Page 162 of His Virgin Romance Series

“I think he’s baiting us,” I said. “Abby was just a pawn in his game.”

“So what do you reckon?” Red asked. He sounded more excited than nervous. “What do you think his plan is?”

“I think he wants us to be the ones to break the truce first,” I said. “That way, he can open fire, and he can maintain the illusion of honor. His men won’t respect a leader who doesn’t keep his word. He needs us to come at him first.”

“We don’t know for sure that Godwin is mixed up in all of this,” Bones pointed out. “And until we do, we can’t make any moves. We need to wait and watch.”

It was the most difficult thing to do, but I happened to agree with Bones on this one. I favored tactical caution over headstrong bravery that more often than not amounted to sheer stupidity. I wanted revenge too, but I had to think about my men first.

“Keep digging,” I told my men. “We need to flush this guy out. The sooner we know who he is the better.”

As the men filtered out one by one, I went upstairs. Abby’s room door was closed, so this time I knocked before I barged in.

“Who is it?” Abby asked from the inside.

“It’s me,” I said, without bothering to say my name.

A second later, the door opened, and I walked inside. Abby still looked a little pale. She had a few bruises on her arms from the week of intensive training. She had made strides in a small window of time, and I was actually impressed by how determined she was.

“You don’t look so good,” I pointed out.

“I’m fine,” she said defensively.

I sprawled out on her bed and cocked my head to the side. “Doesn’t seem that way.”

“Do you mind?” Abby said, trying to knock my legs off her bed.

I refused to budge. Instead, I simply moved my legs a few inches to the side so that Abby could sit down on the edge of the bed. She groaned in frustration and sat down beside me.

“Why are you here?”

“Something was bothering you down there. I want to know what it was.”

Abby seemed hesitant. “Have you actually… killed men?” she asked at last.

I paused. “Well… they were bad guys,” I said.

“That’s your justification?” she asked incredulously.

“I think it’s a pretty good one actually,” I said. “They were bad guys who were doing illegal shit.”

“And you don’t?”

“Don’t what?”

“You don’t do illegal shit?” Abby asked.

“No, we don’t,” I said. “That’s not what we were ever about. My father made sure of it.”

“But you have killed men?”

“Men who’ve had it coming.”

Abby shook her head. “And the police?”

“The police,” I scoffed. “Who do you think is behind half the cover-ups in this town?”

“Because they work for Godwin?” Abby asked.

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