Total pages in book: 80
Estimated words: 73515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 73515 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 368(@200wpm)___ 294(@250wpm)___ 245(@300wpm)
“I’m sorry you were put in the position of having to make that decision.” I was glad that he wasn’t rotting in a military prison for what he’d done, but I was also a little pissed that he’d had to give up his military career because of someone else’s greed. “What happened after you left the Navy?”
His hand slid up my back to wrap around the back of my neck, collaring me in place. “I crossed a line that I couldn’t ever come back from when I pulled that trigger, which made it easier for me to accept a position with an outfit who had use for the unique skill set I learned while serving.”
Merrick was surrounded by mystery, but some of the puzzle pieces were falling into place now that he was opening up to me. But I still couldn’t see the whole picture and felt as though I was missing something major—like what he’d been doing in Stacey’s room the day we met. “Did Jonah hire you?”
9
Merrick
“Yes,” I answered quietly. I’d promised not to lie, but I wasn’t sure she was ready to hear the entire truth.
When I didn’t expound on my answer, her brow puckered, and she canted her head to the side. “Why would he do that? Jonah has his own guys all over the world, especially New York.”
“Using them would risk the job being traced back to him.” She pressed her lips into a thin line and narrowed her eyes.
“He didn’t want people to know he was looking into Stacey’s disappearance?”
I sighed and let her go with the exception of her hand. Holding it tight in mine, I led her out to the living room and sat on one of the large, comfortable couches. With one quick, hard tug, she tumbled into my lap, and I shifted her body until she was straddling me. Then I wrapped her in my arms in case she tried to get away.
“I wasn’t hired to find your friend, kitten. That wasn’t the job. Looking into that was strictly a favor from my employer to Jonah.”
“What was the job?”
I held my breath for a moment, knowing this information would decide the course of our lives and possibly change how she looked at me.
I wasn’t ashamed of my choices in life. This was me, and I didn’t have any qualms over that. But she might, and if she couldn’t handle it, I wasn’t sure I had the strength to let her go.
“Barrington,” I finally murmured.
She chewed on her bottom lip for a minute, and I could practically see the cogs turning in her mind through her beautiful green eyes. “Paul Barrington.”
I nodded.
“He’s dead now.”
Another nod.
I knew the exact moment she put it all together. “Merrick, are you a contract killer?”
“I prefer the label hitman,” I tried to tease with a strained smile.
Her eyes widened and filled with fear.
Shit.
“I have rules, though,” I assured her. “The only targets I’ll agree to kill deserve to be thrown into hell. They’re bad, bad people, kitten.”
“But, but...you-you could,” she sputtered, struggling to find the right combination of words.
The fear hadn’t dissipated in the least after my explanation, and she began to struggle in an attempt to escape my arms. No fucking way was I letting her go until we’d straightened this out.
“I’ll never hurt you, Audrey,” I said in a low tone while moving my head a fraction to meet her gaze.
“I know that!” she retorted, rolling her eyes.
“Is it the fact that I kill other people that’s making you afraid of me?” I asked quietly.
“I’m not afraid of you, you big oaf!” she yelled. “I’m afraid for you!”
Her expression turned anxious, and she started wringing her hands together while I sat in stunned silence. “What if you get hurt? What if someday the person you’re after kills you first? I can’t...we just found each other. I’m not the kind of woman who can handle the man I love just disappearing on me while the only thing I know for sure is that you’re in danger!” Her eyes rounded like saucers, and her mouth dropped open as she slapped her hands onto her cheeks. “Good grief! We haven’t been using protection! What if I’m pregnant!” Then she grabbed a fistful of my shirt with each hand and shouted, “I could be pregnant!”
After I managed to break out of my stupor, I placed a hand over Audrey’s mouth to stop her babbling. “If you’re not, then I’m going to stuff you full of my come until you are,” I told her in a matter-of-fact voice.
She tried to say something, but her words were muffled by my hand.
“Calm down, kitten,” I ordered. She took a deep breath and tried to sit still, but her body still vibrated with anxious tension.
I smiled in appreciation of her effort. “Now, let’s go back to the part where you called me the man you love.”