Page 22 of One for the Money

“You make no fucking sense.” Erik sighed, rubbing a hand over his head. “What kind of logic is that? You kill someone for setting up someone else to be killed?”

“Absolutely, then when word gets out that I won’t tolerate that shit and you’ll end up dead, people tend to remember. Work smarter, not harder,” I explained. “I suppose you could say I’m a hyper-logical person who doesn’t use morals as a guideline for behavior.”

Erik started to ask another question but stopped and stared at me like I baffled him. “So you have no morals⁠—”

“That’s not what I said,” I jumped in, cutting off the rest of whatever he was going to say. “By definition, a moral is a person’s standards of behavior or beliefs concerning what is and is not acceptable for them to do. I have morals, just not the same ones the rest of civilization chooses to live by.”

“How are you so insanely sane?” Erik demanded, clearly exasperated by me.

I shrugged, then regretted that choice as it tugged on my stitches. “Seriously, I’m not sure there is anything worse than a wound inflicted on your torso. No matter what you fucking do, it pisses your injury off.”

“If you were sitting down, it wouldn’t pull on the stitches since the skin wouldn’t be stretched from standing,” Erik pointed out, then shoved his mattress in my direction. “Could you please sit the hell down if we’re going to continue talking?”

He hadn’t gotten the mattress far enough to me so I could pull it out of his reach. Instead, I’d have to step closer into his bubble to sit down. Here I was preaching about my view on morals when I was counting on his to keep him from attacking me while I couldn’t fight back. Then again, if I wanted him to be receptive to my plan, building a thread of trust would certainly help.

“Fine, I’ll sit, but I’ll need your help,’’ I agreed but used the situation to remind him of my weakened state.

Erik didn’t hesitate before walking over and wrapping his hands around my wrists to keep me from crashing on my ass. Once I was safely on the mattress, he instantly released his hold, as if the mere thought of touching me might infect him with my brand of crazy. Erik opted to sit on the floor across from me, keeping one leg bent with his foot on the floor. Why he felt the need to be ready to make a quick run for it, I wasn’t sure. In my condition, there was no way I’d be able to take him by surprise.

“You know you still haven’t answered my question,” Erik reminded, resting an elbow on his raised knee.

“Which one was that? You’ve asked a few,” I said absently, still trying to find a way to sit that wasn’t painful.

“Why are you here in my room and not resting?” Erik clarified.

“You answered that yourself. Bear pissed me off, and I decided to entertain myself with some different company,” I reiterated. “I am seriously going to use a side wound as a form of torture… it’s the more infuriating experience.”

I caught Erik’s expression as he just watched me in silence. “What?”

“Nothing about you makes sense,” he stated.

Smiling, I cupped my face, trying to appear all sweet and innocent. “Aw, that has to be one of the nicest things you’ve ever said. Keep talking like that, and I might just decide to turn you to the dark side. I’ll have you know we offer an excellent vision and dental plan along with in-home medical care. Oh, and let’s not forget about the cookies. Franzi makes these amazing ginger cookies that are so fucking soft and moist.”

I mimed a chef’s kiss to make sure he knew how serious I was being about the cookies.

“Why would you ever risk letting someone you kidnapped into your organization?” Erik challenged.

Tilting my head to the side, I tried to judge if that was a serious question. When he didn’t say anything more and seemed to be waiting for a response, I gathered he wasn’t joking.

“Doesn’t it seem obvious? If it works out, I get a new employee who could prove to be invaluable with both a military and medical background. Personally, I love taking on people who served in the military. It saves me from guessing if they have the stomach for the work or not,” I explained. “Should things not work out, then I’d just kill them, and that’s that. Really, it just makes sense. If I was going to kill them originally, then killing them later on makes no difference.”

Erik looked bewildered at my thought process.

“I told you, I’m a highly logical person who looks at a situation without emotion attached to it. Sure, most people would think I’m a monster, but be honest, what about my plan doesn’t make sense?” I challenged, knowing there was only one answer he could give.

Never in my life did I think I would be in this position. Sitting across from me was a stunningly beautiful woman who had the heart of a villainous dictator and the mind of a genius psychologist. Every time I thought she couldn’t possibly be sane, I found myself left with no argument against her logic.

There she sat across from me with eyes that had so much depth and dimension to them it was like they were made out of tiger’s eye. They were mesmerizing and full of so much confidence I couldn’t help but be trapped by them. Although they say the prettiest-looking things are also the most deadly. The goal is to entice you to them and draw you closer so they can trap you before feasting on your body.

I heard one of her people address her as Wolf, and I felt that was accurate but not perfect. To me, she was closer to a siren, enchanting you to the point you don’t realize she’s leading you to your death. If Von truly decided to keep me here and made a real effort, I’m not sure anyone would be able to say no to her. There was something so enticing about the darkness she was promising me, which was exactly the reason I could never allow her to draw me in.

“I agree that your plan makes sense as you’ve laid it out, but what about the human factor?” I countered.

The automatic pout on her lips as she tried to figure out what I meant had me fighting back a grin. No, you fucking idiot, do not fall for the act. She’s a heartless killer and criminal who has zero morals, no matter how she phrases it.

“The human factor…” she repeated. “Are you referring to the possibility that you might be able to talk one of my other employees into helping you escape? Or were you thinking more along the lines of some valiant effort to contact the authorities to have them come save you?”

“More so the first option since I figured you probably paid off local law enforcement,” I answered.