Page 100 of Ruthless

“Alex said you have some strong support. You set all of that up yourself?”

The evil grin was back. “Tsk, tsk. You’re trying to get me to tell you who’s backing us. It won’t work.”

“Does it matter if I know? I mean…you obviously don’t plan to let me go.”

“You make a good point. Very well, a few years into my incarceration, a fellow inmate approached me. Someone had noticed your brother come by for a visit and somehow put two and two together. They offered to get me out if I made an introduction. Long story short, I arranged a meeting.” The smile grew as he added, “It went very well.”

“Who are these people?”

“Don’t know, don’t care. They came through for me. Got me out.”

“You were never introduced to any of them? That seems rude.”

“I met a few. Sarah Ready and Joseph Stoops were my handlers. They took care of everything.”

“But why? What’s in it for them?”

“I would think that would be fairly obvious, Lina. Controlling an entire country, no matter how small or insignificant, would be a major feat.”

Yes, it would. Ile de la Lune was small, but the country had natural resources and tremendous wealth. Controlling the king could be a valuable asset.

“What’s their end game?”

“Like I said, don’t know, don’t care. They got me out of prison. Set me up with a nice bank account and gave me access to you again. That’s all I asked for.”

Either he really didn’t know anything, or he was that unambitious. She didn’t have time to figure out which one it was. Once he was back in custody, they would turn up the heat on the questioning.

Using an old tactic that had worked well in the past, she touched her ear to her shoulder and said softly, “You get all of that?”

“What’s that? Who are you talking to?” Dirk said.

“My contact.” Her smile filled with loathing, she said, “Come on, Dirk. You didn’t honestly think we didn’t know this was going to happen, did you? We’ve been tracking you for months.”

He laughed and shook his head, “Good one. I don’t believe that for a minute.”

“Really? So the earbud in my left ear is just a fashion accessory?”

Just as she’d planned, he came forward to check it out. Since he believed she was tied up, he saw her as no threat. One of the many things evil men often did was underestimate a woman. They could not fathom that someone smaller could wreak havoc. She was always glad to prove them wrong.

The instant he was close enough, she grabbed hold of his collar and slammed a fist into his damaged nose. To cut off his howl of pain, she punched his throat and then his soft gut in quick, hard jabs. He fell to the floor, holding both his throat and his nose, struggling for breath.

Quickly cutting the ties at her ankles, she stood and then dropped to her knees beside the monster. She had to admit that killing him would be no hardship, but she was too disciplined to let personal antipathy get in the way of doing what was best for the mission. This man had more information to give, and she would see that he got the chance to share it.

However, she wasn’t above a petty taunt. “Since you hated prison so much, I’m going to leave you alive so you can hate it all over again.”

Still struggling to breathe, he swatted his hand toward her, and she knocked it away. Searching him quickly, she found a gun inside his jacket and used it to clock him in the head. Concerned that she’d hit him too hard, she double-checked to make sure he was still breathing. Assured that he was, she rifled through his other pockets and came up with a cellphone, a Zippo lighter, a couple of zip ties, a pair of handcuffs, and three condoms. She quickly made use of the ties and bound both his hands and his feet.

Holding his phone in front of his face to unlock it, she stood and punched in Gideon’s number. When he answered on the first ring, she breathed her first easy breath in hours.

“Gideon, it’s me.”

“Eve, thank God. Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. What about you?”

“Also fine. On my way to you.”

“You know where I am?”