Page 43 of Broken

“Right. I didn’t tell you. Working at Vix’s fight club isn’t my only job. I also write articles for a magazine, but they aren’t published under my name. Iwas supposed to have one done by tomorrow, but it looks like that won’t happen. And there I thought I’d have plenty of time to do it. I shouldn’t have postponed it, but I was all out of ideas.”

“A magazine?” Curiosity flickered in his eyes.

“Yeah. For women. I needed money to pay the rent and a job with flexible working hours. And I needed something to occupy my mind because I couldn’tstop thinking about a certain hitman.” I flashed him a smile.

“You were thinking aboutme?” he said as if that was the most unbelievable thing he’d ever heard. God, it was impressive how confident he could be about his job and a lot of other things, but when it came to someone liking him and wanting him in their life, he was all kinds of insecure.

“I tried not to, but I couldn’t helpit.”

“You were worried I was going to find you and kill you.”

“No, silly!” I slapped him lightly on the shoulder. “My thoughts were a little more X-rated than that. I missed you. A lot.”

“I missed you too,” he said quietly. “I was watching you and making sure you were safe, and sometimes I wanted to reach out to you so badly that I could barely contain myself. But you looked happy,and I didn’t want to ruin that. Then someone found Ingrid’s will and I... I had to make sure you knew your life was in danger because I couldn’t be by your side all the time.”

“Well, now you can.” I grinned. “But I have a confession to make. You said that I looked happy. I wasn’t. Not really. I mostly pretended to be, because after everything that happened, I thought that I should be gratefulI was still alive and enjoy myself, but it just didn’t feel right. And I constantly needed protection, so that was a little annoying too.”

Vix and Seth were coming toward us with plates full of burgers and fries, and my mouth watered just at the sight of food.

“Oooh, this looks delicious,” I said when they set the plates on the small glass table in front of Theo and me.

“It tasteslike that too.” Vix smiled as she grabbed one of the burgers and took a bite. We all ate in silence, and when Seth went to get us some drinks, Vix’s gaze focused on me.

“Tobias sent the message to the Spiders,” she said. “And we think it should reach Walter soon.”

“Are you sure he can’t find us here?” I asked.

“Nothing’s sure in this life, but this is safer than any other place outthere.”

“Don’t underestimate Walter,” Theo said. “He knows what he’s doing.”

She pursed her lips as she looked at him. “We won’t.”

“I mean it,” he said.

“It’s a good thing we have you here, then, so you can give us your invaluable advice.” Her voice was like icicles. Yeah, it was going to take a lot of time for Vix to get used to Theo being with me. “I’m going to help Seth withthose drinks.” She rose to her feet and strode away.

“Don’t mind her,” I said. “I think you remind her of...”

“Ingrid,” he said softly.

“Yeah, and of our time with the Rosa Nera too. I’m sure that’ll change with time.” I studied his face. “What about your parents? We never really had a chance to talk about that.”

He only shook his head, and I wasn’t sure if that meant that theywere dead or that he didn’t want to talk about them.

“Once this is all over, I’m going to introduce you to my family.”

Theo’s face lost some of its color.

“Okay, I take that back. I’ll introduce you to them once you’re ready. You can meet my grandma, though. She’s the only person who I can tell I’m dating a hitman.” A grin popped up on my lips.

Theo raised an eyebrow at me.

“She’s deaf.”

He shook his head at me, and I burst into laughter.

“If we stay together, you’ll have to meet my family eventually. I swear they don’t bite,” I teased.