I ducked—as if that would help keep me hidden—and hurried across the street. I looked around the corner to find he hadn’t turned around. My toes were numb with cold as I tried to keep my steps as silent as possible.
I tiptoed toward him, sliding my knife from its sheath.
He wore a jacket, the collar pulled up to ward off the chill, but I could easily make a clean cut. I was still debating between stabbing straight into his jugular or slicing across the front. Stabbing would probably be cleaner, but slicing was more satisfying.
As I came within mere feet of him, I raised my arm. Then I pounced.
The leap felt like miles, but then the tip of my knife hit that resistance I was so accustomed to now—the one that meant I’d landed the kill.
A smile crept onto my lips, but the pressure on my wrist had it immediately falling.
Many things happened at once.
The handle slipped from my grasp, Henley spun, and my back slammed into a wall.
A grunt escaped me as my head snapped back against something rock-hard. My skullhurt, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I were bleeding.
My vision went dizzy, but Henley’s hand wrapping around my neck snapped me back to the present.
His body pinned mine to the freezing bricks, but they weren’t nearly as cold as the barrel of his gun now pressing into my temple.
Who will water my plants if I die?
His face twisted lethally, murder clearly on his mind. I didn’t blame him. I’d ruined a seemingly good night for him. But sometimes sacrifices had to be made.
I didn’t hear the safety click, which meant he’d had it off all along.
Great, Grace. Should’ve listened to your gut. Hedefinitelyfucking saw you.
His grip tightened on my throat, cutting off my ability to breathe. The adrenaline thawed my frozen bones, the muscles in my leg moving on instinct. My knee came up, but I must’ve been too slow, because his thigh blocked it easily.
My hands wrapped around his forearm, trying with every ounce of strength to peel him off. If I hadn’t been standing in the cold so long?—
“Grace?”
My entire body froze at the slight surprise in his voice. The look in his eyes changed completely, replaced with one I couldn’t quite decipher. There was still that hint of deadly intent in his depths, but…
I was losing oxygen and I’d hit my head. Delirium was inevitable.
“Youtried to kill me?”
The pressure on my neck barely lessened, but it was enough for me to croak, “Twice.”
It was a stupid admission, really. I only wanted to take the credit, even if I had missed the first time.
But again, it was stupid.
Because one second, he looked like he might loosen his hold completely and let me go. But the smarter, morerational side of his brain must’ve shoved that shit aside, and he acted.
He reared his arm back, not even the glimmer of an apology in his gaze. Then the butt of the gun slammed into the side of my head, and the world tilted into black.
Chapter 5
Henley
Grace’s slumped form where she was tied to the chair in front of me shouldn’t have satisfied me. It should have pissed me off.
The woman had tried to kill me, for fuck’s sake. She shot at me while I was running errands, then tried to surprise-stab me in a goddamn alley. Creative? No. Ballsy? Yes.
