“Yeah.” The man's voice was average and blasé, just like everything else about him. “No, I wasn't able to arrange it.”
I could hear him moving around the room and my breath caught in my throat, my heart beat hard against my chest, waiting for him to open the closet door. I felt Fate's hand shift slightly, as if trying to gesture it was okay, which seemed so out of character for him.
“Because this isn't as easy as the other.”
He stopped talking and I could hear the noise coming from his phone, even in the closet, but I couldn't make out the words.
“No. I wasn't saying anything of the sort. I'll get it done.”
Another pause.
“You know the other one? She was at the cafe but I didn't approach her. There was a guy with her.”
What?
Fate's hand shifted and his arm tensed around me, but it wasn't in reassurance this time.
I heard the phone hit a hard surface and then some grunting that made me think he was bending over to put his shoes on. Five minutes later the door slammed again.
I couldn't get out of the closet fast enough. I knew what that had sounded like and I knew exactly what Fate was thinking. He let go of me and I pushed out of the closet with him right behind me.
“You did know him.” He was in my space with a very unsettling look upon his face. It was too close for comfort and, this time, I couldn't stop myself from backing up. Didn't matter, he followed me anyway.
“I have no clue who he is.”
“Why does he know you?”
“I have no clue! Did you forget that I'm the one who wants to kill him? You're the one buying him time, not me. That isn't suspicious? There must have been five other couples there as well. It wasn't like the place was empty. Why do you assume he meant me?”
“If you're lying to me—”
“Yeah, I know. All sorts of scary things will happen. If you think he's such a bad guy, why don't we at least try and catch him? Question him, something!”
There was a tense moment as he tried to stare the truth out of me but I didn't have anything to hide. It must have shown. He relaxed a bit and moved a few feet away, accepting me at my word.
But he still had to try and throw out another warning. “If you're—”
“You covered that already.” That last comment could have gone either way. I knew we were fine when he smiled.
Fate moved to the window and stared down to the parking lot, looking for him.
“I'm still not exactly clear on why we aren't killing him.”
“Because I think he's working for someone. I want to know who. He can't talk if he's dead.”
“I don't have a lot of time left. He's the one who killed me. How long am I supposed to wait? Talk about shady circumstances, why do you keep trying to save him? I don’t care who he talks to. If he's the one that did it, I want him dead.”
“You seem to be taking to killing with surprising ease.” He turned from the window just long enough to shoot me an accusing stare.
“My first assignment, you were there making sure I did a good job, which ended up with someone dead. Now I'm too eager? Make up your mind.”
“You'll get your chance to kill him. Just not yet.”
As long as I got him before I left...retired...whatever the hell they called getting out of this shit job, it didn't matter.
He moved away from the window. “He just walked out. Let's get out of here and see if we can tail him.”
I noticed he was giving me a wider berth than he had as we exited the room, or maybe it was me. I'd had so much up close and personal time, I needed a larger buffer than normal as we made our way to the parking lot.
By time we got down to the car, it was too late. He was gone.
Fate scanned the parking lot. “We lost him.”
“We'll just have to wait for him to come back. All his stuff is upstairs.” I really should've eaten. I wondered what those snack machines had in them.
“He's not coming back.”
Fate was standing by the car, looking a little too agitated for my tastes.
“How do you know?”
“Did you notice the bell boy we passed on our way out?”
I nodded. I remembered a guy his early twenties on our way out of the hotel.
“What's he got to do with this?”
“Because I saw an image of that kid emptying all the contents left behind in that room.”
“Are you sure? Why would you know that?”
“I'm positive. He's going to get hurt in the process, break his leg because the elevators were packed and he took the stairs. While he's laid up for the couple of months, he's going to start playing online poker tournaments. In ten years, he's going to win the World Series of Poker in Vegas.”
“I don't even have two weeks left and I just lost my chance of taking this guy out?” I stared at him over the roof of the car.
“You'll get another chance.”
“Do you know that for sure?”
He paused long enough that by time he said “no,” I'd already known the answer.
I got in the car and didn't speak again. I was so consumed with fury I couldn't verbalize it.
Chapter Fifteen
I hadn't spoken the entire way back to South Carolina. He probably thought I was doing it to be mean. It was a kindness. When we pulled into the drive of the beachfront mansion I'd picked him up from the other day, I was at least calm enough to talk. Maybe not pleasantly, but it was an improvement.
“And what if I wanted to stay at my place? What's so much better about yours?” Besides a few thousand square feet, probably a lot more bedrooms, what looked to be a wraparound deck and, well, whatever. It was still his so it wasn't that great.
“Besides the obvious reasons, I've got more bedrooms.”
“So what?”
“So, I don't want to sleep on your couch like a homeless person.”
We pulled into the garage. If I had plans to stay on, I might have a bone to pick with Harold over pay discrepancy. Fate was living like a CEO while I existed on a hot dog budget—and not even good hot dogs but the value packs.
I begrudgingly got out of the car and followed him. Inside, the place actually seemed warm and inviting. I could imagine resting on one of the brown leather sofas near the huge stone fireplace. Relaxing while I watched the waves break through one of the many sets of French doors that lined the eastern wall, facing the ocean. Even the high pile area rug on the knotty rustic wood floors appealed to me.
“Who was your decorator?”
“I was.”
Sure you were.
“We need to lay down some ground rules.”
“Tread softly. I don't even want to be here.” I looked over at him and couldn't stop my eyes from rolling. Was he going to be one of those people? Don't do this, don't do that, don't touch this. He didn't seem the type, but you never knew.
“I think it's best if we share a bed.”
My stomach did a flip-flop and my pulse instantly ratcheted up. “I'm not sleeping with you.” There. I got it out. Unless you kiss me into submission. Oh no, where did that come from? I'm a harlot. I'd died and become a slut.
“I'm not asking you to have sex with me, just sleep next to me. I think it will help tap into what's left of your human psyche.” He walked over to one of the couches that wasn't far from me, where he couldn't seem to stop himself from leaning his hip. He crossed his arms in front of him while he waited for me to respond.
“Oh.” That was kind of disappointing. It was one thing for me to think it was a bad idea but I still wanted him to want me. Why didn't he want me? I was a cute dead chick.
“It's not that you aren't attractive, it's just not a good idea.”
I wanted to crawl under a rock. He could tell I was disappointed? “When have I ever expressed any interest in sleeping with you? I really don't need a soft let down talk. I should be giving you the soft let down.” I hooked a thumb toward myself.
“You're really going to try and deny this again?”
His eyebrows were raised and his facial expression screamed you couldn't have forgotten this quickly how you reacted to me in the woods.
I wrapped one arm around my waist, all of a sudden feeling self-conscious. I knew this shirt had made me look frumpy. I had the sudden urge to go change my outfit, but I wouldn't.
“Don't forget, you kissed me,” I reminded him.