Chapter Forty-Six Seraphina
Chapter Forty-Six
Seraphina
Beth and Ezra were currently tied to chairs and facing each other inside one of the guest rooms. Garrison had left them alone a minute ago, and Ryder and I were in the office, watching them on camera, waiting for them to talk.
To breach the quiet and hopefully further narc on themselves.
Beth was probably too smart for that, but Ezra’s cockiness and his need to start a pissing match with her might come in handy in luring information from the two of them.
Ryder grimaced, shooting me a pained expression. “I should be at the hospital.”
“He’s going to be okay.” I rubbed his arm. “The second he wakes up, we’ll go over and see him. There’s plenty of time before tonight’s mission with the Moraleses.” And our main threats were now locked up in a room, so it’d be safe to move about Costa Rica.
Reed was en route to the hospital to wait for Alex to come out of surgery, and as much as it killed Ryder to stay behind, Reed reminded him that Alex would kick his ass for coming right now.
“ Sitting in the hospital won’t make Alex wake up any faster, ” Reed had said before leaving, “ but one of the two of us still needs to. ” Then Reed volun told him he’d be going himself.
“I know he’ll be fine, because he has to be. I’m not giving him a choice but to be,” he said gruffly, and if anyone could control-freak their way into making someone be A okay, it was this man.
“I feel it in my bones. In my heart.” I leaned against him, resting my head on his shoulder.
“I should’ve never listened to this ridiculous plan.
” Ezra’s voice dragged my focus to the screen.
Finally, someone was talking. “I should’ve taken off last weekend for the Maldives like I wanted to and never looked back.
Definitely not come down here and help you.
” The chair legs screeched on the tiled floor as he moved around in his chair.
“Watch what you say,” Beth hissed, signaling with her head to the camera in the corner of the room.
Ezra stopped shuffling around. “I shouldn’t have told you about Lev and Seraphina.”
“No, you should’ve told me about Anna being Seraphina nine fucking months ago.
” Beth shockingly forgot herself there. Maybe a little more stress and time in the pressure cooker would do her some good.
“You wanted to save her for yourself, am I right?” No sense keeping her mouth shut there.
This was nothing new she was spilling. “You were going to take her for a spin on your yacht, fuck her, then kill her.” She scoffed.
Wow, was that jealousy from the ice queen?
“Maybe I wanted someone who wasn’t such an icy bitch, ever thought of that?” Ah, so Ezra and I agreed on one thing.
Ryder was less than enthusiastic about the exchange. Not the kind of thing he wanted to hear, and not in the mood he was in.
“But no, you threatened to have me killed like you did Andrej if I even touched another woman. Couldn’t even fuck my own wife, who you forced me to marry once you decided you wanted me last year.
” He grunted as if repulsed, and I was right there with him.
“Not that I ever wanted there to be an us in that way when I proposed the idea—”
“Shut. Up,” Beth barked out, and that order probably had less to do with her being insulted than not wanting him to keep exposing more information.
Not that she’d be able to save herself at this point.
Facts were facts. She’d dug her grave. Soon, she’d sleep for all eternity in it.
For my parents. My brother. For Alex. For everyone this woman had hurt—and for what?
Why? Greed? Power? But wait. “Did he just admit he’s known about everything from the beginning? ”
“Sounds like it. And looks like Beth’s the one who became obsessed with him somewhere along the lines. Well, in her own cold-blooded way.”
How’d she go from a CIA officer and a woman Alex would marry to this ? That was still the question I couldn’t make sense of, and maybe I never would. Or maybe I’d ask her myself. “I want to go in there.”
His brows shot up in surprise, a hell no on the tip of his tongue. His shoulders fell when he remembered that once my mind was made up, it was all the way up.
“Just need one thing.” I patted his shoulder. “Give me a minute. Okay?”
He sighed, lightly shaking his head. He set a hand on his chest where he had a Texas-size welt from being shot. Using the heel of his hand he made circular motions, eyes on the floor.
“I wish you’d take something for the pain.” Thank God the plate took the round, not his flesh.
“Mm-hmmm,” he said under his breath before looking up at me. “Go.” He leaned in and gave me a forehead kiss.
Not wanting to give him time to change his mind, I thanked him, kissed him back on the lips, then hurried from the office.
I breezed by the operators in the house, secured what I needed from the kitchen, then asked Garrison to unlock the door and let me in.
Ezra’s pale-blue eyes slipped straight to me, and his lips twitched into a semi-smile as if oddly admiring what I’d pulled off and how I bested the witch.
I kept my hand behind my back and slowly made my way over to Beth, my actual target right now.
“What the hell do you want?” she rasped, her dead eyes sharp on me.
I stood off to her side and drew my weapon to her throat. I met Ezra’s eyes as I held the steak knife tight to where her pulse visibly fluttered, and recognition dawned on him. I was about to steal a page from his playbook.
“You know,” I offered in a low, dark voice, “it’s amazing what people confess with a knife to their throat.”