I took the stairs two at a time up to the second floor. A whimper brought me to the second door on the right. I burst into the room. I swore to god I’d kill him if he was fucking Kit.
Bernard swung around, his hand on his cock—with a condom half on. Kit lay spread out under him on the bed, completely naked, his red ass clearly the result of those slapping sounds.
“What the fuck?” Bernard took a step toward the half-opened door of a closet.
“Don’t make another move.” I kept my eyes on Bernard as I scooped Kit’s dress and underwear from the floor and threw them at him. “Get dressed and go.”
Kit scrambled off the bed and slithered into the dress. I couldn’t look at him, even if I hadn’t needed to keep my eye on Bernard. Anger simmered through me, but hell if I knew if it was directed at me, Bernard, or Kit.
“Who the hell are you?” Bernard barked.
“Go, now!” I shouted at Kit. He zipped by me toward the door. As soon as he was gone, I pulled the handgun from my waistband. I screwed the silencer on it, then directed the gun at my target.
“Who sent you?” He held up his hands, his face pale.
I swept my gaze over his naked body. My stomach clenched. If I’d been a second later, he would have been inside my Kit.
“Whatever they’re paying you, I’ll double it,” he said. “Triple it if you turn this around and kill them instead. What the hell. I’ll pay you four times what they’re paying you now.”
I pulled back the hammer. “I’ll be sure to let your wife know you tried to trade your life for hers.”
“Meredith put you up to this?” His mouth dropped open. “The ungrateful bitch. After everything I’ve done for her. I made her something.”
“You made her something all right.” I pulled the trigger and, with dead accuracy, put a bullet through his head. He crashed to the floor, lifeless.
“Oh, my god!”
I whipped my head around. Kit stood framed in the doorway, a hand on his neck, his face white as a sheet, staring at Bernard’s body.
“Oh, my god, you killed him.”
Fuck. Why hadn’t he left when I’d asked him to? The most he would have heard was the dull, suppressed sound of the silencer.
“Kit.”
He stumbled back from the door and darted off. I rushed after him and caught him before he could take the stairs.
“Please don’t hurt me,” he cried out as I hooked an arm around his waist and held him to my chest.
“Kit, calm down.”
“Nonono.” He beat at my hand with his fists. “I saw you. I saw what you did.”
“I promise there’s a good reason,” I said softly into his ear. “He was a terrible man. Now calm down, Kitten.”
He stiffened in my arms. A shudder ran through him, and he collapsed back against me. “I need to know the truth.”
“And I’ll tell you, but not here. I still have a lot of cleaning up to do. Liam’s waiting for you outside. Go with him. I’ll find you later and explain. I promise.”
I tightened my arms around him and nuzzled his hair. In case this was the last time I got to hold him like this. From the horrific expression on his face when he’d seen me kill Bernard, I wouldn’t be surprised if he walked away from this gig.
I released him. “Go.”
He started down the stairs but stopped halfway and turned back to me. “Sully, be careful.”
My throat constricted, and I stared at his lithe frame until he disappeared from view. I’d never been careless before, and I didn’t plan to start now.
Hours later, I climbed up the porch of Kit’s house, where Liam sat on a padded bench.