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She let a smile curl her lips before she stepped toward Ryley. She crouched before him and eyed his neck. She knew where to make the cuts—she’d studied this, albeit not for this exact moment.
She lowered her voice so that only he could hear. “I don’t know what you’ve done, but I’m going to find out. Right now, you need to trust me. This is going to hurt, but it’s not going to kill you,” she said as she raised the knife to his neck, pressing the tip into his skin. A pearl of blood formed and she sliced his neck, careful to miss the major arteries but create enough blood loss to impress Diaz.
Ryley’s eyes locked on hers as his body began to tremble.
He made a gurgling noise that she knew wasn’t from swallowing blood but rather from swallowing his cocktail of fear and pain.
Diaz howled with laughter. “Let that be a lesson, men!”
Anna stood, not basking in Diaz’s flattery. There was nothing to be proud of in this moment.
“Let him go,” Anna said, looking directly at Ryley. “Let him bleed out as he stumbles home.”
“Cut him loose,” Diaz said through his laughter.
Anna crouched behind Ryley, used the bloody knife to cut through the rope. “Get out of here. I’ll find you.”
Ryley tried to stand but was too weak to push himself up onto his legs due to the bullets Diaz had fired at him earlier. Anna was surprised he could stand at all, but the human body was miraculously strong when it needed to be.
Diaz laughed harder, thoroughly enjoying this.
Anna extended a hand, pulling him up. Her eyes were hard, her face stony. She didn’t show an inch of compassion in her eyes—that had been reserved for her whispers only.
She knew this was a risk; he could go back to Diaz and tell him she’d helped him. But that was a risk she was willing to take, because if he didn’t, if he played into her hand, this could be the breakthrough she needed.
She helped him to the wall and, with one hand against it, he stumbled toward the side of the house.
Anna hoped Jackson had backed away. Her plan bet on him picking up Ryley a block from there, away from Diaz’s cameras, and getting him the medical attention he needed.
“Clean up this mess,” Diaz said to one of his men, the laughter finally gone from his voice. “Anna, come have a drink.”
She followed him into the house and with every step, she hoped like hell she’d pulled this off, otherwise she was stepping into her own version of hell.
She closed the door behind her, noting half of Diaz’s men were watching them, and the other half were busy cleaning up or getting back to their jobs.
She’d just put a few additional targets on her back. Some of Diaz’s men didn’t like her and she didn’t think it was a personality thing. They didn’t like that a woman had more influence over Diaz than they did, and they didn’t trust her. They were right not to, but that wouldn’t be revealed until her plan was complete.
Diaz poured two glasses of whiskey. Anna wasn’t really in the mood for a drink but she took the glass and swallowed a large mouthful like Diaz wanted her to.
He stood in front of her, sweeping a lock of hair behind her ear.
“I can barely remember what my life was like before you came into it.” As soon as he started talking, Anna’s nerves dissipated. This was the vulnerable Diaz she saw so rarely.
“Your life is much the same as it was when I came into it,” she said, gently but casually.
He smiled. “That’s what you don’t get. It is not the same at all. I had a single focus then. All I cared about was domination.” He finished his glass and refilled it. “Do you ever dream of leaving this life? Of going somewhere and starting over?”
The air left Anna’s lungs. “What?” she asked, fighting to keep her voice neutral.
Diaz sat at a bar stool. “Some days I want to leave it all behind,” he said, not looking at her but at the empty courtyard that was now free of blood. “We could buy an island or an estate somewhere. Get a few dogs... and take hissing Miss Casino, I suppose... and just live happily. We have enough money.”
She almost laughed, but there was nothing funny about this moment. It felt like the part of a romance movie where the bad guy turned into the doting, wonderful boyfriend.
But this was no romance movie, and there would be no happy ending for their story.
“You’d get bored, Diaz,” Anna said with a gentle smile.
He grinned. “Not with you,” he said with a chuckle. “Life is never boring with you.” He walked toward her, cupping her cheek with his hand. “You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. The only family I’ve ever known. I’m going to prove to you I can do this. Give me six months.”
