Zoey wanted to get up and shake her to get the answers they so desperately needed, but at the same time she wasn’t sure approaching the Algerian snow beast was the best option. She looked as though she was ready to scratch their eyes out.
The woman must have been put in here to act as a spy. This was her apartment and they were her men—weren’t they?
As Zoey sat up, she straightened out her shirt. Luckily, both she and Eli had slipped back into their clothes after they had made love. She drew in a long breath as her thoughts drifted back to last night.
She loved the fact that his scent still perfumed her skin.
It was just a pity that she had to spend the afterglow with the woman who had been enemy number one for the last week.
“If you lay one finger on me, you will be added to his list,” Shaye said, indicating the closed door and the men outside.
“We have no intention of doing anything of the sort,” Eli said.
Zoey wanted to tell him to speak for himself—she was more than willing to take this woman down if it led to Chad.
“Is that right?” Shaye spat, pulling her hair back like she wanted to put it up, but stopped as she must have realized it was a nervous tic that made her look weaker. “Is that why you drugged me and forced me to come back here?”
Forced her? “Isn’t this your apartment?” Zoey asked. Eli set his hand on her thigh, a subtle reminder that they had to be careful about what they did and didn’t say.
She needed no reminding.
“It’s my friend’s apartment, but I had no intention of coming back after—” She went silent.
“After what?” Eli asked, his voice taking on a soft, caring tone that Zoey couldn’t have conjured even for all the wealth in the world.
Shaye walked across the room and stared out the window, suddenly acting like she couldn’t hear them.
“Is my brother Chad still alive?”
“He’s your brother?” Shaye asked, turning with a start. “Odd.”
Her surprise made Zoey wonder if her and Chad’s relationship wasn’t what she had assumed. If Chad was dating this woman, he wouldn’t hesitate to tell her about his siblings—though none of them were normally particularly forthcoming about the family business.
“Yes. Now, is he alive?” she asked, trying hard not to grit her teeth.
“As far as I know. Why wouldn’t he be?” Some of the anger seemed to drift out of Shaye’s features. “What in the hell is going on?”
“We wanted to ask you the same thing,” Eli said.
The woman sat down on the window’s ledge, giving one more forlorn glance at the bars before looking back at them. “I don’t know who you really are, or how you found me, but even if you hadn’t drugged me, I wouldn’t have anything to say to you.”
Zoey moved to stand up, but Eli shook his head almost imperceptibly. Instead, he rose to his feet. He must have known she was close to losing her cool.
“Look,” Eli said, meandering over toward her like she was a stray cat who might run away if he moved too quickly. “We didn’t want to drug you. All we wanted to do was—”
“Pick me up,” she said, staring at him.
“No, I just wanted to get to the bottom of a few things. And to find Chad. We know he was here...with you. We saw you together.” Eli stopped about halfway to her and crossed his arms over his chest.
Her eyebrows rose and she mumbled something unintelligible under her breath. “Your brother was fine when I left him yesterday. He was supposed to meet me at the Maricel Museum, but he never showed up.”
“A museum?” Zoey asked before thinking. “He wasn’t your hostage?”
“What?” Shaye scoffed. “No. Of course not. Why would you think I... Wait. Is that what all your nonsense was about? You thought I’d kidnapped Chad so you kidnapped me?” She gave a disbelieving shake of her head. “Americans.”
Ignoring her disdain, Zoey tried to collect her thoughts. “If you didn’t kidnap him and take him hostage, then what were you doing with my brother?”
“He was working for me,” she said, but there was a bit of color in her cheeks.
“Doing what?” Eli asked, moving to the wall on the other side of the window from Shaye.
Shaye tapped her perfectly manicured nails against the windowsill. “Is she the woman you were thinking about when we were at the café?” She motioned toward Zoey.
Eli smiled and gave a nod. “Yes. That obvious, huh?”
The remaining anger disappeared from Shaye’s face. “Even if I hadn’t seen you sitting in bed with one another.” Shaye blushed ever so slightly. “How long have you been together?”
Eli shifted his weight. “On and off for a few years now.”
Zoey just wished she knew if it was going to be on or off when they walked out of this room—or rather, if they walked out of this room. In the light of day his marriage proposal last night seemed absurd. Had he really been serious?
“You said you were here with a man. Were you talking about a boyfriend or Chad?” Eli asked.
Shaye sighed. “I don’t have a boyfriend. At least, not anymore.”
“Did you hire Chad to kill him?” Zoey asked. It sounded odd when it escaped her lips, but what else would the woman have hired him for?
Shaye laughed. “No. Hardly. But my ex is the reason we had to leave Algeria.”
The sounds of men yelling came from outside the bedroom, and they all went deathly silent. There was a tirade of obscenities coming from the other room, but she couldn’t quite make out what they were fighting about. It likely had something to do with how to handle their hostages.
“Is that why your father put out a contract on Chad’s head?” Zoey asked in a whisper, hoping to get as much information from the woman before the door opened and shots were fired. “Because he was involved with your ex?”
Shaye shook her head. “My father had my ex murdered about six months ago when he learned that we were thinking about getting engaged. I can’t prove it, but my father hated him.”
“What’s your ex’s name?” Zoey asked, pulling out her phone and turning it on.
“Raj Assaf. He was a fisherman’s son, and my father thought he wasn’t good enough for me. I didn’t care what he thought. I used to think I had the right to love who I wanted. My father taught me otherwise.” Shaye cupped her hands over her face as if by covering her mouth she could make the words she had just said disappear.
Zoey went to work researching the man’s name. In a matter of moments, she had pulled up the contract released for the man’s death. Again, it carried the mark of the black star. And though she couldn’t find out the source of the contract, the language was similar to her brother’s hit.
Shaye was telling the truth, and likely right about her father.
“How did Chad get dragged into all of this? What did you hire him for?” Zoey asked, dropping her phone into her lap.
“He was friends with Raj. When I told him about what had happened, he said he would be happy to kill my father to avenge his death.” She looked down at her hands. “He and Raj had talked just a day before he was killed. I think your brother felt guilty about not knowing about the hit and not being able to save him.”
“So, basically, you hired Chad to kill your father?” Eli asked.
“No,” she said, shaking her head. “After Raj’s death, my father found a man he thought was a better match and he and the man’s parents arranged for us to wed. I met him. We went to coffee. While we were there, he was texting other women. When I asked him about it, he told me that he never intended on a “true” marriage. For him, when we wed, it would be nothing more than a business arrangement. My father had even agreed to give him a job in his counsel for my dowry.”
Zoey hadn’t seen anything online about the arranged marriage. Just that she and her sisters were single.
“I don’t want my father to die,” Shaye continued. “He’s old-fashioned and a bit chauvinistic, but I don’t want him dead. I just want him to see that I’m my own woman. That I should be trusted to make my own decisions, and can’t be treated as chattel. So, I hired Chad to kill Sami, the man I was supposed to marry.”
The men outside stopped yelling and there was the sound of furniture being moved about in another room.
“Why didn’t you just tell your father or Sami that you didn’t want to get married? Jumping to murder seems a bit drastic,” Zoey said, slipping her feet out of bed and putting on her shoes.
“I tried. Neither would hear of it. I turned to Sami’s mother and father but even they dismissed my wishes—they told me marriage has never been anything other than a business transaction. For me to think otherwise was foolish.” Shaye’s voice was strong but laced with pain.
Zoey could understand the extreme measures. If she had ever found herself in that situation, she would have made the same choice. She couldn’t even stomach the thought of what the future would bring for a woman placed in such a situation. What of love? Freedom? Choices? And what about having children with a man who treated her as nothing more than a way to get ahead?
The thought revolted her.
“Did Chad get it done?” Zoey asked, half wondering if she needed to assign the hit to someone else on her team.
She shook her head. “He tried, but Sami caught wind of my plan. My father was furious.”
“And that was why he put the hit out on Chad,” Eli said, finishing her thought.
Shaye stared at him. “So, he did it, then? My father ordered him killed? He had threatened, but...”
Zoey nodded.
“I’m so sorry.” Shaye put her head in her hands. “I should never have brought Chad into this. He is just someone I knew I could trust. That I liked. Someone who knew Raj and wanted revenge as badly as I did.”
Zoey knew all about feeling inadequate. It was the one thing she was good at.
“Chad knows the risks he faces anytime he takes a job,” Zoey said, trying to comfort her. “The only mistake he made was not letting his family in on his plans.”
“He mentioned that he was taking the job on the down low. I think he didn’t want anyone telling him it was a bad idea. Something about keeping a low profile, but he didn’t elaborate.”
Chad had been right. She would have never signed off on this. Not with everything going on with the Gray Wolves.
On the other hand, she, too, had gone against her better judgment when she went to the trade show. Maybe they had all gotten a little bit too comfortable with being in danger.
The yelling started again outside the room. This time she could make out something about Chad. She listened harder, but had a hard time understanding the broken Spanish jargon the men were using.
Zoey ran her fingers through her hair, trying to pull the rat’s nests out. It was far easier to untangle a days’ worth of unbrushed hair than it was to untangle her brother’s affairs. As she worked her fingers through her hair, she glanced over at Eli. He looked nothing like the wreck she was sure she was.
“What about these guys?” Eli asked. “Are they part of your father’s crew?”
She shook her head. “My father made it clear that I’m not welcome back until I’m ready to marry Sami. If I don’t return, I will be stripped of everything.”
“So, you are going to go back?” Zoey asked pensively.
“Absolutely not. I have everything I need to survive. I don’t need my father’s wealth or his taking control of my life.”
“Then were these men sent here to bring you back against your will?”
“My father wouldn’t allow this.” She lifted up the sleeve of her shirt, exposing a large ripening bruise. “He would never agree with them treating me like this.”
Apparently, a contractor being physically aggressive to his daughter was too much for the prime minister to accept, but purchasing a groom who didn’t care about his daughter was just fine.
Zoey shook her head in disbelief. “So your father didn’t put out the contract on Chad?”
Shaye shrugged. “He may have, but if so, his plans have gone off the rails. These people, whoever are holding us, they will be made to pay for raising a hand against me.”
Zoey phone pinged from her lap.
There was a flurry of texts from her family as her phone picked up its messages after restarting. The first she read were from Jarrod, time-stamped throughout the night.
How are you doing?
Are you okay? Text me.
We are catching a flight to get to you now.
Calling in reinforcements.
Chad still MIA. We will find him.
Get out of there.
Text us.
We’re worried.
The texts from her brother went on and on, and were followed by many just like it from Trevor. At the bottom of the list of people texting her, she found Mindy’s notes. Most mirrored her brother’s sentiments, but the last stood out. It read:
Severed fingerprint scanned and matched to CIA database. Belongs to one Demetri Johnson. Know him?
She had no idea who that was and as she pulled up records on the man, no one with that name looked or sounded familiar.
“My family is freaking out. I think they’re on their way here.” Zoey looked up at Eli. “Have you gotten an update from your people at Watch Dogs? They coming soon?”
Eli glanced down at his phone and tapped a few buttons. “Radio silence. So far as I know, my buddy should have been here by now.”
“Okay.” As Zoey spoke, she wondered why his team was running late in extricating them. STEALTH worked nothing like that. If they made a plan for extraction, they had it planned to the second a door opened. “It sounds like my brothers are looking into Chad’s disappearance. Do you have any idea where he would have gone, Shaye?”
She shook her head. “He’s always been really good about being on time and being where he says he is going to be. All I can think is that these guys must’ve also gotten him.”
“No,” Eli said. “They’re looking for him, too. That’s the only reason we’re still alive. They’re using us as bait to entice Chad back here.”
Who in the hell were these guys who were keeping them prisoner?
“Have you ever heard of Demetri Johnson?” Zoey asked them.
Eli blanched. “Why? What happened to him? Is he okay?”
He sounded worried, which concerned her. She didn’t want to be the one to tell him what her brother’s fiancée had told her.
“He is the owner of the finger we found in a hotel room,” she said.
“You found a finger?” Shaye asked.
“Yes,” Eli said. “And hopefully the man it belongs to is still alive. As it is, I think we have bigger problems than we anticipated.”
“Why? Who is he?” Zoey asked.
Eli looked at her, and the expression on his face made her blood run cold. “Demetri is my friend. His call sign is Frogger. I’ve been talking to him ever since Billings. He was the man from Watch Dogs who I have been working with. If he’s been brought into this, it could only mean one thing... My bosses have been spying on us, and they used him to send me a message. They know I’ve gone rogue.” He paused. “I fear my involvement in this situation has been compromised and I have brought hell to our doorstep.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Frogger had to be dead. And what was worse, their employer was likely behind it. He had been warned, and so had Frogger, that they were never to move against Watch Dogs. He had been crazy to think they wouldn’t act against him for going rogue when it came to Chad’s contract. They must’ve been following him every step of the way.
He was the reason they were stuck in this apartment. He was the reason t
hey were likely going to die. And it was all because he had gotten involved in Zoey’s life.
And he had to tell Zoey the truth. She was going to hate him. As it was, up until last night, she had been on the fence about ever getting close to him again. Finally, they had a breakthrough, and now here they were...going back to square one.
Crap.
“I’m so sorry, Zoey. I had no idea this was going to happen. I thought my new bosses were more like you guys. I thought that they had honor. Turns out, they’re all about the money.” He moved over to her and sat down beside her on the bed. Lacing his fingers through hers, he gave them a light squeeze as he stared down at the space where their skin touched.
He would hate himself forever if this was the last time he got to touch her.
Zoey sat in silence for a long moment. Shaye squirmed as she gazed out the window.
Finally, Zoey cleared her throat. “Eli, this was never going to be a mission that was cut-and-dried. You and I both know sometimes things don’t go as we plan. Everything we’ve ever done together we’ve done to the best of our abilities. Well, except, you know... If I had done things differently during the pregnancy and then just dealt with things when it all went wrong, maybe life would’ve been different.”
The last thing he wanted was for her to feel guilty or bad for what had happened. It hadn’t been her fault. Their baby girl had just not been meant to grow up in their lives. If anything, she had been sent to become their guardian angel. And as much as he had always thought of her loss as a curse, looking at it from this perspective, maybe she had really been the greatest gift they had ever been given.
Life always had a way of self-correcting. Nothing could take away the pain and loss they had gone through, but time had proven they were better as a team.
Her Assassin For Hire (Stealth Series Book 3) Page 17