Page 49 of Waggs

The door opened and she and Bebe looked up but kept their hands behind their backs so the man who faced them didn’t see they were free. Her gaze locked on Ralph as he strode in the room like he was the fucking king of the world and they were his minions. Two men stood behind him with military issue weapons in their traitorous hands.

“Willow, Willow, Willow. What a pain in the ass you’ve been.” He stopped, his polished Italian shoes next to her knees as he crouched beside her, his designer wool suit in a gorgeous French navy pulled over his legs as he looked at her. It would’ve been easier if he was ugly, but Ralph had the smooth, preppy good looks of a man climbing his way to power in politics. Not a blond hair out of place, his blue eyes cold and disinterested unless there was something in it for him.

“I’ve chased you all over the world and now my contract killer has gone missing. Do you know anything about that?”

“Oh, yeah. I had him arrested and thrown in the tower of London.”

Ralph found her words funny, but she wondered if he would if he knew how close it was to the truth. Aiden had explained exactly what Eidolon did—and for whom—after Jack gave him permission and she signed a non-disclosure agreement. They needn’t have bothered. She’d never tell a soul what she knew about the team who’d helped her.

“You’re funny. Perhaps I should have fucked you and not Emma.”

Willow never would’ve looked twice at Ralph. He was everything she didn’t want in a man. She should know, she’d had perfection not once but twice.

“Did you kill her?” Willow hadn’t meant to ask or give him any kind of power, but she felt guilty for dragging her friend into it.

Ralph gripped her chin in a cruel grip and brough his mouth close to her ear. “No, I fucked her raw in every hole, until she couldn’t walk straight, and then my trusty team here took out the trash.”

Willow refused to look at Ralph, looking away towards the man at his back. The same man who’d offered her his deepest condolences at Aaron’s funeral. Who had folded the American flag and handed it to her with a look of grief on his face and she’d thanked him. Yet, now, she knew he was nothing but scum, a traitor to his country and his president.

She also now knew he’d been the one to orchestrate Aaron’s death. Nick Green had the contacts and the access to the men who’d blown up a small child to hide his dirty secrets and appetites. In some ways, she hated him more than she hated Ralph. He’d promised to protect and serve, and he’d ended up killing for his own end. She put every ounce of her hatred for him into her eyes and saw the slightest wince.

Bile roiled in her gut as she asked the question in her heart she knew she already had the answer to, but she wanted to understand. “Did you kill Aaron?”

“He was nosey and I knew I couldn’t control him or tempt the perfect Aaron Wagner to join me, so he had to die. Nick tried to warn him, to encourage him to join us but he wouldn’t listen. The only reason his brother lived is because Nick assured me he didn’t know anything.”

“Why? Why are you doing this? You have money and a good life.” Willow blinked to clear her vision of tears that blinded her.

Ralph leaned against the desk and crossed his ankles as he looked down on her. “Because I can and because a political career is expensive, and women are lucrative.”

“We aren’t pawns for your game, Ralph.”

“Don’t be naive, Willow. Everyone is a pawn in this world. It’s survival of the fittest and the strongest. Aaron was weak and short sighted. He valued the wrong things and he died in pain.”

Willow felt the burn of tears at the backs of her eyes as her throat closed, trying to hold herself together and stop herself from reacting and flying at him, scratching his eyes out. Only Bebe behind her and the promise of the retribution she knew Aiden would bring kept her from acting on it. Willow spat on Ralph’s shiny shoe in disgust. “You’ll all pay.”

Ralph reacted, gripping her hair before raising his hand and back-handing her. She tasted blood but bit back the cry of pain. She’d never let him see her pain again, not any of them.

Green jumped forward pulling him away. “Leave it. The delivery will be here soon.”

Ralph shook off the hand that had grabbed him and Green stepped back as Ralph turned to her again. “I’m going to fuck you in every hole and maybe even make some new ones and then I’m going to let you watch while I do the same to your friend. When you’re both begging for death, you can watch me kill Aiden. Just like I had Aaron killed.”

Chapter 21

The team had agreed to meet Clay—code name Condor—and his team five clicks out from the trucking yard. Waggs had worked with Clay to rescue Callie, Reid’s girlfriend and Clay’s sister, and remembered him to be a cool-headed operator. As former hostage rescue team member for the FBI, he had a lot of experience with this kind of retrieval too which would come in handy for any insights.

Waggs shook the man’s hand firmly. “Clay, thanks for coming.”

“No, problem. After what you guys did for Callie, I’m always going to be in your debt.” He turned to the three men who stood with him. “This is Sandstorm, former FBI Violent Crimes.”

Waggs shook his hand. “Aiden Wagner, but my friends call me Waggs.” The man was his height, with dark hair and a beard, with a middle eastern look to his features.

“Nice to meet you, Waggs.”

“This is Hawk, a former Texas Ranger, and Lyric, who is also FBI.”

Waggs and Liam shook their hands. “Good to meet you.”

Waggs was feeling antsy now and ready to get moving. Willow had been a hostage for three hours already and he didn’t like it one bit. The thoughts of what could happen to her in that time was like ice cold tendrils of fear up his spine.