Reveal (Wicked Ways #2)(99)

He smacks his hands and rubs them together before starting to undo his belt as he moves toward me.





CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Ryker

“Where are you?” Stuart’s voice comes through the speaker on my car.

“Stuck in this goddamn traffic. The Midtown nightmare on this goddamn island.” I slam on my horn, frustrated with my lack of movement and tired of driving. “It’s like the universe is—”

“The Chatwal. Now.”

And there’s something about his tone that doesn’t have me bristling at being ordered around and silences me immediately.

“Stuart?” So much is loaded in his name, but I already know.

Vaughn.

It has to be Vaughn.

I lay on my horn and cut across traffic as best as I can. A cacophony of horns explodes in response, and if I had ten fucks to give I still wouldn’t give any.

Five blocks away.

“She was in a meeting in the hotel. Dressed in the wig. I watched her for a bit and ran to use the head when she was wrapping up. I need it now!” he orders someone on the other end of the line and then sighs out a Fuck when all I hear is an I’m sorry, sir. “The manager. Get him.”

“Stuart, what the fuck is going on?” Visions fill my head of some bastard manhandling her. She was dressed as Vee.

“I caught a glimpse of her getting on the elevator. Carter slid in right before the doors shut.”

Dread drops through every part of me.

Four blocks.

“Where the hell are they, Stu?”

Thoughts. Visions. The worst. All fill my head, and I can’t even venture to think that I’m the one responsible for this. That I’m the one who threw her to the wolves for a client who was playing games with me somehow from the get-go.

“I don’t know. I’m trying to get a manager to let me know if either of them has rented a room. It’s not exactly the easiest fucking thing to do here.”

“Bribe them. I don’t care how fucking much. Do your goddamn job and bribe them!” I shout the words even though I know it’s not his fault.

There are muffled sounds on his end of the connection as he tries to bargain with the desk clerk.

Three blocks.

“They’re looking through their database right now.”

“Tell them to go fucking faster.”

He has her.

My fucking God, he has her.

I swerve the car into the first valet podium I see and throw a hundred-dollar bill at them before taking off down the street in a full-on sprint.





CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN

Vaughn

“The FBI knows I’m here,” I lie as I try to move left and then right, but I know my back is against the wall, and that’s the worst place it can be.

His eyes are dark, his body unimpressive but definitely more powerful than mine as he closes the distance.

A smile plays at the corners of his lips as his eyes devour every inch of me. My stomach churns.

And then he lunges.

I cry out as he grabs the front of my dress and yanks it down. My immediate reaction is to punch out, but he has my wrists in his hands, my attempt more than pathetic, my fear stronger and more potent than anything I’ve ever felt before.

“No wire here, sweet Vaughn.” My breath hitches, and my head jerks from side to side as he leans in and licks a line up my cheek.

Bile revolts in my stomach and threatens to rise.

“They know I’m here. I’m supposed to meet with them afterward. I’m—”

“To discuss me?” He laughs. “You naive cunt. Do you really think they’re going to let a whore like you off the hook after they get what they want from me? Do you really think they’re not going to take credit for whatever it is you told them? Throw you into the fire to get all the glory?”

His words strike fear in me, much the same as how Noah and Abel made me feel, but so very different because of what he wants to do to me.

“I don’t care who gets the credit so long as you get what you deserve.”

I yelp when his hand smacks against my cheek. The sting on my cheekbone is real and painful, and it takes a minute for me to steady myself.

“Why couldn’t you just play as perfectly into my plan as Ryker did, huh?”

“What do you mean?” I ask.

“Do you know how easy it was for Bianca to sell him on representing her? To pretend that she hates me and wanted a divorce? Us both vying for him to take us on as clients? He washed that money perfectly clean for us. What better place to hide the money we received than to give it as a retainer for a bogus case? And to top it all off, your little boyfriend helped to investigate me for her.” His laugh sounds off.

“I don’t . . .” My mind spins with the notion that they used Ryker. How we played perfectly into their hands without ever knowing it.

“His investigating me was our little measure to see if anyone else was noticing our scheme. Ryker has one of the best investigators out there, so if he couldn’t sniff out the bribe, then no one could. Besides, it allowed him to gain a few billable hours for his trouble, so when he returned the remainder of our retainer, it didn’t look like a perfect two mil.”

I just stare at him, lips lax and thoughts racing as I try to fathom what they did. And I’m sure the haze of fear being here, in this situation, doesn’t help to expedite my thought process.