Page 95 of Unleash Hades
“He committed suicide by placing a rifle pointed at his chest, managed to pull the trigger in an angle that I assume is not conducive to a self-inflicted wound, then conveniently fell down the stairs?”
“Why not?”
“Are you mad?”
Yes. But that didn’t seem relevant right now.
“Lea sliced Alexander Baas’ throat, and shot him. You made it look like suicide.”
“Sure, I staged the scene, but I also spent tens of thousands in fucking bribes! The British taxpayers are not going to want to fund such a thing!”
“Since when was the Sideshow accountable to the taxpayers?” I knew she couldn’t see me quirk a brow, but I’m sure she couldhearit.
The bloody MI6, and its subset Sideshow, were like the CIA, Special Forces, and Delta. They were funded by $100 staplers, and research and development projects that did not exist, all hidden in pork bills within pages and pages of legislation that no one ever read.
“I’ll pay for it,” I said, gritting my teeth. I could swing it. Maybe. I wasn’t sure.
Or I’d have Callum advance me my salary. He’d do it, too.
“I’ll pay for it,” Cali’s voice was so quiet, it was barely a whisper. But then again, I was so attuned to any hint or sound of her, that it rang as clear as a bell.
She was covered in even more blood. Blood the color of pomegranate juice. Blood like rubies.
Dick Davenport was in the throes of his final breath. The last kick, the final struggle, before he succumbed to the end.
He let out a large exhale, then did what was naturally done by most corpses who knew the end was near. He evacuated his bowels.
Calissandra stood up and away from him in disgust.
In the end, Dick Davenport died in the most undignified of ways. Not at the gun of a warrior. Not from the quick penetration of a bullet. He died slowly bleeding to death as the woman he wronged again and again beat him slowly until the end of his life… then he shit himself.
“No,” I told Cali, placing an arm around her shoulders. “I’ll take care of it.”
She was still in shock. But she had enough left over to speak.
“I’m a very rich woman, and now I have control of my assets again. I… I can do it. I want to.” Her trembling hands snaked up and around my neck. “Let me be in charge of my own fate. Just for now. Just… until…”
“Okay,” I said, without hesitation, planting a kiss on her temple. “As you wish. I’m your servant, always.”
I was not a man to force a woman into anything. If she wanted this, she would have it. If she wanted to own this - to ownhisfate as he had owned hers for twenty-five years, then who was I to steal the credit?
“Oh, isn’t that just bloody cute,” Pippa’s voice came through the phone and I wanted to hang up on her. “Our Legionnaire is getting all soft and gooey.”
“Just send us the bill.” Then I hesitated for a moment. “Or send Brett. He’ll do it for a drink, and a high five.”
“You make a fair point. Maybe I will outsource it to him.”
“My boys?” Cali whispered.
“Picked up by helicopter,” Callum answered quickly. “Bellamy has them safe with MI6…”
“We’ll need signed Non-Disclosure Agreements fromallof you on that. Bellamy is…”
“Fine!” I said, dismissing Philippa. “None of us are interested in blowing his cover. Give us the paper, and we’ll sign.”
I hung up on her not because I was mad at Philippa, but because Calissandra was shaking. I dropped the phone just as her knees buckled, and I caught her. I lowered her slowly to the ground, holding her against me, damning the body armor for keeping space between us. It was time for me to get skin-to-skin to her. To feel her close. To comfort and warm her.
She let out a long exhale, as we settled on the floor.
