TITAN
I PLACE MY gun in my waistband and turn toward Nite. “Tell the cleanup crew two bodies.”
Nite nods and goes back to texting on his cell.
I turn to face her. She stands against the wall in a state of shock, staring down at the blood smeared across her hands and arms.
“Em?” I ask her.
She doesn’t acknowledge me.
“Em?” I take her face in my hands. “Emilee, look at me.”
Wide blue eyes meet mine.
“Breathe,” I order. Her face is pale. “Take in a breath, Em. Come on.” Her skin is covered with his blood from the shot, and her body shakes. I don’t think she notices. “Emilee?” I bark this time, giving her a little shake. Her lips part, and she sucks in a deep breath. “That’s right,” I say gently.
“You … killed them.”
“Yes.” And I’d do it again. No one is going to put her in any situation that could cause her harm.
I had an idea of how tonight would go. That’s why I called Nite to watch her. He had informed me the minute the kid arrived. If he wouldn’t have, then she would have never known I had surveillance on her. But he made a very bad mistake and paid for it with his life.
“You killed them,” she repeats again.
“Em …?”
“For me?” she asks, blinking rapidly. Not only is she in shock but she’s also quite drunk.
“Of course, it was for you.” I know the rumors that are told about the Kings and me, but we don’t kill for sport. You won’t have any clients, if you kill them all off. But for her? I’d kill them all. “He hurt you.” It’s the only reason I have.
Her bottom lip begins to quiver, and tears fill her pretty eyes. “But why?” she whispers. “Why would you do that?”
I open my mouth to tell her I love her, but now is not the right time. She’s covered in blood, and two dead bodies lay literally at our feet.
I’ve waited twenty-six years to tell her how I feel, so what’s another day? “Come on. Let’s go to Kingdom. We need to wash off.” Then I look at Nite. “Make sure to get their phones.”
_______________
I pull up to the back of Kingdom and get out of the car. I run around the front and open her door. After I help her out, I remove my shirt and wrap it around her and take her hand to help her up the stairs. Nigel is already there waiting for us.
We enter the Royal Suite and go straight to my bedroom. I know that Bones is at Glass with Luca, but I’m not sure where in the fuck Grave and Cross are.
I undress her and start the shower. We get in, and I place her under the sprayer. The blood runs off her skin and down into the drain, washing away any evidence of what I did.
“I don’t want to anymore.” It’s the first thing she’s said to me since we’ve left the alleyway. She sat in my car silent and shaking uncontrollably, rocking back and forth. I was afraid to say anything to her. She needed time to process it all. What happened to her, and what I did in order to protect her.
“Want to what?” I ask, running the soap up and down her cold arms, cleaning her skin.
“Be a Queen anymore,” she whispers.
I want to smile but refrain. The only way she was doing that again was over my dead body. “Okay. You don’t have to do it anymore.”
“But … I burned my parents’ house down.”
“That’s okay.” That house is the least of my worries.
“No.” She shakes her head. “I burned my father’s money.”
My hands stop moving. “What do you mean?”
She licks her lips. “He told me that he had money hidden in the walk-in closet. But now it’s all ash.”
“What makes him think that?” Most of the house was destroyed, but there are parts that managed to go untouched. The neighbors had called the fire department before it all burned.
“He told me he went back the night we returned to Vegas.” She bows her head. “I had burned it. He needed it. That’s why I took the job tonight.”
I grip her chin and lift her head, so she has to look at me. “Don’t ever do anything other than for yourself, Em.”
