Page 182 of Maddening Fixation

“You want me to pinpoint his exact location in Poland so you can go there and kill him?”

My chest tightened. “What kind of daughter would that make me?”

Romeo said nothing.

His silence was almost worse than an answer.

I could feel the heat of his body so close to mine, the unbearable intimacy between us making it difficult to think clearly.

Fear tangled with something else I refused to acknowledge, something that made my pulse race for reasons that had nothing to do with the threat in his eyes.

Yet somehow, I forced myself to hold his gaze.

“I may hate what my father did,” I whispered, “but I won’t be the one who leads you to his grave.”

My voice barely rose above a whisper.

He stepped even closer.

The little space that had remained between us disappeared entirely.

His chest nearly brushed mine, and I could feel the steady rise and fall of his breathing against my own.

My breath caught.

I had to tilt my head back to meet his eyes, suddenly far too aware of how close he was.

The heat radiating from his body seemed to seep through me, turning my fear into something dangerously tangled with the intimacy of the moment.

Yet his expression remained cold.

Unreadable.

As though the closeness meant nothing to him.

“This is your only chance to prove that being his daughter doesn’t make you loyal to him.”

His voice was low, but there was nothing gentle in it.

“Find him. Locate him. Give me his exact whereabouts. Do that, and perhaps you can finally separate yourself from the sins of the man whose blood runs through your veins.”

His eyes hardened.

“Because make no mistake, Juliet—I will never forget what your father did to my sister.”

He leaned closer, his voice dropping into a deadly whisper.

“Complete this task, and maybe I’ll stop looking at you as nothing more than a thief and the daughter of a murderer.”

His jaw tightened.

“Fail me, and whatever little mercy I have left for you disappears.”

The offer lingered between us.

It should have been tempting. Instead, it broke something inside me.

I lifted my chin despite the fear clawing at my chest.