25. Rhett
Rhett
M y phone rings while Ana is finishing getting ready in the bathroom. I take a deep breath, anxious to see Allie’s name.
“What have you got for me, Allie?” I ask, slipping a hand into my pants pocket and pacing to the window.
“Not even a hello for your favorite hacker?” she quips. “I am your favorite, right?”
“You’re my absolute darling,” I compliment.
She gives a satisfied sigh. “Well, I’m calling because I think we could have it all wrong.”
“I’m listening.”
“So we ran a trace for Matt Heizer that didn’t turn up any names.”
“You wouldn’t call to disappoint me.”
“Of course not.” I can practically feel her smile.
“Have you ever heard of the name Balenheizer?”
Shit. “As in Damien Balenheizer?”
“The one and only.”
He’s a notorious mafia leader with not a single moral to his being. We’ve been tracking him for a while, but he’s a real slippery one.
“You think Matt Heizer is an alias?” I ask. This could be really fucking bad if he’s involved.
There’s money and elegance involved in the way the likes of Alistair Lanshall works. He likes things done clean and smooth; he takes pride in what he creates. With someone like Balenheizer, even the government wouldn’t attempt to take him down if he were standing right in front of them.
“It has to be. Perhaps he’s taken on the hit.”
My blood goes cold. There are many things I’m confident I can keep Ana protected from, but this is the worst of all the targets that could have set their sights on her.
“To what gain?” I snap, only out of my fury as it boils over the edge. I want to take Ana away, hide her somewhere far and use every resource I have.
“That’s what’s puzzling me. It doesn’t seem like his type of interest. He’s married, and they say his wife is everything to him. He kills people for merely looking at her wrong.”
“Children?” I ask.
“Rix is looking into him still. He doesn’t hide much, but his family line is somewhat ... rocky . His current wife isn’t his first. He has three kids with her, but we’re yet to find out if he has any from his past wife.”
I’m shaking with anger and fear. So much fear I haven’t felt in so long I hardly know what to do with it.
“Just stay calm,” Allie tries to reason as if she can feel me vibrating through my silence.
“Too fucking late.”
“Balenheizer would have no reason to use an alias. If he wanted Ana, you know he would have come for her already and proudly let everyone know it was him.”
It’s a small consolation because she’s right. I try to breathe steady and believe this is just a coincidence. That whoever Matt Heizer is, he has some damn nerve linking himself to someone so prolific.
“I want everyone on Matt fucking Heizer to find out who he is. This could be our guy who has it out for the Kinsleys, and he could lead us right to Lanshall.”
“We’ll get him,” Allie says with more confidence than I can muster right now.
“There’s something else. You’ve been wanting to pin Adam Sullevan for the attack on Ana, and I think we might have him.
Surveillance around the carnival car park shows one of those clowns getting out of a car.
I can’t see the driver to confirm it’s Adam, but the registration comes back to the Sullevans. ”
That very name scorches inside me with such hatred I’m proud of my own resistance to beating the shit out of him with his every appearance at the university.
“You’re sure?” I ask tightly.
“Are you really asking me that?”
“So that was just a sick way to torment his ex?” I question, lowering my tone to be sure Ana can’t hear me. I don’t want her to know yet as it will only upset her.
“Spook her and get a rise out of you. Are petty reasons really that far-fetched?”
“So the Forbes are off the hook?”
Not my hook. I can’t shake them from my mind.
“From our end, they’re clean. You should see if there’s anything you can find out while you have the chance to be close to them all, but they might be just as harmless as Kinsley. But we’re close, Rhett. I can feel it.”
Riddled with anxiety at that fact, I can only think of my little bird. I’m so close to catching the uncle I’ve hunted for three years, and now all I want is to run far and fast with her.
But that didn’t work before. And I will not lose Ana.
“One more thing,” she adds. “The gathering at the casino you’re going to tonight—turns out it’s more of a big deal than some meetup for the elite to drink and gamble away their fortunes.
It’s set up by a man named Jacob Forthson.
The gala tomorrow ... it’s his event. I can’t quite place what the connection is yet, but I think it’s worth keeping in mind. ”
I should have known the devil’s work would always be calling.
“Can you contact Rix for me, tell him the setup we might need around that venue tomorrow in case I discover anything?”
“Will do,” she sings.
“Thanks, Allie,” I say and hang up.
Ana might have been waiting until I finished the call.
I catch her reflection in the glass. Turning, I can hardly organize my thoughts as they explode into a hundred desires and admiration of her in a little black dress.
Simple, yet so damn elegant and sexy, with heels that make her legs appear endless.
“Do I have competition?” she asks with a low edge of seductive challenge.
I stalk to her with eyes that rove over every inch of her. She’s a fucking goddess and I’m prepared to fall to my damn knees to pray to her.
“You’re going to make my job very hard tonight.”
“You’ve never called me your darling,” she says, tipping her chin back as I come close enough to touch.
“You’re far more than that, Anastasia. You’re my damnation and my redemption.”
“That’s a contradiction, Agent.”
“Can something not mend what it breaks? It’s rare, valuable, but the possibility exists.”
I tug her waist until she’s pressed against me, wanting to claim her mouth, but I figure she might scold me for ruining her perfect red lipstick.
Fuck , the thought of those lips wrapped around my dick strains every tether of control in me not to force her to her knees right now.
And she would do it. Her eyes are dancing with desire, and we have to leave now before we decide to abandon the night at the casino.
I have to meet Liam Forbes and see if there’s anything I can discover about him that will give us any leads. Like why he’s here in New York.
“My call was with someone on my team called Allie. I would say you two get along, but truthfully, I’d be scared of you both in a room together.”
“How so?”
“Too much intelligence and beauty. Every man would be compelled to sit while you two walked your power into a room.”
“Your flattery is impressive.”
“Just honest.”
Her smile is a light to the darkness I’m shrouded in. In all I wear and all I am within.
“I promised I wouldn’t keep you in the dark about what I know. But this concerns your friend, Liam, and I need you to swear to me you’ll stick to my plan and not say anything you shouldn’t to him.”
Her face turns serious and I adore her fierce will.
“What could he possibly have to do with any of it?”
“I’ll explain on the way,” I say, taking her hand and kissing her knuckles.