Page 104 of Ruthless

“Back at you.” He nodded toward Prince Alexandre Wellingsley, who though restrained and bloodied, didn’t look as beaten down as one would expect. “He say anything useful?”

“Some. Not enough. He needs a little extra incentive.”

“He’ll get all the incentive he needs soon.”

“You two are so smug,” Alex said, “but you have no idea the hell that’s going to be coming down on you soon.”

“Why don’t you tell us about it?” Gideon said.

“Now, what would be the fun in that?”

As if she’d heard enough, Eve tore off a strip of tape and slapped it over her brother’s mouth. “There. That’ll keep you quiet for a while.” She turned back to Gideon. “Where did you land?”

“Roof. Serena shut down the cameras there, too.”

“Good. We can get him up there and—”

Gideon shook his head. “No, we can’t. I landed on fumes. We’ll either have to leave on four wheels or fly out when Ash and the team get here.”

“It’ll take them hours to get here.”

“No, it won’t. They were already in the air on their way to Ile de la Lune. They just adjusted their flight plan to head here to Marseille instead.”

When Ash had told him that, he’d felt a strong wave of affection for his boss and friend.

“That’s great,” Eve said. “How far out are they?”

“Maybe two hours. A little less.”

“Serena said there were only five guards. Right? Let’s take care of them and get out of here. They can meet us somewhere, and we’ll hitch a ride back home with them.”

“Sounds good.” He glanced over at her brother. “Let’s leave him here till we’re clear. I have a feeling he’d be more than happy to cause us some problems.”

“Agreed. Hold on.” She dashed toward what looked like a bathroom and returned in seconds with a hand towel. Ignoring her brother’s pain-filled grunts and furious glare, she quickly wrapped his bloodied hand.

“There, that’s the last nice thing I’ll ever do for you.” Turning away from him, she headed to Gideon. “Let’s get this done.”

They walked out of the office together. A wave of dizziness swept through Gideon, and he grabbed the wall. Damn, he didn’t have time for this.

“When we—” Seeing the bloody fingerprints he’d left on the wall, she broke off, and her eyes went wide. “You’re hurt!” Her gaze swept over him. Since he was wearing a black T-shirt, the bloodstains weren’t easily discernible.

“Just a little.”

“Where? What happened?”

“Caught a bullet on my left side.”

“How long ago?”

“Few hours or so.”

“The bullet’s still in there?”

“Yeah.”

She touched his forehead. “We have to get you out of here and get you some help.” Running back into the office, she returned with a chair. “Sit down and let me take care of the guards. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”

“No way in hell are you doing this by yourself.”