Javier.
I wish I could say I turned and ran the minute I recognized his face. But I didn’t. I hesitated, perhaps a few seconds too long. Because Javier had a face that compelled you to look at him. Camden had been right with his impression—he really was like the sun. If you stared at him too long, you’d get burned.
He wasn’t the world’s best looking guy, and for comparison’s sake, he didn’t have Camden’s classical all-male good looks. His mouth was a little too wide and snaked from corner to corner. His nose had been broken a few times, and when you looked at him straight on like I was doing as I stared at him across the circle bar, you could really tell. But his eyes were beautiful, cunning and otherworldly. His hair was a controlled mess; wispy dark strands that swooped across his forehead with long sideburns. He had high cheekbones, a strong jawline. When you combined all the parts, they equaled so much more than the sum. He was exotically, dangerously beautiful.
He’d been mine once. He’d broken my heart once.
And he was here to kill me. He only needed to do that once, too.
All the time I’d been staring at him, enveloped in his eyes, caged by his presence, he was staring back at me. It was only when he moved to text something on his phone that I found myself coming back into the present.
My cell beeped again. The corner of his mouth lifted, eyes back on me.
Against my better judgement, I looked at it.
You have no new tale to tell? 26 years on your way to hell.
I felt hollowness inside, like I was being chiseled out by fear. It was a line from the song “Wish,” the song tattooed on his wrist. My song choice for him. At the time I didn’t know who the song was about but now I know he made it about me.
Another beep.
You look beautiful.
I needed to get out of there. I made a quick glance around, looking for Alex and Raul, knowing they had to be close by. I didn’t see them but that didn’t mean anything in a casino. I tried to calm my racing heart and think. I needed to walk past the circle bar, past Javier to get to the hotel entrance, to get to Camden. Christ, I hoped he wasn’t looking for me and had just done as we planned.
Walking past Javier put me in the line of fire. But he wouldn’t dare grab me in the middle of a casino surrounded by people, cameras, and undercover security. He’d let me walk right past him and then I’d be followed. I couldn’t have that either.
I had to have him detained. More than that, I had to have Raul and Alex detained, wherever they were. I had to walk right up to him and engage him because if I ran, there would be no escape.
Sucking back courage like one hundred proof whiskey, I shoved my cell back into my clutch, tightened my grip on it until my knuckles were white, and walked around the circle bar. My eyes never left Javier and his never left mine. I could almost hear “Wish” pounding away in my head, matching its speed with my heart.
I stopped right beside him, beside a drunk couple who were laughing too loudly, a couple who had no idea what kind of animal they were sitting near.
Javier was wearing an unbuttoned suit jacket in a greenish-beige tone that would have looked drab on anyone else but him and a collarless white linen shirt underneath. He smelled like a million misleading memories.
As if in slow motion, I rested my hand on the bar top. I focused on it like obsessive woman possessed, how close it was to his hand as it held onto a drink I knew was Bombay Sapphire and tonic water. His hand was tawny, speckled with scars. I had held that hand many times, marveling at how dark his skin got in the summer, and I’d kissed every bump and mark. Hands that knew my body inside and out. Hands that were so often covered in someone else’s blood.
“Ellie Watt,” he said to me. His accent was soft and seductive, his voice light. “I have to say I like your real name a lot better. It suits you.”
He reached for my hand and I snatched it out of the way before he could touch me. I brought my eyes to his and steadied myself.
“What do you want from me?” I asked.
He tilted his head, observing me with an appreciative smile. “Your hair, it’s different too. I like it. You’re far too angry to be a blonde.” He nodded at my arm. “I told you I’d be looking for you, didn’t I?”
I knew that tattoo would come back to bite me on the ass.
“What do you want from me, Javier?” I said again, trying to keep my voice from shaking. I had to do this fast.
He frowned but somehow he was still smiling, as if I was a child who didn’t seem to get the lesson.
“What do I want?” He tugged at his ear, something he did when he was excited. “Oh, Eden, Ellie, you. I want the world from you.”