Page 16 of Hidden Dane
She tapped her glass with his and sipped. “Thanks. I wish I could get home and not be here.”
Alexandre drank. “I understand. Sometimes I wish that I wasn’t on Vet San’s payroll.”
Emily scooted her chair closer to his, then ran her hand through her short bob like a model on a shoot. She tapped his hand as she looked him in the eyes. Once she was sure he was captivated, she slipped her pill in his wine. “Why are you?”
He turned his hand so they were palm to palm and let out a small sigh. “Most of the time, I’m not aiming my gun at beautiful women.”
For a hitman he wasn’t horrible looking, but she needed him to wait to look at his drink so she lowered her lashes and asked with a giggle, “You think I’m beautiful?”
She glanced at the glass. Good. It was dissolved. Emily took her hand back and picked up her wine as he said, “You’re the prettiest girl I’ve seen in the past year that I’ve had more than five minutes alone with, where I didn’t have to just shoot her and leave her for dead.”
Her heart went cold as she thought about other women who he’d simply shot without one word spoken. Goosebumps grew on her arms. “Well Alexandre, I don’t want you to shoot me.”
He shrugged and sat back in his seat. “I don’t want to shoot you either, but a job is a job.”
She held up her glass and gestured for another toast. “That’s a horrible way to live. Have you thought about quitting?”
“No.” He tapped his glass with hers.
Adrenaline rushed through her as she waited. He sipped his wine, as she did, and finished his first glass. Without being asked, she poured him more. Michael had always said this worked fast. Alexandre’s pupils widened. As she handed him the second glass, he shook his head and said, “I’m feeling dizzy.”
A moment later his forehead hit the table. She picked up her pocketbook, fluffed her hair and patted him on the back. “Sorry Alexandre, I didn’t have a lot of time to mix a smaller dose.” Her brother-in-law had always told her to be prepared—thank you, Michael. “I’ll be going now. Thanks for the wine.”
She reached behind him and took the keys. As she approached the door, she said a little prayer that it would open. She twisted the handle and heard it unlatch with a release of breath. She was free. Now she just needed to get off the train, undetected. But one step at a time.
Chapter 6
Once on his plane headed for New York, Uriel didn’t leave the bar.
Brady and Henry filed flight manifests and spoke to ground control, but none of that mattered to him.
Uriel’s skin buzzed. Emily was gone. He’d killed her when he let her come along. His head pounded from grief, or the whiskey, or both, but the memory of Emily’s blue eyes as she climbed out the limo window haunted him.
Probably forever.
If he’d been thirty seconds faster, could he have saved her?
The question didn’t stop demanding an answer and no amount of shots silenced it. In fact, the question seemed to grow louder with every glass.
Time slowed down, slower than sand in an hourglass.
A shot of whiskey didn’t make time move faster—but he’d keep trying.
His friends had dragged him away from the limo wreck, shoved him on his plane, where they now waited for takeoff.
The authorities at least had Ted’s face on camera. This had been Vet San’s sloppiest job in years which meant he was desperate.
The man’s wrinkles were almost as haunting as Uriel’s guilt. He poured the last shot and finished the bottle.
Brady picked up the empty glass bottle. Uriel turned toward him and slurred his words, “We… didn’t… pack enough whiskey.”
Sitting beside him, Brady shook his head like he was disappointed. Uriel’s skin itched like razors rubbed against him as Brady said, “You don’t normally drink like this.”
Because Emily had been alive. Though out of his world for years, she’d been safe, away from him. Now all he could remember was how she’d tasted sweeter than honey. His mind flashed to the day his mother had been murdered and how Emily had held him back, saving his life.
He hadn’t returned the favor. He squeezed his eyes shut and wished her blue eyes would fade from his memory. “I have to tell her family…”
Brady took the glass to the bar to the left of the cockpit. “I’ve been monitoring the local police wires for hours now. They found no trace of human remains.”
