in the head?”
“I—” No. She hadn’t known that. Eric hadn’t exactly had time to describe the victims to her.
“You didn’t tell me that you were pretending to be Jessica Harper during your recent investigation and that the reason August put a gun in your face was because he thought you were her. You are his type, after all. And I bet you blended perfectly when you took her place and used yourself as a victim.”
Had that been anger humming in his voice? Why would he be mad? “I wasn’t a victim. I was acting to draw him in. I was—”
“I don’t want you to be a victim. I want you to be a kickass agent who doesn’t let anyone get close to hurting her. Do you understand me? Every moment that we are in Fortune, you stay on your guard. You do not let anyone catch you unaware.”
“I can do the job.” Was he doubting her? “In case you didn’t know, I disarmed August easily when he pulled the gun. Just as I’d planned. I took him down, and I saved the client. Now August is in jail, and, apparently, that is where he will stay for a very long time.”
The plane was descending. She felt the shift in angle, and her hands clamped around the edges of the arm rests on either side of her body.
“You still haven’t asked me what you truly want to know…” He didn’t move at all. Just kept leaning casually toward her.
“Did you go to see August Shay last night?”
“Yes.”
Just…yes? “And you hit him?”
His expression didn’t alter. “Still not getting to the real point.” A slow exhale. “Don’t you really want to know if I beat the guy until he confessed?”
Yes, she did want to know that. Because she’d seen some damning evidence. “Your knuckles…”
“I went in for a chat. I didn’t like hearing about the gun in your face. August didn’t like being locked up. So I guess we were both feeling stressed. He came at me, swinging, so I swung back.” A shrug. “Here’s the thing, I swing pretty hard.”
She thought of the tall, muscled August. His bright blond hair. His soulless blue eyes. The way he’d smiled when he’d pulled the gun on her. “Eric said someone scared him into confessing everything.”
A faint, almost mocking laugh. “And do you think I’m a scary man?”
He didn’t look scary as he sat across from her. He appeared confident. Casual. Relaxed.
But she could feel the danger swirling beneath his surface. “Yes.” A firm nod. “I think you can be a very scary man. I think you’re probably the worst enemy that anyone would ever want to have.”
“Good thing I’m not your enemy.”
Goose bumps rose on her body.
His head cocked to the right. “August put a gun to your head. He killed two women who looked exactly like you. You were the one who took him down. Don’t you think—with a man like that—he might have now become fixated on you? That if he got out, he’d turn his obsessive compulsion on you?”
Well, now that she was learning all the details about August and his crimes, she was thinking—
“Couldn’t very well let that happen to my new partner. So I went to have a talk with him.” His bruised knuckles flexed. “During the course of our talk, he realized the error of his ways. He confessed to his crimes. You know what? I think he even started to like the idea of prison.”
That made zero sense. “Why would he do that? Why would he like prison?”
His gaze was lethal. Chilling. “Because he liked the idea of having bars between him…and me.”
She couldn’t look away from him. “You are a scary man.”
“I protect what’s important to me. If I have to be scary to get the job done, so be it.” His stare swept carefully over her. “You don’t ever have to be afraid of me. You understand that, don’t you?”
She wasn’t so sure what she understood.
“We’ve landed.”
They had?
“I’ll go change.” He unhooked his seatbelt. “Got to make the right entrance.”
Yes, yes, the job. Focus on that. “Should I change, too?”
He’d already risen to his feet. “You don’t need to change a fucking thing. You’re perfect as you are. Remember that.”
He stalked away from her.
And her breath expelled in a long rush.
***
She was terrified of him. Not exactly a surprise. Maybe he should have put off that little chat with August until after the mission.
But he put a gun in her face.
Nah, no point in putting