until I get to the bottom of that threat.”

“I’ve worked my whole life to get to this moment, Hunter. I will not back down now. Not out of fear, not out of love, nothing. Nothing will keep me from the courtroom on Friday.”

“I’ll come up with an excuse by myself.” I decided.

As I turned to walk away, she grabbed my wrist, spinning me around, her eyes welling.

“Don’t do this!”

Seeing those tears, a torrent of emotions crashed over me. Each drop was an accusation, tempting me to surrender to her raw pain.

But doing that risked her life.

“I’m sorry, Luna.”

I carefully pulled my wrist out of her fragile grasp and walked toward the door.

She made a break for it, but I managed to grab her, the lingering trace of vanilla in her freshly damp hair meeting my nose. Her determination surged through every kick and punch she threw, and I had to focus my grip on her soft skin to be firm yet cautious so I didn’t hurt her further. With a focused effort, I lifted and redirected her struggles, our tangled dance culminating with her landing softly on the bed.

Where I gently pinned her down.

She pounded on my chest with her tiny fists, but it felt like the flutters of a hummingbird.

“You need to trust me, Luna.”

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