Page 39 of Wretched Lies

“And you’ve just made things ten times worse. What if Ilya’s spies saw you climbing into my car?”

“I made sure no one was around,” he says. He speakssoftly, coaxing me so I’ll lower my guard, and the gun. “And Mace disabled all the CCTV cameras in the area.”

I sniff away my tears and let out a huff. My pulse starts to slow. “Your brothers are helping you? I thought they’d want me to stay on the inside so I could feed them information.”

Reid’s normally relaxed features tense in a way I’ve not seen before. The anger I’d only heard over the phone yesterday is evident. “Even if your stupidly obscene plan stood a chance of working, they’d never agree to any woman offering herself up as prey. Ilya doesn’t get to touch you. We’ll find another way.”

He’s so confident that he reaches for my gun, but I rear back and release the safety.

“When you aimed your gun at me in the woods, Quinn, there wasn’t a moment when I wanted to defend myself. Not if it meant shooting you.”

“Then that’s the difference between us.”

His voice is honey over oats. “You won’t shoot me.”

I tense my trigger finger. “Put me to the test, and I guess we’ll both find out,” I say evenly. “Out of curiosity, where would you advise I aim if I just wanted to incapacitate you?”

His soft mouth pulls into a smile that’s weighed down by the aching sadness in his eyes. “You might as well aim at my heart because I don’t want to live to see that bastard use you the way he uses all women.”

My back is pressed against the steering wheel. “I won’t let it get that far.”

“Neither will I.”

“You can’t stop me.”

“We can talk about that,” he says as we reach a stalemate. “Come back to my cabin. It’s only half an hour away. We can come up with another plan.”

“I don’t trust you.”

Reid leans his forehead against the side of my headrest and closes his eyes. His dark eyelashes flutter. “And so you shouldn’t.” He peels one eye open. There’s a wicked glint. “I have condoms.Lotsof condoms.”

The heat of his words melts the ice in my veins. I hate how he can do that. As part of my year-long prep, I’d stopped seeing myself as a sexual being. I needed to be ready for the possibility of letting Ilya touch me. For months, I’ve wrestled with the decision of whether or not I’d sleep with him to get my sister back. I still don’t have an answer.

Just like I don’t know if I would shoot Reid. But I would fuck him. Damn it, Iwantto fuck him. I need the kind of loving only he can offer before I face the monster that stole my sister. In a way, that makes Reid Griffin even more dangerous than Ilya.

“Do you have them on you?” I ask.

His features soften. “They’re in my pocket.”

I flick the safety back on the Glock, but I keep hold of it as I face front again. I put the Jeep in gear. “That settles it then.”

Leaving a trail of dust in our wake, I continue on my way.

“Don’t you want to know where the cabin is?”

“No. I’m going home,” I say.

Reid’s head appears between the gap in the front seats. His face is inches from mine, but I keep my eye on the road. There’s shock in his voice when he asks, “To the estate?”

“You have condoms. I have a bed and cotton sheets,” I point out. “I think that was everything you listed.”

“You’re fucking crazy,” he whispers close to my ear.

“Scared?”

“Of you? Always.”

“Either you come with me, or I’ll let you out on the side of the road. Those are the only two options.”