Her chest was heaving with adrenaline, eyes burning in a dazed anger. “Zahra,” I called firmly.
She still fought me, her hand pressing my right shoulder down while she tried to twist her wrist out of my hold.
“Zahra, hey! Calm down, it’s just me.”
“Oh, I know it’s you, you motherfucker,” she gritted out.
I blinked, frowning in confusion, locking my grip. “Then why are you still fighting me?”
“Why did you sneak up on me?”
“I did not sneak up on you.”
“So, you just hover over random people when they sleep? That’s fucking—grade-twentycreepy shit, Elio. Nobody does that unless they want to fucking kill you.”
I relaxed. “Did it ever occur to you that I just wanted to kiss your forehead?”
She backed up like I had said the most ridiculous thing.“Why thefuckwould you come all the wayhereto kiss my forehead?”
I took in her face, momentarily getting lost before my gaze locked with hers once more. “Because it’s a pretty forehead?”
There was a knock on the door before a muffled voice yelled, “Anybody dead?”
Her head turned toward the door and then back to me. She relaxed.
The voice came again. “It’s gonna be a shit ton of work to carry a body out of this suite without drawing attention to a bloodied bedsheet, so I hope for you both it’s a case of injured but still breathing.”
The woman above me stopped fighting as she sighed. “It’s your lucky day, Dog; I missed,” she yelled back as I let her wrist go, and she dropped her hand andmygun.
“I can never get a fucking break,” Dog muttered, his footsteps retreating.
Looking back at me, she sighed.
“You almost killed me,” I pointed out, “with my gun, no less. Talk about finishing the job for me.”
“Shut up. I would have killed you. Always call my name before you make me feel like you’re about to suffocate me with a pillow. I kill first, ask questions later… most times.”
“That is not wise.”
“Your opinion was not needed.”
“Hurtful.”
She scoffed, like me and that word had no relationship.
“You still have my gun,” I said, eyeing the weapon. “Why?”
She had taken the gun from me the night I almost killed my father. I didn’t expect her to still have it. Keep it so close. Under her pillow.
Something tightened in my chest.
“I kept it for people who try to murder me in my sleep,” she said.
I held back a smile. “Why did you respond that way when we texted earlier today?” I asked.
She raised a brow at me. “Are you seriously asking me that?”
“Yes.”
