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“Carlos made his choice, Alberto,” she stated as she stepped back. “You know that as well as I do.”
Carlos had made the decision to fight the night she and her team had swarmed through the drug-processing warehouse Carlos had set up. It had been his decision to fight rather than be arrested. It wasn’t as though he wouldn’t have been released just as quickly as he was arrested. He just would have lost millions of dollars in cocaine and heroin.
“Carlos trusted you.” Alberta smiled at that. It wasn’t a smile of amusement. “You were his good friend, were you not, Maria?” He gave a mocking grimace. “Ah, Bailey. Not Maria.”
“Bailey,” she agreed, wondering how quickly she could get to the knife beneath the leg of her sweats and if she could reach hers before he reached his.
“You know you’re not going to get away with killing me,” she informed him calmly. “This isn’t Colombia, Alberto, and I’m not one of the innocent young women you and your men kidnap off the streets. Others know you’re in the area. You’ll be hunted down.”
He laughed at that. “Ah you have the same naive belief in your people here as you had in your men in Colombia,” he accused snidely. “Would you be surprised to know that one of your good friends here sold you, my dear? That I was searched out, paid to come here and eliminate you. They had no idea I would so gladly do it for free.”
Warbucks. Now what had she done to piss him off? Or was this one of the infamous tests that his employees were forced to endure? He liked games. He enjoyed playing with both employees and enemies. There was no difference in his eyes, it seemed.
“Really?” She didn’t have to pretend curiosity, but she was having to fake the calm. “And who would that be?”
He chuckled at the question. “You would like to know badly, yes?”
“Badly would describe it.” She stepped back farther. If she could get ahead of him, take the right turn, then she might have a chance of losing him in the maze.
“You know, I have been studying this maze for several days,” he stated with a smile. “I know it well by now. As well, I would say, as do you.”
Okay, nix that idea. Evidently someone hadn’t just hired him, but had also gone out of their way to prepare him.
“Well, since you intend to kill me anyway, you could be nice enough to just let me know who hired you,” she suggested reasonably. “Consider it a last request.”
“But I was never one to provide last requests.” He sighed. “It tends to allow the soul to rest in peace. Do you imagine I would wish your soul to rest in peace, Ms. Serborne?”
She arched a brow. “Well, I could haunt you rather than drifting around miserably,” she promised chillingly. “How would that feel, Alberto? To have my ghost fucking with your daily life?”
He laughed at that. Okay, so he wasn’t spiritual. Surprise there.
Reaching behind his back, he withdrew what he was well known for. A long, wicked-looking knife that gleamed in the cold sunlight as she bent and removed the small knife she had strapped to her leg.
Damn, she should have listened to John and carried the gun.
His smile was bright, a bit amused, and filled with triumph as he twirled the knife beneath the thin, weak rays of the sun.
“You were not as proficient with the knife as you were with other weapons,” he reminded her. “Poor Ms. Serborne. Looks like today is the last day you breathe. I hope you have enjoyed the time you have spent upon this earth.”
“Well, I was starting to,” she sighed. “I hope you enjoy what John Vincent is going to do to you when he catches up with you.”
He did pause at that. He was a criminal, of course he knew who John Vincent was. Even more, he was an international drug-dealing, arms-buying and -selling bastard. There was no way he couldn’t know who John Vincent was.
“I had heard perhaps you were sharing his bed,” he said with a nod. “It is too bad. But Vincent, he is a businessman, yes? He will not risk his business to come after one lowly Colombian drug dealer. You will be forgotten, just as I’m certain his past lovers have been forgotten.”
“Wouldn’t bet on that.” She stepped back again.
She was going to try to run for it. He knew it, and she knew it. She wasn’t going to make this easy for him. She wasn’t nearly as experienced with a knife as he was, and he had a lot more muscle on his frame when it came to a fight.
Bailey dug her feet into the thick snow beneath her, turned, and took off. If she could get far enough ahead of him, she might have a chance.
She heard his laughter behind her and knew she had given him exactly what he wanted. Alberto loved the hunt as well as the fight.
She tore around the first turn, raced down the connecting corridor, and felt perspiration begin to run down her back as she looked back to see how close he was.
He was too damned close. So close that it was apparent he was only playing with her. Pushing her legs harder as she gripped the knife with her other hand, she raced around the next turn, then dug her feet harder, shot past the next turn, and struggled to maintain her speed as she went through a short corridor before turning again.
She gained a little distance. He was having to work to catch her now, but she couldn’t keep this up for long. There was no way she could actually race through the maze and make it back to the house with him this close on her ass.
