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“Yeah, that’s what everyone thinks.” She leans back, relaxed. It’s an act. She’s about to pull the pin. What has Danny been telling her?

“I have a theory,” she continues.

“A theory about me? You’ve been thinking about me an awful lot, Killer. You know you could have just asked me on a date. You didn’t need to go through all this trouble.” I lift the chains and let them fall back down over my thighs.

She rolls her eyes. “As if you would have said yes.”

“In a heartbeat. Have you seen yourself?”

She stutters, her lips slightly parted. For a split second, she seems surprised by my admission, but then the flush crawls up her skin, and my chest thumps wildly. She’s not embarrassed; she’s pleased.

I implore her to understand with my eyes, pushing every honest thought I’ve had at her so she knows how serious I am. Once she’s composed, she deflects, just as I knew shewould. And that’s okay. We’re taking baby steps.

“How about, if my theory is correct, you do me one favor of my choosing?” she says.

“Nice try.” I laugh.

“Scared?”

I raise an eyebrow and let out a deep sigh.

“Terrified. You’re a loose cannon. Unpredictable. Acting out of character and desperation. If we both make it out alive, the two of us will be looking over our shoulders until one, or both of us, decides to do something about it.”

“And what would you do?”

“I haven’t decided yet. That depends on how well you keep feeding me.” I tap my stomach.

Her eyes roll again, but I can tell she’s softening. “I’ll bear that in mind.”

“So what’s this theory then?”

Taking a deep breath, she pulls up her other leg so she’s sitting cross-legged on the chair.

“I think you’re the boss. Like the real boss. I don’t think your dad has anything to do with The Unseen.” She pauses for a moment, waiting for a response. I say nothing, so she continues. “My brother is nineteen. There’s no way in hell he’s idolizing a man in his mid-sixties. But a thirty-something-year-old? Sure, I can believe that.”

She’s so close. I almost want her big, beautiful brain to work it out.

“You’re charming, accomplished, and have a reputation for taking no shit. You’re handsome...” She flushes, tilting her chin down. “Of course he’d look up to you.”

It astounds me that for someone who isn’t in our world, she’s astute and nearly on the fucking money. Without knowing our internal politics, she could never guess the full truth, of course, but still. She’s fucking smart. And that’s without mentioning that she thinks I’m handsome.Fuck, I’m a goner.

She looks up through her lashes, waiting to hear mythoughts. But what can I say?

She doesn’t realize the game she’s playing, or maybe she does, and she really is just that desperate. I have to put her straight. I have to make her hate me just enough that she forgets this endeavor and moves on. I can’t outright tell her I’m not part of The Unseen. The name allows my team a level of protection in addition to my own. If people found out what I was actually doing, that protection would disappear immediately. My father is included in that. As soon as he changes his mind, I could be dead, and so could her brother.

“How old are you, Olivia?”

“Twenty-four . . . why?”

“You have a lot of life ahead of you. I’d suggest you keep out of shit you don’t understand. There are a lot of people who wouldn’t hesitate to hurt you for what you just said.”

“But not you,” she says, lifting her chin in defiance.

Fuck, she’s so brazen. Pushing her away is going to be harder than I thought.

“No, not me. I’m not exactly in a position to hurt anyone right now.”

She glances down at the chains. I’ll let her believe that’s all there is. Not that I am cleaning my ledger, for her and for me. To prove that I could be more than what I was born into.