Chapter 19
Chapter Nineteen
Simone whirled to fully face Ryan.
“I was terrified because, what if I’m not there?” His expression became even harder as he closed in on her. “The next time an attacker strikes, what if I am not there?”
“Ryan…”
“There’s a bounty on your head, and two would-be killers have come for you in one night.”
“Amateurs.” A lump rose in her throat. She choked it down.
“What if the next one isn’t an amateur?” He stopped right in front of her. “What if you run from me, you disappear into the night, and the next attacker who finds you—when I’m not there—isn’t an amateur? What the hell happens then?”
“Watch yourself,” she chided. “Or I’ll begin to think you care about the woman you fucked.”
His hands flew up to curl around her shoulders. “I should never have fucked you.”
He was a master at delivering heartbreak.
“Do you know how many rules I shattered doing that? But I wanted you too much to stop. I’ve never crossed lines like this on other cases.
I don’t fuck randomly, either. I’m particular with my lovers, and I will tell you with one hundred percent honesty, I have never wanted anyone the way I want you. ”
Simone had no ready response.
“I do care,” he added, voice ragged, “and that’s the problem because I am not used to—” Ryan broke off abruptly. He shook his head, and then his right hand rose from her shoulder. He pushed back her hair.
“Ryan?”
“You’re missing an earring.”
Oh, no.
His other hand lifted so he could brush back the hair on the opposite side of her head. “Two earrings. You’re missing them both.”
“They must have fallen off during the struggle. Excuse me, I need to go change. I’m freezing in these wet clothes.” She spun abruptly, intending to hurry to her room.
But when she spun, his hands caught the coat she’d been wearing. His coat. He pulled it away from her.
“Simone, stop.”
She didn’t want to stop, but it was not like she could escape right then. He’d just follow her to her room. Sucking in a deep breath, she paused. “Was there something else? Some big, heart-felt confession you wanted to make?”
“Turn toward me.”
She whirled toward him, making sure to have her innocent expression in place. “Yes?”
His sharp gaze swept over her. A muscle flexed along his now clenched jaw. “You aren’t wearing the broach.”
Simone gasped. Her hand flew up, and she touched the blouse, in the spot where the broach had been attached earlier. “Oh, no.” A sad shake of her head. “Again, it must have fallen off during the struggle at the Arch.”
“I don’t remember you struggling at the Arch. You were behind me, then beside me, and when I launched at the prick, he and I slammed into the ladder.” His gaze had lifted to hold hers. “You grabbed the gun he’d dropped.”
“Yes, I was rushing around, lunging up and down.” A nod. “Totally understandable that I would lose the broach and earrings in all the confusion and drama.”
“You grabbed the gun, then you tried to run away. You didn’t get far.”
Because of Harry.
“You were running to him, weren’t you?” Ryan demanded.
“Him?” Her brows climbed. “To Harry? Hardly. I didn’t even know he was lurking in the dark.” Until she’d nearly slammed right into him.
“You were running to the man who hired you to steal the broach and the earrings.”
“I didn’t steal. I retrieved.” A shiver skated over her. The wet clothing really was quite cold. “Pretty sure we have covered my whole retrieval process before.”
“You were running to him.” Certainly. “He’s here, isn’t he?”
Not like he was in the suite with them. But…
At the hotel? Yes. Not an employer, though. A friend. No, more like…part of her very, very small family.
“You left the broach and the earrings somewhere outside for him, didn’t you, Simone?”
Guilty as charged. She’d actually dropped the broach and the earrings when they’d been at the front of the hotel. And they’d been picked up instantly. She’d seen their rightful owner and had known he’d realize what she was doing.
He’d always understood her so well. He had, since they’d been children. Growing up together in Vegas.
“He’s here,” Ryan said again. “Who the hell is he?”
Her best friend. The one person who’d been there with her during her desperate years as she grew up.
The port for most of her storms. They’d met in foster care.
Had wound up in the same place at the right time.
Only his grandmother had eventually taken custody of him, so he’d been pulled from the system.
A year later, he and his grandmother had pulled Simone, too. Just in time…
I owe them everything. I will repay them until my last breath. “I don’t know what you mean.”
But Ryan just appeared all the more determined. “He is not going to take you from me. He won’t be able to protect you.”
You should not underestimate him. Without another word, she turned on her heel and headed down the hallway. She entered her bedroom and closed the door with a soft click.
Then she wiped away the teardrop that had slid down her cheek. Why couldn’t life ever be easy? But nothing had been easy, not since she was six years old. She’d lost everything that horrible night.
She was about to lose again. And this time, she’d be losing her spy.
She left him holding the dripping coat. Snarling, Ryan wadded up the coat and tossed it to the side. He yanked out his phone and called Jezebel.
Jezebel answered on the second ring. “I haven’t even started my interrogation,” she announced. “I am good, but not a miracle worker. Give me time, Ryan.”
“We need to review every guest in this hotel. I want video footage to show me every single person who was in the lobby when Simone and I left earlier.” His arm throbbed where the bullet had grazed him.
He ignored the throb as he began to pace the suite.
“I also want footage of the exterior of the hotel.”
“What’s happening?” Jezebel’s voice had sharpened.
“Simone.”
“Uh, yes, Give me more. What about her?”
“Her employer is here. She gave him back the broach and the earrings.”
Silence. Then, “She did this right in front of you?”
He actually didn’t know exactly when she’d done it. “She’s good, all right?”
“Yes, she is.” Jezebel whistled, clearly impressed. “Right in front of you…my, my. Bet that makes you feel like an ass, doesn’t it?”
He growled. I was distracted. As he so often was, when Simone was close. “I need that footage.”
“We’ll get it. I’ll have it sent to your phone and laptop ASAP.”
She’d brought his laptop in the bags she’d delivered earlier.
“I don’t think this man is a threat to her,” she continued, tone musing. “We can determine his identity, but it sounds like she was just completing a job. The focus of this mission is on Frederick Bradwin and Konstantin Volkov. They are the targets. They are the end goals.”
She tried to run to him. She was going to leave me.
But…
Only after he’d called her bad luck.
He’d hurt her. Ryan had seen the pain in her eyes, and it gutted him. “I want to know who he is. How the hell he knew she was here. Any unknown is a threat.”
“Um, Ryan.” A pause. “Sorry, but I have to ask, are you being properly detached on this mission?”
Uh, no, he was not. “I want to know who he is.”
“Your meeting with Frederick is scheduled to occur in the morning. If it goes well, we can shut this case down very soon. You and Simone could potentially be going your separate ways within twenty-four to forty-eight hours.”
Screw that. He didn’t want to go separate ways. He wanted her. “She’s not bad luck.”
“Excuse me?”
His right hand rose, and his fingers skimmed over the crooked bridge of his nose. “When she was six years old, her parents were killed in an auto accident. She was trapped in some sort of ditch, the water was rising, and Simone thought that she would die.”
“That’s…quite tragic. I’m very sorry for her loss.” A careful clearing of Jezebel’s throat. “Is this case becoming personal for you?”
The case had been personal from the moment Simone had been threatened. “She grew up in foster care. I’m telling you this story so you can help narrow things down and find out who she really is.”
“Sounds to me like you know who she really is.”
He didn’t. She still confused and maddened him and…she made him want to put the world at her feet. The story about her family had gutted him, and all he’d wanted to do was make sure she never knew pain again.
“She’s a survivor,” Jezebel added. “She came from pain. She learned to adapt quickly. That’s the chameleon aspect showing through.”
Her bright smiles. The charming laughter. Masks that she wore to hide the truth. To hide her pain.
“She’s strong. Intelligent. Determined. Very resourceful.” There was no missing Jezebel’s admiration. “It’s really no wonder that you find yourself falling for her.”
“I’m not falling for her!”
Laughter. “Say that to someone who can’t tell when you lie.”
His heart slammed into his chest.
“I’ll use the background information you gave me to hunt for more intel on her past. I’ll also get the security footage sent to you.
But, right now, I have an idiot to interrogate.
And you have a meeting to prepare for. Do not let this case go off the rails.
The end is in sight. Eyes on the prize and all that. ” She hung up.
He gripped the phone and then he turned and glanced back down the hallway. He should not have been surprised to see Simone standing there, but he was.
She’d changed. Put on a silky, black pajama set. Her feet were bare and that would be why he hadn’t heard her approaching steps. But, from the look on her face, Simone had heard plenty of his conversation.
I’m not falling for her!
What the hell should he say?
“I came back to clean and bandage your wound.” She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “But then I heard you telling all my secrets to the person on the other end of the phone.”
“Jezebel. I was talking to Jezebel.”
“Yes, I figured it was her.” One delicate hand pressed to her heart. “Do you know, before you, there is only one other person in the world that I told about my parents and what it was like to be in that car with them?”
Fuck. Betrayal. He saw it on her face. He’d betrayed her. He’d shared her secrets. He’d done this. All because he was obsessed with unwrapping the mystery that was Simone.
“No, I guess there is no way for you to know that, is there? Because we’re still surface.
Surface that fucks, but surface.” A slow exhale.
“Here’s the thing, though. Surface isn’t supposed to hurt this badly.
At least, I don’t think it should. I always believed casual hookups were supposed to be fun and exciting. No complications.”
There was nothing casual about them. “Simone—”
“You’re not falling for me. I won’t fall for you.” She turned away. “If you need help with your wound, you know where I am. Otherwise, though, do me a favor, will you?”
“Anything.” He stumbled after her, helpless.
Simone glanced back at him. Tears glittered in her eyes. “Fuck off, spy.”