Page 23 of Blood
She bites her lip. “Not exactly. I mean, kind of. I just…”
I sit up against the pillows and look at her, waiting silently. It’s time that she knows the truth, or at least what I know of the truth. There’s always more to every story, and I’m sure this is no exception. I need her to ask me, though. I need to know she’s ready to hear what I have to say, to believe the facts.
Experience has taught me that when you tell people things they aren’t ready for, they have a tendency to push away the truth, to cling to their own reality. They vilify the bearer of the information. If Everleigh isn’t willing to hear the truth, I can’t risk her pushing me away. I need her to continue to trust me.
She blows out a breath. “I guess I was thinking that if I gave you something you want, then you’d tell me what you know. You said I don’t know everything.”
I thoughtfully rub my hand over my beard. “That’s true. I’m sure there’s a lot I don’t know, too, but I can tell you what I do know. Are you sure you want to hear it?”
She sits up then, staring at me intently. Her eyes are bright. She looks as ready as I imagine she’ll ever be. “Tell me the truth.”
I shake my head and let out a deep sigh. This just might destroy her. It will shatter everything she thinks she knows when I introduce her to a reality that’s so different from the one she thinks is true. I keep my gaze fixed on her, watching for signs that she’s open to hearing everything I have to say.
“Trust me, Everleigh. Believe me when I tell you that you should just stay under the radar. Move somewhere and start new, with a new name. I can help you.”
Everleigh rolls her eyes. I know I sound overdramatic, recommending that she disappear. I get it. She doesn’t know me well enough yet to realize that I don’t exaggerate. I don’t overdramatize. I stick to cold, hard facts.
She sighs again. “So, what? I just abandon my life? I have an apartment. A job, sort of. Family. I can’t just leave it all behind.”
I choose my words carefully. I’m offering her an out, before I bring her world crashing down. “Those are things to consider. But I’m telling you that the safest choice here is to vanish. Start over—away from your old life.”
Her eyes narrow. I know I need to give her more. I just hope she trusts me enough that she believes what I’m about to tell her.
I take a deep breath. I’m stalling now, and she knows it.
“Everleigh… the job you were sent to do…”
“I was supposed to kill Bobby Martinez. You fucked that up,” she says, her voice accusing.
I shake my head, averting my gaze down to the bed.
“We have a job for you. It should be an easy hit, but it’ll pay well.”
I don’t really need the money, but it’s a lot for a simple hit. The job should be quick. Get into a man’s apartment. Kill him.
Wait for a girl. Kill her and leave both bodies. Make it look like a break-in gone wrong.
“This one is a high priority for the Kings. It has to go precisely according to plan.”
“You got it. I’ll call you when it’s done.”
I force my mind back to the present. I still can’t meet Everleigh’s eyes. “You were never supposed to kill Bobby. I was hired to kill him before you got there.” I pause and swallow. It’s not long enough for her to ask questions, but long enough, just barely, to bring myself to utter the next words. The ones that will change everything. “I was also hired to kill you.”
18
Everleigh
I’mnumbasmymind starts to process this new information. Who wants me dead so badly that they would have ordered a hit? Who would have set it up so Wolf would take care of both Bobby and me at the same time?
Even through the lack of feeling, there’s a sense of… something. Safety, maybe. Wolf may have been sent to kill me, but his blunt honesty is more than I’ve received from most people in my life.
“My job… my job was a cover?” I whisper.
Bobby was collateral damage, or maybe someone the Kings wanted to get rid of, but he wasn’t the main target.
I was.
Wolf has the good grace to look ashamed. He can barely meet my eyes. “You were never meant to be the one to kill Bobby. You were meant to go to that apartment and be eliminated in what would look like a drug deal gone wrong.”
