Daddy's Adorable Assassin (Daddy's Little Deviants)

“Is Agent Ellis…” I couldn’t finish the thought.

“He’s in critical condition,” Knight responded, his tone curt. “It’s unlikely that he’ll make it. He lost a lot of blood, which brings me to ask, why did you take so long to call 911?”

“Actually, I called,” Hunter said, pulling out a chair for me to sit around the island. “Cosmo called me about what had happened, and I got dispatch on the line.”

Knight frowned at me. “You didn’t think to call 911 first?”

“I’m sorry. Now I know I should have, but it all happened so fast. I was scared and just thought to call Hunter and he’d fix it.”

“I want you to walk me through what happened.”

“Agent Ellis and I were talking on the porch.”

“What were you two talking about?”

I glanced at Hunter and licked my lips.

“This isn’t the time to hold back answers from us, Cosmo. A federal agent got hurt protecting you.”

“It’s okay, Cosmo,” Hunter said much more gently. “We need to know everything.”

I lowered my gaze. “He was about to be relieved, and he said he wanted to talk to me. It was… personal. He talked about my relationship with Hunter and-and how he would be more suitable as a partner.”

Beside me, Hunter tensed. I would have a lot to apologize for later. I should have shut the door once I realized what Agent Ellis had wanted to talk about.

“Agent Ellis wanted to get involved with you?”

“Yes.”

“What happened?”

“I told him I wasn’t interested.” I raised my eyes to Hunter, then shifted my attention back to Knight. “He was still trying to convince me otherwise, and that’s when I heard the first gunshot.”

“And?”

“I-I was stunned. Agent Ellis protected me with his body, told me to get shelter. He returned fire. When the gunshots stopped, I checked his pulse and called Hunter right away. Then I ran up to the closet in our—his bedroom and hid.”

“You didn’t try to save Agent Ellis’s life after he protected yours? You just hid in a closet?”

“I told him to hide in the closet, Knight,” Hunter said before I could reply. “What could he have done? We didn’t know if there were other shooters, and he’s the key witness in the case of the Handkerchief Murders.”

Knight opened his mouth as if he wanted to argue, and he and Hunter had an angry stare-off, communicating words I didn’t understand. What a mess. If they found out I was the one who’d used Agent Ellis’s gun to kill the shooter, there was no way they wouldn’t connect me to Virgil’s case.

My stomach churned.

“Cosmo, are you all right?” Hunter asked.

“I think I’m going to be sick. I need to use the bathroom.”

I bolted off the chair and rushed to the half bath. I slammed the door shut and barfed up my breakfast. Knight probably thought I was faking the whole thing. He didn’t trust me one bit, and if Hunter hadn’t come to my defense, he would have been even more difficult.

If only there were some way I could get rid of him.

I rinsed out my mouth and took in a deep breath, then walked back to the kitchen. Now that I knew the depth of Hunter’s love, I’d fight to the end to have him.

Hushed, angry voices drifted to me, and I stopped to not alert Hunter and Knight of my presence.

”…is nothing personal. I would have intervened had it been anyone else. You’re deliberately being an asshole to him.”