To the Edge Read Online Free PDF Page B

detached regard that clearly said he wasn't considering it at all. That particular look was beginning to piss her off, as he so delicately put it, almost as much as his presence.
    "OK, look, we can do this the hard way," he said, his tone astudy in bored male tolerance. "Or we can go for easy."
    Jillian gathered herself. She rose, notched her chin, and with all the pent-up terror, anger, and broken pride he'd brought to life in the past ten minutes looked him straight in the eye. "By all means, let's go for hard."
    He measured her response through narrowed eyes. Made a decision. "All right. You need some time. Understood. So sleep on it, princess. Things might look different in the morning."
    As far as he was concerned, it was the end of the discussion. He turned to go.
    "Garrett."
    He stopped and slowly turned back to face her, his expression relaying reluctant forbearance. "Yeah?"
    "You're a sonofabitch."
    The bastard had the nerve to smile. "Yeah, well, we all have our crosses to bear. That's one of mine. Just like I'm going to be one of yours for the duration. Of course, you could always run home to Daddy," he added with a hopeful look.
    She snapped then. Dived straight off the deep end.
    She balled up her fist, put every ounce of her 110 pounds behind it, and launched a roundhouse punch. Her knuckles connected with his jaw in a satisfying crack.
    More satisfying was the sight of his head whipping to the side as the impact backed him up a full step. He shook his head and blinked before he got his feet under him again.
    Jillian was shaking with fury when his gaze connected with hers. She was past fear now. Barely felt the pain radiating all the way up to her shoulder and the burning ache in her knuckles as she braced for a blow that didn't come.
    She almost wished it would. She'd never hit another living soul in her life, and yet she relished the idea of having reason to hit him again. In fact, at that moment, she'd have liked nothing better than to draw blood.
    Fire melted the ice in his narrowed eyes as he glared at her, visibly settled himself, then nodded. "OK." He lifted a hand, rubbed his jaw. "I had that coming."
    Suspicious of his acceptance, she waited in wary silence for the qualifier. It came with the same chilling delivery as the promise in his eyes.
    "Hit me again, though, and we might just have to have a little come-to-Jesus meeting. You won't like it."
    "I don't like you." Another one of those maddeningly amused grins had her seeing red.
    "Understood. In the meantime, let's get something else straight here. Daddy didn't hire me because I'm a nice guy. He hired me because he wanted someone who would get the job done. I think I've already proven that I'll do whatever it takes to ensure Daddy gets what he wants. And trust me—I couldn't give a shit if it comes at your expense."
    She flinched when he reached out, but he only chucked her under her chin—like she was some addle-brained bimbo who didn't know black from white—before he turned away. At her bedroom door, he stopped and scooped up his cell phone. Before he left, he glanced at her over his shoulder. "Get some sleep. We've got a lot of work to do tomorrow."
    Jillian was too stunned—that she'd hit him, that he hadn't hit her back, that he had the audacity to give her orders and then smile like she was his own personal source of amusement—to do anything but stare as he walked out of her bedroom.
    When she snapped out of it, she reached for the door and slammed it shut. Then she leaned back against it and let loose an outraged roar.
    It all caught up with her then. The fear, the humiliation, the defeat. For long, agonizing moments, she'd thought she was going to die—and she'd held it together as long as she could. Her knees finally gave out and she slid to the floor.
    She'd thought she was going to die.
    She let her head drop back against the door, closed her eyes.
    She wasn't dead.
    She was alive.
    She was alive and the man who was supposed to