Salvation by Stephanie Tyler

to do things in the name of his business.”
    He turned to look at her. “You’re getting along with him. Fixing his car...”
    “So?”
    “So when I tell you what you want to know about my full role here with Keller, that’ll change everything. And you’ve got to live here for a while, Luna. You’ve got it pretty damned good at this point.”
    “You’re worried I’ll fuck it up.”
    “I know you will. Because I have to try every damned day not to.” He shook his head. “Let me carry the burden of what he does. Retain the last bit of innocence.”
    “Is there a possibility you’re never leaving?”
    He glanced at her. “There always was.”
    “That’s why you told Keller to take you instead of Mathias.”
    Instead of answering that directly, he said, “I never figured you’d show.”
    “Would that have bothered you?”
    “You and Mathias were the only reasons I didn’t want to leave,” he admitted.
    * * *
    When he said that, Luna moved toward him, fitted herself against him. “Please, tell me what else you do here. You’re all I have. I want to be here for you too. But you have to tell me things.”
    He studied her for a long moment, then told her bluntly, “Most of the time, I collect money from people who don’t want to pay, and things get rough. But I kill for him when he needs me to.”
    “So the fighting?”
    “I like it. I need it. And I get paid for it. The money I make for collecting is what’s paying back Defiance’s debt. Mathias would’ve been fighting for ten years to make that back,” he explained.
    “Mathias is violent too.”
    “In a different way. It’s complicated. Trust me—I’m the right one to be here. This would’ve ruined him.”
    She stroked his cheek. “He says the same thing about you.”
    “I’ll bet he does,” he murmured.
    “How often do you go out for Keller?” she asked.
    “Depends. It’s not about a certain amount of money equals every kill I make,” he said. “It’s more about the year. One year and my service is over. And he’s going to pack as much as he can into that year.”
    “So you go out alone?”
    “No. I take one of his men with me. Another assassin and collector—his name’s Declan. He’s cool. Worked for Keller for a long time. You’ll meet him, I’m guessing.”
    She wasn’t sure she wanted that. It was hard to tell the good from the bad here—maybe that was the point. Maybe what she’d always known as good and bad was always just a construct. Because the man who’d molested her was known as the greatest guy ever, according to the men in the club.
    He opened the trap door, motioned for her to go first. He followed her down the ladder, let her into his rooms and locked the door behind them. By the time she turned around, he was taking off his shirt. Unbuttoning his jeans. Telling her, “You can’t change what I do here, Luna.”
    “Then what can I do?”
    “What you’ve been wanting to all day.”
    She didn’t deny it. She had been thinking about him all day—her body tingling, the way it always did in his presence. When he’d left, it’d been worse, like he’d marked her, ruined her in a way she’d never known existed.
    Ruined from pleasure. She’d never thought that could happen for her, the way it did for Tru and Jessa, even Aimee.
    Now, he was with her, stripping down for her. Holding back, letting her take the lead.
    “Tell me what you want.”
    “You, on the bed,” she told him. He didn’t hesitate, his big body moving gracefully onto the mattress until he was leaning against the pillows.
    “Handcuffs in the drawer,” he told her.
    She tilted her head at him, waiting for him to laugh but he didn’t. So she checked the drawer and found the handcuffs with the long chain. “You use these often?”
    “On the bad guys, yeah.”
    She moved to kneel on the bed next to him, and he put his hands around the slats of the headboard. “You want me to do this?”
    “Yeah.” He gave her a half smile. It was