Page 94 of Chalk Outline

“Why do you want to marryme, of all people?“ she asks, tilting her head to the side with a smirk.

I stare at her silently for a moment before I open my mouth to say, “Because it isyou, of all people.”

The day I bid farewell to her is the day I die.

She chose me every step of the way, even when she fought against it.

I chose her just as much.

Romina gave me crap for months, even though she had agreed to stay out of it. Her inconvenience didn’t matter. I had something worth pursuing. I had a friend. I had a family. I had the love of the first girl who saw me and smiled, and the love of the woman she became. My twin flame. Me. Of all people. I was good at fighting and good at firing bullets or sticking knives into people. But I was always better at loving her, more than anything else. Every ounce of me was drawn to her. It would’ve been amistake if I had held that back from a kid like me, who didn’t believe he would ever earn a woman’s love in this lifetime.

I will never regret that.

I will never regrether.

I might be cold to everyone else, but toward Winona, I’m that kid who got excited watching her for the first time. My heart pounds out of my chest; I feel so alive, and I’m waiting to be struck by her beauty one last time.

We’re connected to each other, and she knows that if she whispers my name, I will come running.

In the meantime, waiting is what I excel at—a sinner with the patience of a saint.

So, I will wait.

I will wait a lifetime.

Chapter seventeen

Reeve Hardy

I Know Your Secrets — Tommee Profitt, Liv Ash

Winona wanted to spend her twenty-sixth birthday with her grandma, Titan, and me. We came here to eat dinner and head home for some alone time.

She enjoyed dragging me to parties during her college years, giving me more reasons to follow her around. But now, our home feels more peaceful and warm.

God, I hated those parties and the boys who tried to sell her drugs or stared at her for too long. All those creeps eyeing her made me want to bang their heads against a wall. Even though there were only a few in the span of four years, I made two disappear when I found out they were involved in shady business—Romina sent them to one of her facilities. Once, I even drove a guy to another state and dumped him outside a policestation when I discovered they had a warrant for his arrest. But she’s all mine now. She’s my wife.

Titan wags his tail like a frenzied maniac, running back and forth and barking at the guards to let them know he’s ready to play fetch.

“It’s time,” Romina announces as she walks past me on the driveway where I’m smoking, leaning against the gate. Her bodyguard, Koy, stands a few feet away, minding his own business by plugging in his earphones and listening to music. He’s a great man; I’ve had the privilege of learning many things from him. “I’ve finally gathered enough information and trapped a few rats under my claws.”

It’s been less than a year since Winona and I married, and now Romina wants me to leave, to break Winona’s heart.

“So you want me to go on a killing spree,” I say, blowing smoke. I play it cool, but I’m boiling mad inside.

“That’s what you were trained to become.”

“Your secret weapon?”

“Hers,” she corrects. The net of wrinkles at the corners of her eyes deepens. “You got what you wanted. She chose you, and you got married. Now, I need you to keep up your end of the deal. Protect her. You promised I wouldn’t have to worry about her safety. Prove it.”

I swallow the painful lump in my throat, knowing she’s right and that no one else would protect her better than I would. All of our choices have consequences. It’s time to face mine.

“You have to decide what is more important to you. Fucking her to oblivion or making sure she stays alive,” Romina says in a clipped tone, and fuck, that’s so cold. I know she never approved of me being her granddaughter’s partner because it was never part of the contract, but that hurts, as if I ever treated Winona like a trophy or used her for sex.

She gave me wings when mine were broken.

“We have names of traffickers, criminal underground organizations, drug dealers, and everyone who can bring us closer to the top. I have teams that have trapped their operators and transferred some of them to a secret facility. I need you to follow the leads, get inside, extract more information, and kill them all once you’re done. Cross the globe a million times until they are snuffed out. When they made her a target, they made themselves our target. I will not rest until we find them all. And I will not let her die due to acts of petty revenge against me.”