Hitman's Hookup: A Bad Boy Romance (10 page)

I nodded and bit off the end of a curly fry with my front teeth. "And we fucked again in his car. Well...I was the one on the receiving end of
that
generosity. Then we came back here."

"And he spent the night?" Ally asked.

I sipped my soda and thought about how much I was going to tell Ally about the rest of the evening. Phillip had given me an absolutely absurd response when I asked how and why he’d been stabbed. I told myself that it was only the drugs talking. But a small part of me felt a poking and prodding at my conscience. There was something I was missing in all of this. “Yeah he spent the night,” I said simply. Something was telling me not to share
everything
.

"So he's a sex god, basically?" Ally asked, her blue eyes wide. She was wearing a Dartmouth sweatshirt. She’d had it so long it was almost more holes than fabric.

"You could say that," I said coyly. "Okay. He's amazing. Earth-shattering. Like, I don't think he's from planet earth. Between that and how he delivered chest compressions for close to ten minutes without breaking a sweat, I’m seriously suspecting alien involvement.”

Ally's jaw dropped. "Ten minutes? No. No way. There's no way."

"Ask Craig," I replied simply, polishing off the rest of my mushroom burger and balling up the brown wax paper wrapper to toss away. "Hey, you want to take a pie with you? Or five?" I asked.

“You’re
baking
now?” Ally asked, bewildered. “You hate cooking.”

"I got bored yesterday."

She sighed. "I can't even imagine not being able to go into the hospital. I'd kill my entire family within forty-eight hours," she said jokingly. She looked appraisingly at the mountain of pies cluttering my kitchen countertop. "I think my horde could probably obliterate this in about a day and a half."

"Thanks," I replied. "I didn't think far enough ahead when I started my baking marathon." I reached under the kitchen sink to pull out a reusable canvas bag. I usually took this one to the shore in the summertime. I wrapped the pies in plastic wrap and stacked them in the bag carefully. "They'll be a little smashed."

"My kids won't care. They'll be at the damn door like they smelled it from six blocks away," she said, laughing.

"How's the hospital?" I asked.

"Boring without you. I did get to scrub in on open-heart surgery the other day. That was cool." Ally tilted her head. "How are you going to make it through the next-"

"Eighty-seven days?" I finished for her. "Not that I’m counting or anything." I sighed. "I don’t know."

Ally picked a stray piece of baked pie crust off of the counter top and popped it in her mouth. "If I were you? I'd lay around naked, all day, waiting for Romeo to toss rocks at my window. And then he could bend me over and-"

Ally's sentence was interrupted by a sharp knock at the door. "You didn't order surprise dessert again, did you?" Ally asked, bringing up my habit of always calling in dessert. "Because I'm going to explode from lunch."

I shook my head and walked to the peephole. My stomach did sixteen backflips in the span of ten seconds. Phillip was standing outside of my door. In his hands he held a black briefcase and a black duffel bag. He'd changed into a white t-shirt and jeans with what looked like white Chuck Taylors on his feet. Aviators were perched on his nose. His geometric tattoos stood out in the daylight coming in through the hallway window.

"Who is it?" Ally asked. "Are you going to let them die out there?"

I suddenly realized I was still in ratty sweatpants and an old tank top with no bra. I wasn't wearing any makeup. My hair was twisted up in a bright green scarf that clashed horribly with the rest of my outfit. "It's him!" I hissed, my voice squeaking comically.

Ally clapped her hands. "Let him in! I'll call Bill and tell him that I'm having a threesome with Adonis and you."

I rolled my eyes.

"What? He'd probably ask for video evidence of the entire event, to be honest. Five kids sort of puts a damper on your sex life, let me tell you."

Phillip knocked again on the door.

"Just a minute!" I called, rushing into my bedroom closet and pulling down a chartreuse silk blouse that matched my headscarf and a khaki pencil skirt. I shoved my feet into purple heels and ran into the living room. "Do I look okay?"

Phillip sounded like he was going to break down the door. Ally was sitting there, looking amused at the scene of me rushing around. "Gorgeous, as always. You must have really given it to him last night. Sounds like he's about to break his fist in order to get more sex."

I took a deep breath and opened the door. His smoky, woodsy cologne hit my nose and I felt heat between my legs. "Hey," I said, trying to look casual and failing miserably at it.

Phillip stepped inside without any word, looking around the place furtively like he’d done last night. He threw down his bags and started opening doors.

"Hi," Ally said, waving her hand sarcastically. "Don't mind me."

Phillip froze in place when he saw her. He kept his aviators on. His dark, gelled hair had fallen across his forehead. "Hi," he said finally. Then he went back to looking through my apartment. "Shut the door and lock it," he instructed.

Ally looked at me, panicked as if saying
What the fuck is going on with him?
“You know you look really, really familiar,” Ally said loudly.

“I get that a lot. I just have one of those faces,” Phillip called back.

Ally snorted. “Yeah, faces like yours are really a dime a dozen.”

I walked in to my bedroom to see that Phillip had crawled onto the floor to look under my bed. "Did you leave something here?"

Phillip got onto his feet. "Your friend needs to leave. Now," he whispered.

"She was on her way out anyway," I said. "Is something wrong? You're kind of freaking me out. I'm not sure at this point Ally will actually feel
comfortable
leaving me here if you're acting like this."

Phillip reached out and pulled me close to his body. My breath caught in my chest as I looked up at his face. He reached down and kissed my lips fully. I felt myself melt in his arms. He moved to my ear. "Tell her we need alone time," he whispered. Then he reached down and unbuttoned the top two buttons of my shirt, pulling out one half of my shirt tail.

Suddenly I knew what he was doing. I undid my head scarf and let it fall to the floor.

I had no idea why, but I knew I needed to trust him.

"Ally," I said, stumbling out into the living room like I was drunk on lust. I lowered my voice and giggled purposely. I hoped my act was convincing. "You were right about him needing sex.
Urgently
."

Ally took a moment to react like she was weighing the risk of leaving me here with an erratic Phillip. Then she nodded. "Okay," she said tentatively. "Tell me all about it later. I need some excitement, like I said."

I practically pushed her out the door. When she left, I locked all three of the deadbolts and wandered back to the bedroom, my heart pounding in my chest. "What the hell is going on?" I asked Phillip. He was shutting the curtains in my bedroom. He pushed past me and walked into my closet, where he pulled down my empty suitcase from the top shelf.

"We need to go," he said, thumbing through my hanging clothes and pulling down summery dresses. He pulled open my underwear drawer and fished out a handful of lacy panties.

"
Go?
What are you talking about?" I wanted to laugh. This entire thing was so absurd. What could possibly be going on with him?

Phillip grabbed several bras and pulled down three pairs of sandals, which he threw haphazardly into my bag. He looked at my feet. "You need to change into shoes you can walk in," he said, handing me a pair of running shoes.

"No," I said, blocking his way out of the closet. "Tell me what's going on."

Phillip pushed his sunglasses up onto the top of his head. "Why are you on a sabbatical?" he asked me. I opened my mouth to protest but he put a finger on my lips. "Be quick about it," he said. "I already know you must have killed someone. Tell me what happened."

His words hit me like a slap across the face. Completely against my will, I felt tears stinging my ears. "How do you know...Phillip? What is going on?"

He grabbed my shoulders and crouched down so our eyes were level with one another's. "Lily, I need you to trust me." He glanced over my shoulder like he was contemplating something. Then he looked me dead in the eyes. "You were right. My name isn't Phillip. It's Dawson Cruz."

CHAPTER TWELVE

CRUZ

I held onto her shoulders because I wasn't confident that she was going to be able to remain on her feet much longer. I shook her gently to keep her from crying. "Lily. Look at me. Tell me what happened. Who was the patient?"

Lily bit her lip and swallowed her tears. "He was just another bypass patient. Young. Fit. Late thirties, I would say."

"What was his name?" I asked, my heart beating in my chest.

I already knew the answer. He was the only man I’d killed whose name I knew. But I needed to hear her
say it
.

"Patrick Romano," she said, her voice catching on the final syllable of his last name. "It was only supposed to be bypass surgery..." Her gorgeous brown eyes filled with tears again. "I just don’t understand, because I
know
I didn't make a mistake.
I know.
I know I didn't. But it had been a long shift and when it all happened...he'd been doing
so well
. But the chart said that I ordered a higher dose...I swear I didn't - never again. I know I didn't-" She started hyperventilating, her chest rising rapidly as the breaths came like an avalanche.

I dropped the suitcase and put my arm under her and led her to the bed. I got on my knees and took her face in my hands. "Lily, I need you to take a deep breath for me." Her lips trembled, and fat tears rolled down her cheeks. She took one shuddering, deep breath that managed to slow down the hyperventilation. "I need you to tell me what my name is."

She blinked and inhaled again. Then she exhaled the word. "Cruz," she said.

Good. She was paying attention. She was going into shock, but at least she was paying attention. I rubbed the pad of my thumb across her mouth. "Sit here. Just sit here." I reached back and grabbed the running shoes. "When you're ready, I need you to put these on, okay?"

I looked at her outfit. A woman as stunning as her would be conspicuous in a burlap sack. But still - she clearly needed something demure that wouldn't attract so much attention. I grabbed a pair of dark jeans and a black t-shirt and set them on her lap. "Change into these first.”

Lily nodded, still staring into space and not saying a word.

"Lily. I'm going to keep talking to you while I pack your bag, okay?"

"Where are we going? Why?"

I stood up and grabbed her suitcase, pulling it into the bathroom. I started shoving what looked like the most-used items into her bag. I knew that we could buy whatever we needed where we were going, but I wasn't sure how much money I'd be able to get my hands on before we landed. I couldn’t risk calling Flea right now. We’d swing by on the way out.

“When I was a kid, Lily, one time I had to leave my house in a hurry,” I yelled back at her. I grabbed a bag of makeup and tossed it into the suitcase. “It happened a lot, actually. And my mom always said ‘No matter where we’re going, you need to have a toothbrush.’ I still pack that way. Even if I don’t have time for anything else, I grab the toothbrush.” I poked my head out of the bathroom.

Lily was still frozen but she also had a look of recognition on her face. “How did you know about my patient?”

“Tell me what I always pack, Lily,” I repeated, trying to sound light-hearted. I ducked back into the bathroom and shoved a jar of coconut oil into her suitcase before zipping it up.

“A toothbrush,” came her monotonous voice from the bedroom. “Answer my question, Cruz. About my patient.”

“It doesn’t matter,” I said. “We need to go. Lily, please. Don’t make me dress you.”

Her face had turned stony. She’d gone from shock to the same fire that she’d had the last two days. Fuck, had it only been two days?

“Your name isn’t Phillip and you knew about the hospital. How did you know about the hospital?”

I weighed my options. “You’re not coming with me unless I tell you, are you?”

She nodded. “That’s right.” Some of her braids had fallen out of the high bun on her head. They cast thin lines of shadow across her cheek in the dim light from the bathroom. Her eyes were clear. She wasn’t happy, but she was Lily again; she had an intense ferocity about her that I knew I couldn’t ignore.

“I’m not a private investigator,” I said. I’d never told anyone this before. I felt my words were landing like lead already. “I…I work for people. And they’re very powerful. Your patient…he was a big deal. And there are people looking for you.” I said all of this, parsing my words as carefully as I could.

Lily blinked. “You work for people.
You work for people?
That’s what you have for me? You’re telling me that people are
looking for me
, because the man I – my patient was important?”

“Your life is in danger.” I glanced into the living room as if there were a giant countdown clock placed in there. “We don’t have time, Lily.
Please
.”

Somehow this did it. Lily was on her feet, stripping off her outfit as quickly as she could.

There was a knock at the door. Lily froze, fear flashing in her face.

“I’ll get it,” I said. “If you hear anything,
stay in here, okay?”
She nodded, her jeans halfway covering her ass. I walked back into the living room and slipping my handgun out of my duffel bag. I held it by my side and looked through the peephole. Messy blonde hair greeted me. “It’s Ally,” I called back.

“Shit, the pies,” Lily said. I heard a rustle of fabric. She padded into the hallway, dressed but still barefoot, and grabbed a huge canvas bag off the countertop. She glanced down at the gun at my side. “You can put that away,” she hissed. She wrenched the door open, me stuck behind it. “Here’s your pie.”