Page 105 of Arrogant Bastard

“God, I’m sorry.”

My teeth grind against the last traces of fury riding me. “We’ll discuss proper safety protocols later. After I get you home and spend the next month holding you in my arms.”

Hers tighten around my neck as I step into the chopper. The blades start to rotate.

“Just a heads-up, baby. Linc is coming with us. He was shot.”

Distress darkens her eyes. “Oh God.”

“Galveston’s bullet grazed him but he’ll be fine. He’s already planning the many ways Mitch will wait on him while he’s recovering.”

When Linc steps into the chopper, her tears fall harder.

I hold her all the way back to Malibu. Somewhere along the way, her tears stop, but her eyes remain shadowed. She doesn’t speak when I undress her and wash her clean. The tears start again when I make love to her.

And as she falls asleep in my arms, I can’t erase the hollow feeling that I may have jumped the gun a little when I thought that our troubles were over.

Turns out they weren’t. With seven little words uttered the next morning, I’m plunged back into hell.

“I need to tell you about Cairo.”

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Faith

I blurt the words before I lose my courage.

He shakes his head. “No. You don’t. We’ve been through enough—”

He stops talking when I pull away from him, get out of bed, and pull my clothes on. After a moment, he dresses too, although his gaze never leaves me. He follows me to the living room. I sit on the sofa but he remains standing, his hands braced on his hips.

“She was sitting at my bedside when I woke up. Fionnella. She said she was there to help me, in whatever way I wanted. But that I needed to think carefully whether I wanted to go back to doing what I was doing. With you.”

Fury sparks across his face. “What the fuck—?”

“She was right. I’ve always been the sort of person who picks an interest and devotes everything to it until I know it inside and out. I aced being a spy because I wanted to be with you, and I wanted to stop the traffickers. For myself and in my sister’s memory. Take those things away, and I was useless.”

“You were not useless. A touch reckless at times, but never useless.”

I exhale. “Maybe not but I let my emotions blind me to everything else. And being with you in that role conjured up a hell of a lot of emotions. I didn’t wake you when I heard the scream because I was terrified you might get hurt. Or worse. But a true partner would’ve. That was what we were there for, to support each other. The sort of work you did, the odds of that happening again, was too much to risk…”

He rubs his hands over his mouth and jaw, pacing for a full minute. Then nods. “So you left. Okay. I don’t fully accept it yet, but I’ll get over it someday.” He starts to move toward me. “Can we get on with our lives—”

“There’s more,” I blurt.

He freezes again, pales a little, and grabs the back of his neck. “Okay. Let’s—”

“Mr. Knight?” Debbie steps into the living room.

His head jerks up. “What is it?”

“Um…you have a visitor.”

His eyes narrow. We don’t need more information to know who it is. Sure enough, a moment later, she walks in.

“Jesus. You have got to be the fucking definition of bad timing,” Killian snaps.

Fionnella smiles. “Bad Penny Smith. That was my nickname back in the day.”

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