Page 44 of Brutal Collateral

“And what do they do?” I ask, my brain ready to explode.

“Kill people,” Shane answers.

Wonderful...

***

“WHAT TIME IS IT?” Iask Shane.

“Almost eleven a.m.”

“Clean-up crew is almost done, got extra guys in for this one,” Connor says, coming into one of the bedrooms in the ground-level apartment where I laid out Ava on a floor mattress.

The block is still mostly abandoned, but the clean-up team is managing the fallout and making sure we get the hell out of here without a fucking police escort straight to Rikers.

Keller was a squatter, so there’s no record he lived here. Other than the router, which was hot, and paid for with a stolen credit card. We’ll leave the place clean, and when someone finally checks on it, they’ll never know what happened.

I pick up Ava, still passed out, and bring her to a bathroom next to the bedroom. After gently laying her on the floor, I cut off these damn bloodied rags, and gasp seeing scars. Old scars. Battle scars.

“Hadleigh, what the hell?”

No, this isn’t Hadleigh. This is Ava Zervas. The woman I’m supposed to marry. The Greek princess who obviously used an alias to serve in the Navy.

Mind. Blown.

I run the shower and when it’s hot and steamy, I strip out of my blood-stained clothes. Nothing she hasn’t seen before.

I carry her into the shower stall and sit her under the spray, letting the water run across her naked body. Nothing I haven’t seen before.

She’s still toned, but way too skinny from being a prisoner for five months.

Using a washcloth, I wipe away the blood.

Ava gasps awake and tries to punch me again. I hold her fists against the tile wall behind her.

“Stop. I’m not going to hurt you. I’m cleaning you up.”

Her eyes focus on me, lips quivering, but she says nothing. Maybe all that screaming popped blood vessels in her throat. A throat I came down a few times when she sucked me off.

“Do you remember me?” I ask, wanting that connection again.

“I sure do,” she says, monotone and hoarse. “Kill me or get off me.”

“I’m not going to kill you. I wasnevergoing to kill you,” I whisper.

“Leave me alone.”

“I’d love nothing more. But we have to talk.”

When she tries to kick me, I have no choice but to straddle her, pinning her against the shower wall with my thick thighs. The hot spray hits my shoulders and water sluices across her chest.

“Why am I naked, you pervert?” Her perfect nipples harden.

“Your clothes were blood-soaked.”

“Why areyounaked?” She blinks down at my cock, thickening more with every second from her heated gaze.

“Isn’t this how you remember me?” I lean in and whisper against her mouth.

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