Page 92 of Passion and Payback

“And you didn’t mention it before, after learning it from whatever busboy or waiter you talked to?” I growled.

He smiled. “Maybe...I wanted to see where your head was at tonight. A last sort of...hope that there might be an out for you. And before you get pissed and try to bring that argument back, no, I’m not changing my mind. I’m not thinking less of you. I just didn’t want this for you, and I’m going to mourn the man you were for a little while longer.”

“Not the most inspiring speech,” I muttered, pulling away.

“Your hands will be bloody by the end of this,” he said, grabbing my wrist and gently pulling me back. “But mine are no different, and I’ll still want to hold yours when this is all over...wherever it leads us.”

“Where it leads us?” I asked in confusion. “With these two gone, it’s done.”

He hesitated before pulling my hand to his lips and kissing the knuckles. “If we’re going to do this, we need to do it now, or we’ll lose the chance.”

“Fine,” I said, knowing damn well he was holding something back, but now really wasn’t the time to address that. “You lead the way, and...if it’s not doable without causing everything to implode, you let me know.”

“Yeah,” he said, nudging me down the hallway toward a metal door. “And bear in mind, I also had my buddy look up his private security team.”

“And?” I asked, a little annoyed that I didn’t have that information but unwilling to argue about it again when he opened the door and led me into the stairwell.

“They’re...well, they’re not great.”

“How exceptionally informative that was,” I said dryly as we began climbing up the stairs, moving quickly but not stomping our way up to send echoes up the stone and metal-filled stairwell.

“They’re a private company, but from what my buddy found, they’re, uh, basically mercenaries.”

“Interesting, but that’s still not addressing what you’re trying to get at.”

“All their information is kept under wraps, but scratch the surface, and they’re the worst people who get hired. As far as we could tell, if you haven’t got the guts to murder a family while they’re begging for their lives, you’re probably not made to be in their company.”

“Gross.”

“Yeah, so when I say watch yourself around them, I’m not talking about them seeing your face. I’m saying watch yourself.”

“Watch my life,” I said as we stopped, and he walked up to the nearest metal door and peered through the small window before drawing back, motioning for me to step away.

“They’re near,” he said in a voice so soft I could barely hear him, which did not make it echo. “No way we’re getting past them without them noticing.”

“Okay,” I said slowly. “So what do we do?”

He screwed up his face in thought. “There’s a stairwell on the other side of the building, so we’ll have to go down and up on the other side. That way, we can get a better angle on them.”

For someone who’d been in a hurry to get started, he was certainly willing to waste time. Not that I could fault him for being cautious, but there was something to be said aboutgetting on top of things before we lost our opportunity. Now, we were probably only a few yards from one of the last remaining bastards who had shattered my life and soul into a million pieces, I was more than ready to get moving.

“How many of them are there?” I asked quietly as we hunched in the corner out of the way of the door.

“A couple that I could see, one in full view, another was just his shadow.”

“Is two low enough to take care of quietly?”

He stared at me for a few seconds. “If it was me and one of my guys, maybe, but I don’t know what kind of training these guys have. Plus, rushing them could risk alerting everyone else on the floor, and we don’t want that if there’s more.”

“I never said to rush them,” I said with a roll of my eyes. “But we passed an elevator to get to this stairwell.”

“Right.”

“Which means they’re probably watching the elevator and the stairwell.”

“Makes sense.”

“And if they were drawn into the stairwell, say...out of sight.”

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