Total pages in book: 74
Estimated words: 70370 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 70370 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 352(@200wpm)___ 281(@250wpm)___ 235(@300wpm)
I had to focus my attention on the wall over his shoulder. He had been responsible for that as well. Once again, my gut had been right.
“Do you not care if you hurt an innocent bystander? That you could have killed a lot of harmless people?” I asked through tight lips, already knowing the answer. He had no regard for human life.
He shrugged. “Alex was careful.”
“Alex was sloppy,” I snapped.
“That’s why I need you.”
I shook my head. It took every ounce of my strength not to lunge forward and wrap my hands around his neck and choke the life out of him. Except I knew Alex and the silent guard would kill me in seconds.
“I would hate to have to destroy that nice building where you make perfume.”
I refused to let him see my distress. Angelica and Warren had done nothing to deserve that happening to them. The loss of their business would devastate them.
“Leave them out of this. I’m barely involved.”
“Or…” he said, his voice low and flinty. Angry. “Your precious Elite.”
“Again, it’s just a building. You can blow up every place that I frequent, Ivan. It won’t change my mind,” I bluffed.
“Then I should kill you right now.”
“Your situation would still exist,” I pointed out. “As long as you think I might be of use, you won’t kill me.”
“So there is nothing you love enough to save from my anger?”
I stood, done with this. Before I was home, Angelica and Warren would be warned to vacate the building. Leo would be told to clear Elite. I would send anyone close to me away from the city. Sofia would be on the next plane to Damien, and then I was going to hunt down this man and his entire operation and eliminate them. For that reason, and that reason alone, I would become the deadly ghost again.
“You’ve taken away the things that mattered. I’m not changing my mind.”
“Not even your home?”
I refused to show him a single glimmer of fear. “It’s walls and a roof.”
His mouth tightened. “You are stubborn.”
“What I am is done. I am not for hire.” I tapped the file on the table. “That man does not exist. Find someone else. Forget you ever met me. I plan to forget about you,” I lied.
I was almost to the door when he spoke again.
“And what about your lovely doctor Sofia? Is she not worth it?”
I froze, turning around. He held out another file, and my feet headed back toward him before I could think about it. I opened the file. There was my Sofia. In my arms, dancing. Laughing. A picture of us at the cottage, taken from afar, obviously zoomed in. In my apartment, kissing her in the kitchen.
I sat down heavily.
The places I had felt safe with her. And the places I was sure we were not being watched.
They had been there. At the benefit. Somewhere close to my apartment. Spying on us at the cabin.
“Stay away from her.”
“Ah,” he said. “Too late.”
I was on my feet, my fist connecting with his nose before anyone else could move. His head snapped back, the sound of bone meeting bone loud in the room. Blood spurted, and he tried to stem the flow with his hand.
No one moved. I lunged for the door, throwing it open. The hall was empty. I rushed down the corridor, dialing Sofia’s number.
Behind me, Ivan’s voice called out, “We’ll be in touch. Soon.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Sofia
From the moment I walked into the ER, I was busy. I saw patient after patient, getting X-rays, scans, stitching cuts, setting broken bones. I swore it was a full moon since we were busier than normal. But it was just a bad night. We finally slowed down, and I was busy casting a young girl’s arm when my phone vibrated in my pocket. I had to ignore it, frowning when it went off again and again. I finished the cast, pulling off my gloves and wiping some residue off my arm when Sally stuck her head in the door.
“Sofia, Egan is on the phone at the desk. The private number. He says it’s urgent.”
I lifted my eyebrows. He never called on that number, but given the number of times my phone had gone off, somehow I wasn’t surprised. “I’ll be right there.”
She came in. “I can finish this. You go and see what’s wrong. He sounds very upset.”
I hurried down the hall, hoping nothing had happened to Damien or Raven. I picked up the phone. “Egan?”
“Sofia,” he replied, his voice panicked and rushed. “I need you to listen to me. Do exactly what I say. Do you understand?”
Something in his voice frightened me. “Yes.”
“I don’t have time to explain. Find a room. Somewhere you can lock the door. Go inside and don’t come out until I get there. Do you hear me? Don’t come out.”