“Eye problem?”
His smile dropped, and for a moment, he looked uncertain. “Excuse me?”
“You got something to say to me? You’re staring like you do.”
His chin lifted, thrusting his nose in the air as he turned to the senator. “Father, do we really need the help of a common criminal?”
His father started to respond when I cut him off. “Considering the reason he called me here is undoubtedly a crime, I’d say so.” I stalked forward and balled the front of his shirt in my fist before either one could know what I intended to do. I lifted him from his cozy spot on the couch until his feet dangled in the air. “But there’s nothing common about what I’ll do to you if you try to insult me again.”
“D—Dad,” he squeaked.
“Please, Mr. Knight.”Oh, now I’m Mr. Knight?“Unhand my son. I need him.” He regarded his son coldly. “At least, until the next election.”
A feral smile spread my lips, and I swear, another second, and he would have pissed himself. I set him on his feet gently and smoothed the front of his shirt. When I got bored with taunting him, I turned back to his father.
“You were saying?”
“Yes, well, I’m prepared to pay the cost… extra in fact… if you can do this quickly and quietly.”
“Don’t I always?”
He cleared his throat—probably to wash away an apology rather than his pride. “This is a sensitive matter. I need your absolute discretion.”
My gaze narrowed. “By discretion you mean–”
“This cannot go in thatbook,” his lips curled, “your family keeps.”
“Not happening.”
“I’ll pay extra.”
“Not. Happening.” Everything went into the book. Everything. It was our insurance as well as our destruction and no amount of money would buy exception.
Some have even gone as far as to offer money to destroy it.
No one needed to know that the single piece of evidence that could destroy families, careers, and end lives were no longer in our control.
“I do this job with a ten percent increase. Take it or leave it.”
He didn’t respond. The door opened behind me, and I immediately moved to protect my back even though I was unarmed. Three of his personal guards walked in—one carrying a briefcase—and formed a circle around me.
“I’m afraid I’ll have to insist, son.”
My fists curled hearing him call me son, but otherwise, I didn’t move. I didn’t need to. The tension in the room spiked and his twerp of a son was back to smirking. I winked, and his face paled. I was outnumbered, sure, but I was still in control.
As much wasproven when red dots appeared on every man’s head.
I made a mockery of their attempt to strong-arm me. Fear was palpable, and I basked in it.
“Let’s make that a fifty percent increase.”
He sputtered and stumbled to collect himself while trying to evade the target on the back of his skull. He couldn’t see it, of course, but he was smart enough to know it was there. His son did the same while his guard remained in place. They eventually figured out there was no escape.
“Call them off.”
“Give me the name and all the money upfront.” Before his stupidity got the best of him, he would have only needed to pay half up front.
“But that’s ridiculous!”
“Not as ridiculous as you thinking you can threaten me. You’ll be lucky if I don’t decide to kill you even after you pay me.”
“But—”
The picture of his wife suddenly flew off his desk and landed a few feet away from my feet. Her face was completely obliterated from the shot.
“My money,” I warned.
He stumbled to the phone and spoke harshly and quickly to the poor bastard on the other line. Not five minutes later, a man in a gray suit with thinning hair and specks bustled in with another briefcase. The senator nodded to one of his guards who was holding his briefcase, and they immediately sat them at my feet.
“The name.”
“Mian Ross.”
Time stood still as I replayed the name he spat in my head. It couldn’t be. What would Mian have to do with the senator? I begin to consider that I was being set up until I reasoned that the senator might know Theo, butno oneknew of Mian. Theo made sure of that.
“You want her dead, I assume?”
“The sooner, the better.”
“Why?” I couldn’t stop myself from asking the million dollar question.
He paused and shrewdly studied me. “You never cared before.”
“You never threatened to kill me before,” I answered smoothly. “Any pretense of trust is gone.”
He seemed to accept my answer and said, “My son couldn’t keep his dick in his pants. At least for girls of legal fucking age.”
My heart ceased to beat, and the blood in my veins froze. It took every ounce of willpower to keep my gaze calm.
“He got her pregnant, and now she’s causing problems.”
“You want me to off a pregnant chick?” I played stupid even when I’d already pieced together every piece of the goddamn puzzle.