“I didn’t steal. I retrieved.” A shiver skated over her. The wet clothing really was quite cold. “Pretty sure we have covered my whole retrieval process before.”
“You were running to him.” Certainly. “He’s here, isn’t he?”
Not like he was in the suite with them. But…
At the hotel? Yes. Not an employer, though. A friend. No, more like…part of her very, very small family.
“You left the broach and the earrings somewhere outside for him, didn’t you, Simone?”
Guilty as charged. She’d actually dropped the broach and the earrings when they’d been at the front of the hotel. And they’d been picked up instantly. She’d seen their rightful owner and had known he’d realize what she was doing.
He’d always understood her so well. He had, since they’d been children. Growing up together in Vegas.
“He’s here,” Ryan said again. “Who the hell is he?”
Her best friend. The one person who’d been there with her during her desperate years as she grew up. The port for most of her storms. They’d met in foster care. Had wound up in the same place at the right time. Only his grandmother had eventually taken custody of him, so he’d been pulled from the system.
A year later, he and his grandmother had pulled Simone, too. Just in time…
I owe them everything. I will repay them until my last breath. “I don’t know what you mean.”
But Ryan just appeared all the more determined. “He is not going to take you from me. He won’t be able to protect you.”
You should not underestimate him. Without another word, she turned on her heel and headed down the hallway. She entered her bedroom and closed the door with a soft click.
Then she wiped away the teardrop that had slid down her cheek. Why couldn’t life ever be easy? But nothing had been easy, not since she was six years old. She’d lost everything that horrible night.
She was about to lose again. And this time, she’d be losing her spy.
She left him holding the dripping coat. Snarling, Ryan wadded up the coat and tossed it to the side. He yanked out his phone and called Jezebel.
Jezebel answered on the second ring. “I haven’t even started my interrogation,” she announced. “I am good, but not a miracle worker. Give me time, Ryan.”
“We need to review every guest in this hotel. I want video footage to show me every single person who was in the lobby when Simone and I left earlier.” His arm throbbed where the bullet had grazed him. He ignored the throb as he began to pace the suite. “I also want footage of the exterior of the hotel.”
“What’s happening?” Jezebel’s voice had sharpened.
“Simone.”
“Uh, yes, Give me more. What about her?”
“Her employer is here. She gave him back the broach and the earrings.”
Silence. Then, “She did this right in front of you?”
He actually didn’t know exactly when she’d done it. “She’s good, all right?”
“Yes, she is.” Jezebel whistled, clearly impressed. “Right in front of you…my, my. Bet that makes you feel like an ass, doesn’t it?”
He growled. I was distracted. As he so often was, when Simone was close. “I need that footage.”
“We’ll get it. I’ll have it sent to your phone and laptop ASAP.”
She’d brought his laptop in the bags she’d delivered earlier.
“I don’t think this man is a threat to her,” she continued, tone musing. “We can determine his identity, but it sounds like she was just completing a job. The focus of this mission is on Frederick Bradwin and Konstantin Volkov. They are the targets. They are the end goals.”
She tried to run to him. She was going to leave me.
