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How dare he brush this off?
“You are always in danger,” he reminded me. “It’s a part of the job.”
Not like he knew anything about the danger,I thought bitterly. It’s been years since he has actually taken targets of his own. I was his personal scapegoat. The one he dumped all of this work on.
He didn’t know a fucking thing about what it was like to be in danger.
“You know what type of danger I mean,Rolf,” I spat back. “I need to know if this is your way of telling me we should part ways.”
His laughter died down.
“Quinn,” he said with a sigh. His tone took a turn, but it only made me that much angrier. “You know I would never do that to you.”
I didn’t have time to bite my tongue before the words came spilling out. I had been on job after job, and this one was proving to test my limits even more than anything had before.
I wastired.And all I wanted was for Rolf to help me. To act like the father figure he was supposed to be and not a cold-hearted businessman that only saw me as a means to keep himself in that comfy office of his.
“Zurich, blade to the chest, surrounded,” I reminded him. “It was just like this, and I almost didn’t make it out alive.Youwere the one who set me up for it.Youwere the one that failed to warn me.”
There was silence on the other line. It was the scariest moment of my life. It was in that moment that I realized I didn’t want to die. Until then, I thought it wouldn’t affect me. That death would just be another part of the job.
But that place proved me wrong. It was a traveling financial broker who had a side gig in human trafficking. He proved to be far more guarded than we originally thought, and on top of that, we were not the only people competing for his head.
“I know what happened…” he trailed off. “But you know I would never betray you like that, right? I’m not good with my feelings, kid, but you should know the years we spent together mean something to me.”
My throat threatened to close.Mean something…but what was that exactly? Because all the evidence just points to a paycheck. Especially now that he was working me so hard.
“I’ll keep you updated,” I said. I was about to end the call when he called out to me.
“Wait, did you get the newest assignment?” he asked. “It needs to be finished within the next few days. After you’re done with her, head over.”
I gritted my teeth. I did get it. In fact, I was insulted that they handed me such a low-level hit in the first place. A lackey to a small gangster on the other side of town. For once, I found myself not even wanting to take his eyes, just because of how insignificant it was.
This was the fourth assignment in the last few months. Each one of them was easy, but they pulled me away from my target, and I was unable to see her at the club as many times as I had wished.
I would blame Rolf for making this job take longer than necessary, but it was starting to seem like he didn’t care. Or maybe he knew that Blake’s situation needed to be handled with care.
Something that only made me even that much more suspicious.
“I’ll get it done,” I growled and hung up the phone.
Blake’s flurry of movements caught my eye, and I stood with a curse. She was going to leave for the club soon, and I wanted to beat her to it.
I needed to get closer to her, and the only way to do it would be to play the silly little games Rolf wanted me to.
* * *
Even on a weeknight, the club was alive.
After changing in my car, I took my time walking around the area with a drink in hand. I didn’t plan to actually drink, but it was less off-putting than just standing around on my own. People had seen me with Bailey, not knowing it was the last time they would see her alive.
I had to be careful.
Though even after being seen with Bailey, people stared less, allowing me to blend easily into the crowd. They may have felt the darkness before, but it would seem that they began to overlook the nagging feeling that I was up to no good.
But noteveryonelooked past my presence.Blakealways seemed to find me the moment I stepped into the room, and after watching how she reacted to her plaything… it became glaringly obvious why I was here.
To put it simply, I was bait.
