Free Shadow of a Doubt (Tangled Ivy Book 2) by Tiffany Snow Page A

touch gentle—almost reverent. I wanted so badly to tell him I loved him, but didn’t know if he’d welcome the sentiment or not. I’d told him once, months ago, and hadn’t repeated it. So instead, I tried to show him.
    Afterward, we lay in bed, me cuddled into him again. If Devon had time to linger, I’d noticed he wasn’t one of those men I’d always heard about that went right to sleep. He liked to hold me, oftentimes sipping from a shot of gin sitting on the table. It was a comfortable silence and my mind wandered. After tonight, I felt closer to him, and dared to ask the question that had lingered in the back of my mind for months.
    “Why did you kill Jace?” I asked. We’d never talked about it. I’d just . . . known it had been him.
    “How do you know I killed him?”
    I twisted and looked up at him, but didn’t speak. He must’ve been able to read my face because his lips twisted.
    “All right then,” he said softly.
    “Why?” I repeated.
    “He deserved to die,” Devon replied, his shoulders lifting in a slight shrug. “I had the opportunity, motive, and capability. I believe that is all that’s required.”
    “Motive?”
    “He’d hurt you,” he said simply. “I couldn’t allow that to happen again.”
    I shuddered at the thought, remembering how Jace had attacked me in the parking lot of the bank.
    It felt odd, and yet . . . “Thank you,” I said. Was it right for me to be thanking the man who’d murdered my stepbrother? Probably not. But what Jace had done to me wasn’t right either. It felt like justice.
    “You’re welcome.”
    “Did you think to maybe ask me first?” I asked.
    “Now why would I do that?”
    I shrugged. “I dunno. I just thought maybe . . . you should’ve, I guess. Maybe.”
    “And what would you have said?” he countered. “You would’ve told me not to because your conscience wouldn’t have allowed you to sign his death warrant.”
    “He was an evil man,” I said. “He deserved to die.”
    “I agree, but you wouldn’t have been able to live with yourself,” he said. “So I made the decision.”
    “What about
your
conscience?” I asked.
    “That’s simple, darling,” he said. “I don’t have one.”
    I didn’t know if I could argue. I didn’t know Devon very well, but I knew he could kill a man quicker than I could take a breath and not blink an eye afterward.
    “Why are you so loyal to them?” I asked. I wanted to say “the Shadow,” but I knew Devon didn’t like me to talk about the secret spy organization he worked for.
    “They gave my life meaning and purpose,” he said.
    “They?”
    He hesitated. “Vega. Vega recruited me into the Shadow.”
    I remembered the older woman who’d shown up in the hospital when I’d been caught and beaten in an effort to get Devon to talk. She’d been anything but warm and fuzzy.
    “She found you?” I repeated. “And then what?”
    “She took me under her wing. Trained me. Helped me. Gave me a place, skills, and weapons to fight for my country. I could avenge my family.”
    It was hard for me to view the menacing woman who’d very nearly threatened me with the picture Devon painted of a nurturing type. It seemed incongruous with her character, but I’d been on pain medication at the time, so maybe she wasn’t so bad.
    “So are you loyal to the job?” I asked. “Or her?”
    Before Devon could answer, I heard my phone buzz. Wondering if it was Scott or, God forbid, Clive, I stretched down to the floor and dug in my purse to unearth my cell. The number was blocked and my gut churned with renewed dread as I answered it. I hadn’t thought about Clive all day.
    “Ivy?”
    My mouth dropped open in surprise. “Logan? Is that you?”
    “Ivy, yeah, it’s me. Please . . . help me.”

C HAPTER F IVE
    W hat is it? What’s wrong?” The questions came tumbling out in a rush.
    “I—” But he was cut off.
    “Good evening, Ivy,” Clive said. “I trust you’re having a nice