Page 58 of Dangerous Liaisons

Chapter Forty-Four

Twenty minutes later, Jesse stopped with Perez outside the building sitting beside the one which contained her cell. She didn’t like the direction their meeting had taken. She’d kept quiet in the jeep, hoping—praying—Perez didn’t have in mind what she thought he did, but now there wasn’t much guesswork left. She cast a furtive glance at the bulge in his waistband. God, how she itched to get her hands on that semi-automatic.

“If we are going to do this, I need a weapon.” she said as one of the two guards that had accompanied them reached for the door handle.

Perez glanced at her and frowned. “We agreed—”

“We agreed I would take care of Lanton,” Jesse cut in.

Perez looked confused, and the apprehension that lay like lead in her stomach metamorphosed into fear.

“If we are to defeat Robert Lanton, we must kill his partner,” he said.

“Lanton doesn’t have partners,” she replied. “Cole is nothing but a pawn.”

“Surely, you understood he must die.”

“Yes, but—”

“Cole Smith is very powerful,” Perez insisted. “We cannot allow Robert Lanton to claim his power.”

“Claim his power?”

Pride filled Perez’s eyes. “I was fifteen when I claimed the power of my first kill. I slit his throat and watched the horror in his eyes as he slipped into oblivion. One of us must claim Smith’s power.”

Jesse resisted the urge to shrink back. She had known men who drew courage and strength from their kills. For them, killing was more than an act of violence. It was life itself. She forced a noncommittal nod, and Perez motioned the guard to open the door. She stepped inside with Perez behind her. The stink hit her again and her belly roiled.

“Stay here,” he ordered one guard.

Jesse kept her gaze straight ahead again. Perez obviously didn’t share this ritual with his men. Chances were, the guard that accompanied them would meet an unfortunate accident before he had a chance to tell his compadres the boss was a nut. Perez glanced at her.

Her heart pounded harder. Careful. Eyes straight ahead, no emotion. You don’t give a damn about anyone in this building. Perez’s intended victim, the only survivor of a massacre she should have prevented, wasn’t the man she’d thought he was. He was an assassin, and intended to kill her, after ensuring the one man who could hurt Lanton was dead.

They walked down a hallway like the one in the building where she’d been held captive. Eight cells down, they halted before a steel door. She’d been in situations like this before. She’d taken life to save her own. This was no different.

Yeah, and Superman will show up any minute to save the day.

“Open the door,” Perez ordered.

Keys jangled as the guard produced a chain from his pocket and selected a key. He inserted it into the lock, then swung the door wide before retreating a step.

Cole lay on a mattress in the right hand corner of the cell, an arm thrown across his eyes. Jesse’s gaze jerked to his chest. Relief flooded her at sight of the rise and fall of his chest before she realized the foolishness of her response. Of course he would be alive.

Perez pulled the Glock from his waistband, chambered one round, then ejected the clip. He extended it toward Jesse, handle first. “You must put one bullet in the head so the heart continues to beat.”

Cole jerked upright. Jesse started, and the guard yanked his CR-21 from his shoulder and pointed it at Cole.

“Jess?” Cole whispered.

Jesse bit back a gasp. One eye was swollen twice its size and his nose looked like it had been broken—again. A yellow bruise covered the lower half of his left jaw.

“Jesus,” she murmured.

Cole shifted as though to stand, then stopped when the guard took a menacing step forward. Cole looked at her. “What’s going on, Jess?”

Her heart leaped into her throat. The plaintive note in his voice sounded genuinely innocent. She remembered thinking the same thing when Lancelot was killed, and her stomach turned.

“Miss Evans,” Perez persisted.