Chapter 20
My mouth is dry, and my body is made of lead.
Simon Riker looms large in the doorway. He’s handsome still, but of course he disgusts me.
Six feet even, with a volleyball player’s build.
A bespoke suit (always). Shaggy yet perfect light brown hair, green eyes atop high cheekbones, and dimples when he smiles.
I hate it when he smiles.
I try to shut the door, but his shiny black wingtip stops the door. “Now, now, don’t go scuffing my shoe.”
“Move your shoe and I won’t scuff it!” This time, I slam the door on his foot as hard as I can. I want to break his foot and send him running like a little bitch, and even though I know it won’t work, I try again.
“That’s enough of that,” he catches the door on my third try, then slams it wide open. His goons are behind him, and they follow when he walks into the office. I back up, while they invade. “And here I thought we’d have to break the door down. So kind of you to let us in.”
“Why are you here, Riker? You know you’ll never get away with all this! And your assassin failed.” I back up into the wall. Nowhere else to run.
“My assassin? She wasn’t here to kill you, Love. She was here to be a distraction and get you alone.”
“Why get me alone? Why not just have her kill me?”
“Because I want to have a chat with you before I decide what to do with you. Stella, if I had wanted you dead, then you’d be dead. Did you not notice I was sending hired hands, not hired guns to your house?”
“And why is that?”
He smiles, “I just want to have a little chat.”
“About what I want?”
“Don’t get cheeky.”
I smirk. “You used to like it when I was cheeky.”
“And you used to listen when I spoke. How things change.” He leans on the desk. “So, how are you?”
“I’m good.”
“I remember,” he says slyly. “What a shame you grew a conscience. What can I do to remove it?”
I fold my arms and glare. “Is that why you arranged this little chat? To talk about my conscience?”
“Stella, I always liked you. Even before you let me into your bed. I respected you. You’re a good businesswoman. You can do anything you set your mind to, and you did.”
I have no clue where he’s going with this. “Thank you…?”
“A good businesswoman knows how to use leverage to get what she wants. When you saw what you saw, you left without so much as a word. You never even spoke to me about it. Instead, you ran to the police.”
“Like any normal person would,” I point out.
“You are not a normal person, Stella,” he snickers. “It was such a strange decision for a good businesswoman. And I took offense to you skipping out on me like that.”
“How is running to the police after you witness a murder strange, exactly?”
He chuckles. “You witnessed me taking care of that moron, Kowalski. His death was nothing to me, outside of a liability. But you could have leveraged that liability. You showed a significant lack of insight on the matter, and it surprised me. So uncharacteristic of you. Why?”
I blink rapidly in my shock. “You’re here to find out why I didn’t blackmail you?”
“Yes.” He stands up and walks to me. He’s still wearing the cologne I customized for him. Cucumbers and ocean water. Riker leans close to me. Then, his sparkling green eyes dance all over my face, like he’s going to kiss me. “It’s unlike you, Stella. And I want to know why.”
I shake my head in confusion. I have no idea what answer he’s looking for and the wrong one might get me killed. “Simon, do you think I am an idiot?”
“Not at all. That’s why I am here. What makes you ask such a thing?”
“I didn’t blackmail you for the same reason I didn’t leave you when I found you in bed with other women.”
“Could it be love, then?”
“You think I didn’t blackmail you, because I’m in love with you?”
“Stranger things have happened.”
I almost giggle at the absurdity of the suggestion. “No. No, they really haven’t.”
“So, eh, not that then?”
“No.”
“Then why not?”
I need to change the topic. “If I were in love with you, why would I go into Witness Protection, Riker? Who does that to someone they love?”
He shrugs and says, “I came to think you might have been afraid of my bosses, after what the authorities told you about them.”
I blink in my wonder of him. “You have never had a human emotion in all your life, have you?”
“What do you mean?”
“No one turns the person they love into the authorities. Humans don’t witness an execution and use it to leverage their position. And people don’t date someone for two years without building a life together.”
He steps back. He looks upset, like I hurt his feelings. Riker’s tone is defensive, “We built something, Love. We built a business.”
“A murder business?” I ask, flabbergasted.
“What, you think I killed him for money?” He laughs.
I shrug. “I have no idea why you killed him.”
“Kowalski was a nutter. Said he was going to the boss about a deal that went south. Couldn’t let that happen. He would have ruined our business. I did it for us.”
I want to vomit. Kowalski’s murder was my fault. “You mean, the murder business that I didn’t know you were running? That business?”
“The smuggling business we were running. You don’t seem to understand, Stella, you are in it just as deep as me.
My bosses know who you are. They know who your family is.
And you owe them for not coming after you or hurting the people you love.
Yet.” He braces himself on the wall next to me, with a hand on either side.
“Come home, Love. Let’s put all of this nonsense behind us. ”
My blood boils in rage. “So, you threaten my family, you shoot my brother, send kidnappers after me, keep me on the run for three years in the program, is that the nonsense you speak of?”
He shrugs it off. “You made mistakes. It happens. All those things, I had to do them to show you the error of your ways. And I think you understand that. Like I said, you are a good businesswoman. You understand how these things work.”
“Are you completely insane? What is wrong with you?”
“You went to the authorities, Stella. You had to learn your lesson.”
I want to hit him. But I’m still trying to be smart.
Bide my time. Jordan will come for me. I have to believe that.
If I give into him too easily, though he won’t buy it.
“If you hadn’t given me a reason to go to the authorities, then I wouldn’t have gone to them in the first place. You only have yourself to blame.”
Riker’s right hand leaves the wall for the side of my face. I expect a slap, but he gently strokes my cheek. “You remember what it was like, don’t you, Love? The money. The clothes. The cars. Anything we wanted, everywhere we went. You acted like you didn’t know.”
“I had no idea, Simon.” I shake my head adamantly.
“You knew what I was up to, you just didn’t want to admit it to yourself, did you? And I can understand that. Running guns is dangerous. You were scared. I can forgive all of that.”
“You can forgive me? What did I do that requires forgiveness?”
His voice deepens to a threat. “You left me.”
“I left my whole life because of you. Don’t pretend you’re the victim.”
He gently shakes his head. His voice softens, “Water under the bridge. Leave the program. We’ll go to the Maldives and start over.”
“Of all the bullshit you just said, the Maldives part is the most confusing. Why there?”
“I saw the pamphlets you had in your office. You always wanted to stay in one of those little tiki huts over the water.”
“I can’t believe you remember that.”
A hint of a smile makes his crow’s feet pronounced. “Of course, I do. I remember everything about you, Stella. The way you think. The way you move. The way you taste.” His finger glides along my jawline.
Oh, my god. He’s actually still into me. If I play this right, then I might live. If I can stall him, Jordan might have enough time to get here. At this point, I’d take help from Michael. Anyone to get me out of this. Maybe even me. What am I willing to do to survive?
When Riker gets to my chin, I playfully bite his fingertip, he releases it. He smiles. “There’s my girl. Let’s get out of here. We can stop at a friend’s, get you a new passport, and be on a plane to the islands by the end of the night. What do you say?”
“I’m not sure about that just yet.” I look over his shoulder at his minions. “I’d like to speak with you alone, Simon.”
“We are alone, Love.”
“What about them?”
He shakes his head. “They don’t exist.”
I finger the buttons on his shirt, and he lets me. “I don’t want to do anything personal in front of them, Simon. Help a girl out.”
He turns to his boys, “Get out.”
“Boss, her—"
“NOW!” He snaps. They leave and I’m down to one. He faces me. “Where were we?”
“I believe I was explaining why I couldn’t go along with your business plan three years ago. And what I might do to make up for it.”
He smirks. “Alright then.” He sits on the edge of the desk again. “Tell me why you couldn’t play ball back then.”
“You see,” I fiddle with the top button on my flannel.
Riker was always obsessed with my tits when we were together, and they have his attention once more.
“I thought you were some rich guy who had inherited his daddy’s money.
Like you told me. In my mind, that’s why we had nice things and why you had connections across the pond and all the rest of it.
You had told me your father was a jeweler, like the rest of your family. I never questioned what you told me.”
“I have one of those trustworthy faces. Don’t blame yourself,” he teases. “All the ladies seem to like it.”
The top button is loose, and I go to the next one.
His eyes dart back to my cleavage. I continue, “That was my big mistake. Trusting you. I should have vetted you. I should have looked into your family’s history, instead of just believing everything you told me.
That’s what a smart businesswoman would have done. ”
“You went with your gut. No shame in that.”