Page 112 of The Villain

I’d felt unsettled. Uncomfortable. Like the bubble surrounding my fledgling relationship with Richard had been pricked. I’d propped the paintings, one against each wall, without much thought and headed for the front door; it was nothing but pure instinct that told me I should get out of there.

My hand was on the doorknob when I realized I could hear their voices again.

“She shouldn’t be here.”The stranger’s voice was louder.

She…he was talking about me.

“It changes nothing.”I heard Richard’s reply as I moved toward the voices.

“For a doctor, you can be pretty damn idiotic.”

Doctor?Richard wasn’t a doctor.

“It changes nothing. I’ll take care of her when the time comes.”Richard could’ve meant a thousand things by those words, but my brain would only let me believe he meant one thing. One unbelievable thing.

“Outside,” the rough voice behind me demanded, dragging my thoughts back to the present.

We’d reached the back of the warehouse and the exit to the small parking area out back. My fingers trembled, pushing the bar as I remembered the last thing I’d heard.

“I don’t trust your track record, Ray. I’m having it handled.”

Ray.He’d called him Ray.

“I’m not jeopardizing anything. You forget, Wenner, I’m the one who lost a decade of my life to protect Belmont. What I’m owed is worth far more than a pretty blond’s fuck.”

I couldn’t restrain my gasp. The slightest sound of shock snapped the man’s attention to the door, letting me see his face.

Wenner.I knew that name.

I turned on the pavement, shocking Lloyd Wenner with my about-face.“You work for GrowTech…” I said slowly, suddenly seeing the man in a whole new light.His expensive suit. His air of authority.

But according to Dare, GrowTech was trying to get rid of Ivans.

His eyes flashed. “I see you’ve learned a little something since your imbecile husband failed at his singular task.”

I ignored the barb. “Ex,” I said, and he glared at me. “Ex-husband.”

He pulled the gun from his jacket. “Get in the car, Ms. Holman.”

Stubbornness propped my chin higher. “What do you want from me?”

“I think that should be pretty obvious,” he said and shook his head. “You saw me. You know too much. And I’ve been planning Belmont’s downfall for too long to let the whole thing go to shit because of Ivans. Now, get in the car.”

Planning…Suddenly, all the pieces formed a fuzzy picture. Wenner was the missing link. He was the invisible string that knotted everything together and explained the unexplainable. Who killed Ivans. Why a GrowTech account paid Brandon and then the other man who’d shot Dare. It was all Wenner’s setup. A frame job to pin my death on Belmont because I’d met him the night of the gala.

I didn’t understand the depths or intricacies of their vendetta, but I understood that I’d become the sacrificial pawn in their game.

“Or what?”

He reached into his pocket, and dread wrapped its cold fingers around my throat. “Or I kill you.” He lifted his hand, some kind of switch in his fingers with a toggle and a button. He flipped the toggle, and in the corner of my eyes, I saw a red light flicker.

A red light tucked into the frame of Dare’s motorcycle.

“And then I’ll kill the man who thinks he has a chance at saving you.”

The earth opened up beneath me and swallowed me whole. Wenner had planted a bomb on Dare’s bike, and if I didn’t drive us away from here, he’d make it look like I did, and as soon as he knew Dare was following…

Adrenaline injected like fire into my veins. Or maybe it was pure fear. Not of my owndeath, but of his.

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