Page 159 of The Secrets That Kill

“Maybe I poisoned your beer.”

“Had my eye on it.”

“No, not the whole time.”

He looks at me, at his beer, back at me, and he narrows his eyes as he carefully puts it down on the table.

“You owe it to her to protect them. But Ivy’s pretty fucking bad ass, right, Merce?”

I really should have poisoned him, just to shut him up.

He keeps talking, not paying a bit of attention to my glare.

“It’s interesting how you gave up lots of power for her by calling in favors for Trenton, even with Broken Angel. You got everything, by the way, and I expect you to hand over what you have on me.”

“I’m keeping it to blackmail you into never speaking again.” I swirl the liquid around my glass. “But I don’t think it’s over, even after getting that case.”

Malone and Gisella and the Widow, who prefers that we call her that, drift over.

“Maybe you should thank Ivy for doing your job.”

“Fuck. Off.”

“Yeah, Ivy’s better off without you. Even though she’s still revoltingly in love with you, and now you’re in love with her. The mighty has finally fallen.”

He sits back and Malone frowns. “What do you mean, it’s not over?”

“I’m not sure, but there were things that pointed that way.”

The Black Widow frowns. “That was a group of disgusting men who hurt women, sold them, destroyed them. At our core, we’re here to put a stop to those others can’t.”

I just get up, down my drink, and walk away from the group.

But before I reach the door, Malone grabs me by the arm. “Dude, we come here for reasons, but among all the jobs we do for the Knights, there’s one above the rest. Taking down the traffickers and slave traders. Most of us have…”

He shakes his head.

“I get it. We’ve all been scarred in various ways.” I look atthe watch on my wrist. A pang reminds me that Ivy has my other one. Maybe that means something. “I have to go.”

“Gonna tell you two things. One, if there’s more to this shit, you need to tell me because it sounds like you know something that didn’t go in with your report. And two, if you let that girl go, I’ll fucking kill you myself.”

“What girl?”

He just looks at me.

“Ivy’s grown up,” I say. “If she wants to leave, she will.”

“Then you’re a fucking fool. You love her. You’re a cold, nasty piece of work, Mercer, but she touches you. Don’t push her away.”

“I’m not stopping her from leaving, I’m not doing a damn thing.” Then I turn, his words biting at my soul, and head out the door.

I know what he wants. For me to go after Ivy. But I can’t. I won’t.

She looked at me like my mother did. Like she knew exactly what I was.

Nope, I’m better off.

Good riddance, I say.

---