Page 60 of Stella's Christmas Rescue
I blink rapidly in my shock. “You’re here to find out why Ididn’tblackmail you?”
“Yes.” He stands up and walks to me. He’s still wearing the cologne I customized for him. Cucumbers and ocean water. Riker leans close to me. Then, his sparkling green eyes dance all over my face, like he’s going to kiss me. “It’s unlike you, Stella. And I want to know why.”
I shake my head in confusion. I have no idea what answer he’s looking for and the wrong one might get me killed. “Simon, do you think I am an idiot?”
“Not at all. That’s why I am here. What makes you ask such a thing?”
“I didn’t blackmail you for the same reason I didn’t leave you when I found you in bed with other women.”
“Could it be love, then?”
“You think I didn’t blackmail you, because I’m in love with you?”
“Stranger things have happened.”
I almost giggle at the absurdity of the suggestion. “No. No, they really haven’t.”
“So, eh, not that then?”
“No.”
“Then why not?”
I need to change the topic. “If I were in love with you, why would I go into Witness Protection, Riker? Who does that to someone they love?”
He shrugs and says, “I came to think you might have been afraid of my bosses, after what the authorities told you about them.”
I blink in my wonder of him. “You have never had a human emotion in all your life, have you?”
“What do you mean?”
“No one turns the person they love into the authorities. Humans don’t witness an execution and use it to leverage their position. And people don’t date someone for two years without building a life together.”
He steps back. He looks upset, like I hurt his feelings. Riker’s tone is defensive, “We built something, Love. We built a business.”
“Amurderbusiness?” I ask, flabbergasted.
“What, you think I killed him for money?” He laughs.
I shrug. “I have no idea why you killed him.”
“Kowalski was a nutter. Said he was going to the boss about a deal that went south. Couldn’t let that happen. He would have ruined our business. I did it for us.”
I want to vomit. Kowalski’s murder was my fault. “You mean, the murder business that I didn’t know you were running? That business?”
“Thesmugglingbusinesswewere running. You don’t seem to understand, Stella, you are in it just as deep as me. My bosses know who you are. They know who your family is. And you owe them for not coming after you or hurting the people you love. Yet.” He braces himself on the wall next to me, with a hand oneither side. “Come home, Love. Let’s put all of this nonsense behind us.”
My blood boils in rage. “So, you threaten my family, you shoot my brother, send kidnappers after me, keep me on the run for three years in the program, is that the nonsense you speak of?”
He shrugs it off. “You made mistakes. It happens. All those things, I had to do them to show you the error of your ways. And I think you understand that. Like I said, you are a good businesswoman. You understand how these things work.”
“Are you completely insane? What is wrong with you?”
“You went to the authorities, Stella. You had to learn your lesson.”
I want to hit him. But I’m still trying to be smart. Bide my time. Jordan will come for me. I have to believe that. If I give into him too easily, though he won’t buy it. “If you hadn’t given me a reason to go to the authorities, then I wouldn’t have gone to them in the first place. You only have yourself to blame.”
Riker’s right hand leaves the wall for the side of my face. I expect a slap, but he gently strokes my cheek. “You remember what it was like, don’t you, Love? The money. The clothes. The cars. Anything we wanted, everywhere we went. You acted like you didn’t know.”
