Page 82 of An Epic Voyage

“Atta girl.We’ll have fun tonight, and then I want you to meet a friend of mine tomorrow.He loves beautiful things.Having you on my arm will impress the hell out of him.”

Indy glanced down at her outfit.“I’m not dressed for meeting people.”

Van Houten waved a hand.“There’s a suite across the hall with gowns and everything you’ll need.”

How convenient.She wondered if it had been stocked with Jinger in mind or other women.Or her.Ugh.Might as well find out.“Why are there clothes for me?”

Van Houten sighed.“I’d planned on letting Jinger go with my friend, but that obviously isn’t happening now.”

She tried to inject the right amount of fear into her voice.“Do you plan on sending me with him?”

He reached out and stroked a finger down her cheek.She almost bit it.

“No, Indigo.I’m keeping you for myself.I’ll buy you pretty things, take you places you’ve never seen.You’d like that, wouldn’t you?”

And then, when I’m through with you, I’ll simply fire a bullet through your frontal lobe.Did he forget she’d seen him blow Jinger’s head off?She needed to appear meek, but not a pushover.“I have a career that I enjoy.”

He waved a dismissive hand.“You’ll quit it.Your full-time job will be as my lover.”

Not in this lifetime, buddy.

Indy perched on the edge of a chair—bypassing the sofa so he couldn’t sit next to her—and scanned the room for the case containing the nuke while he walked to a bar and poured two glasses of wine.If she could find it, it would make things so much easier.She could grab it, free Griffin and Jordy, and they could speed away in the boat used to bring them to the yacht.Having done this job for a long time, she knew things never worked out that easily.

“You have an interesting background, Indigo.”

He handed her a glass filled with red liquid and sat in the chair beside her.

“Oh?How do you know so much about me?”

He studied her over the rim of the glass.“I had you checked out.”

“Why?”

“You should realize by now that I’m very intrigued by you, Indigo.Definitely interested.I wanted to know everything about you.When I want something, I get it.”

“Well, that’s flattering,” and psychotic, “but I’m just a beautician from Massachusetts.Nothing special.”

“I beg to differ.”Van Houten’s cell buzzed.He took it from his pocket and frowned.“Excuse me a moment.I need to take this.”

“No problem.”

He walked into the adjoining room and closed the door.If she didn’t have a nuke to recover and a lover to rescue, she’d bolt out the open sliding glass door and dive overboard.Or eavesdrop on his conversation.

Van Houten returned a few minutes later, looking anxious.

“Is something wrong?”

He retook his seat and downed a chug of wine.“Nothing to worry about.Tell me, Indigo, what makes you happy?”

“Oh, well, that’s easy.I love puppies and sunsets and walks along the beach.”She almost rolled her eyes at herself and her online dating profile answers.

“What about children?”

She answered truthfully.“I’m not around kids very much.”

“I’ve been thinking of settling down and starting a family.”

Funny thing to say when he’d just blown his girlfriend away, not to mention that he already had a slew of children with several women.