Page 52 of Meet Cute the Virgin

“Fuck,” I mutter.

Killian pauses, knife in midair. “What?”

“Girls are investigating.”

“Investigating what?”

“Gardening.”

He processes this. “Should we clean up?”

I look at the chair man. He’s still breathing, barely. The information is extracted. The queen wants my girl dead. The king is dead. There’s a country somewhere that thinks Lily’s existence threatens their stability.

“Yeah.”

Killian finishes with a single efficient stroke. Silence returns to the room.

“Roland will handle the bodies,” Killian says.

I’m already moving up the ladder. “Right now, we need to look innocent.”

“Innocent.” He barks a laugh, following me up. “We’re covered in blood.”

“Then we look like we were butchering deer.”

“Do you know how to butcher deer?”

“No.” I push through the greenhouse door into the humid air thick with orchids. “But they don’t know that.”

We hear them before we see them. Giggling. Stumbling. “Are they drunk?”

“Appears so,” Killian says. Two drunk women in crowns, armed with antique handcuffs and who knows what kind of intentions.

Lily notices us first, Teddy swaying behind her. She stops when she sees us. Sees the blood on my hands, my shirt, and Killian’s grin.

Her eyes go wide. Then narrow.

“Gardening,” she says, flat and dangerous.

I smile, helpless against her, against this, against everything. “Want to see my orchids?”

“I, ah”—Teddy tilts her head—“think your orchids might be bleeding.”

“We came to help garden,” Lily says, standing up taller. “Where are the shovels?”

“Lily, don’t volunteer us to dig holes. It’s really hard. It’s the absolute worst part of gardening.”

“Right, shit,” Lily mutters.

I glance over to Killian, who is watching them too with an amused expression. “Oh, and we’re mad at them!” she suddenly remembers. “They didn’t want to trauma bond with us.”

I don’t know what the fuck they are talking about, but I can’t help but smile.

Killian and I often operate in the darkest of places. These girls are the light we’re both desperate to catch.

Chapter Twenty-Four

LILY