Lace and Bullets: A Hitman Romance by Marie Carnay Read Free Book Online

but she was trapped by the restraints. She managed to swivel her head. “I was there for a photo-op. I hadn’t been to my dad’s place in years. I haven’t lived with him since my mom died.”
    He paused in the doorway but didn’t turn around. “Your mother’s dead?”
    “Cancer almost ten years ago. I was fourteen.”
    “What happened then?”
    Mia snorted. “My father shipped me off to boarding school. Sold the house. Got a girlfriend. Then another and another.”
    She couldn’t keep the bitterness out of her voice if she tried. “He only calls when he needs to parade me around like a trophy. I’m his box checked. Kid: One. All I’m ever good for is the media.”
    Damien spun on his heel. “Is that why you haven’t cried?”
    “Just because I’m a woman doesn’t mean I’m going to start blubbering.”
    He stepped back into the room. “But you watched your father be murdered. He died in front of you. That would shake anyone up.”
    She’d give anything to cross her arms and turn around. Damn chain. “I’m not sorry he’s dead, okay? You happy now?”
    Damien stepped closer. “Why not?”
    “It doesn’t matter.”
    He sat down in the chair. “It does to me.”
    “Loosen these ties and I’ll tell you.”
    Without another word, her kidnapper leaned over her and tugged at the ties around her wrists. His chest hovered an inch from her face, his shirt gaping low enough to reveal a swirling mass of tattoos across his chest. Mia swallowed.
    How’d it get so hot in here?
    He smelled of greasy food and rain and she realized for the first time that he’d lost the hoodie, but never changed clothes. Muscles stood out in stark relief on his arms, rippling and flexing as he loosened the ties.
    A chain dangled from his neck with something attached to it. A…locket? She opened her mouth to ask when he rose up.
    “Is that better?”
    Mia tugged up her arms and they moved a few inches. “Yes, thank you.”
    “Now talk.” He sat down in the chair and waited.
    This close, she could see the color differences in his eyes. They weren’t just gray; they were more blue mixed with steel. His short beard hid a scar on his chin she hadn’t noticed before and his cropped hair was almost as dark as her own.
    She swallowed. There was so much she wanted to learn about this man. But she needed to run.
    Mia exhaled and met his stare. “My father was a bad man. He withheld evidence, lied to the court, and put innocent people on trial and behind bars to up his conviction rate. He didn’t care about justice. He cared about winning.”
    “Was he always like that?”
    She shrugged. “I don’t know? When I was little, he was just my dad. Always at work, never home. I never saw either of my parents. My mother made partner in her law firm when I was four.”
    “Sounds rough.” She could tell he didn’t mean it.
    “You try having three sets of nannies instead of parents.”
    “What?”
    Mia focused on the doorway past Damien’s head. “My parents couldn’t guarantee they would make it home at night. My father was first chair on capital murder trials. My mother was doing corporate deals worth billions.”
    She didn’t know why she was spilling out the painful secrets of her childhood to a stranger. But what did she have to lose? He’d probably dump her at Anthony Marcelo’s feet in the morning. She would be dead in a matter of days.
    “When I was three, they had an au pair suite built into the house and hired three different women to raise me. Every eight hours they changed shifts. Eight to four was Isabelle, four to midnight was Donna, and midnight to eight was Rebecca.”
    “When did you see your parents?”
    Mia ran her tongue over her lip. “Sometimes one of them would make it home on a Saturday. We might go to the park for an hour. Or have lunch.” She shifted on the chair. Suddenly she felt so very exposed.
    Damien reached out and brushed her hair off her face. “You should still be grateful. You had a