I glare at Lucien.
What I really want to do is rush up to Rosie’s room and beg for forgiveness after I’ve explained why I treated her the way I did. But as much as I want to do that, I don’t want to screw the operation up.
“Hunter, call your friend.” I turn to look at him. “I need to know she’s okay.”
“I can do that.”
Within seconds, he has his phone to his ear and says one word, “Julian,” and stays silent.
The man is like a robot. No emotion shows on his face, which means I can’t read whether or not my girl is good.
Hunter finally hangs up and glances through the window without saying a word.
Something’s gone wrong. Either that or he’s trying to piss me off. And succeeding.
He climbs out of the car and opens my door. “Simon’s in the room with her.”
What the fuck!
He stands back and lets me exit, but I block his way. “What. Is. Going. On?”
“My contact.”
“Julian,” I interrupt and Hunter confirms with a nod to his head.
“Julian is monitoring the conversation. Simon hasn’t harmed her.”
“Yet,” I roar and push him up against the wall with my arm covering his windpipe. “You said she would be safe.”
“Ruben, this isn’t helping,” Ramon says as Lucian helps him pull me off Hunter.
“You need to get your shit together and we’ll go inside. Julian is in the next room to mine and there is an interconnecting door.”
I shake my brothers off me and ignoring everyone jog toward the back entrance of the hotel, needing to get close to her. I’m not going to blow this, but if it sounds like he’s hurting her then everyone can go to hell, and all bets are off. I’ll be getting my girl.
Chapter 32 ~ Rosie
My head is pounding and the more Simon sits in the corner glaring at me, hardly saying anything, the more it pounds.
I cried myself to sleep and woke up suddenly when Simon shook the bed. He had a passkey for the room, which he gladly showed me once I’d woken up enough to realize this wasn’t a dream more like a nightmare.
So not only does Ruben throw me away, I get the bastard who set me up instead with no help coming from any direction.
I’d grabbed my phone, cuddling it to my chest before I’d fallen asleep, hoping Ruben would ring me. But he never did.
After I’d gotten over the shock of being woken so abruptly I remembered my phone was still beneath the covers. Ruben is speed dial three, so I feel alongside the phone to the volume and keep my finger pressed on the minus and hope the volume is going down. Now I press three for a few seconds before releasing the button.
I love Ruben. Even after everything he said to me. I still love him. I’m not even sure he’ll accept the call if he sees it’s coming from me, and that breaks my heart all over again.
“He isn’t coming,” Simon sneers. “He believes you’re the guilty party, and the one thing Ruben hates is drugs. So a pretty good setup if you ask me. Joe’s idea, mind you, but I chose the sneaker. I honestly thought it would all backfire. That Ruben wouldn’t believe the evidence staring him in the face, but he did. Says a lot about how he feels about you.”
Swiping at the tears sliding down my face, I glare at him. “I don’t give a shit anymore Simon. People like you always get discovered. Whether it’s today or tomorrow, but the cops aren’t stupid and they’ll figure it out. In fact, there’s already someone at Kenza who’s on to you and who I know will come after me regardless of what Ruben chooses to do.”
Ruben might have turned his back on me, but Hunter won’t. That I do know. I guess I just wish he’d have stayed here with me then I wouldn’t be alone with him.
Simon has always been a bit weird, but never like he is being right now. He’s frightening me with the knife he keeps sliding up and down his jean-covered thigh. Every time I move, he stops and very slowly points the knife at me. For now he’s not bothered to tie me up, which I’m grateful for, but that’s as far as me being grateful goes.
The knife I know he’ll use. If you’d asked me last week if I thought he was capable of taking a knife to someone, I’d have said no. He was odd, but not life threatening. Well, now it’s as though a switch has been turned on and I believe he’s capable of anything and that is the most frightening thing of all.
My knees are drawn up in front of me as I wrap my arms around them and rest my head on top of my knees. I’m not sure what we’re waiting for or why he’s just glaring at me. My only hope is that Hunter returns before Simon takes me out of here because I have no doubt that’s what he is intending.
“You mean Hunter?”