When his lips dragged along the shell of my ear, every instinct screamed for me to jerk away, but I remained still when he roughed out, “You’ll still be useful with scars.”
That earlier disgust rose in my throat, but I drove it back as I focused on keeping my pulse slow and stable, even though his words, my failure, and our position begged for it to race.
All that focus crumbled into ash in the next moment.
“But even if you bleed out right here...” he taunted, passing the blade along my neck like a violinist would draw their bow across the strings, slicing more of the skin so dangerously close to an artery I couldn’t afford for him to cut, until a worrying stream of blood was racing down and soaking the collar of my shirt. “And it looks like you just might...”
My chest shuddered and my heart rate spiked in a moment of panic when he made another pass back the opposite way. Panic I couldn’t afford because, while adrenaline was useful at times, this wasn’t one of them.
But there was so much blood.
I didn’t have to see it.
I could feel it.
With another too-intimate brush of his lips along my ear, he whispered, “I’ll still be doing my job.”
Clenching my teeth, I made myself ignore the feel of my blood-soaked shirt and his lips on my skin. I forced my pulse back into that calm, steady rhythm and my attention back onto the position of the blade. I pushed all other thoughts out of my head except for the fake Davis behind me and the ominousweight of the other, hidden presence I could still feel in my condo.
Because I wouldn’t be dying today.
“And this job...why are you doing it?” I asked, even though Briggs was sure the Wreckers were behind every piece of this and were giving one last, wounded show of force after how we’d come after them last fall. I just needed to keep him talking until that pressure on my neck lessened.
Needed to give myself more time until I could grab my gun, and was once again grateful I’d chambered a round before Gray had ever driven into my complex.
“Now, Mallory...” Davis crooned in a voice so soft, so menacing, and so unlike the one I’d become accustomed to over the months, that it had a chill spreading over my skin, even before the blade angled deeper, “you still haven’t answered what gave me away.”
“Your eyes,” I answered steadily, even as my stomach twisted at the feel of what he was doing.
He hummed in consideration, the grip on my jaw tightening until it felt like he was trying to break it before he suddenly relaxed his hold.
My head dropped down instinctively, but I caught myself a split second before registering the too-smooth feel of steelthrough flesh and blood pouring out even faster than before. I allowed myself one more moment of panic, one harsh pitch of my chest, before forcing that numbing calm to seep through my veins.
I’d encountered and survived unspeakable horrors overseas. I’d fought in battles no one should’ve survived, though most of our team somehow had. Even with all my resentment toward it, I’d been reluctantly grateful for my dad’s endless training because it’d prepared me for every one of those moments. I knew with every steady beat of my heart that all his training, and all my brothers’ mockery, had been forthismoment.
A moment where I might have failed initially, but blood streaming down my neck and a weapon millimeters from taking my life weren’t enough to rattle me or make me react rashly.
“This job?” Davis began as the hand at my jaw cradled me almost tenderly, his thumb trailing across my lips in a move that had far too many memories flashing through my mind. “I just go where I’m sent and do what I’m told. But from what I’ve heard, your boss offended some people he shouldn’t have.”
I forced a bored, contemplative sound. “So, you’re saying someone got their feelings hurt and sent a nobody to watch me.”
Given the way the blade twitched against my neck, slicing in a downward motion, I’d hit a nerve. “I wouldn’t be here if that last one were the case.”
With a steeling breath, I prayed I wasn’t wrong about my earlier assessment before saying, “Then why did they send someone to make sure you were doing your job?”
Long seconds passed before Davis spoke, irritation and amazement lacing his tone. “Now, what gavethataway?”
“Well, when you’re sloppy...” I trailed off, letting the words hang in the air before taunting, “Might as well invite your friend out to play too.”
“He’s watching for when yourhusbandreappears,” he said as if he already knew Gray would.
If only he knew Gray was just feet away, anxiously waiting for the door to unlock, most likely straining to hear any noise.
Another hum rolled up my throat. “I don’t need my husband to fight my battles. I can take care of the two of you.”
Now...I couldnow. Because he’d snapped me back to myself, and I was ready to take them both, the way I should’ve from the moment he’d shut the door behind us.
Dark excitement wrapped around Davis’ voice when he muttered, “Good.” The blade slid away from its precarious position on my neck, leaving a fiery sting in its razor-sharp wake, as he used the grip on my jaw to tilt my head until I was looking into his eyes. “Because I was hoping you’d fight more.”
