Forever was a long time.
I swallowed my heated sobs and wiped the evidence of my tear-stained face with the back of my hand. It was over, and just as the thought floated through my mind, I saw Evan leaning against a black sedan on the shoulder of the road, his sandy brown hair blowing in the wind, and his hands shoved deep into the front pockets of his perfectly starched khaki pants. Even from a distance, I noticed the wide smile on his face. That charming smile used to make my stomach flip, now it made it twist. He cheated, but what I did was infinitely worse. I betrayed him with my mind, body, and soul. Going back to my old life, pretending as though nothing happened, didn’t seem possible. But what options did I have?
I bit down hard on my lip until I tasted blood. “You can do this,” I whispered to myself, even as my mind begged me to thrust the gearshift into reverse and run back to Ryker. We were over. I needed to accept it and move forward, just like Ryker said.
I’d face Evan and my family alone. I’d spent the next god knows how long weaving elaborate lies about my time as a prisoner because Ryker’s name would never fall from my mouth ever again. He may own my body and a twisted part of my heart, but he wouldn’t own my words. “Let the games begin,” I said as I rolled down the window. The salty sea air washed over my skin and calmed my tattered nerves until the numbness swallowed me just as I had hoped.
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ryker
I raked my hands through my hair as I watched the back of Hattie’s car until it disappeared into the twisted vines and shrubs of the jungle. Only then did I pull my cell phone from my front pocket. “Senator Deveron, Miss Covington has been released.”
“Hold on, let me put my phone on speaker. My son will want to hear this too.”
I gritted my teeth, barely holding back the anger I wanted to unleash on both of them. “Fine,” I said through clenched teeth.
“Okay, go ahead,” Senator Deveron said.
“You can retrieve Miss Covington where the road leading from the compound intersects with Highway 307 in twenty minutes. She’ll be driving a light blue sedan,” I said.
“Perfect. Rever’s plane landed an hour ago. He should contact you soon.”
“He already did,” I offered. I wouldn’t have let Hattie drive away if I didn’t have confirmation of his release.
“Mr. Vargas, this is Evan Deveron.”
“Yes?” I responded with thinly veiled disgust dripping from my voice. I hated this fucking asshole from the moment an acquaintance introduced me to him, and that was before I met Hattie.
“I trust that Hattie will be untouched and in good condition.” Evan wanted to sound calm and business-like, but his voice wavered. He’d never be half the politician his father was, which was a good thing. He actually had a conscience living somewhere inside of him. Unfortunately for him, a conscience was a fatal flaw in D.C.
“Are you questioning how I do my job? You hired me to make you look like a fucking hero. Don’t question my methods, or I’ll drag her ass back here and you’ll never get your second chance,” I barked through the phone, refusing to answer Evan’s question. After last night, there was no way anyone could call Hattie untouched. In fact, I made a point to touch every inch of her so I’d be so far under her skin, it’d be my face she’d see anytime Evan or any other stuffy asshole touched her.
“No,” Senator Deveron said. “We understood the terms. As long as we find Hattie alive at the arranged meeting point, we’ll be thrilled with your services. Evan will have his second chance, and Rever won’t have the opportunity to reveal any undesirable information.”
Asshole. He didn’t give a shit about Hattie. He needed the merger of the Deveron and Covington families so he had the U.S. Attorney General in his pocket—in case the media or anyone else stumbled on his less-than-legitimate connections to the dirty money of the Mexican underworld. It funded his campaigns. It bought his casino. It bought his hookers. “Send your fucking people in here to clean up this place. I don’t want any evidence connecting me to this shit.”
“They’re already on their way. It was a pleasure doing business with you again. One of these days, we’ll have to meet in person and discuss how I can get you to work for me full time. I’m going to run for President soon.”
“I never do business with people I haven’t met.” It wasn’t a lie. I never took a job without weaving myself into the person’s world beforehand. They may not know my real name or line of work, but I made sure I knew everything about them.
“We’ve met?” Senator Deveron’s voice wavered, exhibiting an uncharacteristic flicker of insecurity.
I chuckled, finding amusement in exposing his fear. “Of course. I know everything about you, including your weekly call to that escort service in Fairfax. Your Christian constituents back home wouldn’t look favorably on that information.”
His anger vibrated through the phone, but he didn’t scare me. Nobody did. Unlike my father, I bartered in information. Money didn’t rule the world. Information did, and I had it in spades. I owned everyone.
“Son,” Ignacio Vargas said, putting his hand on my shoulder as I disconnected my burner phone and removed the battery. “Did everything work out?”
“Just as we discussed.” I slipped the phone into my pocket.
“And Senator Deveron’s connections to the Vargas Cartel won’t be exposed?”
“Not today.” I crossed my arms over my chest. My life as a fixer wore on me, especially when my family sucked me back into the fold to deal with their shit. When I started in my line of work, I loved being the force behind the scenes, manipulating the world to right it again. Now I realized my naivety. There weren’t any good or bad guys. They were on the same fucking team, working for the same fucking goal. The struggle between the righteous and the evil was world-class theater to manipulate the masses into tiny pockets of fear and hatred. After all, it’s easier to control people divided than people united.
I needed to make some drastic changes in my life. I knew that. I knew it for the last twelve months. I never intended to stay in my current line of work indefinitely, anyway. I always had other plans…other goals, and now it was time to move forward. My untimely feelings for Hattie complicated things, but I had a plan, and I needed to see it through.
“Are you going to stay for a few more days?” Ignacio asked, interrupting my wandering thoughts.
“I’m afraid not,” I said, my voice completely void of emotion.