Strong hands cupped my face, and suddenly I was looking up into glacier blue eyes, cold and empty. Those lips moved, butI didn’t hear all of the words falling from them. My ears were ringing. His thumbs brushed away my tears as a pained look flashed across his face.
“Baby, look at me.”
I squeezed my eyes shut.Baby.Razor blades made their new home in my throat, a burning pain. “Please, don’t make it hurt. I've seen you kill quickly—”
In the next second, my back was up against the window, the cool glass causing me to shiver once more, and goosebumps coated my skin.
“Karina,look at me,” he growled. His voice held anger but also a hint of a plea. Sniffling, I obeyed.
He was the most beautiful man. His jaw was set, his lips curled, and those eyes filled with worry I'd never seen. “Dammit, you infuriating woman.”
“You aren’t going to kill me?”
“No, but I'll spank you until you are sobbing if you say that again,” he warned.
I shook my head in his hands. “I don’t understand—”
“Karina,God fucking—” he pulled away from me, giving me his back as he ran his hands over his shaved head.
“Col—” He whirled, pointing at me.
“Don’t you fucking call me that. You don’t get to call me that if you still think I am going tohurt you,” he spat.
The room was silent for a moment. “What are you going to do with me?” I asked, my voice small. I hated myself for it. I was stronger than this; I had to be.
“My men and my staff are very loyal to me, so you didn’t get Bella to betray me. The second you asked her for a pen and paper, she came to me,” he explained.
“I—”
“Angel, I need you to be quiet,” he snapped, and in turn, I snapped my mouth shut.
He shook his head, mumbling something under his breath. He took a seat on the edge of an armchair, his hands clasped between his knees before he looked at me. “You were never a part of the plan, butJesus,” he hissed. “The first time I saw you, I felt like I couldn’t fuckingbreathe.”
He looked away from me.
My heart was pounding in my ears.What?
“Never had I seen a woman so fucking beautiful. You were a vision, and in that moment, I believed there actually was a God. He was teasing me with something I could never have, not with the blood on my hands,” he said, his voice rough with pain. Those eyes flicked back to me, earning a small gasp.
“You were—areheaven to me. The only heaven I will ever have. The day I took you—I saw you in that coffee shop.Fuck,how could I miss you? The light you carry with you is blinding, Karina.”
“Col,” I whimpered.
“Don’t—I don’t want to hear that. You're still scared of me.”
“Why? Why did you orchestrate the letter?”
He huffed a quiet laugh, as if he didn’t believe what he was saying. “Because I wanted you to have a fighting chance, baby.”
My knees gave out as my face crumbled. “You—what? This doesn’t make sense,” I cried, bracing myself against the glass to avoid crashing into the floor.
“I had hoped your friends would find you. Fuck, I damn near prayed for it. I would leave for days on end, wishing that when I came back, you would be gone,” he said gently. “I would've fucking hated it. I hate being apart from you, always have. Nevertheless, I still avoided that god forsaken city forfive years, Karina. I had to.”
“But—”
“Romano doesn’t know about you,” he rasped. “He can never know of your existence. He found out about Haley, but thenagain, she fell in love with the lead agent investigating us…so the target on her back is on his hands, just like the target on your back would be mine.”
“You—you wanted to save me?” I breathed, running a hand through my hair.
