Playing Dirty (Risky Business, #2)(73)

For one wildly hopeful moment, I thought he meant Branna. Then I realized … nope, he meant me.

I instinctively took a step back, but Branna was behind me and there was nowhere to go.

“You want me to kill my ex-girlfriend?” Ryker asked, skepticism in his tone.

“It would solve my problem, and incidentally, yours as well,” Leo replied.

“She’s just some secretary I picked up at a bar and f*cked a couple times,” Ryker said. “She’s got nothing to do with this.”

Okay, now I was obsessive and easy. I shot him a glare that he didn’t see.

“Then you should have no trouble doing your job.” Leo nodded at the weapon he still held and Ryker finally took it. Now I started to panic.

“Hey, listen, I just met this guy and we seemed to hit it off, but you don’t want to see me anymore, that’s fine,” I babbled. “I’ll just be on my way and let bygones be bygones.” I took another step back toward the door, but was stopped in my tracks by Leo’s sidekick pointing a gun at me.

“You kill her,” Leo said. “Or Johnny here will do the honors. Either way, she’s not leaving here alive.” He glanced at me. “Sorry, honey. Don’t be offended. It’s nothing personal.”

“Well, that’s a relief,” I snapped.

“McCrady, make up your mind,” Leo said. “Kill her … or I’ll have serious doubts as to your level of commitment.”

I eyed the gun in Ryker’s hand as a cold sweat broke out all over my body. “If you think I’m just going to stand here and let you shoot me—”

“That’s exactly what you’re going to do,” Leo cut me off. “McCrady, decide.”

Ryker raised the gun, its muzzle pointed directly at my head.

My mouth went utterly dry. I stared at the gun, then at him. His jaw was set in tight bands and his hand was steady.

“Please, don’t,” I said, my voice unsteady. The gun looked very deadly, and I was hyperaware of everyone watching. I knew Ryker’s life was on the line, too, and had no idea how else he could get out of this without exposing his real identity. Surely he wouldn’t hurt me. Surely …

And yet, my plea seemed to fall on deaf ears. There wasn’t a flicker of emotion in his eyes as he looked at me. Not even when he pulled the trigger.





CHAPTER FIFTEEN


My heart stopped for a shattering moment, but nothing happened. No sound of a bullet, no ripping pain through my head or my chest, nothing at all. Just the dead click of a hammer against an empty chamber.

“Some weapon,” Ryker mused, looking at the gun. With one flick of his thumb, the magazine ejected into his hand. “It would be much more effective if it were actually loaded.” He tossed the gun at Leo, who caught it. “Did I pass your test?”

Leo laughed in delight while I struggled to remember how to breathe.

“I knew you were still the same cold sonofabitch,” he said, still smiling. “That’s good enough for me.”

Ryker had almost killed me. In cold blood.

I couldn’t wrap my head around that, shock settling in bone deep.

“You really want to mess up your carpet?” Ryker asked Leo, cool and calm. As though he hadn’t just pointed a gun at me and pulled the trigger. “I’ll take her somewhere else and get rid of her.”

Leo waved his hand. “Of course. No, I don’t want to replace the rug. It cost a hundred and fifty dollars a foot.”

Ryker took my elbow and sense finally kicked in again.

“Let me go, you bastard!” I fought him, swinging my fist and connecting with any part of his body I could reach. I fought dirty, nails scratching and biting, but he hauled me around, back to his front. His arm was tight across my chest and I couldn’t breathe.

“Sorry, Leo,” Ryker said. “She’s a bit of a wildcat.”

Leo laughed. “Then I see why you liked her in bed.”

Ryker hustled me out the door and into the hallway. I was panic-stricken and terrified, with no real plan or thought to how I was trying to get away. I just kept fighting him. But he subdued me easily.

“Knock it off, Sage,” he snapped. “You’ll only hurt yourself.” I stopped when I felt cold steel at my throat. Ryker was holding a knife against my skin. Tears burned my eyes. I couldn’t believe he was doing this. Was I really so easily expendable in the face of his job?

“How can you do this to me?” I hissed through my teeth. “Are you out of your mind?”

“Collateral damage,” Ryker said. “I told you not to come here.”

“Need some help?” Branna asked, and I realized she’d followed us out a few steps.

“Nah. I got it,” Ryker said.

That’s when I realized he was holding me in exactly the same position Parker had taught me how to get out of when he’d done the self-defense training. We’d practiced it over and over until I had it right, though I hadn’t hit with full force. At the time, I’d been afraid perhaps I wouldn’t be able to hit with full force when needed, but I shouldn’t have worried. My fear and anger were such that I wanted to hurt Ryker.

I went still, waiting until I heard Branna go back into the office and the door shut. Ryker’s hold on me loosened fractionally as he took me up the stairs and I obediently went up the steps, his hand in my hair and knife at my throat.