The Hitman's Guide to Tying the Knot Without Getting Shot - Alice Winters Page 0,39
does after we’ve told her to get down, like no one will notice if it happens slowly.
He sits down next to me and just sinks down. “I’m scared I’m going to hurt you, but I feel this magnetic pull because you’re my soulmate. My fated mate. My BFF mate. My mate mate.”
“Then I’m glad I’m back so you don’t wither away to nothing.”
“I was withering so fucking hard,” he says as he rolls into me.
I carefully reach over and lift his shirt so I can look at the bruises on his abdomen. He quickly pulls the shirt back down. “You promised to not do that shit again,” I say, upset that he’d run out and dealt with all of that alone.
His expression sharpens, and for a moment I wonder if I’ve made him mad. “Yeah, well, you promised to never leave me, and I thought you were going to die.”
I wrap an arm around him and kiss the top of his head. “I know. I’m sorry.” He clings onto my gown and tucks his head against my arm, allowing me to feel comfortable for the first time since all this shit started, even though this bed is clearly not made for two men. “Do we know who the guy is that shot me?”
“His name was Sean Burrows.”
“Was?” I ask.
“I killed him. I’m… sorry. I know you want me to be a better person and sometimes I can’t. I try. I really fucking try.” I can hear the pain in his voice as he says it.
Ah, that’s right. I remember him rambling about it now that my brain has cleared a little. “Shhh, you’re the most perfect person you could ever be,” I assure him. I kiss the top of his forehead and lean into him as I hold him against me. “If this happened to you… I’m almost positive I’d have done the same with poorer results. I mean… you hunted this guy down over the span of a night.”
“Yeah. He was a hired killer, so it doesn’t mean you’re out of the woods yet. Someone wants you dead and Burrows failed. It doesn’t mean the next person will. We need to figure out why someone would want this.”
I honestly don’t know either, but there are so many possibilities. “I’ve ruined a lot of marriages working at the agency and figuring out the truth. Maybe it’s some rich asshole wanting to get back at me,” I say.
“No, I don’t think it was. They wanted your laptop… I don’t know. Can you think of anything severely incriminating on it?” he asks as he draws circles with his finger on the arm that’s hooked over him.
I think about it, but my head feels fuzzy and I’m not coming up with anything. “No. Not that I know of.”
“I’m having Tucker deal with Burrows’ place and Cassel will keep his accounts up to date so if anyone’s keeping track of Burrows they won’t realize that he’s dead. Hopefully, when the man who hired him sees you alive and well, he reaches out to Burrows and we’ll find him and hunt him down and I’ll destroy him,” Leland promises me.
“Just…” I kiss his forehead. “Please… please don’t get hurt. And please ask me before you run off and do something reckless.”
“But, baby… how will I ask you if I have you locked up tight in your new tower?”
“My new… tower?” I ask reluctantly.
“Ah shit, you’re right. A tower is too dangerous. Someone could push it over or something. What about a bunker? I could paint little windows and put The Fence down there to keep you company.”
“The first thing I’m going to do when I escape this place is burn that fence down.”
“So much hatred! How evil! Don’t be so evil, honey. I’m here,” Leland says as he kisses my cheek. “I’m right beside you and I’m never going to leave you. I love you… I love you so much. So much it hurts. Jackson, I was blubbering and my chest hurt, and I felt disgusting inside. I’m so glad you’re alive and I don’t have to burn down half the world now,” he says as he innocently snuggles against me.
“You… you see how my family is still here for you, right? Even if something happened to me? Leland, you can’t just give up on everything if I were to die. You’re not even thirty yet. You have a whole life ahead of you.”