Chapter 5
Senator Nathan King was furious at the incompetence surrounding him!
“I’m paying you a small fortune to find my fiancée,” Nathan snarled. “And all you’ve come back with over the past year is that you have another lead! Every damn month, all you tell me is that you have a lead and, so far, none of them have delivered that bitch to my office!” Nathan couldn’t believe that Tasha had slipped away from him! She’d been in a freaking hospital bed! The last time he’d seen her, the bitch had a tube stuck down her throat! How in the everlasting hell had Tasha managed to get away from him?
Breathing in slowly, he forced his muscles to relax. Nathan knew that he had a temper, but he’d learned to control it over the years. Except when a lovely woman was around. Yes, he preferred to expend his violence on the soft, beautiful skin of a lovely lady who dared to defy him. Or not defy him, he thought with a mental chuckle.
Pushing those arousing thoughts away, Nathan focused on the man sitting in front of him. He had to get Tasha back. She knew…too much!
He'd considered just killing her after he’d discovered she’d recorded that conversation more than a year ago. However, he’d lost his temper and, instead of calling up one of the goons who could get the job done quickly and efficiently, Nathan had struck her. A few times. Maybe too many times, Nathan thought as he rubbed his knuckles, thinking about how good it had felt to finally release his frustrations that day. He could still remember the sound of her voice as she’d pleaded with him to stop hitting her. She’d begged and it had sounded so nice after a long, frustrating day, that he’d had to add a few kicks. By that point, she’d been on the floor, so why not?
Still, he should have controlled his temper and called Evan. Evan was his fixer. Whatever Nathan needed, Evan was the man who could make it happen. Or create problems when he needed an issue to distract the voters. His constituents were so gullible, all he had to do was manufacture some horror, some boogeyman and, bingo, the suckers rallied around him, voting him into office for another six years. Hell, Nathan was so popular with the voters that the opposing party hadn’t even bothered to offer a viable candidate for the past two elections.
But if that video ever got out, Nathan knew that his political career would be over. He couldn’t even order Evan to manufacture some evidence against Tasha to discredit her because Tasha could just release the recording to the press.
Why hadn’t she done it already? Originally, Nathan had assumed that the bitch was just afraid of him. She should be, but if she’d stuck around, he would have married her. Then she couldn’t testify against him. Problem solved!
If she hadn’t agreed to marry him, he would have created some “tragic accident” and, poof, no more Tasha problem.
But Nathan hadn’t been able to do either of those things. He thought about the note she’d left him. “ If you leave me alone, I won’t release the recording. If you come after me, if anything happens to me, I’ve left instructions with five different people that they should release the recording to the press.”
“Where the hell is she?” Nathan King bellowed, his temper getting the best of him. He didn’t need to lower his voice since his office was carefully constructed to be soundproof. “She’s been gone for over a year! The press aren’t believing the story about the bitch recuperating privately any longer!”
Evan didn’t appear cowed in any way, Nathan realized. The man simply shrugged as if he didn’t give a damn. “If you’d told me to watch her at the hospital, you’d be married by now.” He kicked his booted feet out in front of him, stretching long legs as if he didn’t have a care in the world.
Nathan ran an impatient hand over his hair, knowing that it would fall right back into place. He paid over six hundred dollars for a haircut. It damn well better look good all the time!
“If I’d known that she wasn’t as badly hurt as I’d thought, I would have ordered you to the hospital! She was on a freaking breathing tube when I left her the last time!” He huffed, glaring at the killer-for-hire. “How the hell was I supposed to know that she could still walk?”
Nathan paused, thinking back to that night. He actually smiled at the memory of how badly he’d beaten Tasha. He’d just had a frustrating meeting with another senator that afternoon, only to find out that Tasha, the bitch, had been recording the conversation. How much she’d recorded, Nathan didn’t know. But that conversation…! Hell, it didn’t matter how much she’d heard. All of it was damning.
“Well, don’t get pissed off at me because you didn’t bring me in fast enough,” Evan replied, crossing his arms over his chest.
Nathan glared at the man. The guy wasn’t overly muscular, nor did Evan dress with any particular flair. He seemed like just an average guy. His suit wasn’t too expensive, nor did it seem cheap. His hair was brown, eyes a non-descript hazel, and he wasn’t too pale or too tanned. Everything about the man screamed average.
It was what lay underneath the bland suit that should terrify the world. The man had no scruples. Okay, neither did Nathan, but at least, as a senator, Nathan had to at least pretend to be normal. There was nothing normal about Evan. Rabid was a better description for the merciless man.
The only reason Nathan wasn’t afraid of Evan was because of all of the evidence Nathan had compiled against him. There was mutually assured destruction, which made their “friendship” so easy going.
“Did I mention she was attached to a breathing tube?” Nathan snarled. “She only had one eye open!”
Evan chuckled. “I thought you kept your fists away from faces.”
Nathan rubbed his knuckles, remembering the soothing sensation of his fists smashing into Tasha’s beautiful features. As an excuse for his rage, he said, “I’d just found out that she’d recorded a private conversation.”
Evan’s grin widened. “And she threatened to take it to the press?”
Nathan shook his head. “No. She didn’t threaten me at all. That was part of the problem. I’d offered her money to destroy the recording. I’d offered her marriage and all the power that being my wife would give her.”
Evan snorted. “I can’t imagine why she’d decline the privilege of being your wife. It sounds so lovely.” His words dripped with sarcasm.
“Shut up!” Nathan snapped. “So, what the hell is this new lead you’ve found?”
“Lativa,” Nathan replied. “I found video of a woman fitting Tasha’s description going into a hotel that was interviewing candidates for a position with the Lativa government.”
Nathan blinked at his fixer. “Why the hell would she…?”
Evan gave Nathan a bland, irritated look. “Because she wanted to get as far away from you as possible?” Evan offered before Nathan could finish his question.
“But…I have business in Lativa! Hell, I’ve had dinner with sheik what’s his name!”
“Sheik Khal Al-Sintra,” Evan filled in.
“Whatever.” Nathan shuddered, looking away at the memory of the powerful leader. “The man’s a brute.”
Evan rolled his eyes. “The man is a brilliant strategist with enough money to crush you like a bug.”
Nathan grunted. “So, you think that Tasha is living in Lativa?” His anger and frustration eased as a plan started forming in his head.
“It’s possible. You gonna cover my expenses to find out?”
Nathan turned, one finger tapping thoughtfully against his upper lip. As he thought, he ignored his fixer’s impatient shuffling.
“Yes,” Nathan replied abruptly, spinning back to face the other man. “Yes, head over to Lativa and find out if she’s there. As soon as you have confirmation, let me know.” He did the lip tapping thing again, still thinking through the potential plan. “I’ll start getting things in place on my end.” He dropped his hands, leaning over his desk with a malicious smile on his features. “If she’s really living in Lativa, I’ll have an excuse to travel to that country already established.”
Evan stared at his employer for a long moment, trying to figure out what the hell the senator was planning. However, he couldn’t fathom all of the tedious machinations of political drama the way Nathan King could. Politics was like a massive game of chess. There were moving pieces all over the “board” and one had to anticipate exactly how another player would move so that you could win. It required patience and a level of evilness that Evan simply didn’t have.
Actually, he had the patience. And the evilness. His job sometimes required him to out wait his prey. But his form of patience was vastly different. Evan considered himself to be more like a spider than a chess player. A spider didn’t need to wait for the other players to move their pieces. The spider simply waited for his prey to come into his web. Then the spider pounced.
Evan was an excellent spider. He just needed to find the right place to weave his web.