AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I crouched down, my elbows on my knees, and tried to see if there was anything that Tristan had left behind—anything that could help me pinpoint his location.
The man was a ghost, hiding in plain sight, and I was getting tired chasing after him, using almost all of my resources to pin him down. To stop this madness.
Yet no matter what I did, no matter how many men I sent after him, the result was always the same. Tristan didn’t want to be found, least of all by me. He loved playing these fucked up games, riling me up, dangling the metaphorical carrot right in front of my face, somehow knowing that I wouldn’t be able to catch him.
He blamed me for everything that had happened, and I couldn’t exactly fault him for thinking like that.
I blamed myself for destroying our family, no matter how fucked up we were. My relationship with Kieran was non-existent; he chose to hide on the East Coast, dealing with his own shit, instead of talking to me.
Ophelia and Storm had their own family to worry about, especially now with her second pregnancy and the little twins that were wreaking havoc already.
My fists tightened when I saw a small note, tucked under the telephone on the coffee table, right next to Gregory’s body.
“Motherfucker,” I hissed, standing up and slowly walking toward the table, careful not to step into the pool of blood spreading around Gregory. Even as a child, Tristan loved playing games—hide and seek was his favorite one, leaving little clues around the house until Kieran or I found him.
My fingers tightened around the paper, my nostrils filling with the scent of blood, and I knew I had to get the fuck out of here before somebody found me inside this suite.
The paper was folded in two with stains of blood on the edges, and I knew it was Gregory’s blood forever etched with the ink as I opened the note, the tick in my eye becoming more and more prominent as I read over the scribbled letters.
Let’s play a little game, brother.
I will dictate, and you will follow.
Let’s see if you’re worthy of this place.
My fist closed around the paper, scrunching the note in my hand, as my eyes closed and my breathing became harsher, ready to flee from this place. This was all a game to Tristan, and as I looked around the suite again, I knew why he chose this place. Everyone knew who owned the hotel, and leaving the body behind would bring a lot more attention to me—attention I didn’t want.
I was happy working from the shadows, dealing with people on my own terms and still being able to come and go as I wanted to, without the police department breathing down my neck because I was too careful to slip or to leave any trace of what I was doing.
But this—this was a trace I wouldn’t be able to hide, and I knew there would be questions.
The sound of the elevator pinging on the floor made me turn toward the half open door behind me, and with hurried steps, I exited the room, coming face to face with the angel from reception.
“You,” she mumbled, her questioning eyes dragging over my face, my body, until her eyebrows lifted up, the realization slowly coming to the forefront of her mind. But the momentary surprise went as soon as it came, as if she'd put a mask over her pretty face, the professional persona appeared right in front of my eyes, and I immediately wanted her to give me the honesty in her eyes, rather than this cold indifference. “Can I help you with anything, sir?” she asked, straightening her back, keeping her hands clasped right in front of her.
My body hummed with awareness, the need to step closer to her, to lower my nose to her neck, to drag my tongue over that vein so visible on the right side, barely hidden by the pale skin. I wished to hear her moans, her pleas, those red lips wrapped around my cock as I took everything I wanted from her.
“My name is Evelyn,” she continued, as if she couldn’t sense the danger she was in. “I’m the Manager on Duty in the hotel. Is there anything I can do for you?”
My dick twitched in my pants, the innocent question rolling off of her lips sending my entire body into a frenzy.
My gut churned as I stepped back instead, shaking my head, trying to get out of this insane pull I felt toward her.
She frowned at my obvious distress. “Are you okay?” Her voice was laced with concern I didn’t deserve, and I knew she would be the one to find the body in that room. But I had no time for pleasantries, and least of all for someone like her who would only be a liability.
Get rid of her, the voice in my head piped up, but I couldn’t. Not yet.
I looked at her one last time, memorizing every curve of her body, the lines of her face, and turned around, heading toward the stairs, ignoring her calls as I went through the emergency exit and down the stairs, feeling like I could breathe for the first time since I saw her on this floor.
I was truly and utterly fucked. And so was she.
2
EVELYN
“Is that a body?”Karina whispered behind me, looking at the man on the floor. “Oh my God!” she screeched, her voice grating on my nerves. “Is he dead?”
“I don’t know, Karina,” I scoffed. “He has a bullet hole right through his forehead. What do you think?”
