8. Collins #2
“No, don’t do that.” I let out a shaky breath, trying to pull myself from the ledge before I said something stupid—not that I hadn’t already.
Go big or go home, that’s me in a nutshell.
“I knew what I was doing when I asked you to join me.” I met Miceli’s gaze with mine.
Anger blazed in those ebon depths. Why ever he’d be angry was beyond me.
“Besides, shouldn’t you be with your new fiancé, anyway?
She really seemed to eat up the fact she was wearing your ring.
” The words tasted like ash on my tongue, and I hated them before they fell from my lips.
I also exposed the jealousy coursing through my veins.
Damn it. I was too drunk for this. “You know what, some of us have worked all day. I’m tired, and I’m going to bed.
Thank you for a wonderful evening, Robbie. I appreciate you.”
I started for the backdoor, resigned to the fact I should probably start packing my bags now, because come the morning, I’d be fired.
Which I’d wholly deserve after the scene I caused.
Add in the fact I drank a twenty-five hundred dollar bottle of Burgundy.
Well, whatever happened next was all on me, and my childish need to get even with everyone, including the world, it seemed.
Because fuck this ride. I wanted to get off. Now.
“Where do you think you’re going?” Miceli’s harsh whisper was so close to my ear, I startled, jerking to a stop, my hand braced on the knob to leave.
“Home so I can sleep and leave in the morning. It’s obvious I’ve overstayed my welcome.
” I didn’t need to hear the words, “you’re fired,” to know what I’d done would cause me to lose the best job I had, and the protection we needed.
I’d fucked everything up because I was being a petty, jealous bitch.
“You don’t get to walk out of this house like you’ve been wronged, Collins,” he hissed in displeasure. “You barely know me, yet you’re pissed the fuck off because I left with another woman. Why is that?”
“Whose fault is that?” I refused to look at him or give him the satisfaction of knowing how much his words hurt me.
“You put your fingers in my vagina, then you run off with someone else, who, oh by the way, wears your ring. Fuck off, Miceli. I don’t have time to play stupid games.
” He needled at me. Pushed me to my breaking point, then kept going.
He chuckled softly. “You’re jealous. How... Cute.”
“You have a rather high opinion of yourself.” I turned the knob.
“What do I have to be jealous of, Miceli? Not like we’re in a relationship or you were considering one with me.
That would mean I’d have to have a high of an opinion of myself as well.
Plus, you’re almost as old as my father would have been. That’s gross.”
I couldn’t stand there any longer. I needed to get out of the house.
If I continued the bantering game we were playing, I’d end up saying something I’d regret—not that I hadn’t already, but this, this was worse.
High tailing it across the lawn, I could feel Miceli’s heated gaze across my back as I hurried to get inside.
Oh God, I’d fucked up. I fucked up so badly.
I was going to lose my job. Probably already did.
How was I going to tell Kyle what happened or why we had to leave?
The pleasant buzz I had going soured my stomach, churning my gut. Oh, I was going to be so sick.
Fuck. My. Life.
Miceli
What the fuck? Collins' hasty retreat had me wondering why she’d worked herself into a tizzy about.
No, I knew exactly why she’d been upset with me.
I couldn’t play the oblivious card in this situation.
Brooke was becoming a liability. She got ahead of herself.
Thought too highly of her position in my life.
I shouldn’t have called her. I should have brought someone else with me.
However, due to the nature of the gala, I had a role to play, besides why I’d really been going.
Unfortunately, the major players I believed would be at said event didn’t show their faces. I couldn’t decipher if they were scared or toying with me. Knowing Tripoli and Valentino, the answer was both.
Bowing my head, I exhaled.
Seeing Collins straddling Robbie’s lap. Her soft sighs and moans as she rolled her hips, turned me inside out with rage.
She shouldn’t be anywhere near him. Those sighs and moans were mine.
All mine ! Yet, it would have been hypocritical of me to say a damn word, which I had.
I’d left this house with Brooke on my arm, and my ring on her finger.
Concealing the truth about where I was going and why cost me dearly tonight.
I put Collins on my personal chess board and made her a pawn, not my queen.
“Boss,” Robbie said, coming up behind me. “I didn’t know that was her plan originally.” No, I suspected not. If I had to guess, Collins set him up to be caught by me, though it was very arrogant of me to put myself higher in her esteem than I probably should be.
“You certainly enjoyed yourself.”
He swallowed hard. “I won’t admit that I didn’t. She’s hot, boss. Lonely. She wants more. She wanted companionship.”
“I should fire you.” Fury burned through my veins.
Not at Robbie specifically. More so because I’d been duped into a situation I still didn’t control.
I hurt Collins in the process and gave Brooke too much of my time.
The idea Collins opened up to him, but not me, stung too.
Instead of flying into a blind rage, I had to keep myself steady.
“I have an assignment for you. If you complete it, you’ll keep your job. ”
“Understood. What’s the assignment?” he said.
A wry smile crossed my lips. “You’re going to fuck Brooke and record it.”
Robbie tensed behind me. “Sir, what?”
“You heard me.”
“I thought you were?—”
“You thought wrong. Tonight was a ruse that went terribly wrong. I have to make amends.” My gaze locked on the door of the cottage.
All the lights were off inside. I was sure Collins would regret everything she said come morning, as much as I regretted this evening, too.
My fear was, after everything I’d learned from Ellory, she’d run, and I’d have no one to blame but myself.
The whole time I was gone, I couldn’t shove aside the knowledge of someone trying to track Collins, along with cutting the oil line on her car, out of my head.
I had so many questions and very few answers.
“Brooke has jewelry that’s mine as well.
Retrieve it like a good lap dog, and I’ll give you a bonus. ”
“Sir.” Robbie stepped away from me. “I’ll go now.”
“She’s in the suite at the hotel,” I stated, unable to look away from where my prize lay only five hundred feet from me. “The keycard is at the front desk. They know someone is coming to retrieve it.”
“Understood.”
“I’m counting on you, Robbie.” The only way to undo the knots I’d tied along the way was to cut them and begin again.
Brooke was the first to go. Tripoli and Valentino the second and third.
The final, whoever painted a target on Collins.
There were coincidences and then there’d been attempted murder.
Instead of going to bed, I wandered into my office and went straight to the liquor cabinet.
I wouldn’t sleep until Robbie returned. If he did his job properly, by morning Brooke would be knocked off my board, removing her from the field of play.
Seeing the devastation in Collins’ eyes when Brooke clung to me.
.. What she must think of me, put a hole in my gut.
I hadn’t expected to see her in the house, hence why I didn’t take issue with Brooke dressing here.
Then again, it seemed with Collins, I didn’t think at all.
Fuck.
Pouring a generous amount of whiskey in my tumbler, I went to my desk to sit.
Tonight... I fucked up. The plan I’d laid out backfired.
Not for the first time, I wondered if I had a mole in my group.
Someone who told the families I’d be at the gala, so they kept my prey away from me.
Logic said I could be paranoid, but I’d seen the list of guests beforehand, thanks to Ellory, so what happened? What changed? Were they spooked?
Frustrated and aroused, leave it to the silver tongued Collins to get my dick hard from her lashing, I took a deep swallow of my scotch.
I wanted to forget the night. Also, I was sulking, like I accused Collins of doing.
Tomorrow, I’d laugh at the situation. She drank a bottle of my best Burgundy.
Of course, she wouldn’t have cheap tastes.
I chuckled to myself at the absurdity of it all.
Could this night get any worse? No, I shouldn’t ask that question.
It could. It always could. Robbie might arrive at the hotel to find Brooke gone.
What’s worse, she could show up here to find out why I’d left her there.
That was a confrontation I didn’t want or need.
Though, I suppose I deserved her ire, too.
I made no guarantees with her at any point.
Our non-relationship was all transactional, and after last time, when my dick wouldn’t cooperate, I hadn’t asked her back into my bed.
I used her tonight as a pawn for my game.
She indulged a little too much and had to sleep it off.
Of course, saying such didn’t assuage the guilt consuming me.
No matter what I said to Collins come morning, it was all an excuse, especially because I couldn’t tell her the truth.
I’d never been this tied up about another woman. Rosalina being the only exception.
Even then, my motivations were cut and dry.
Finish up my remaining tenure as the Table hired killer, then obtain my rightful seat at the Table.
There’d been no grey area. No hidden agenda on my part.
I played the dutiful lap dog with the singular goal of marrying Rosalina.
Now... Now I wished I could go back to a happier time in my life where none of this subterfuge occurred.
Though, I realized, sitting there, half-empty glass in my hand, it’d been na?ve of me to believe my happy ending came at the fulfillment of my contract to the families.
No, men like me didn’t get a happy ending. We’d always be a dog to someone else. Men like me would always be killers and would always be hunted by the people we were sent to eliminate.
Damn the consequences.
It was a never ending, lose-lose kind of life.
Downing the remaining contents in my glass, I poured another.
The incessant tick of the second hand on the grandfather clock drove me to the brink.
Alone with my thoughts, I could feel the madness closing in.
I needed that call to report at least one loose end was tied up before I could relax and sleep.
I also had to decide what I’d do about Collins.
I realized, no matter how many obstacles I put in both of our ways, she would find a path to my bed.
However, getting her there comprised options I hated more than I approved of after the incident tonight.
Things I’d never do to force her there. I also wouldn’t beg her.
Everything she said tonight had a ring of truth to it.
Hence, why I couldn’t lie to her anymore.
Although, I wasn’t sure I could tell her the truth.
The niggle of worry she too hid something important always sat at the back of my mind.
What, I wasn’t sure. I could have told her about the cut oil line.
I could have told her about the trackers, but I didn’t.
Perhaps I was going about this all wrong.
If I offered her my help, she’d take it.
I was sure of it. There was an equal chance she’d run too.
An hour later, my phone dinged with the video I requested, and a photo of the jewelry Brooke had been wearing.
I transferred the bonus to Robbie’s account, because I also understood, sitting there, waiting for a response, I’d treated him as if he were a piece of meat and not a person.
Neither he nor Collins did anything wrong tonight.
As much as Collins had been jealous of Brooke, I’d been jealous of Robbie.
When he returned, I apologized. Then I gave him a few days off. Not for any other reason, but he deserved them. My men were family to me. When I started treating them more like personal servants, I knew I needed to step back, admit my faults, and apologize.
As I started up the stairs, I stared at the ring Brooke had on her finger.
I’d taken the offering from a contract. A way to show the job was finished.
The man who had it, the same man who was about to give it to his mistress right before I blew his brains out, had bought the gaudy object using his wife’s trust funds—another reason I’d been hired to begin with.
The contract holder gave me the ring as a bonus.
I’d kept it in a safe for years now. The ring was worth over two million dollars—more on the street.
I never looked at it until tonight. The piece was tainted, as far as I was concerned.
I’d probably sell it and put the funds into Rocca’s trust. No reason to keep it after the spectacle tonight had turned into.
In the morning, I would send the video of Brooke and Robbie to her, and inform her, her services were no longer required.
I’d ban her from all of my properties, and make sure she was blackballed from any events she might weasel her way into, because I knew she’d cause a scene.
She’d been paid handsomely over the years, so she hadn’t a need to worry about money or finances.
Sure, I was sweeping her under the rug along with all of my transgressions, but in order to make amends, I had to break old habits. Having Brooke anywhere near Collins or myself invited trouble I didn’t need, and I suspected neither did Collins. With that thought, I showered and went to bed.
Tomorrow, Collins and I needed to have a serious conversation. One where I apologized and earned her trust.
Be damned the consequences.