Ari is the one to break the silence first. “I like to think we solve problems and get paid very well for it. But that’s not the point.”
I can’t do this. None of it. I can’t sit here and calmly accept that I have two paid murderers sitting next to me. Can’t accept that those two murderers have been watching me.
My stomach rolls, and I think I might puke, my body jumping forward again so I can run across the room.
The instant my foot hits glass and rips the skin, I yelp and start to fall, a set of arms catching me as Ari’s deep voice hisses against my ear.
“Dammit, Adeline, what the fuck were you thinking?”
He picks me up and carries me to a table where he sets me on the edge. Grabbing my foot, he crouches down to examine the damage.
“You’re lucky this didn’t go very deep.”
“I’ll grab a first aid kit,” Lincoln grumbles as he pushes up to his feet. Ari waits for him to disappear around a corner before looking up at my face.
“You wanted to know who I am, and I told you to let it go. This is why.”
Tears well in my eyes at the anger in his expression. “What else should I know? Why not just get it all out now so I know what to expect? You kill people for a living, and both of you sit there acting like it’s no big deal. That’s fucked up.”
He smirks. “A lot in life is fucked up, baby bird. Eventually, you’ll grow up and learn to get over it.”
My blood trickles down the side of his hand, his eyes holding mine. I try to tug my foot away, but his fingers clamp down.
“I’m grown,” I argue.
“No. You’re not. But I don’t hold it against you. Your parents died when you were young, and then you flailed for several years before Grant came along and attempted to take over. You’ve yet to establish your own footing in this world, and that’s why you can’t look past what I’ve done to see that I’m the only reason you’re still breathing.”
Plastic slaps down on the table beside me, and I jump at the noise. Turning, I see Lincoln cock a brow at me before he walks back to the couch to drop his body down on the leather. Stretching his arms over the backrest and his long longs over the floor, he says nothing as Ari grabs the first aid kit, flips the lid and begins digging around for supplies to tend my injury.
The alcohol pad stings my skin, drawing my attention back to a man who refuses to see my point in this screwed up situation.
Without looking up at me, he keeps talking.
“So, here’s where you either hate us and make judgments about us without looking at the entire picture, or you can pop whatever bubble you’ve lived in that led you to believe the world is a pretty place with well-defined borders between right and wrong.”
He rubs ointment over the cut and wraps my foot with a bandage before glancing up at me again.
“Your husband is trying to kill you. That’s what you need to worry about now. And I’m the man who is going to ensure he doesn’t succeed and that he never has the chance to hurt you again. We should focus on that before worrying about all the other details about me.”
I don’t like it, but I know better than to argue with him. When it comes to all this, I know nothing about hired killers and vengeful husbands intent on murdering their wives.
Setting aside all the questions I have about Ari, I ask another one instead.
“What do you need from me to help you?”
Ari’s eyes glimmer, a ghost of a grin stretching his lips.
“I need you to tell me everything there is to know about Grant. The places he goes to, the business associates he has, the codes to all his safes and whatever else you can think of. The man has secrets, and I need to know them.”
Ari
Adeline truly knows nothing about her husband. I’d assumed he’d kept some information from her, but not all of it.
After an hour of Lincoln and I questioning her like she was undergoing a police interrogation, we all sit back frustrated, and we’re nowhere near closer to figuring out how to corner Grant when he least expects it.
Lincoln scrubs a hand down his face and glances at me, nothing good