Page 61 of Rami

“Hello?” A pit opened up in his gut. He hadn’t told Ivy the rest of the plan, and he’d bet his next breath Taschen was going to spill it before he could.

“Hey,” Taschen drawled. “A logger truck is in front of me and I can’t pass yet.”

“No worries. We’re coming up to a rest stop soon. You can catch up then.”

Taschen grunted his agreement. “Oh. Toth wants to know if you want an intern there, too. Or just me and Ivy?”

Ivy’s sharp gasp echoed in the car. Rami blinked several times but kept his gaze on the road while he steered around the edge of the mountain.

He didn’t bring his attention to Ivy’s lava-hot focus for fear she’d burn his ass to a crisp. “I’m hoping you guys won’t be there long. So no, I’d say let Toth keep the intern to help pick up some slack around the office.” Ivy moved in his peripheral vision, folding her arms more tightly across her chest. His bleeding guilt turned into a hemorrhage. “Stop at the next rest area. We’ll switch there.” He hung up before Taschen could ask another dumb question—and before Ivy’s fist met his skull.

“I can’t believe you,” she said, seething.

“Baby, listen,” Rami soothed, daring to reach for her thigh again.

She jerked from his touch. “Don’t.” Her voice was thick with tears, and the pain evident in her body language made him want to pull over and hold her in his arms.

But he couldn’t do that without alarming Taschen, so he drove. Signs for the next stop whizzed by. Soon he’d be able to touch her and rectify the harm he’d caused.

“Please, listen.”

Silence. Hopefully that meant she wasn’t tuning him out.

“We can’t keep running. And I can’t leave my team to fight a war that’s my doing.”

“So what’s your plan? You’re just going to keep me hidden away until this blows over or—”

“No. Hell, no,” he spat. “I’m going to end this. I just can’t be worried that they’re going to kill you while I do that.”

His words simmered in the tense air.

“Will you trust me?” he prodded. He held out his hand, his palm tingling with the need to feel her skin on his.

After several breaths, he almost tucked his hand away. But her fingers slipped through his, twining them together.

“I trust you, Rami. But this is huge. I don’t see how anything you say or do will appease them. You killed their men and, in their eyes, stole me, robbing them of whatever money they planned to get for my body.”

Her words ate through his guts like angry termites out to wreak havoc on the world. It took great effort for him to keep the hand holding hers relaxed. If he thought about those fuckers touching Ivy, he might accidentally crush her dainty fingers.

“Everyone has a price, babe. I’ll find out what they want—besides you—and I’ll work it out.” He had inheritance money from his father and investments he could liquidate. Hell, he even had the money from Gigi for rescuing Ivy, which was sitting in their safe at the office.

He hadn’t touched a dollar because it hadn’t seemed right. He’d planned to pay the guys for their time and resources but not keep a dime for the company. Now, though, he’d hand over the whole damn stack to the cartel.

“You think you can pay them off?”

“Yeah, I do. At the end of the day, everything they do is for coin. This is no different. They’re pissed about what I did, but my guess is they’re madder I made them lose face and hurt their pride.”

She nodded slowly and dragged her thumb lazily over his. “I hope you’re right. I don’t have much money, but—”

He squeezed her fingers and brought them to his lips. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll handle it.”

“I can’t let you put up money for me. I’ll—”

“Stop. I wouldn’t do it if keeping you safe didn’t mean something to me, okay?”

Ha. She more than meant something to him, but that was all he was willing to admit to her and himself right now. The rest-stop exit sign loomed, and Rami turned on his blinker.

“Are you passing me off to Taschen now?”

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