Page 16 of Witness Protection

Only a few days ago, she’d been ready to die. Wanted to die. Now, faced with certain death, panic washed over her.

She tasted blood as her lips and cheeks pressed unforgivingly against her teeth. He held his hand over her mouth so tight she swore she’d have bruises on her face.

How would she get out of this alive?

Hawk was gone, and she had nothing to protect herself with. This was the man who managed to decimate a house full of trained killers. She was no match.

“We’re leaving this room, and you’re going to keep your mouth shut or I’ll fucking kill you. Understand?” She nodded her head. “If you try to signal someone, I’ll kill them, too.”

She left the room for the first time in five days. The hallway was empty. He removed his hand, and she instinctively reached for her cheeks, gasping for breath. The barrel of a gun dug into her back as he prodded her toward the elevators.

Once inside, he pressed a button on the elevator panel and stood against the back wall, her body poised in front of him. She was frozen in fear, unsure what move she should make. Wondering if she was about to join her parents. When the door chimed, he jabbed her in the back again, so she got out into the hallway and kept moving.

“Inside,” he said after using a keycard to open a door halfway down the hall. She hadn’t even paid attention to the floor they were on, too terrified to think straight. He gave her a firm shove, and she stumbled into the room, nearly falling before catching her footing. This suite wasn’t as elaborate as the one she had with Hawk. It was smaller, simpler, with regular windows rather than the massive glass wall with the breathtaking view.

The killer had been in the same hotel all along.

“Please don’t hurt me,” she said. “I won’t say anything. I haven’t said anything.”

He looked her up and down without saying a word. The stranger shrugged off his jacket, hanging it on the back of a chair in the dining area. He was even more strapped than Hawk, guns and extra clips filling the numerous holsters and pockets. She didn’t dare move an inch.

His back was to her as he stared out the window into the night. “Nothing personal,” he said. He pulled out one of his guns, checked the clip and tightened the silencer, then held it straight by his side. The muscles in his forearm flexed. She was transported back to that day, the day he pulled the trigger and ended her father’s life.

This was it.

He was about to assassinate her. End her life at only twenty-four.

“You killed my father. I’d say that’s personal.” He was going to kill her anyway, so she wasn’t going to beg for her life.

The fact she spoke up must have surprised him because he turned around to face her. “Your father was a monster.”

“I agree.”

He tilted his head, his eyes narrowed. “Then why do you care?”

“He was still my father. My only family,” she said. “Why did you kill him?”

The stranger paced in front of her, his hand tight around the handle of his gun. It pissed her off that she found him attractive. He wasn’t the usual overweight thug her father contracted. This guy was younger, harder, and had an intensity in his eyes that made her breath catch.

“He took something from me. Something precious.”

“And killing him brought you peace?”

His face was a blank slate. He would have made a fortune as a poker player. It looked like he was about to say something, but he chose not to. He re-holstered his gun, and she released the breath she didn’t realize she was holding.

Maybe she could talk her way out of this.

“I don’t know who you are. I don’t know your name. How can I be a threat to you? Isn’t it enough that you took everything from me?”

He licked his lips, bracing both hands on the small table as he leaned over it. An elaborate tattoo crept up his neck. “An eye for an eye. I did what I had to do.”

“My father killed someone you love?”

He scowled. “He wiped out an entire family. Decent people. Innocent people. Now he’s paid with his life.” His voice dripped with emotion, getting angrier as he spoke.

Goosebumps prickled her arms.

“Then why kill me? What have I done to you?”

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