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I drop my head into my hands and groan aloud, staying like that until I hear the whisper of the outer door opening.
When I raise my head, I meet the calculating gaze of the blonde-haired woman in the strapless red dress.
19
“Revenge is a dish best served cold.”
Eugene Sue
Bianca
“Hello.”The woman shoots me a small, tight smile, then strides across to take the seat beside mine. She throws her clutch purse onto the counter in front of her. “I’m Felicity.”
“Hey.” I don’t give her my name in return, feeling wary.
Who is she, and what does she want?
She smiles wryly, as if she expected nothing else from me but my silent stare. “We don’t have much time, Bree.”
I start violently at her use of my old name—a name that seconds ago I was lamenting the loss of—but she is already glancing around as if to ensure we’re alone and misses my shocked reaction.
“I work for a federal agency. We know what happened to you, and we need your help to bring down your new husband, Gregorio Agosti.”
I gape at Felicity, if that’s her real name, trying to process what she’s saying. A federal agency. Does she mean the FBI?
“There were witnesses, of course, to your kidnapping, but until you surfaced in the media as Gregorio Agosti’s bride, we weren’t one hundred percent sure who’d taken you.”
“I…um…”Witnesses? I lean forward and clutch at her upper arm. “Dave and Shelley. My friends who were there… Are they…”
I can’t even put the query into words. Hot tears of worry burn my eyes, and I furiously blink them back. What if Rio lied to me when he said they survived? What if they’re both actually dead?
Felicity pats my fingers before shifting her arm out of my grip. “They’re fine. Well, your friend Shelley is fine. They shot over her head, most likely to scare her back from the vehicle, I’d say. David Trentham apparently lunged at them, trying to get to you. They shot him in the left thigh. He’ll be fine, eventually. I understand he’s out of hospital and recuperating at home.”
Oh, thank God. They’re okay. They’re really okay.
I hadn’t realized I’d been carrying so much worry about them until this moment. I sag back in my chair. At least Rio told me the truth about that.
Felicity’s mouth thins. “Neither of them is talking. We believe Rio got to them somehow. Either a threat or a bribe. But with your help…”
She reaches inside her clutch, pulls out a small, plain white card, and flicks it onto the counter in front of me. “Take it. My number is on there, as is my partner’s. Call either one of us, twenty-four seven, and we will extract you, Bree.”
Extract me? “What does that mean exactly?”
“We can put you into a witness program. Protect you from him, and then when you testify about what he did to you—”
“Testify? Whoa, hold on a minute. I haven’t agreed to that.”
He’d kill me. He’d kill my friends. My colleagues. He’d destroy everyone and everything I once knew if I betray him like that.
Even though everything in me is screaming out to be rescued from this terrible situation with Rio, the suddenness of this woman’s approach is something I don’t quite know how to process. I don’t know her from Adam. She hasn’t said which federal agency, if she even works for one at all.
“Do you work for the FBI?”
A short laugh releases from her ruby lips. “No.”
“Which federal agency, then? Who the hell are you?”
Felicity stares at me without blinking. “Help us, Bree, and we’ll help you. It’s a win-win for everyone. Except that criminal Agosti.”
