Page 37 of The Sinners Gambit

“A brain transplant, honestly. It’s a lot to process that I was manipulated into falling for a woman I thought was my soulmate when in reality, she was trying to get revenge for her dead mother, who she thought I killed, but didn’t,” I gasp out.

“Wow. Now that is a mouthful and insane.” He gives me a small smile. “But a great story to tell the grandkids one day! How Meemaw and Pop-pop met?”

I raise my eyebrow at him.

“Fine! You can be Grandma and Grandpa.” He laughs.

“Axel . . .” I groan.

“Ugh. Don’t tell me you’ll be one of those couples that makes their grandkids call you by your first name, or worse—Aunt and Uncle.” He dramatically gasps, while holding his hand to his chest.

I sigh deeply. “I don’t think kids, let alone grandkids, will be in my future. At least not with Naomi.”

“You’re only thirty-nine! You have plenty of time,” he jokes again.

I glare at him.

He takes a deep breath and wipes the smile off his face. “Stop. It. I was trying to lighten the mood. But broody Killian doesn’t work. The man Naomi fell for—’causeyesshe fell for you—is herKiller.Not this pile-of-pathetic pretending to read her book but actually sulking around like a dumbass.”

My mouth drops open.Harsh.

“She needs time to process all of this insanity, and so do you! And it’s only been a few fucking hours. My lord, stop acting like a teenager. You’ll have your forever with her soon enough.”

“None of it was real!”

“It may have started because she manipulated the circumstances, but I think fate works in mysterious ways. It somehow made her get it wrong, so both of you could find each other and make it right.”

“I don’t know, Axe.”

“Well, I do. While you two weren’t paying attention to good ol’ Axel here, I was watching it all. Every little glance, tone, and inch toward each other. You guys fell, and it was fuckingreal.”

“It was only a few days.”

“I don’t care! It was real! I know it. You both know it, you just need some goddamn time. It could be a few days, or maybe weeks . . . or maybe even longer. But you will find your way back. I know if it was your parents you’d be ruthless too. Hell, you were.”

I flinch.

“Sorry for being harsh.”

“Okay . . . maybe you’re right,” I say as I feel some hope coming back to my body.

A loud beeping alerts on my phone. I take it out of my pocket and look down to see a black Toyota Celica at the perimeter, approaching at top speed.

I look up to see Axel grinning from ear to ear. “Maybe just hours to process? Man, you kids move fast.”

The excitement and relief are now flooding my senses in waves as I run toward the front door, Axel hot on my tail. My heart is racing faster with each step forward.

It’s Naomi’s car approaching.

She came back to me.

Chapter 19

Naomi

There’sabsolutelynosuchthing as silence when it comes to Axel. The most I’ve seen him be quiet is that first day I thought he was my Uber driver, and when he was upset and giving me space. So, I knew I couldn’t expect that the car ride back to the city wouldn’t be filled with a million questions. I caught him up on everything that unraveled moments earlier.

All the while, the farther we got from the estate, my body felt a growing gap. I tried to shoo the feelings away as nothing more than my overstimulated neurons, even though there was a gnawing part of me that knew that was a blatant lie.

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