Vipers and Virtuosos (Monsters & Muses, #2)(33)
If rumors are true, he already has.
And that’s not even scratching the surface of the supposed blood on his hands.
Regardless, I force myself to stay relaxed, kicking my feet up on the desk just as the door swings open. If he doesn’t smite me on the spot, I’m hopeful he’ll be receptive to what I have in mind.
“I don’t appreciate having to wait—”
Dark eyes pierce mine from across the room, and his entire stature freezes as soon as he’s crossed the threshold.
“Riley?”
Dr. Kal Anderson looks like Hades himself, if Hades were well over six feet tall and unbelievably attractive. His is a beauty so sharp and focused, it almost hurts to look at him without the benefit of a lens barrier.
He has on an all-black suit beneath his coat, and he reaches up, tugging off his hat to smooth a hand over his inky locks. So much sleek, effortless elegance in such a dangerous man, and he knows it too. Uses it to rule the underworld from the sidelines, content to collect souls while enjoying marital bliss.
As he slowly pushes the door shut, his gaze once again finds mine—irises so dark, it feels like staring straight into an abyss.
I almost swallow my tongue as he continues standing, confusion flashing across his face for the briefest moment.
Latching on to the flicker of an advantage, I feign nonchalance, grinning as he walks closer.
“You sure know how to make a girl wait.” My hand moves toward the armchair in front of the desk, cringing internally at my bumbled attempt at being casual.
Kal glances around, as if expecting someone else to step out of the shadows, and sinks into the chair.
“What are you doing here?” he asks, his deep voice stiff and unamused. “Where’s your brother?”
“Boyd’s having an extended lunch with his girlfriend. I was the one who asked you to meet.”
His eyebrows arch. “What?”
“You wanted to know who your blackmailer was,” I say, struggling to keep my hand steady as I sit straighter, pushing a flash drive across the surface of the desk.
He blinks down at the piece of plastic, then looks up at me. “You?”
It wasn’t an easy feat, that’s for sure; blackmail rarely is. Blackmailing a hit man who doubles as a Mafia doctor? Almost impossible.
For the last few weeks, I’ve thrown myself into scouring every piece of security footage that backs up to the Ivers International encrypted servers, searching for something to trap him with.
What better way to grab a man by the balls than to exploit the act of him emptying them?
I never watched the clips, of course. At least, not in full. Just enough that I knew what they led to—sex, go figure—so I could crop, download, and send them to his house.
A house on some tiny island off the coast of Massachusetts that I’d never even heard of until this all started.
I force a smile.
“Kind of crazy how much I’ve picked up in such a short time, but I guess that’s the perk of being around hackers and IT people all the time now. Amazing what you can find out about a person, just by doing a little digging. Even one as private as you, Doctor.”
My voice sounds a hell of a lot more confident than I feel, my resolve shaking beneath the weight of his stare.
He narrows his eyes and something in my chest cramps. “Is that so?”
Nodding, I reach into my purse and pull out another flash drive—this one, the inspiration behind my idea.
See, in order to secure his marriage months ago, Kal blackmailed a Mafia don into a deal of sorts. I’m not sure of the exact details, only that he feigned trouble for his employer in Boston and painted himself as some sort of savior in order to secure his wife’s hand in marriage.
All of this learned within minutes of hacking the don’s home security network, which is much less advanced than Kal’s.
So, I’d taken a page out of his book and did the same thing, forging danger and leading him on a wild-goose chase to track down his blackmailer.
Excessive? Maybe, but there was no way Kal would help me out of the kindness of his heart.
Kindness doesn’t exist in cold, darkened spaces.
I can see him mulling over this revelation; he squints, like he’s trying to process, and delight swims through my veins at the thought that I’ve pulled it off.
That I duped a man known for his cunning, methodical nature, even if the only reason is that he was too distracted by his new wife to pay me much attention.
I’ll take any wins I can get.
Finally, Kal looks up, pocketing the flash drive, and he leans back in his chair, crossing an ankle over the opposite knee. Propping his elbow on that knee, he strokes his stubbly jaw, watching me with an unreadable expression.
“Why?”
It’s all he says, a single syllable uttered so simply, that it takes me by surprise.
I wasn’t really expecting to have to explain myself, although I suppose it makes sense. Leave it to the doctor to want to learn the symptoms of the disease that’s been plaguing him.
Swallowing, I push my shoulders back, slip my feet from the desk, and sit up. “I could ask my brother, but you specialize in secrecy, right? Well, I did something… bad, and I need to disappear.”
“Disappear,” he repeats, that same monotone voice sending chills down my spine. “You’ve tormented me, violated my privacy, and yet you’re asking for my assistance? Either you’re very brave, or very stupid.”