Accidentally Yours (Merffy Kizzmet) novel Chapter 194

Chapter 194

“Wow.” She chatched her chest. “Itude. I hope your sauce burns tonight.”

His mouth twitched despite himself. He was beautiful when he forgot to guard his mouth like that, Dangerous, sure–everything about the way he watched the mirrors said predator–but soft for her in ways she hadn’t known she was starved for.

Don’t get mushy. Buy bikinis, Focus,

She flicked the radio to something with a ridiculous beat, jabbed a finger at the dashboard like she’d discovered fire. “Pre–game. We will acquire: two bikinis that say island goddess‘ and none that say “warden please arrest me.”

“Is there a difference?” he asked.

“Subtle,” she said. “Vibes.”

“Ah,” he murmured. “Science.”

“I’m going to make you carry everything,” she warned.

“You’re not carrying anything,” he said at once.

Her heart did that ugly–hopeful pull it always did when the men in her life said you don’t have to be strong lightly. “You can be the mall mule.”

g right now. “Fine,” she said

“Romantic,”

– he muttered.

“You love me,” she sing–songed, because it was true and because teasing it into the ribbon.

air made truth feel less like a blade and more like a

His ha

hands tightened infinitesimally on the wheel. “Yeah,” he said simply.

She swallowed and turned her face to the window so he wouldn’t see all of it. The Strip gave way to parking lots and palms, white heat wobbling over asphalt, She opened and closed her band once, twice.

You’re safe. You’re allowed to he excited about dumb things like swimsuits and sunscreen. You can want a future without listening footsteps

for

Nico took them toward the back of the lot, away from the clustered cars and the choke of the main entrance. Their lead SUV idled two rows over, the rear unit rolled past to take the far aisle. The four foot spotters had already posted at corners–one by the revolving doors, one by a pillar, two cutting slow arcs that overlapped. A pair in the flank vehicles scanned rooflines. Another pair drifted along the sidewalk like they had nowhere better to be. The net looked loose. It wasn’t.

SUV into a space by the curb, not far from the entrance. The morning crowd floated between cars and glass–teenagers Nico eased the SUV bleached by Nevada sun, tourists with cameras at the wrong time, a woman tugging a sullen pug in a sweater. A security guard in a neon vest yawned like vigilance was optional.

Nico killed the engine and scanned without looking like he was scanning. Mirrors Roof. Reflections in chrome bumpers. The way he did everything–controlled, quiet, a study in I don’t miss.

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11:26 Thu, Oct 9

Chapter 194

“Okay,” he said. “Rules”

Lola graned for sport. “Ugh.”

“You don’t go out of sight,”

“Fine.”

“You don’t disappear into dressing moms without me clearing them first,”

“Creep,” she said, and then softened it with a smile. “Fine.”

“If I say car, we’re in the cat.”

She sobered. “Fine.”

He nodded once, satisfied, and reached across her to pop the lock. Men in their periphery adjusted positions, angles shifting like birds on a wire. The radio on Nico’s vest clicked alive–two soft acknowledgments from the foot team, a third from the rear cover. Clear Clear. Clear.

He climbed out first–habit, duty, love; she didn’t know how to rank them and maybe there wasn’t a difference–and came around, hand out, palm up, that half–smile beginning because she was probably already making trouble in her brain.

“C’mon, trouble. Let’s=”

The sound cracked the morning clean in half.

Not a backfiring car. Not a dropped pallet. Not a two–by–four slammed by a careless worker. A shot–flat, cruel, final.

er movie noise. Then Nico’s body jerked like something had yanked him backward by a For a half–second her mind tried to file it under string, and he went down hard on the asphalt. The outstretched hard that had been for her curled as if it could catch his life. A red bloom spread under his ribs, darker than any red had a right to be.

Sound did something strange–rushed away and then back like the ocean. Someone screamed. Later she would know it was her.

No. No, no,

), no–get up.

s taken on rooflines and sight lines. “Source?” Their men erupted–shouts snapped to positions, weapons drawn behind cover, angles

-no second flash” “Hold fire–crowd!” “Call it Radios hurred, bodies moved, and there was still no second shot. One “North–northwest- and done. Surgical.

Lola didn’t feel her legs move. One moment she was upright. The next her knees hit hot pavement and her palms were on Nico’s chest like instinct could stuff the bullet back in. Her fingers came away slick. He was trying to breathe around the ruin in his chest, lips parted, eyes blown wide and fixed on nothing and on her, both at once.

hey–Nic, look at me. Look at me.” Her voice was shredded, and she didn’t care. “You’re okay, you’re okay.”

“Hey, h

Line. You don’t get to lie to him.

People were shouting–security

roaring useless instructions, a tourist crying into a phone,

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