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Page 60 of Brian and Mina's Holiday Hits

He struggles to speak, and I ease the pressure on his throat enough so he can get the words out.

“B-because he’s not… a killer like you. He would have gotten caught. He would have squealed. I needed a professional who could do it right. I thought you’d take the higher contract. That’s all you care about. You have no honor.”

My jaw clenches at this piece of shit even thinking to pass judgment on me, knowing what he is underneath his bespoke suits, ridiculous pens, and rare car collection.

“The offer is still on the table. You have no reason to be loyal to Dante. He’s making a mockery of you. He offered the contract to someone else if he could get to me before you, it’s why mysecurity detail has been so tight for the last several weeks. And I know I can’t make him an offer. This guy would kill me for free.”

So would I. But I don’t say this out loud.

“Who?” I growl, tightening my grip on his throat.

“Gregor McDonald.”

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

If Gregor can’t get to Windsor, he’ll take the next best thing.

“That woman with you? She’s not an escort is she?” Windsor says, mirroring my own thoughts.

His eyes widen when I pull out my knife. “You let me hide the weapon that was going to kill you inside your own house, you stupid motherfucker.”

“I don’t understand. I’ve done nothing to you! We’ve always been on friendly terms. Dante is making a joke of you and your reputation. He sent Gregor after me for fuck’s sake. Just take the money and take out the true threat.”

“I am taking out the threat. I saw the sick shit on your computer. The sad part though? If you hadn’t left me alone in your study to find it, I would have taken your offer and taken out Dante instead. You could be breathing happy free air right now without a target over your head if you weren’t so fucking cavalier about your own crimes.”

“W-w-wait! I can’t explain.”

I have no interest in hearing Drake Windsor’s pathetic explanations. I drive the knife into his gut, stabbing him over and over until his screams stop and he slumps forward.

I look around frantically. This wasn’t part of any version of this plan. I haul the body into the tub and pull the curtain around it. I’m surprised this bathroom doesn’t have a more modern glass-walled shower or a free standing tub with no curtain at all, but it’s one of likely thirty bathrooms in this house. They can’t all be architectural magazine porn. I scrub my handsand the knife in the sink, then sheath the blade and return it to its holster.

I let out a sigh of relief when I find bleach under the sink. I scrub the tiles and all the places where blood splattered. I open the window to air out the noxious bleach smell, then I take a look at my own clothes. All the blood hit the jacket, nothing on the shirt. I scrub at it to get out as much as I can, but it isn’t noticeable against the black fabric.

I lock the bathroom door behind me, hoping no one else will stray this far from the party before I can get this all cleaned up.

THIRTY-TWO

mina

Brian pullsme against him in the darkened room, his mouth finding mine. I gasp, a tiny moan escaping me as I melt into his kiss. I’m about to ask about the target we still haven’t taken out when the door clangs against the wall, and I jump, spinning as the light flicks on. A masked man in a tuxedo fills the doorway.

Brian’s hand moves possessively up the back of my neck, gripping me. I expect him to move in front of me, to protect me from the intruder, but he doesn’t.

Finally, after what feels like my entire lifetime up until this moment, the man in the doorway speaks. “Mina, what in the hell do you think you’re doing with him?”

I try to spin around, but the man who now clearly isn’t Brian, has a grip on the back of my neck so tight I can’t move.

Brian removes his mask and puts it in the pocket of his jacket, then his eyes move away from me dismissively and on to the stranger. I feel suddenly like everything between us is gone in an instant—as though it was only ever a mirage.

“Brian?”

But he doesn’t look at me. It’s like I’m dead to him. My heartbeat picks up, thrumming faster and louder until my entirebody is vibrating with the energetic pulses of life that could be taken from me at any time. I have never before been aware of just how close to death I live than in this moment. It’s as though my heart knows it’s almost over and is rushing to fit in as many beats as possible while it still can.

I’ve always known what Brian was—the monster he really is when he isn’t with me—and sometimes when he is with me—but I’ve never had the weight of his nature truly aimed in my direction. I thought I knew his darkness, his coldness, but if I thought I went to bed with death at night, I was adorably naive about what that meant.

This is Brian. TherealBrian. The one he shields me from. And I didn’t realize until this moment just how much he still shielded me from what he is.

I feel like I’m meeting this man for the very first time—like my first night at the Pleasure House when he terrified me so much… except this is somehow so much worse because back then, he was intrigued by me. I may not have known it at the time but that’s what it was. And now…? He’s flipped that switch inside himself—the switch I never thought would be flipped on me. I was so stupid, dancing with the devil all this time—thinking somehow I was special, that his danger and darkness would never turn on me and that the death he wears like a shroud would never wrap its icy fingers around my throat.