Back in the room, I found everything pretty much the same. The runaway bride was bent forward, still rubbing her head. Theo was trying to tend to her. Colson was pacing back and forth, a lot like I did. The displaced Marine never paced back and forth. Maybe I was rubbing off on him.
“A word, please?”
He stomped over. Pulling him aside, I lowered my voice.
“There are a lot of things I’ll do, man,” I hissedthrough clenched teeth. “A lot of things Ihavedone.”
I shifted my eyes to the woman sitting on the couch, and grunted.
“But I didn’t sign up forthis.”
I expected immediate resistance. Colson was by the book, and never went against orders. It was in his blood. It was ingrained into his very being, to complete every mission no matter what the circumstances.
Right now though, he looked thoroughly lost.
“I don’t know,” he grumbled. “I— I need to think.”
He began pacing again. For the first time since we’d started working together, he looked at a loss of what to do.
“He wants her neutralized,” I murmured. “He wants her—”
“Dead.”
We both whirled at the sound of her voice. Did she have super hearing? She was staring back at us, nonplussed.
“Just say dead,” she shrugged, matter-of-factly. “You don’t have to use euphemisms here. We’re all friends.”
A flash of residual pain rolled up from my bruised testicles. I wanted to hate her for it, but I couldn’t. It’s exactly what I would’ve done.
“He doesn’t want me back,” she explained, “not after this. What I did was too egregious. Too unforgivable. Especially since I did it in front of everyone.”
“Peyton—”
“And he’s not going to just let me sail off into the sunset, either,” she continued smoothly. “I dated him for ayear. I know too much.”
I scowled at her. “You don’t know anything.”
“I know enough,” she countered. “Enough to realize I’m a liability, and Donovan Prescott doesn’t suffer liabilities. The three of you know that, too.”
Fuck. Why was this so hard? I’d done so many things for this man. My debt was almost paid off.
But this… this was too much for even him to ask.
“Why didn’t you just marry him?” Colson snapped. His voice was tense with frustration.
The blonde on the couch threw back her head and laughed. It was a good laugh, an honest laugh. The kind of laugh that made a girl like this instantly more attractive.
And shit, she was already gorgeous to begin with.
“You work for that asshole and you hate him,” she went on. “Can you imagine going to bed with him every night for the rest of my life? Waking up next to him? Having to suffer through his bullshit, every moment of every day?”
“But you could’ve run afterwards,” sighed Colson. “A week or two from now. A few months, maybe. But now…”
He looked down at her sadly. I knew the look. It churned something ugly, deep in my gut.
“Yeah, well, I’m out.”
Theo had suddenly stood up. There was a defiance in his eyes I’d never seen before.
