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“It’s supposed to be roast duck, but your oven is broken”

He hest setting?”

Her cheeks were red “No”

“So you can’t cook?”

She sighed and thren her oven s, but I’ve never been able to get duck right, and I passed the supermarket today, and there’s this recipe with potatoes and a salad, and it looked good I wanted to cook you a nice meal”

He watched her, and sout

“I knohat you did,” he said

Lori’s back tensed up, and she turned to look at hione pale, and the moment he said the words, he knew that had been the proble it secret, when he needed her to know that she wasn’t alone

“Dad told you?” she asked

“I knew so had happened to you I didn’t knohat”

“How?”

“You said that you couldn’t have his blood on your hands”

“That’s just a sentence”

“The way you said it, I knew you’d had some blood on your hands before, and the way you hide from violence You’re afraid”

She looked utterly scared Her hands fisted at her sides, and she bit her lip

“I’ you”

“Why? I judged you”

“I killed two men today,” he said He’d never spoken to anyone about what he did within his line of work

Her eyes ide “What?”

“They were rigging a sport, and instead of finding out why, I just shot theed

She shook her head “I can’t … this is crazy You can’t just tell me you killed two men”

“You killed one”

Tears once again filled her eyes “I’m a monster”

“You’re not a monster Not even close, baby”

“He was hurting her”