I feel that familiar crack in my armor.
Fallon’s trembling fingers hover over my chest. “You’re bleeding. I can clean you.”
I should say no. Instead, I nod. “Aye, please clean me up.”
Like an eager soldier given orders, Fallon snaps up and takes my arm. Without hesitating, she leads me to the bathroom. The one inside my bedroom.
She knows her way around my flat.
“Sit,” she says, pointing to the stool by the counter.
I roll my eyes watching her go to the exact right drawer for washcloths and hydrogen peroxide. “Fallon, how do you know where everything is?”
She turns to me, a wrinkle forming above her cute nose. “I’ve been conducting drills. For this occasion.”
My heart leaps into my throat. “How… How long?”
She shrugs, measuring one part water and one part hydrogen peroxide into a cup. “Since you asked me to be your girlfriend.”
White streaks blur my vision.
I asked her?
“I wasn’t sure if I should, to be honest.” She wipes a damp washcloth across my chin and throat with a touch so gentle yet preciseI can fucking weep.
Blood trickles across her knuckles, and she doesn’t even flinch. Her smile is wrapped in devotion when she should be horrified.
The thought burns so hot I lean toward her, drawn by an attraction I still don’t understand. She’s the last person I should be tempting to my bed. Yet, her lips part, ready for mine.
But then she says, “Cory said you were dangerous and no good for me.”
I freeze. “Who the fuck is Cory?”
She tilts her head toward the kitchen. “The coriander.”
“The plant. Right.”
Like a bucket of ice water, her bringing up a plant snaps me back. They talk to her. Or she hears them speaking.
My stomach knots. What the hell am I doing with this woman? She’s beautiful, yeah, but she’s also broken in ways that make me feel like I’m taking advantage of her.
Playing along as her boyfriend and talking to plants is one thing. But now, shesawme kill a man. Not like the guy I beat to shit in the park, far from her gentle eyes.
I shudder, my assassin instinct hits, sharp and immediate: Eliminate the witness.
That’s the rule I always lived by. Don’t leave any loose ends. But Fallon isn’t a loose end. She’s something else. I’m just not sure what.
I crouch, cupping her face so her gaze locks on mine. “No one can know what happened here. Not that a man broke in, and not what I did to him. It’s our secret, Fal.”
“Secret?” Her lips curve into a smile that’s almost dreamy. “For us?”
That seals it for her. She’s not screaming. Not running. She’s digging herself deeper under my skin.
Maybe this will be okay. Maybe she won’t turn me in.
Once I’m cleaned up, I realize I have to get her out of here. Holding her hand, I steer her into the living room.When her gaze snags on the body, she shrieks. High and keening.
Finally, a normal reaction.
