I could smell the coconut in her hair as I jumped onto a rock and leapt through the air like a cheetah. My body slammed into hers. I wrapped my arms around her, flung her bodyweight and we hit the ground, tumbling three rotations before my back slammed against a rock. I pinned her wrists above her head and straddled her torso before the woman could even blink.
Moonlight slashed her face as she gasped for breath and struggled against my hold. Her now-shoeless bare legs flailed at my back, her T-shirt somewhere around her waist.
How had this woman fooled me? How had I been stupid enough to be inside this woman only moments ago, handing her my fucking heart?
Idiot.
A chorus of snarls and barks screamed around me.
“Settle!”I yelled over the noise as I glared down at Sunny, my pulse roaring in my ears.
The barks faded into low whimpers as Max paced anxiously back and forth next to us, unsure what to do. My body trembled as I leaned into her face—her lying, deceiving, hypnotic face.
“Did you kill Seagrave?” The voice that came out of me was something I’d never heard before, so low, so deep, I was surprised she even heard it.
“No.” Her chest heaved as she sucked air.“No.”
My phone started buzzing—for the tenth time—but I didn’t dare release her wrists. I ground my hips deeper against her ribcage. She sucked in a ragged breath, gaspingfor air. I realized then that I didn’t have handcuffs, a gun, not even a damn shirt to gag the woman. A series of beeps followed the incessant calls. Voicemails, texts messages, the pitched sounds setting me even more on edge.
“I’m going to ask you again, and God help me if you lie to me this time… Did you shoot Seagrave after you stole the Cedonia Scroll?”
“No!”She blurted.
I lost it. My emotions, my heart, my everything. Obliterated.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”I screamed, the sound roaring through the woods. “Why didn’t you tell me you were the Black Bandit?”
She squeezed her eyes closed and turned her face away from the spittle coming out of my rage.
“Why?”I shook her wrists above her head like a rag doll.
“Stop it! Jagg, stop!”
I was blind with rage—with pain.
“Why?Why didn’t you tell me?”
“You don’t understand, Jagg. Because I?—”
“I don’tunderstand?Because you’re a lying, mother fuckingbitch.”
Her entire body stilled instantly. The words lingered heavy in the air, and I instantly regretted them. The muscles in her jaw twitched as she slowly turned her face to mine, her eyes slitted with absolute fury.
“Tell me,” I snapped.
“Fuck.You.”
I spat inches from her face. She didn’t flinch. I pressed her wrists into the rocks as I scoffed and pushed off of her.
She laid still, unmoving on the dirty ground where she belonged, that gaze shooting into mine with a rage almost matching my own.
Almost.
“You’ve cost me my fucking job,” I loomed over her, spat again. “You cost me my fucking reputation. You made me a fucking fool?—”
My phone rang again.
“Dammit!”I yanked the phone from my pocket.“What?”
