Page 46 of Indecent Proposal

Terror seized my heart like a hand of ice. Dropping the sheets, I tiptoed to the fireplace.Shit, shit, shit.

I bent down—and something whizzed over my head, just missing me, striking the wall. A bullet. It went right through where my face had just been.

A small scream escaped me on instinct, and I dropped flat to the floor. My heart pounded so loudly it felt like that was all I could hear. I strained my ears, trying to catch the noise of someone outside. Where was this person?

There was the sound of metal being blown to pieces, coming from the direction of the door, and then it was kicked open, revealing a woman standing there in tactical gear, holding a rifle over her shoulder.

“Miss Turner,” she drawled insolently. “This is your lucky day. I’ve learned I need to interrogate you for some information before I kill you.”

The same instinct that had risen up in me to sass Vaughn rose up in my throat now, and I bared my teeth at her, knowing she was responsible for Richard’s “suicide”. “You bitch. You killed Richard.”

The woman shrugged. “Like you were in love with him anyway. I watched you two for a bit before making my move. You’d moved out. Left him. Poor bastard just didn’t realize it was permanent yet.”

I scrambled to my feet, ignoring the gun now pointed at me. “You watch your fucking mouth.”

I hadn’t been in love with Richard, but I’d cared about him. I never wanted to hurt him, and I wasn’t going to let this bitch disrespect someone I cared about. Or me, for that matter.

“I’m holding the gun, sweetheart,” the woman replied. “I can do or say whatever the hell I want. Now, make this easy on both of us and tell me where the files are.”

“What files?” I asked, and I meant it. I wasn’t a good actor but I hoped my honesty would save me.

The woman entered the cabin properly, kicking the door closed behind her. I couldn’t help it—I jolted at the sound. When the woman smiled at me, I glared. There was nothing in her that made me feel that rush that I got with Vaughn, and I knew that wasn’t just because of the obvious. There was something very cold about this person, where Vaughn ran hot. When Vaughn was arrogant, I wanted to push back and see what happened. This woman just made my stomach churn. I felt like a hamster trapped in a cage with a snake.

“We know he called you,” the woman informed me. “In fact, he was on the phone with you when I killed him.”

I swallowed back the bile rising in my throat. “You didn’t use a gun for him.”

“Because this was supposed to besimple.” The woman sounded annoyed and I felt a bit of pleasure that I had probably had a part in making this not-so-simple for her. “You were supposed to lead us to the documents. And die quickly and easily.”

“Sorry I wasn’t exactly excited to just lay down and die,” I snapped. “I don’t know anything about any files, all right? You’re welcome to go look at Richard’s place yourself, because that’s what I did. I looked everywhere and there was nothing. I’m sure his parents did too in preparation for the funeral. Still! Nothing!”

The woman frowned at me, but there was a contemplative look in her eyes that I didn’t really like. “So my question now is, either I keep you alive in case you’re lying to me—and this gets really unpleasant for you—or I decide that you’re telling the truth, and I simply kill you because you’re now a liability.”

Well, shit.

“You know, you wouldn’t have had to do either of those things if you’d just accepted I didn’t know anything?” I hazarded.

I couldn’t fight this woman. I couldn’t bargain for my life. That left me with only one thing to do: find a way to stall and hope against hope that somehow, some way, Vaughn knew that I was in danger.

I didn’t know if he could find out. But he had those cameras, right? Did this woman know about them? Even if she did, surely Vaughn of all people would have some kind of backup plan or would be able to recognize that his camera feed had been messed with.

…right?

Vaughn had told me, back when we started this whole thing, that I would need to trust him to do his job and keep me safe. I was going to have to do that now, and try to keep myself alive as long as possible in the meantime.

Hopefully he’d get to me before this woman decided that my attitude was more trouble than it was worth.

I smiled sweetly at her. “You really couldn’t find the files yourself? You’re the professional, after all, not me. You couldn’t get a hold of them?”

“I’m an assassin, sweetheart, not an expert on corporate espionage.”

I snarled at her before I could stop myself. “Don’t fucking call me sweetheart.”

The woman just laughed at me. “You’re a feisty one. I guess that’s why he chose to take you on even though you’re flat broke. I was really hoping he’d turn you away, but… I couldn’t resist trying to kill you in the lobby of the company building. It would’ve been such a fucking coup. Those bastards think they’re the best of the best—but losing a client right in front of Vaughn’s face? Yeah, that would have been priceless.”

I considered the fireplace pokers next to me. One of them was a lever that would get me to the security room, which obviously was now out of the question. But the other two were actual fireplace pokers. Could I…?

“You and Vaughn are some kind of… what, rivals?” I demanded, keeping the conversation going. “It must really have rankled that he kept me hidden from you for so long.”

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