“Please let me go and get out,” I whispered.

He shook his head. “It’s the job and it’s a shit part of the job and I’ll tell you, Tess, I knew he violated you, no way I’d have played you. No way, Tess.” His voice got lower and his face got closer when he said, “You gotta believe that, babe. I wouldn’t have played you if I’d known.”

“But you did,” I said quietly.

His hand tensed on my head. “I didn’t know.”

“You still did it.” I leaned into the counter, pulling back my head. “I didn’t play you. I never played a single game with you. But you played me from start to finish.”

His hand tensed on my head again as his eyes started glittering. “That’s not true, Tess, and you fuckin’ know it.”

“You’re right, Brock. Earlier with what you said, you’re right. You’re the first person I let in there and when I did, I didn’t even know your fucking name.”

“That fuckin’ guy had to go down,” he growled.

“Yes, he did but it doesn’t warm my heart to think the first man I trusted with my time and attention after a very, very bad marriage was with me only to investigate my possible criminal relationship with my definitely criminal ex-husband.”

“It started like that, yeah, it did and that lasted about a goddamned hour. You cannot stand there lookin’ in my eyes and tell me you don’t know the fuckin’ second it stopped bein’ that, because, if you do, you’re a goddamned liar.”

He was not wrong. I knew. I knew the exact second. I’d lain in bed at night thinking about that too.

Therefore, I didn’t respond.

He kept speaking. “I had a job to do and we wanted a clean sweep. I knew you weren’t gonna be swept up in that but I also knew they had to make certain, so I had to make them certain before they hauled your ass in and you finished them off.”

“So you’re saying you did what you did to protect me?”

“No, I’m sayin’ I did my job. You weren’t dirty, no need to protect you. And I’m sayin’ for four fuckin’ months I liked my job a whole fuck of a lot.”

That took my breath away. So much so, I couldn’t speak.

Brock didn’t have the same problem. “You didn’t have my name, Tess, but all that time you had me and you know it.”

I looked back at his throat.

“Baby, eyes,” he growled and my eyes lifted to his.

“Why are you here?” I asked quietly and he sighed.

Then he asked back impatiently, “Honest to God?”

“What do you want from this talk?” I pushed.