Dirty Love (Dirty Girl Duet #2)(51)

“But when I saw that file yesterday, it was the sign I needed to know I was making the wrong choice. I can’t keep the past buried forever, no matter how much I wish I could. I knew I had to tell you the truth.”

How can I believe him? My judgment has been flawed every step of the way. Bad decision after bad decision, just like I told Holly. How can I trust myself to know what to feel about this?

I slide off the stool and pick up my discarded bag from the floor. “I have to go.”

“What? You’re not—”

“I have to go,” I repeat, more forcefully this time. “I need to think. I can’t be around you right now.”

Cav’s jaw tightens. “You’re walking away. Now that you know everything, you’re walking away.”

I squeeze my eyes shut because seeing the shattered expression on his face unleashes wave after wave of pain inside me.

I bump into the door and grab the handle. “What else is out there, Cav? What other huge secrets are you keeping? The hits keep coming, and I don’t know how many more I can handle.” My voice is shaking, and my need to flee is growing.

I have to get out of here.

“Nothing, Greer! There’s nothing else. You know it all. Except maybe this.” His gaze intensifies as I brace myself for another blow. His voice is steady and firm. “I would do it again to protect you. There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect you. I loved you then, and I f*cking love you now. If you can’t love me knowing that I’d give up everything to keep you safe, including spend the rest of my life in prison, then this is over. There’s nothing here to fight for.”

And that’s the blow. The one that catches me in the stomach and sends me stumbling out the door, tears falling from my eyes.





How do you deal with the fact the man you loved killed someone to protect you? And that he’d do it again without remorse or apology?

Cav’s right. I do live in a bubble, and in my bubble, this concept doesn’t exist.

I slip into a cab and head back to Creighton and Holly’s. I don’t know where else to go.

The doorman rings the apartment, and I go up the private elevator.

Holly opens the door and the moment she sees me, her face falls from a smile to a frown.

“Oh hell. What happened?” She pulls me inside, and I follow her to where Creighton is standing near the kitchen counter as he talks on the phone.

“Make the arrangements. I’ll call you back.” He hangs up, his eyes raking over me. “Where is that bastard? I’m going to kill him.”

His choice of words unleashes a peal of hysterical laughter from me, and I sound like a crazy person.

I look to Holly and she shakes her head. She didn’t tell him. But I’m going to. Because at this point, I have no idea what else to do.

I’m attempting to wipe the tears from my eyes when I reply to my brother. “How about no one dies today.”

“What the hell happened?” Creighton’s voice leaves no room for anything but the truth.

“Do you remember Tracey?”

Confusion creases my brother’s brow, and I start from the beginning, spilling everything.

When I finish, Holly is staring at me, looking even more shocked than she did earlier today, and Creighton’s expression is unreadable.

“I think I just wrote a new song in my head. Am I the most terrible sister-in-law in the world if I tell you to keep talking, but I need to write it down quick?”

It seems impossible, but I grunt out a laugh. “No, go right ahead. If you need to write the number-one single to your new album, I Killed a Hitman to Save my Girl and then Left Her for Three Years without Telling Her What Happened, feel free.”

Holly shoots me a smile that looks a little sad, but grabs a pen off the counter and a leather notebook. Creighton is still watching me.

Another thought hits me and I freeze. “Oh my God, did you know?”

Creighton shakes his head slowly. “No. But there’s something missing in this explanation.”

“What?”

“How the f*ck Dom knew the ins and outs of that deal, and apparently everything I’ve ever done. He has someone on the inside, and there’s only one person who would know that much. I just never thought he’d betray me.”

Everything inside me goes cold.

“Cannon?” I whisper.

“No way.” This comes from Holly.

Creighton grabs his phone and calls his second-in-command. “Get to my place. Now.” He hangs up without waiting for a response.

We all wait in the most painfully awkward silence of our lives. Holly keeps scribbling, and Creighton and I just stare at each other.

“What do I do? About Cav?”

Creighton’s jaw tenses and his lips flatten into a thin line. He doesn’t speak for several moments as he works out the answer in his head.

“I can’t decide if I want to kill him or welcome him to the family,” he finally says.

“What?”

“How can I fault the man for doing whatever was necessary to keep you safe? Especially when I didn’t even realize there was a threat?” Creighton looks meaningfully at Holly. “I’d kill for her—without hesitation or a second thought. If he loves you half as much as I love her, then I understand his reasoning.”