Killer Crush - Ella Goode Page 0,24
paying you to spy on me?”
“No. Fuck no. I told you I’d kill him for you. Why would I spy for him?” I shove a hand through my short hair.
“I don’t know, that’s why I’m asking. And we’re going to talk about why you always say you’d kill—” She stops abruptly. Her eyes go from narrow, questioning slits to wide, surprised circles. Then she shakes her head.
“Quinn, you’re not in some damn action movie.”
I run my tongue along my teeth. There are a few hired killers that have families. I only know this because one of them had his kid held hostage in exchange for doing a hit. He killed the mark and then the person who hired him. After that I never heard of him again so there’s no one around I can ask for advice in this situation. It never occurred to me that I’d be in a position where I’d need to know how others broke this to their lover. Hey babe, got to go to work. There’s a mob boss trying to take up too much territory and I’ve been paid a cool milli to knock him off. I’ll be home before five. Love ya.
Quinn is not a fan of my silence. “You better start talking. You have five minutes.”
What do I explain? She’s not going to like this. She’s a twenty-one-year-old college student. Sleeping with a killer isn’t really high on college students’ lists—as far as I know.
“Four.”
“I’m trying to work out the words to explain this.”
“Fine. I’m leaving.” She starts toward the door. “And I don’t want you to—”
“Wait!” I shout.
She stops. “Are you going to talk?”
I nod but realize she can’t see me because her back is turned. “Yes,” I croak out. She pivots and takes a step toward me. Her chin is up and out and her eyes are flashing with anger. The near miss of losing her makes me weak in the knees. I collapse in my chair.
I gesture with my hand. “Ask me anything. I think that’s the best way through this.”
Maybe, just maybe, I can get away with not telling her that I used to kill people for a living.
“Why are you spying on me?”
“I was worried about your safety.” She cocks her head to the side as if to say the answer was not the kind of bullshit she was interested in. “When I met you in the cafeteria I thought you were the most beautiful person alive. I wanted to get to know you better, which sounds terrible now that I say it out loud but at the time, when I was planting the bugs, it seemed rational.”
“I don’t see the bathroom on your screen.”
“No. I didn’t put one there.” I mentally pat myself on the back.
“But there’s one pointed at my bed.”
I cringe. “Yes.”
One step forward, two back, I think.
“Do you work for my dad?”
“No. I told you before I didn’t.”
She presses her lips together into a thin line. “I’m double-checking. Don’t I have the right to do that?”
“Yes, absolutely yes.” She can do anything she wants. “You’re in charge.”
“Why were you looking at your film?”
“Because you said your handyman made you nervous. I wanted to see if he was in there doing shit he wasn’t supposed to do.”
“And?”
“He just came in after your roommate left and sniffed a coffee mug.”
“That’s weird.”
I nod vigorously. “Very.” Anything to make me look less like a nut.
“What else?” She cranes her neck for a better view of the screens.
“I stopped there because you arrived.”
“Hmmm,” she hums. Her eyes look less angry and I’m tempted to relax but I know that’s a mistake. My instincts are proven true with her next question.
“You just have a bag full of spy cameras that you can install whenever you feel like?”
My whole body is tense, but I force out an answer. “Yes.”
“Why?”
I take off my glasses and throw them on the desk. I’m going to lose her if I don’t come clean. I’ll probably lose her if I tell the truth, but I knew that going in. The thing is, I’ve claimed her. She promised that she would be mine forever. I get to my feet and walk over to her. She doesn’t back up but I can sense she doesn’t like this, me using my height and body to intimidate her. I drop to my knees and take her hand. “You promised me when I took your virginity, when I gave you mine, that you were mine forever and you can’t take