Yes, yes, fuck.
“That’s why you have those scars on your stomach,” Cass said. His voice was thick and hard.
She swallowed. “That’s why I have those scars on my stomach.” It could have been worse for her. It should have been. “He came at me.” Agnes would never, ever forget that terrible moment. “He was slicing directly at me. Saying he was going to cut up the pretty girl.” I will always remember his voice. Just as she would always remember the tattoo that she’d seen peeking at her on his wrist. That lone streetlight had hit it—and him—just right. “Max jumped in front of me. He fought with the attacker but…” Run, Agnes. Run! Her eyes squeezed shut. “There was a lot of blood. Max went down. I couldn’t get away. The attacker was driving the knife into me, over and over, and Max was on the ground beside me. I thought we were both going to die right then and there.”
Silence.
Her eyes opened. But she still didn’t see anything but the darkness.
The silence stretched. Slowly, she became aware of faint sounds, from outside the room. The distant honk of a car. The occasional sharp cry of a bird. The growl of an engine, one that was quickly cut off.
“I woke up in the hospital. Some Good Samaritan had found Max and me in the street, where the attacker had left us.”
She heard a squeak and rattle beyond the motel room door. Maybe…maybe a cleaning cart outside. Already?
The squeak stopped.
“I woke up,” she said, picking up the story and trying to ignore the pain that pierced through her with the memories. “But Max never did. He died protecting me. And ever since then?—”
“All you’ve wanted to do is get revenge. To send the bastard who hurt him and you to hell.”
Yes, that summed things up nicely. “Glad you understand.”
“Aren’t Feds supposed to put bad guys in jail?”
They were.
“But you didn’t ask me to help you lock him away. You said you wanted to kill him.”
She blinked quickly because tears had filled her eyes. You weren’t there that night. You didn’t hear me screaming and begging him to stop. You didn’t hear him laughing. You didn’t see him kick Max as he was bleeding out and then reach down and deliberately slit Max’s throat even as I reached out to the man I loved…
Right before the bastard came at me again.
“You don’t want him locked up. You want him dead.”
She wanted him in the ground. Him and his accomplice. Because I remember the bastard making a call. As he walked away, he’d flipped up his visor. I’d seen his hand lift. He’d had a phone and he said… “I got a redhead. She’s bleeding out behind me.”
“You want him to die, don’t you, Agnes? You don’t want to catch him and put him in prison.”
She waited a beat, then replied, “You sound awful judgey for someone who told me that you were a bad guy, like, ten minutes ago. I don’t think bad guys should be so judgey.”
“It was fifteen minutes ago. You’ve been tossing and turning and sighing loudly in that bed for fifteen minutes.”
Okay. “So you…weren’t asleep when I poked you.”
“You want me to kill for you.” Rough. Flat. “Fine. Done. Tell me the bastard’s name, and I’ll have him dead before sunset. I figure fucking you is worth killing a man or two.”
“Lots and lots to unpack there.” Her heart raced in her chest. Her nervous fingers plucked at the bedding. “Let’s start at the end. The last thing you said?—”
“We need sleep, Agnes. We have a lot of work to do. A lot of traveling ahead of us. A whole lot of enemies behind us because people are gonna be pissed that I hooked up with a Fed.”
“But…I chose you.” Very publicly and with lots of fanfare. “Won’t they back off now?”
“No, I’ll be tested. I have to be ready.”
Sounded to her like they had to be ready. She caught the rattle of what she believed was the cleaning cart once more. Then the rattling stopped. Maybe at the room next to them, on the right? She vaguely remembered Cass slapping the “Do Not Disturb” sign on the paint-chipped door to their room before he’d slammed it shut. “I do really appreciate you saying that fucking me was, ah, worth killing for. You were fantastic, too, by the way. Definitely exceeded any and all expectations.”
He growled.
