Chapter Two
Zeke Coleman
I first met Evelina a year ago, and I had to have her.
It didn’t matter that I was contracted to kill her. When she walked into my trap, carrying those deceptively dark and moody paintings that seemed to be her soul on canvas, she became the single most interesting thing I had ever seen.
She became the single most addictive thing I had ever tasted .
And through that haze of lust and craving more, I knew I couldn’t let her in.
I couldn’t let her see me, because as much as I fought it, I was a monster.
I was a killer, and she was the first target to ever live.
Fate had a cruel sense of humor in bringing us back together in this way.
“We’re not out of the woods yet, Coleman,” Jaimie said as the driver peeled away.
He was experienced. Trusted, even. But as bullets came flying through the car, I instinctively flung myself over Evelina as Jaimie pulled out her gun and fired back a few shots.
The car began veering, and I glanced up, finding the driver hunched over in a pool of blood from a well-aimed shot to the head.
“Fuck,” Jaimie shouted, diving to the front. In a moment, she pushed the driver from the car, closing the door behind him and taking over the wheel.
The SUV gunned down the road, and Evelina went to raise her head.
“Stay down,” I ordered.
She flinched at my tone, but she did as I instructed.
“We have one on our tail,” Jaimie pointed out. “Motorcycle.”
I squinted my eyes as the motorcycle came flying around the corner, rushing toward us. “On it.”
I pulled out my own gun and waited until he was just close enough to take an effective shot. The bike lost control and slammed into the curb, sending the driver flying. I watched for any other stragglers, but as Jaimie brought us through a handful of streets, I was confident that we had lost the tail.
“We’re clear?” she asked.
I nodded, focusing on our surroundings. I didn’t allow myself to look at the woman beneath me. I would focus on that situation later. I would consider the twist of fate that brought me here, and I would spend a long while cursing whichever Gods or deities or higher powers had put me in this position.
Jaimie pulled us into a parking garage where our second vehicle waited, and I ushered Evelina into it quickly. I grabbed the plate from the back of our bullet-peppered first vehicle and tossed it into the new ride. Jaimie didn’t hesitate before peeling out of the garage and down the street.
Evelina looked between us, not saying anything for the first five minutes of the drive. “Tell me what’s going on here,” she demanded.
“We just saved your ass,” Jaimie threw back. “Count your blessings that you have very impressive connections.”
I could tell that she had no idea what to think or say. Hell, she didn’t even seem fully convinced that she was in safe hands—not as she glanced between me and Jaimie, then back at the door as if considering the merits of jumping from the moving vehicle.
“Jaimie and I were hired to see to your safety from the… situation in which you found yourself.”
“In which I found myself?” she shot back, straightening. She opened her mouth but closed it as she thought better of what she had planned to say. “I didn’t find myself in this situation. Don’t phrase it like this was my fault.”
I took a long exhale as I looked over at her.
“A thank you would be appreciated.”
She scowled, her eyes narrowing. “If you were hired, that means you’re being paid. I’m sure you don’t need my validation alongside your paycheck.”
“I don’t remember you being so feisty the last time we met,” I said before thinking better of the words.
Jaimie met my eyes through the mirror, questions lacing her gaze. We had worked numerous jobs together—enough that I could read the expressions on her face as well as I could with a close family member.
Evelina clenched her jaw and turned her head, dismissing me entirely. I ran my tongue over my teeth at the sheer audacity she had in making that gesture.
“I suppose you were feisty,” I recalled. “But not during our enticing conversations.”
She whipped her head back toward me. “You expect me to grovel at your feet after you lied to me and ghosted me. Is Zeke even your real name? Or did you invent that the same way you invented everything else I thought I knew about you?”
I didn’t allow my face or body language to give anything away. I did not want to leave her. Hell, I had spent months trying to wash the taste of her away, but nothing did the trick. That was the problem. That kind of connection—especially with someone in my occupation—was lethal.
“I’ve never had a one-night stand who expected more from me than the one night,” I mused, clicking my tongue, shrugging my shoulders, and crossing an ankle over a knee. “Maybe I hadn’t made myself clear.”
The fire in her gaze was undimming as she stared at me. I could see that she wanted to say so much more, but she didn’t allow a single other word to slip until she took a few long breaths and nodded.
“My mistake.”
She turned her head and looked out the window, leaving me entirely unfulfilled with this conversation.
I had wronged her, after all. I had set the perfect trap for a woman meant to be my target.
“Can I ask who hired you to get me out of there?” she asked, not bothering to look at me.
“Giovanni Rissi,” I told her.
“What do you do for him?”
I contemplated her question for one second before answering honestly. “I’m a… mercenary.”
She finally gave me a dull, unamused look. “So, an assassin?” The question took me aback. “I grew up with a mob boss as a father, as I’m sure you know. I’m not oblivious to all the terminology of this trade.”
I nodded. “Clearly.”
“Was it a coincidence that we met a year ago?”
I wouldn’t lie to her. “No, it wasn’t.”
* * * *
I pushed through the door of the townhouse and gestured for Evelina to go through the door first. She did just that wordlessly as she looked around.
“So… is this your place?” she finally asked.
I shook my head no before beginning my rounds. I went to each window and door, securing all the locks and closing the blinds.
“Then where are we?” she asked.
I released a long exhale. “How much do you know about your situation?”
“Zeke, I was loaded into a car and kept in a cell for weeks. I only learned that I would be sold after a week of persistently asking the guards for any information. I don’t know to whom, other than his name. I don’t know why. I don’t know where you come into play in any of this. I know nothing. ”
Fucking phenomenal.
“You were going to be sold in black market human trafficking. Giovanni Rissis hired me as a favor to Aria Rissi.”
She crossed her arms. “Okay, so this isn’t your apartment then?”
“It’s a safe house.”
“Once we’re sure we lost them, I get to go?”
“So eager to get away from me?”
Not even a flicker of amusement flashed across her face, and something in my chest tightened. It didn’t matter. It was better she hated me than to feel interested in something I couldn’t give her.
I knew from the moment I had seen her sneaking out of her family’s home a year ago that something was intriguing about her. And from there, the feeling only grew more powerful. More potent.
I wouldn’t let her have the same story as my mother.
Not when I had become just like my father.
“Yes.”
The word felt like a blow, but I didn’t let it show. She shouldn’t have meant anything to me. I had decided to leave her and cut all communication, and I had to stick by that for her sake.
“Well, in three days, you’ll be free to go.”
“I am not staying here with you for three days.”
“You are,” I said. “I was hired to get you out and safe. I’ll book you a flight to wherever you want to go in three days, but until then, we have to monitor the situation and ensure everyone is off your trail. Plus, I need the time to get all your identity-changing documents. Fake name. History. All of that shit.”
“I already have all of that.”
I paused and tilted my head as I took in every part of her demeanor. She stood, closed off, with her arms crossed over her chest. Her light brown hair fell over her shoulders in unkempt waves, and she stared at me through wide-framed glasses as if I had betrayed her rather than saved her life.
“You already have a fake ID, passport, documents proving past employment, a fake social security card?”
“Yes.”
“Why do you have all of those things already?”
She didn’t bother answering my question. “Are three days really necessary?”
I clenched my jaw. “I’m sure the thought of staying in my presence for three days is unbearable ,” I said sarcastically. “But for your safety, it is important.”
She huffed. “Fine.”
“Fine,” I repeated as she turned and walked toward one of the two bedrooms.
Then, she slammed the door behind her.