Page 27 of Sinister Engagement

She would pay for lying to me, for betraying me, and most of all, for thinking she could run from me.

“I wish you all the best, Mr. Belmonte.” Jackie’s words echoed as they followed me down the hall as I headed for the exit.

The best,I thought absently. That’s what I was, and yet I’d been so wholly and utterly deceived by nothing more than a small, fragile looking woman with a beautiful face. Oh, yes, Evangeline had much to pay for.

Epilogue

Angel

5 years later…

Dreams were like the wind. You could feel them brush against your skin, touch your presence, but you could never catch them. Never hold on to them. Attempting to do so was like trying to capture a human soul—not that I believed those existed anymore, and if they did, my sister certainly had a rotten one. She was just rancid and corrupt down to her very core. Only now that I’d experienced the depths of her betrayal and delivered my own betrayal in return did I understand what the life of a criminal truly did to someone.

As I sat in the Rosemary cafe on main street of Queens, New York City, waiting for my client to make an appearance, I absently reached up and touched the ring hanging from a slender chain beneath my silk shirt. Every morning, no matter where I was—Boston, Paris, Vancouver—I woke up and touched it. Made sure it was still there. Reassured myself that what I was doing—the person that I’d become—had not been all for nothing.

It was all forhim. The only man I’d ever felt as if I belonged to. The only man I’d ever even kind of loved, if you could even call it that. And the only man I could never ever touch.

Some days, the beautiful metal ring felt like it would burn a patch in my skin and other days it felt like the only thing keeping me grounded. Today, it was a mixture of both. Because today was my wedding anniversary.

The bell to the cafe door chimed and I lifted my gaze as a tall, slender man dressed in an impeccable suit bypassed the short line of men and women waiting to be served at the counter and made his way toward me. His face was rather sweaty, not that I could blame him. As one of the youngest CEOs in America, if any of Ronald Wiser’s competitors even caught a whiff of what he was doing, he’d find himself on the wrong side of an assassin’s scope.

“Thank God you’re here,” he said as he took a seat across from me. “I think I’m being followed.”

My back straightened. This was not good news. My eyes cut past him and out into the busy street. “Was it a car or person?” I clarified, scanning our surroundings.

“Dark blue sedan,” he answered. “I think I lost it a few blocks back, but I can’t be sure.”

I scowled as I watched a dark blue sedan drive past.Damn.Ronald was not a spy by any means, or a criminal on the run—but he did need my protection. I sucked in a breath and slowly let it out. It wouldn’t help to panic now. If I’d learned nothing over the past five years, it was that panicking merely slowed down my thinking process. If Ronald was being followed, then someone must have tipped off his competitors. If his competitors knew about the synthetic organ growth project he’d been working on for the last several months, then he was in deep shit. My eyes moved from the street and back to him.

Ron was red faced, his eyes jumping around the room as if any one of them at any moment would stand up and shoot him. I leaned over and touched his hand, offering him a small smile as if we were two friends out for a friendly chat. “Calm down,” I warned him quietly under my breath. “Don’t make a scene.”

“They’re going to kill me, E,” he hissed. “I know they are. I’ve done everything you said. I copied all of the files, all of the information. I’ve sent the flash drives, but what if it’s not enough? They’re going to want to destroy this information—or worse, take it and use it for themselves. They’ll create my organs and then jack up the prices until no one but the rich can afford it. This could save lives and they’re going to use this for their own profit.” By the end of his monologue, his voice had turned slightly shrill. More sweat beaded on his brow. I wrinkled my nose as the distinct smell of male body odor reached my nostrils.

Discreetly, I reached into my purse and removed several tissues and handed them to him. He took them and began blotting the sweat on his forehead. “We don’t need to worry about the research,” I told him. “Right now, all we need to worry about is how to get you out of here and in a safe place before whoever is trailing you finds a way to get you alone.”

“Do you have a safe house set up?” he asked almost pleadingly

My smile turned pained. If only I had those kinds of connections. Had things not gone terribly awry five years ago, I might have been able to give him a better answer. I’d once thought that being the wife of a mob boss was the worst thing that could ever happen to me, but now as time had passed and I’d been on the run, I knew that having contacts in the world of crime was what kept people alive. That as well as fear and power.

“Come on,” I said, lifting my purse over my shoulder and getting up as the same dark blue sedan crossed the street once again, this time on the other side of the traffic. “We’re going out the back.”

Ron’s chair scraped back against the cafe floor as he hurried to follow me. I walked slowly though and soon, he had to slow the quickness of his gait to match mine, though it was clear he didn’t want to. I forced myself—and in turn,him—to walk at a leisurely pace. If I was going to get him out of here safely then I’d have to be smart about it.

I lifted my head and turned past the bathrooms and headed for the small kitchen the cafe boasted. I’d been here many times—it was why I’d felt so comfortable to meet him in this location. I never went anywhere without several escape routes. A few of the younger employees paused and frowned as we passed, but it wasn’t my presence that made them question us back here. It was Ron’s. He was sweating like crazy and it seemed that his body odor only grew more and more intense with each second.

Look like you belong,I reminded myself.And they’ll believe it.I’d run into an ex-thief a year or two ago that had taught me that motto. People believed confidence, no matter what it sold them. So confidence, I became.

Even with Ron’s sweating and shaking and darting gaze, we made it all the way through the kitchen to the back door. I popped it open and glanced out into the alley. One side was completely open while the other was blocked off by a set of dumpsters and a large brick wall. My heels clicked against the pavement as I led him outside. I dug my hand into my purse and pulled out a burner phone, a small wad of cash, a non-traceable credit card, as well as a set of keys. I was afraid this would happen. I’d already planned for it—or rather, I was still in the process of arranging things. This was my option B. Five years of learning this life. Sink or swim. Life or death. Both good motivators and made me quickly realize I was truly a Price heir after all. But the most important thing the trial and error taught me, was to always be prepared.

“Here,” I said, reaching over and shoving the card, cash, phone, and keys into Ron’s hands.

He gaped at the money and phone and then at me as we came to a stop at the mouth of the alley. “What the hell am I supposed to do with this?”

I watched the sedan cross the street, and before the driver could spot us, I grabbed Ron and ducked behind a low hanging sign on the side of the building. “Listen to me very carefully,” I said, keeping my eyes trained on the sedan. There had to be more, possibly an assassin already after him, but I didn’t want to alert him and send Ron into a spiral of panic. He was the type that would definitely make things worse when he panicked. I shifted my gaze back to his face.

“I want you to take that money and card and grab a taxi out of the city. Use the phone I gave you. Here—give me yours—I don’t want you using it for the foreseeable future.” When all he did was just blink at me, I huffed and began digging through his pockets until I found the phone I was searching for. I shoved it into my purse. “Now, as I was saying…” Ron still hadn’t moved or said anything more. Instead, his eyes were centered on something over my shoulder. I glanced back but saw nothing. With another irritated huff, I snapped my fingers in front of his face and brought his attention back. “Focus,” I said. “Take a taxi. Use the phone I gave you to contact me when you get to a safe place.”

“Safe place?” he repeated, his face growing flushed once more. “Where is that? Do you have a—”

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