Page 82 of Witness Protection

She put a finger to her lips to signal her to be silent. “They’re coming for you.”

Tears instantly came to her eyes, and she slid down the wall and hugged her knees, crying as silently as she could. The woman left the room but had given her a gift. She didn’t realize how much she needed that message. Lack of sleep, food, and safety … none of it compared to going on without hope.

She wasn’t forgotten.

They?. She hoped that meant Hawk and Cayden. Despite the danger and her breakdown, she felt something sensual travel through her body imagining them together.

Both saving her.

Both claiming her.

What if they made her choose? How the hell would she do it? It would destroy her. Destroy one of them.

No, Cayden would run before that happened. She clenched her fists together, anger taking over her desires. She wanted something she couldn’t have.

It would be so simple if she hated Cayden. If the bad guy stayed the bad guy.

She’d end up hurting both the men she loved because of her twisted desires. And she hated herself because of it.

But was it so wrong?

Was she a monster like her father?

A whore like her mother?

She lay down on the floor, remembering her father, her childhood, her first kisses, and losing her heart twice. Part of her wished she could wake up in her own bed, nothing changed. But that wasn’t the answer. Her life had seen sad and lonely, and despite some of the most trying events of her life in the past few weeks, she’d also experienced her most memorable.

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Cayden wasn’t a fan of doing his work in the light of day. Too visible. Too many witnesses. Dark deeds were meant to be committed after midnight. He came alive at night, felt at home with the outcasts.

But waiting wasn’t an option. And Hawk was on his back to go forward with Sophia’s rescue. Lover boy was thirsting to be the hero.

The entire Morenov revenge assassination had been about Vasily. An eye for an eye. Cayden had nothing personal against Sophia or Hawk. But once his feelings for Sophia changed into something much more complicated than murder, his resentment for Hawk grew each day.

By the time he saw Hawk in the flesh yesterday, his only wish was to wipe him off the face of the earth. The only reason he refrained was for her. Sophia loved Hawk, and he could give her the stable future she deserved. Cayden didn’t know anything about family or women.

He’d fuck everything up.

But he wouldn’t deny the temptation, the lure to just give in and make her his. It kept creeping into his thoughts, especially after dropping her off at the hotel after spending a week with her at the trailer. It had been one of the best weeks of his life.

She’d already ruined him for others.

He’d never loved a woman before Sophia.

But she’d choose Hawk. She said herself that she loved the other hitman. He’d avoid the disappointment and steer clear of the Russian princess.

“Ready?” asked Hawk.

Cayden patted himself down and grabbed his keys. “Yeah. I’m starving.”

They took his car to an area diner to fuel up.

Last night they’d done a lot of talking, but the past couple hours they’d kept to themselves. Hawk used the pull up bars in the doorway of his bedroom, cranking out reps like a beast. They both had their own coping mechanisms.

“This place?” asked Hawk.

“We’ve been through this,” said Cayden. “You’re in a different world now. Nothing will be up to your standards. Play along for another day.”

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