Chapter 14 #2
“I’m sorry! I’m sorry!” Edward cried out. A clump of chocolate mousse fell from his cheek. “I had gotten the hit order on her—everyone knows about it!”
“Everyone?” Simone grimaced. “I sincerely hope not. I hope that not every single person I pass on the street wants me dead.” A purse of her lips.
“Perhaps you mean everyone in your particular criminal association? In your circle? People who are working for Frederick Bradwin or for his dangerous associates? All of those individuals know?”
Quick nods. “He’s offering twenty-five thousand pounds for you.”
She gasped. Put her hand to her heart. Even took a step back. “Twenty-five thousand pounds?” Then she frowned. “Wait, that translates to like, what, in American dollars? What is the current exchange rate? Because, honestly, I feel like I should be worth more.”
“Don’t worry, baby,” Ryan assured her as he kept the knife pointed at his target. “You’re worth one hell of a lot more than that to me.”
“Thank you.” She padded closer to him. Her fingers brushed over his shoulder. “I like to be appreciated.”
Jamar sent Ryan a quizzical glance, as if he could not figure out what in the hell was happening. Meanwhile, Charlotte just kept rolling with things. That was her style. Jamar tended to be the more by-the-book agent in their partnership.
Not that there was always a book for spies to follow. Sometimes, they all had to wing it.
“How did you know to look for her?” Ryan demanded.
“G-got a text. Her picture went everywhere.” A fast exhale from Edward. “When I saw her in the restaurant, I thought…my f-fuckin’ lucky day.”
Ryan shook his head. “No, it is not, in fact, your lucky day.”
Edward’s Adam’s apple bobbed. “I’m getting that.”
“Did you report that she was here?” Ryan pushed. “Did you tell Frederick that she was at this hotel?”
That sonofabitch Frederick. “And he ordered you to kill her? Frederick specifically gave the order?”
Simone’s fingers fluttered over Ryan’s back again.
“That is just so incredibly rude. One day, you work for a man, and the next, he puts a bounty on your head.” She stepped to Ryan’s side and pointed toward Edward.
“This is a valuable lesson for you to learn. You think you can trust Frederick? You can’t.
He’ll turn on you just like he did on me.
Then you’ll be the one with killers shooting up your lovely hotel suite. ”
“I’ve never killed anyone before,” Edward confessed, looking as if he might cry.
“You don’t say.” Ryan shook his head. “Never would have guessed.” The jackass had been firing wildly in the suite. “So you thought you’d move up the totem pole by offing Simone? Sorry, but that is just not going to happen.”
“What’s a totem pole?” Edward scrunched his face.
Fuck. The prick was not staying on task. Ryan stepped closer to him. With the knife.
From the corner of his eye, he saw Simone tense. Dammit, was she remembering her own recent incident with a knife? Or maybe remembering how he’d slashed Alexei’s throat and left a knife lodged in his chest?
His head turned toward her. Sure enough, there was fear streaking across her lovely face. “Don’t,” Ryan bit out.
“Don’t what?”
Don’t be afraid of me. Don’t look at me that way.
But…
She was just staring at him as if she knew that he was a killer. He was. He would always be.
“Aren’t you supposed to be some super rich American?” Edward asked, his words tumbling out in a rush. “Heard the check-in staff talking about you.” He cleared his throat. “Have to say, you look, uh, really comfortable with that knife.”
Ryan turned back to the matter at hand. The dumbass. “I am comfortable with the knife.” He motioned toward Charlotte and Jamar. “And so are my guards.”
“Figured you’d have bodyguards close by.” A mumble from Edward. “Almost changed my plans when I saw them waiting outside of the elevator.”
“But you didn’t change your plans,” Ryan noted. Obviously. “You kept your weapons hidden, and you came into my suite, intending to kill my Simone.”
“Oh, I’m yours now?” Simone brushed against him once more.
He growled.
“Right.” A quick agreement from her. “I’m yours. You’re mine. Together forever.”
Edward tried to creep away.
Jamar’s grip tightened on Edward’s shoulder as he yanked him right back to Edward’s previous position. “We are about to make you vanish,” Jamar told him.
“But I don’t want to vanish! Please!”
“Yes, well, I don’t want my girlfriend being murdered, either,” Ryan snarled. Which brought them to his new plan. “Take out your phone,” he ordered the waiter. “Slowly.”
Fumbling, Edward yanked out his phone. Not slowly. Awkwardly. With panic-stricken movements.
“You’re going to make a phone call right now. You’re going to call the man who sent you the orders for Simone’s hit.”
Edward nearly dropped his phone.
“You’ll tell him that you failed. You’ll tell him that I am incredibly pissed off.
And you will tell him that if Frederick wants to save his business—and his own damn life—he will come to this hotel, personally, and he will talk to me.
” Low, angry words. Rage swirled in Ryan’s gut.
This prick wanted to kill Simone. Shoot her or stab her. Take her from me.
Edward had not called anyone on his phone. Fear flashed on his face. “H-he’s not gonna want to—”
Ryan was on him. He pressed the tip of the knife to Edward’s throat. “You wanted to kill her.” His rage flared hotter. Harder. A rage that he’d tried to keep banked.
He saw Edward’s eyes go wide.
Even Charlotte tensed.
“She belongs to me, and you wanted to take her.” A slow, negative shake of Ryan’s head.
“That will not happen. You tell your boss that no one will be taking her. If something happens to Simone, I will burn down the world. Frederick will beg for mercy. Tell him that. He will beg. And then I’ll destroy everything that Frederick values. Everything.”
Edward’s jaw dropped.
“Make the fucking call,” Ryan barked.
“Y-you sure you don’t want to tell him yourself?”
“Dial. Now.”
Edward’s shaking fingers flew across the face of his phone.
Charlotte and Jamar shared a very telling look.
Yeah, so he sounded a bit unhinged. That was the way he was playing the scene. The unhinged, super protective lover. And maybe the role felt way too real when he thought of anyone hurting Simone. Maybe he felt unhinged. Super protective.
“Hot,” Simone whispered.
His head jerked her way.
“I don’t care what anyone else tells you, but it is seriously hot when you threaten to destroy a person’s world for me.
That’s the kind of sweet talk that a woman loves to hear.
Or, at least, it’s the kind I like to hear.
Full disclosure, I’ll burn down the world for you, too. Would not even hesitate.”
He could not get a handle on her. He was also pretty sure that Simone might drive him to the very edge of his sanity. Then beyond.
But the phone was ringing and he had a job to do.
“Hello?” A British voice. Male. Familiar. Not Frederick, though.
“It’s…ah…it’s Edward…”
“I fucking know. I have called ID.” The voice turned sharper. “Is the job done already?”
Edward had put the call on speaker. “N-not exactly, Hugo, ah, sir.”
Right. Ryan had already recognized Hugo’s voice.
“How hard is it to put a bullet in a woman’s brain?” Hugo demanded.
Simone cleared her throat. “A lot harder than one might imagine. Also, it’s a super dick move.”
“Simone.”
“Hugo, Hugo, Hugo.” She tut-tutted. “I thought we were on the way to being friends, and now I know you are just a serious dick who will forever be on my list of lifelong enemies.”
The plan had not been for Simone to talk with the bad guy. Time to take control of the situation before it was screwed beyond repair. “Hugo,” he growled.
Silence. Then, “Just who is it that I’m speaking with?”
“You’re fucking speaking to Ryan Quinn. Remember me? I’m the sonofabitch who was supposed to bankroll your boss.”
A bit of heavy breathing, followed by, “Ryan! Uh, how are you?”
“I’m still living, and that’s a win. Even better, my fiancée is living, too.”
Simone tried to sidle away. Holding the knife with one hand, he caught her wrist with the other. Ryan’s head turned toward her. “You are going nowhere.”
“Uh, no, no, I’m not leaving,” Hugo assured him. He coughed. “I think I might have missed something. Just who is your fiancée?”
“The woman you are currently trying to kill.”
“Hi, Hugo,” Simone said again. “Remember me?”
“Fuck,” Hugo choked.
“Exactly,” Ryan assured him, no small amount of satisfaction in his voice.
“You are fucked. Your boss is fucked. His entire world is about to be fucked. Because no one touches what is mine. Tell your boss if he wants to salvage any part of this deal, he will haul his ass to London. He knows where I am. Obviously. Because I am right beside Simone. I will stay beside her. I will be between her and any threat. Every threat.”
“Hot,” Simone mouthed to him.
He meant the words. This wasn’t for show. Someone came after her? He would be guarding her. Always. “Frederick will come to see me, alone, or else…” He let the threat trail away.
But Edward craned his head toward him. Wide-eyed, the waiter-slash-would-be-killer asked, “Or else what?”
Hell. “Or else I start lighting matches and I burn down Frederick’s world, one match at a time. One light at a time. One fiery hell at a time. That good for you? Are we clear now?”
Frantic head bobs from Edward.
But Ryan didn’t care about being clear with that idiot.
It was Hugo who needed to understand. Actually, not just Hugo…
“I know you are there, Frederick,” Ryan said, taking a gamble.
“And I know you understand me. Call off the bounty on Simone’s head.
Do it now. Come face me, man to man. We’ll either work out a deal, or I’ll send you to hell. ”
Silence.
Ryan let that silence tick a little bit longer and then knew he had to push. “Any deal is off the table in five, four, three, two—”