Blush(100)
“So this is my fucking fault?!” Her eyes narrowed, her face flushed with anger. “You asshole. You told me not to trust you, then you did everything in your power to make sure I did.” Her voice was bitter. Her long, toned legs were crossed, and her foot bounced in irritation. “Is that how you get the job done? Seduce the victim and then shoot them? I’m right here.” She stood abruptly, knocking the stool over behind her. She spread her arms out from her sides, her eyes never leaving his. “Go ahead. Do your worst. I’m too damned tired to run. You’re a professional: I’m sure you can draw that gun you claimed you got off one of the killers faster than I can fire mine. Oh, wait. You don’t have a gun, do you? Hammell took it.”
She couldn’t hate him any more than he hated himself right in that moment. “How many times do I have to say it, in how many ways, until you get that I mean what I say? Listen to me, Mia. Listen to my words. Look into my eyes.” He waited to make sure she was listening. “I . . . am . . . not . . . going to kill you.”
She glared at him, the gun still pointed at his heart. “Your words are empty. I wouldn’t know until it was too late, would I? And news flash, buddy: you don’t get to do pained and exasperated tonight.”
“Mia . . .”
“You know that’s not my name. You knew who I was from the moment you walked into my house pretending to be someone else.” She placed the gun on the counter. “Don’t. I don’t want to hear your bullshit. All I want from you is information. That first night—you came to kill me. What changed your mind? Did you decide to get in a quick fuck to sweeten the deal?”
His eyes met hers. “Yes. I saw you dancing, and I . . .”
“Thought: ‘Here’s a dumb-ass, desperate chick, too stupid to hide under the bed, knowing a killer was after her? Bet she’ll just fling open the door and her legs and welcome me in’?”
His jaw tightened as she leaped to the most negative conclusions she could. Hell. He didn’t blame her. “No. I thought: ‘Here’s a beautiful, uninhibited woman, totally unafraid and without artifice.’ That’s what I thought.”
“Were you responsible for all those ‘accidents’ in San Francisco? The car? The elevator? The food poisoning?” Her eyes narrowed dangerously. “Are you the one who tried to shoot me in my office?”
He shook his head. “I wasn’t hired until you were in Switzerland. I followed you back from there.”
“So those guys in the cemetery were responsible for all those events?”
He nodded. “A few of them. They were pros. And I doubt they were the only ones after you. Someone is damned serious about wanting you dead, Mia.”
“Rumor has it I’m quite hard to kill.”
He laughed at that. Understatement of the year. “If one knows you—impossible to kill. I’ve been conflicted ever since I met you, even though I was strongly motivated.”
“The fifteen million bounty?”
He shook his head. “I told you. It isn’t about the money.” He ran his hand in frustration through his hair, pulling out the band. How could he explain to her why he was a hit man when he had never given voice to his mission before? “Shit, Mia. I’m struggling to find the right words here.”
“How about you find the truth.”
He took a step closer to her and stopped when she looked like she was about to pick up the gun again. “Mia. I’ve never spoken the truth about this to anyone before.” He sucked in a breath, needing air to clear his head. “I’ve never killed anyone who hasn’t deserved it. Never. I do my reseach dillegently. Which was why I couldn’t kill you. I knew something was off.”
“My clothes,” she said dryly. “If I hadn’t hauled you into the house and told you not to say anything, would you have killed me that night? Or were you just thinking the fuck was a bonus?”
He stared at her until she shifted impatiently, hanging on, waiting for his answer. “Yes,” he said honestly, “it was exactly that. It was nothing but a fortuitous fuck that first night. I’ll give you that. But I knew almost instantly that you weren’t the person I was told you were.”
“And why was that?”
“You didn’t come across as an amoral, sadistic bitch who imprisoned children in your Chinese factories, who had a secret sex ring online.”
Mia pressed her fingertips to her temples and half closed her eyes. “I told you Blush doesn’t have business interests in China—” Her eyes opened wide and she snapped her fingers. “Ah, that was what all those Chinese hints were about. You couldn’t possibly have believed that—”