Description
I was supposed to protect her. Now, I'll kill the men who took her.
I’m leaving my dark past behind me, where it belongs, and it seems like fate has finally smiled on me when she comes into my life.
Innocent, pure, and with a bright future ahead of her, she’s the girl I always wanted and never deserved.
Then, those scumbags steal her right from under of my nose.
But they don’t know who I am, or the lives I’ve taken. They’re out to make some quick cash by selling a pure bride, and there’s no way I’m going to let that happen. Not to her.
I have to risk everything to save her.
Then, I’ll try to win her heart and make her mine.
Read Stolen from the Hitman Today!
Teaser…
I know what’s on her mind. She wants to know more of what I’ve said about myself, and I know I’ve already said far too much. I should have just said I’m a well-connected man, or that I know the city very well. Neither of them would be complete lies, but I can read in those eyes of hers that half-truths would not escape her. She’s clever, and even after what she’s been through, she won’t accept a lie. But how can she accept the truth?
I’m a hitman. A trained killer. What transpired in Liv’s rescue came to me with ease. I’ve faced much greater odds with far less preparation and still come out with only a few scars. But that is not a life Liv needs to be exposed to. She is meant for so much more, and I will make sure she achieves it. I will protect her, and all the women the mafia thinks they can enslave for the sake of their greed. And I won’t let her be stolen from me again.
But in my silence, I can’t help but wonder how many of the blanks in my story she’s filling in herself, and with what. I remind myself that I shouldn’t be bothered by such things. I’m out to protect them and shut down the slave trade again, not worry about what my student thinks of me.
If things keep up the way they are, she may think far worse of me yet.
“I imagine you’re about ready for bed,” I say with a smile as I hear a long yawn come from the living room, and I hear her try to stifle it suddenly, embarrassed.
“It’s been a day,” she admits, weariness in her voice.
“I understand if your mind will be racing too much to get to sleep,” I say, stepping back into the living room and leaning against the wall, my arms crossed. “I have some sleep aids that might put your mind at ease, if you like.”
She shakes her head, a little bit of fright coming into her gaze, and I wonder if that’s how they got her, was drugging her. I’d assumed it had all started off cordial enough, but maybe it wasn’t. Maybe that asshole who sent her the email hadn’t even bothered trying to charm her, and instead just knocked her out.
“I don’t need it,” she says, her voice a bit tight, her shoulders tensed.
“Good to hear it. You can take my bed for the night,” I say, trying to keep things light as I gesture to the hallway. “It’s the last door on the right, and the sheets are clean. I tend to wash them a little obsessively,” I add, rubbing the back of my neck. “You grow up without a clean bed, and it makes you value fresh sheets.”
That makes Liv smile, a heartwarming sight after the frightened gaze just a second ago, and she nods, but looks down for a moment, hesitating. “Thanks. But…”
I raise an eyebrow. “Is something the matter? You can take the couch, if you prefer.”
“No that’s alright, I just...I know this is going to sound dumb, but being alone and in the dark so much today has me kind of on edge. I don’t know if I can — I mean, I’d feel better if—” she stammers, biting her lip before looking back up to me with those warm brown eyes, and my heart fills with pity, having forgotten what it’s like to be so small and vulnerable. “Do you think you could sleep in the same room with me?” she finally asks with a sheepish smile. “I know it’s childish, I just — I don’t want to wake up and forget I’m somewhere safe.”
I have to admit, she has a remarkable presence of mind for someone who’s just gone through the hell she has. I give her a reassuring smile and nod, moving from the wall and stepping towards the hallway as she rises to her feet and follows me. “Of course, Liv. You don’t need to feel ashamed about something like that. Come, I’ll show you in.”
I flick the lights on and illuminate the simple room I call my own. It’s a modest place with few furnishings: a platform bed with light gray sheets and a black comforter over it, a small nightstand with a lamp and a Kindle on it, and a closet bearing the simple, tight-fitting clothes I wear on a daily basis.
“This is really nice,” she says, and I give a laugh at the remark. “No, I mean it! I thought Maggie and I were tidy, and we’d only just moved in.”
“A simple upbringing gives you simple tastes,” I say, making my way over to the pillows and fluffing them a bit and smoothing the covers. I feel somewhat guilty for not being entirely honest with the room’s presentation, however. There are some things I don’t want even Liv to see. Not yet.
The room is not so much ‘simple’ as it is ‘subtle.’ Under the bed, there is a hidden compartment full of the weapons and other tools I used in my past life, the life that seems to be coming back to haunt me more with every passing hour. It weighs on me that I will be putting Liv to bed to sleep peacefully over a bed of the grisly weapons I used to take lives before even knowing her. But the poor girl has enough on her mind for now.
Briefly, I wonder if it would make her feel safer, or if it’d send her out on the streets, wondering what type of monster I really am. Then I have to wonder why I care so much. It’s not even just about her being my student, or my seeing potential in her. There’s something more, some way I’m drawn to her that I’ve never experienced before.
It’s been years since I’d even done so much as gone on a date with a woman, so maybe that’s why I don’t recognize these feelings. The desire to help her isn’t just motivated by pure intentions. There’s something deeper at work.