“Come here to me. I need you close when we talk about our future.”

“I get lost when I’m too close to you,” she admitted.

“I’ll keep us on track. This is important to you. To both of us. Come here, baby.”

His voice. So compelling. How could she resist? She moved into him, standing between his thighs. At once, he pulled her into his arms, onto his lap. She knew when he wanted her close, it meant on his lap. She didn’t protest. She felt safer when his arms were around her.

He cradled the side of her face with his palm, his thumb sliding over her lips, sending shivers of awareness down her spine.

“Baby, I’m not Quentin. I know guns might seem scary to you, but you need to see who I am. I’m far more lethal than your brother-in-law could ever have been. He was a bully and a coward. He couldn’t have loved your sister or his children or you. I would kill for you, but I would never do anything to harm you. You’re my savior. My world. A treasure beyond any price. If things go bad between us, I would move heaven and earth to make them right. I would never, under any circumstances, consider harming you.”

She touched the tip of her tongue to her suddenly dry lips. He had admitted to her he was trained as an assassin from an early age. She had no doubt that he was skilled in his craft. Just the fact that he was alive was a testament to his expertise. If she entered into a relationship with him, she would always know what he was capable of. It had never occurred to her that he wasn’t telling her the truth. Looking at him, seeing him, lent credence to his admissions.

“What are you thinking?”

“You could have lied to me about your past.” She didn’t know what she was asking of him. Reassurance? How could he make her feel as if she wouldn’t be living under a threat when he readily admitted he was a lethal weapon even without a gun?

“I could have, but I want our relationship to be about trust. About honesty. I need to know that you can accept me the way I really am. No fantasy. No overlooking my faults. To be in the relationship I need, you have to trust me. That isn’t going to be easy, and I’m aware you’ll be making quite a few concessions, so it’s important to me to always, always, give you the truth. You will need to know you can depend on me, on my word, no matter what the circumstances are. If I can’t tell you something right at the time you ask a question, I’ll let you know why I can’t answer and when I’ll be able to.”

Another red flag went up. Alarms sounded in her brain. That didn’t sound good. Not answering her questions right away? She would have to have understanding for him if he decided he couldn’t talk to her about some subject she was confused about. Or worried about.

Azelie made a move to get off his lap. His arms tightened around her, preventing the hesitant movement.

“We knew this wasn’t going to be an easy talk, Zelie. It’s necessary if we’re going to have the kind of relationship we both want. Don’t run away from me because you don’t understand. We’re going to keep talking until you do. Talk to me. Communication is necessary in our relationship, although when you ask me questions, I reiterate, I might not answer immediately. I might ask you to wait for answers. If that happens, I want you to know I have very good reasons for needing you to be patient.”

Azelie didn’t know what to think. He talked about communication but then told her straight up that he might not answer her if she asked questions. “You’re confusing me, Andrii. You say you want us to communicate, but then in the same breath, you say you might not answer questions I ask.” Azelie forced her gaze to meet his. “Are you a criminal?”

His gaze didn’t waver from hers, but he remained silent for too long. Far too long. She sighed and tried to turn her head. He gently cupped her chin in a silent demand to keep her looking at him.

“Baby, I own a construction business with three friends. I play music in a band. Those are legitimate businesses and I get paid very well for them. I also do other things when the circumstances warrant it.”

Her heart jumped. She felt instantly sick and, without thinking, pressed her hand tight over her rolling stomach.

“Don’t you think me getting mixed up with Billows is bad enough? I didn’t know who he was when I was sixteen. I’m not sixteen anymore, Andrii. Making bad decisions would be insane. I’m in over my head with Billows and don’t see a way out. I know I told you I was just waiting to get out from under him, but I haven’t really figured out how. Not and stay alive.”

She looked down at her hands before once again meeting his gaze. “I don’t need to jump from the proverbial frying pan into the fire. I’m going to take a wild guess and say you’re still working with your dubious expert skills.”

For one moment a hint of male amusement lit his gray eyes, giving them a slightly silver appearance. For some unknown reason, when she was certain she should be annoyed by his sense of humor, that look made her heart flutter. Not just her heart. Other body parts. She was so susceptible to him.

“Dubious expert skills? Are you calling my assassin skills into question?”

She scowled at him, but it wasn’t easy. She liked making him smile or almost smile. He wore an expressionless mask most of the time, so when he showed her emotion, she felt as if he’d given her a gift. “I wish I didn’t believe you had those skills, Andrii, but I have no doubt that you do. I think you’re very good at whatever it is that you do. I just don’t understand why you do it, and I don’t think I can live with it.”

Once more she made an attempt to get off his lap. She needed to put distance between them. Surrounded by his scent, feeling his hard body, hot and muscular, made her weak. This was self-preservation.

His arms tightened, locking her to him. “Where are you going?”

“I think it’s better if I sit across from you and figure this out. You’re scaring me, Andrii.”

He shook his head. “Don’t start lying now, Zelie. Not to me and not to yourself. I don’t scare you. You know I’d never harm you. You know it in your heart. You see me. Into me. You know I’m not capable of hurting you.”

“But you hurt others.” She sat stiffly in his lap, refusing to relax against his chest. That way lay disaster.

“I hunt pedophiles and traffickers, Azelie. The men and women who slip through the cracks and are never brought to justice. I don’t run drugs or guns. I don’t participate in trafficking. I don’t have a stable of women. Most of my time is spent building things. Crafting with wood. Playing music. But there are times when we come across information that has to be acted on.”

She didn’t know what to think or feel. He was so matter-of-fact, completely honest, telling her that he hunted criminals and then executed them.

“Can’t you turn these people over to the police?”

His hand swept down the back of her head, and then his fingers slipped into her hair as he gently massaged her scalp and the nape of her neck. “You need to hear me, Azelie. Everything I say. Don’t get stuck on the concept of what I am. We hunt criminals who aren’t being caught or punished. Sometimes we manage to take back a child, and sometimes we shut down a trafficking ring. We follow a chain of activity online and off in order to do that. These people would never see the inside of a prison, or if they did, they would manage to get out immediately.”

She worked at not reacting, but at listening and hearing what he said. “It’s vigilante justice, Andrii.”

“I’m aware.”

He didn’t apologize for what he did. He expected her to understand that the women and children he saved were worth what he had to do to rescue them. Had someone known about Quentin and his proclivities outside his marriage and the fact that he relied on Janine’s money to stay afloat, her sister, niece and nephew might still be alive.

“I need to give this more thought. I don’t like it, Andrii. I don’t understand what drives you.” But she did. She had followed the sound of the woman screaming in pain below the clubs, and she would have done anything to save her. If she’d owned a gun, she would have shot Quentin to protect her family. That was her nature. Despite her reluctance to make decisions, she would have been utterly decisive about emptying a gun into her brother-in-law if she had found out his plan. She would have done so before he pulled out a gun to shoot her sister.

It occurred to her that Andrii was hunting Billows. The thought had been growing in the back of her mind for some time. If that was the case, that meant Billows was into some extremely nefarious activities, worse than what she’d imagined. It also meant Andrii was using her to get to Billows.

“Your mind is working overtime. Share.” He murmured it, his breath warm against the nape of her neck.

It was difficult to think straight when he was moving his lips against her skin, sending little sparks of electricity dancing through her. She detested that she was so susceptible to him. Especially now, when she worried that he was using her to get to Billows and it was probable that nothing was real about his interest in her.

Why would he be interested? She saw the way other women looked at him. He could have anyone he wanted. She came with enough baggage for ten people. It was all beginning to make sense now.

“I have to think this through.”

“Think out loud.”

That was a command uttered in that same low tone he used so often, but one he meant. Her gaze jumped to his face.

“Okay then, but I’m going to reiterate I’m uncomfortable sitting in your lap with you kissing my neck while I’m trying to figure out what’s really going on here.” She didn’t attempt to move but stated her preference.

“I get that, baby, but I think you need a little extra care and reassurance right now. This talk is far from over, and we need to get past a lot of hard issues.”

He sounded so sweet. As if what she thought and felt mattered to him. She was reluctant to tell him what she was thinking for two reasons. If she was correct, she would be shattered. If she was incorrect, it might hurt him.

“Azelie.”

Just her name but a clear prompt to get her talking. She sighed. “It has occurred to me that you started a relationship with me because I work for Billows, not because you were interested in me.”

Her stomach knotted in anticipation of his response. She knew the answer. She absolutely did.

Andrii’s fingers were firm on the nape of her neck, attempting to ease the tension out of her. He felt strong and safe when she knew better. She’d been such a complete idiot. She’d wanted to believe the fantasy, and she should have known better.

“Does it matter how you caught my interest when I ended up falling right off the cliff? You’re an astute, very intelligent woman. You have good instincts. What are those instincts telling you?”