Page 44 of Crossfire

“I wouldn’t allow myself to get catfished,” I said, forcing my thoughts back to the conversation at hand. Especially not with something that personal.

Grayson shifted in his seat, never taking his eyes off me, and after a few seconds, he cleared his throat, branching into a new line of questions.

“Can I ask you what your last name is?” he asked gently.

I cocked my head. “Why? You want to investigate my family members?”

When he didn’t immediately dismiss it, my stomach churned with unease.

The truth was, I was feeling all sorts of things for Grayson, and my ego—and, yes, my heart—would take a giant hit if this attraction I was sensing from him was nothing more than morbid curiosity. Rejection sucks in every form.

“If the only reason you’re interested in me is some mystery?—”

“It’s not.” Grayson’s eyebrows slammed together, clearly trying to understand the sudden temperature drop in my mood.

As I searched his unfairly gorgeous face, nothing but sincerity danced back at me. I wanted to hang out with Grayson—more than I cared to admit, to be honest—but something was going on that he wasn’t owning up to. I couldfeelit like the humidity with a coming storm.

Sitting back in my chair, I stayed silent, making it clear I’d wait for him to explain himself because, as much as I appreciated all he’d done for me, I’d talked to some stranger online, and look where that got me.

“Okay, look.” He cleared his throat, placing his elbows on the table, so my mind mischievously focused on his lean forearms for a second. “The truth is, I came here today, hoping you’d show up.”

He…what?

“I waited for two hours before you finally did.”

Two hours? That’s a huge investment of time for anyone. No one ever waited that long for me in my life. Was this romantic? Or Stalker Warning 101?

“Why?” I refused to allow the flattery in until I understood his intentions better. Especially now that my radar was actively looking for anything off.

“At first, it was because I wanted to see the woman who I encountered yesterday one more time. All I had to go on was that you come to this coffee shop.”

After Pete grabbed my arm yesterday and Grayson had stepped in, maybe Grayson saw me as a damsel in distress. Perhaps he had come here today to make sure I was okay.

I guess, when you think about it, that makes more sense than a random creeper. And let’s be real; it’s pretty damn romantic.

“But after we got to talking, that’s not true anymore.” The force of his stare drew me deeper into his orbit until all the surrounding conversations seemed to fade. The only thingremaining was his low baritone voice as he said, “I want to see you more than just today, Ivy. I’m interested inyou, not just what happened to you.”

It was shocking how much his words seeped through my skin, igniting a flurry of butterflies, their wings fluttering with a lightness I hadn’t felt in a long time. But hope was a dangerous thing, a double-edged sword that could cut deeper than any blade. Leaving me wondering,Should I allow myself to get to know Grayson more? Or shut this down now, before anything else might have the chance to bruise my heart?

19

GRAYSON

I had never met anyone like Ivy before.

Looking at her, you’d assume she was nothing more than a stunningly gorgeous woman, and her petite frame gave no hint at her skills.

She was a walking contradiction.

Petite, with a heart big enough to be cracked by an ex. Brave enough to meet some strange man in a dark parking structure, but lethal enough to incapacitate Vosch’s right-hand man within seconds.

Seconds.

How freaking sexy that she’d turned him into a twisted pile of bones. I couldn’t express to her how I marveled at the fact that someone her size could reduce a man the size of Vosch’s driver to a pile of rubble, though. She didn’t know that I had witnessed the aftermath, nor that I’d originally come here for a singular purpose—to uncover her identity.

Yesterday, the only reason I would have cared if she was a violent criminal was that it would have added another name to the CIA’s list. But now, I cared for a very different reason.

A foreign reason that I had never experienced before—I was drawn to Ivy.