Page 14 of Queen of Blades

The people who wanted Harper dead had more than enough money. The bounty connected to her would have everyone in Oklahoma champing at the bit to get a piece.

Sighing, he allowed his head to fall back against his pillow. Such a shitty fucking situation he found himself in. The woman who danced in his fantasies for the last twelve years had to die. There was no way around it. A contract that large wouldn’t go away.

Ithadto be Paul, no matter how bad a taste it left in his mouth. This was an inevitable part of his job. One day, he was bound to be tasked with murdering someone he knew. Unfortunately, today, it was Harper.

The buzz of his phone vibrating on the nightstand was the last thing he wanted to hear. Still stroking Harper as she slept, he stretched his free hand out and grabbed the burner. He tapped the screen and brought it to his ear.

“Yeah.” He knew what this call was about. He just didn’t know what he’d say.

“Is it done?” Eddie asked coolly on the other end.

Harper stirred against him with a sleepy groan, and his hand froze. Holding his breath, he did his best to keep still so as to not wake her. Shifting her head, tilting it upward so he got a better view of her features, she settled back against him.

It wasn’t long before her rhythmic breathing resumed.

“Paul,” his brother urged in a louder voice. “Did you do it?”

“I’m working on it,” he mumbled.

“What’s there towork on?” Eddie scoffed. “Pretty sure we’re in a point-and-shoot situation here.”

Gritting his teeth, Paul tried to find an answer. His brother wouldn’t understand. Hell, Paul barely understood his connection with Harper. It wasn’t like they spent all that much time together—what, maybe two months over a decade ago.

Sure, they were explosive in bed, and up against shelving, but that didn’t explain the way his chest tightened around her. She took up entirely too much real estate in his brain. For years, he compared his partners to her. None held a candle.

Maybe that was reason enough to fulfill this contract. She was a liability he couldn’t afford. If someone else did it, he’d go mad seeking revenge. No one else could do it.

“Paul,” Eddie boomed again.

“I’ll let you know when it’s done.”

He ended the call and rested the corner of the phone against his chin. There had to be another way out of this.

“What was that about?” Harper asked sleepily.

“Business,” Paul responded flatly.

She snorted. “Sounded like you’re out on a job.”

“I am.”

She bristled against him. He did his best to ignore it and stroked the stray strands of her hair that fell over her shoulder.

“Wh-what does that mean?” she asked, pulling away from him.

Dammit. Of course this had to ruin their romantic moment.

He refused to look in her direction. Instead, he studied a crack in the ceiling under the weight of her intense gaze.

“Am I like an alibi or something?”

“No.” So much worse. She’d never guess, though. Especially because it was him.

She inched away from him on her knees. “You know I’m a prosecutor now.”

“I do.”

“You’re aware I can’t get mixed up in your bullshit.”

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