His fist bangs the wall beside my head, hard enough to make me flinch. “No. I won’t fucking go home. I’m not about to leave you here when you’re clearly upset and refuse to tell me how I can fix it.”
“It’s not your responsibility to fix it!” I yell back at him, anger returning in a flash. “You’re not my keeper or my savior or my knight-in-shining armor.We aren’t friends.You’re the one who told me that. Or did you already forget?”
“Hunt—”
“Don’tHuntme!” I shake my head and, for some baffling reason, I’m suddenly fighting tears. “You know, when you climbed through my window and rescued me that night, right when this first started, I thought you were on my side. I thought you cared. But now I see nothing you’ve done is out of loyalty or anything resembling actual human emotion. I’m just an obligation to you. And you’re just a robot, going through the motions, handling me like you handle every other case that comes across your desk.”
His teeth grit. “Glad to know you think so highly of me.”
“What else am I supposed to think? Huh? Three days ago, you dragged me into an interrogation room like a criminal and set your blonde attack dog on me. Two days ago you accused me of harboring my asshole ex in the attic. And one day ago you left me all alone, had me locked up in here without so much as a word, while you went off to deal with… with… whatever issues you deemed morevitalon your freaking to-do list!”
“You want to know what I was doing yesterday? I waslooking for your idiot husband,” he roars back at me, anger contorting his handsome features. “I was out doing my damn job. And I’m sorry to disappoint you, but I’m not your fucking fairy tale hero. Real life doesn’t always have a happy ending. It’s not all sunsets and roses and carriage rides with some asshat princeling in tights who swoops in to save the day with a glass slipper!”
“You think I don’t know that?” I try to laugh but it comes out as a sob. “You think I don’t know how very fucked up life can be? You think I don’t know that Prince Charming sometimes turns out to be the villain? You think I don’t know that sometimes the princess winds up getting totally screwed over?” I shake my head. “What story haveyoubeen reading that has a happy ending? Or a happy beginning and middle, for that matter? Because it’s not mine. If you think it is, you haven’t been paying attention.”
“Except Ihavebeen paying attention — for six long months, in fact! Which is why I’m not about to let this case fall to pieces just because you might get your goddamned feelings hurt in the process!”
My spine snaps straight. “Thanksso muchfor clearing that up!”
“Anytime!”
“Perfect!”
We both fall silent, too angry to say another word. The only sound in the room is our equally ragged breathing. Conor’s mouth is so close to mine, I can feel each puff of air on my lips. The animosity is so thick between us, you could cut it with a knife.
My eyes narrow. “I’mso gladwe’re in agreement, then.”
“That’d be a first,” he mutters. “What are we supposedly in agreement on here, Hunt?”
“That there’s no need for us to interact anymore.”
“Woman, what are you—”
I cut him off. “Seeing as we aren’t anything to each other besides agent and asset… surely it doesn’t matter who debriefs me. So, I’d prefer to deal with Sykes from this point forward.”
“Too fucking bad.”
“Excuse me?”
“You heard me,” he spits. “You don’t get to push me away just because you’re pissed at me.”
“Push you away?” I scoff. “This has nothing to do with you.”
“I think has everything to do with me.”
“Oh, you are more full of yourself than a damn Russian matryoshka doll!”
“Nice dodge.”
“I’m not dodginganything, you jerk. I don’t need to. Sykes told me your analysts are tacking down that bank account as we speak. And once they do… the case is just about closed. Filed, finished.Over.” My voice drops to a low, angry whisper. “Which means so is this god awful chapter of my life. Andso are we.”
Conor is glaring at me like he’s never hated anyone on the planet as much as he hates me. His mouth opens and I brace myself for his reply, knowing it’ll be something truly terrible. Something that’ll hammer the final nail in the coffin of this antagonistic work arrangement we’re both so desperate to escape.
It’s almost funny — after everything we’ve already screamed and shouted and sneered at each other, I think I’m well prepared for whatever he might say to me in this moment. Yet, when he finally retorts…
I’m thrown for a loop.
Because he does something far worse than anything I ever could’ve imagined. Something that brings my whole world crashing to a stop. Something that makes those words I uttered to him in anger entirely obsolete.