‘It told me how I can get out of this world.’
My mouth drops open. He has an out? Charlie’s going to release him from the invisible shackles? Oh my God! The potential of all this being over, of us getting on with our lives, is suddenly too much to comprehend. No wonder Miller looks so peaceful, but I soon pull up when a small point worms its way past my relief and happiness. Actually, a huge point. He read that letter in the kitchen at my house and looked completely stricken past the cool impassiveness of his mask. He was troubled, so what’s changed since then to make him seem so at ease? I steel myself and ask the question I should’ve asked before I let my excitement run away with me. ‘How can you get out of this world?’ My instinct to hold my breath worries me. It tells me I’m not going to like the answer.
But my question still doesn’t make his finger falter across my skin, and he still isn’t looking at me. ‘It doesn’t matter because I’m not doing it.’
‘Is it bad?’
‘The worst,’ he answers without thought, almost scowling before it drifts into disgust. ‘I have another way.’
‘Like what?’
‘I’ll kill him.’
‘What?’ I wriggle beneath him in a panic, but I don’t go anywhere, and I wonder if he positioned himself like this on purpose, knowing damn well I’d start pressing for answers and want to escape when he gave them to me. And I don’t know why I’m acting so shocked by his shocking, hateful promise. After what William said and Miller’s look, I had a bad feeling he would say that. What Charlie proposed is worse? How?
‘Stay where you are.’ He’s calm. Too calm, and it just makes me all the more freaked. He seizes my wrists and holds them above my head, and I’m now puffing exhausted bursts of air into his face. ‘It’s the only way.’
‘No, it’s not!’ I argue. ‘Charlie’s given you another way. Take it!’
He shakes his head adamantly. ‘No. And that’s the end of it!’ His jaw is tight now, eyes darkening in warning. I don’t care. Nothing can be worse than killing someone. I won’t let him do it.
‘It fucking isn’t!’ I yell. ‘Get off me!’ I heave and flip myself, all without success.
‘Olivia, stop it!’ He slams my wrists back to the floor above my head when I manage to fight them up a little. ‘Damn it! Stop fighting me!’
I finally relent, but only because of utter exhaustion, and pant in his face, trying to glare through my tiredness. ‘Nothing could be worse than killing someone.’
He draws in a deep breath. It’s a confidence-boosting breath, and it makes every muscle against him tense. ‘If I agree to what he wants, it will destroy you, Olivia. And there’s no guarantee that once I do this, he won’t ask me to come back and do something else. As long as he’s breathing, he’s a threat to our happiness.’
I shake my head adamantly. ‘It’s too dangerous. You’d never be able to pull it off – he must have dozens of heavies watching his back.’ My panic is escalating. I heard Gregory mention guns. ‘And you can’t live with this on your conscience for the rest of your life.’
‘It’s too dangerous not to. And Charlie himself has given me the perfect opportunity.’
His confounding words hold me silent for a second before realisation slams into me and I gasp. ‘Oh God. He wants you to go on a date?’
He nods mildly, choosing to remain quiet and let it settle in my wrought mind. This only gets worse by the minute. There has to be another way.
Something deep and possessive inside of me is stirring at the thought of someone else touching and kissing him. Part of my mind is screaming, Let him kill Charlie. The world’s a better place without him! And a little devil on my shoulder is nodding his agreement. But I suddenly have a little angel, too, and she’s looking at me sorrowfully, not speaking, but I know what she’d say if she did.
Let him go.
Just for one night.
It’ll mean nothing to him.
‘She’s the sister of a Russian drug lord,’ he says quietly. ‘She’s wanted me for years but she disgusts me. She gets off on degrading her partner. All she wants is the power. If Charlie delivers me, he’ll get in with the Russians. It would be a very lucrative partnership, and he’s wanted it for a long time.’
‘Why don’t they just join forces anyway?’
‘The Russian’s sister won’t agree to an association unless she gets me.’