Page 2 of Atonement

Present Day

Thursday

11:45 p.m.

Wantto hear two truths and a lie?

My name is Declan Ace McClintock.

My profession?

Hitman.

My weakness?

Sex.

Now, I know what you’re thinking. It’s my name. Or is it my profession? Can’t be my weakness. Or can it?

But as I look down between my legs, fist more of her long dark hair in my hand, and deliberately push her face down further until I hear a slight gag, I smile as my world goes black, my mind goes blank, and I couldn’t give a fuck which two out of the three is the truth.

“Damn, I needed that,” my voice rasps out several moments later. The dark tint of the window’s now fogged-up glass blocks out just what’s going on inside the backseat of the nearest car I found unlocked. “Mary,” I halfheartedly sigh, content after my release as I attempt to pull up my zipper and push her back further on her knees. “It’s been a pleasure.”

“It’s Magnolia, asshole.”

My ears strain as they pick up her faint mumble, but my mind is already focused on my next task at hand as I open the car door and swing one leg out of the vehicle. I should care. Fuck, I know I really should. But you want to hear another truth? Something that might be hard for many women to swallow. Harder than it was for say, Magnolia, to keep in her delicious tight mouth just a few moments ago.

It’s impossible to walk away from a past that haunts you every single day. A past, and a woman I might add, that I haven’t come face to face with in almost seven damn years. Even after all this time, I can’t deny she still gets to me like it was the first fucking time I ever laid eyes on her.

Standing in the dark alley, I turn around and buckle my belt, defenseless against her sass and a little speechless as a deep smirk spreads across my face and my eyes raise and slowly lock with her fiery stare.

“Jack Dawson,” I wink, suppressing the laugh that wants to break free. “Next time, remember to use your hand.”

I school her with the motion as my fist tightens and my tongue fills the left side of my cheek. But just as her shrill yell starts to assault my ears, I fling the passenger door closed, turn and make my way back to the front of the building. A disappointed chuckle breaks free from my lips as I shake my head and I can’t help but feel slightly remorseful knowing I’ll probably end up paying for my asshole comment later. Besides, I totally just feed her some Titanic bullshit. Both the name and the alpha asshole she thinks used and abused her tonight.

In all honesty, I haven’t thought of anyone else since the day she walked out on me. I haven’t been with anyone else since the night she left me. From the savage way she took what I was willing to give her just now in the backseat of that car, I’d say she’s been living the last few years the same damn way.

But hell, what she doesn’t know is also the one truth you still don’t. A truth that has the power to change both our lives in only one week, if we let it. A restitution seven years in the making.

As I make my way back to the front door of the club, every inch of my skin suddenly crawls as I desperately hope, after all this time, she’s game to try and find out.

The question is, are you?

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