Page 94 of Taming Achilles

Fuck Machiavelli. But in this one respect, he was right.

“Pippa,” Rhodes croaked in a dry whisper. “We’re going to be okay. They can’t come between us.”

Chapter 45

Geordie

I had never seen her like this. For forty-eight hours, I sat on a rickety, rolling chair, watching the events unfurl with a feeling of both dread, and awe. I had never seen this woman before. This Pippa Fox was a stranger to me.

I had known she was a liar, but … an operative? The level of lying to inhabit the skin of a completely different person was something I had never seen before. This was more than just lying. She was interrogating a man with a flourish that was beyond what I had seen at the US Special Forces SERE School.

It took everything in me not to fall for her lies. For her deception. She was a woman clinging on to Jason Rhodes for support, for comfort in a hopeless situation. She sat on the floor, sidled up to his leg as if the physical touch was necessary for her to draw her next breath. If I hadn’t watched Ajax punch her, and Brett cooperate with her before he tossed her into the room, then I’d think she was genuine. She was a master at her craft. A fucking genius.

“You were the reason I went to visit Alex,” she said, under her breath.

Jason had to know there were cameras. He, himself, was some kind of operative. Maybe not with the Circus or the Company, but he had some background. But he seemed to forget it, drawn to how she leaned on his precariously placed leg where he was stretched by the manacles.

That was her power.

“I did it for you,” Jason said it so quietly that I barely heard him from poor microphones.

Where my bruised knuckles had no impact, she extracted information with a bat of her dark lashes.

“Really?” she whispered, with a little girl air that I hadn’t heard in her voice even when she was a child. “Why? What did I do to deserve that?”

Rhodes smiled, his face tilting to the side as though he could lean down and hold her.

“He told me about you a long time ago,” Rhodes’s voice droned on, slurring like a drunk. “And I’ve watched you ever since.” He whispered, though the microphones picked it up crystal clear. “He said if I did it, he’d let me have you.”

My fist clenched, and I leaned forward in the seat. I wanted to beat the man.

The ring she had so carelessly thrown on the table still lay there, shining at me. Taunting me. When everyone else in the room was preoccupied, I swiped it, and placed it in my pocket, feeling the weight and sharpness of it in my fist.

“He said he’d kill the Baron, and I could have you if I just …” he whispered. “Got us control.”

She hadn’t gotten her hands out of zipties. I suspected she could have. They didn’t look that tight, and she had the fortitude to break her own thumbs to get out if she needed to. Though she could have given a signal, and I would have rushed right in to get her.

“Who said …” she started.

“Victor.” Rhodes answered before the question was even out. Drool pooled on the corner of his mouth.

“When was the last time he had water?” I asked Ajax, who was half asleep, with a book in his lap on Taoism, his feet up on the table. There was no answer, and the conversation on the monitors rang out again.

“Victor … my…” her voice was curious, and scared, but a small flick of her eyes showed uneasiness. His answer surprised him.

“Your father promised that if we …” Rhodes’ head fell forward as he gave in to exhaustion. “You’d be mine.”

“Jason?” She asked, turning her head to him. When he didn’t answer her, she leaned her shoulder into his leg, trying to shake him awake. “Jason!”

He sniffed, his head came up as he opened his eyes. Then the weariness took over again, and his head tilted forward. Lolling sadly back and forth.

“He was going to make you … be …” his voice trailed again.

“Jason!” she yelled, and he woke up again, his head coming up and eyes alert before they faded quickly.

“How long since he had water?” I asked again, kicking Ajax’s chair to get his attention.

“Hmm?” Ajax responded, turning the page.

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