~ 9 ~
RIPLEY
“What do you mean by you want her ‘liquidated?’” I snarled into the phone. “She’s not exactly a fucking asset.”
The grunt at the other end of the phone told me he was beyond angry, and that was fine by me. I didn’t speak to Donovan Prescott the way Colson did, or most people for that matter. And that’s because we had an arrangement, he and I. A mutual hatred for one another, that precluded the usual boss-employee relationship.
“Shewasan asset,” Donovan replied smoothly. “My asset.”
“Well, she’s not yours now,” I quipped. “I can promise you that.”
We pushed boundaries, the two of us. Actually, I pushed boundaries, more than him. One day I’d push too far, and that would be it. He knew it. I knew it, too.
But for now…
“Do I need to spell this out for you, Jameson?” he finally shot back, using my last name. It was a clear signal Iwas getting close to the boundary line. “Because I don’t think I do.” He paused for a moment, and his voice twisted into a smug caricature of itself. “Besides, I’ve never had to before…”
Before. Before seemed like a lifetime ago. It was, actually.
Another life.
Adifferentlife.
“Eliminating her seems a little extreme, no?” I walked further into the back room of the house, where the others couldn’t hear. Colson wasn’t happy when I’d pried the phone from his hand. I was doing something I’d never done before: I was going over his head.
But I had to make the call.
“All due respect, sir,” I seethed, “but all this woman did was refuse to marry you.”
“No, sheagreedto marry me,” Donovan growled back. “And today, she broke that agreement. And she did it, of all places, ON THE WAY TO THE FUCKING ALTAR!”
He screamed so loudly I had to hold the phone away. But I was smiling the whole time. She reallyhadgotten the best of him, hadn’t she? Good for her.
Then again, my aching balls weren’t exactly a big fan.
“She embarrassed me, Jameson,” he went on, when he calmed down. “She humiliated me, in front of my clients, my family, my friends.”
I wanted to rub it in his face that he had no friends; no true ones, anyway. It also didn’t surprise me that he’d listed his clients first, even before family.
“You remember what it was like to breakouragreement, don’t you?” Donovan pried. “All those years ago?”
I did, unfortunately. It was something I thought about every single fucking day. Breaking our agreement is why I was indentured to this monster in the first place.
But I wasn’t giving him that satisfaction.
“Do what needs to be done,” he said again. “And no more calls. No more talking about this. It’s over.”
This was the indication that I’d reached the end. There was no wiggle room, no more rope. If I asked for more, he’d only use it to hang me.
“When you get back here, we’ll figure out how to spin this,” finished Donovan, more to himself than to me. “We’ll twist it into whatever shape we need to, to set things right.”
And what’s right?I asked myself, silently. I wasn’t even sure anymore.
“But first, get it done.”
CLICK.
I stared at the satellite phone for a long time, even after I’d switched it off. It felt like it weighed fifty pounds.
