Page 29 of Deadly Ruck
"He couldn't have been that convincing; you said all of that in front of him," Jay said. Apparently he knew who he believed, and it wasn't her. Or at least, his faith in Atlas was firmly back in place.
"That might have been a test, to see if he ran off and told Jones," I said. I cocked my head at Atlas.
"I'm not telling him Jack shit," Atlas said. "I want him taken down, too. Before he touches my woman. And Jay."
"Our woman," Dallas corrected.
"Yeah, our woman," Jay said. "Or any of us." His gaze slid to Nyla, including her in that, even though we hadn't come to any sort of agreement. Evidently, he decided she could be trusted. Or maybe he also saw her as our way out. "What do we do?"
"The first thing you need to do is get dressed." She stood up and put the chair back to the side of the room. "In an hour or so, he'll come here. We'll all be taken to a private airstrip and we'll board a plane. At least, that's his idea. We need to do everything we can to avoid getting on that aircraft."
"Unless you have a stash of guns…" I looked at her questioningly.
"Not that I can give you," Nyla said. “You need to do something more." Without skipping a beat, she told us what she had in mind.
"Hell no." Dallas sat up so fast, the sheet fell away from him. He grabbed it and jerked it back over his cock before pulling his pants back up from around his hips. "You can't be serious."
"Unless you can think of a better way." She looked at him sideways. She hadn't even glanced down at his body. All of her attention was focused on our faces and her plan.
"There has to be one." Atlas sat on the edge of the bed, beside Jay. "There's too much that could go wrong this way. It's too big a risk.” He chewed over that silently before asking, "What happens if we get on that plane?"
"We end up somewhere else I can't control." Nyla ran the tip of her finger up and down her thigh, just over her phone.
I shook my head. "He's not going to buy it. He knows I know he killed my boyfriends. He's not going to think I've turned to him that quickly."
"He will if you're a good enough actor," she said. "Which I know you are. You spent years pretending to be attracted to strange men while you danced for them. Pretending to enjoy it when they fucked you. You can pretend to be into him if you have to."
I grimaced. She was right, I did all of that. If I had to, I could make him think I enjoyed fucking him, but the idea made me sick.
"How do I know you’ll intervene in time?" I asked.
Dallas grabbed my arm. "You can't be serious. You can’t do this. We'll get on that plane. We'll find some other time and place to deal with him. The next time I see him, I can strangle him." His troubled eyes pleaded with me to do anything but this.
"Then you'll be dead," Nyla said.
"I don't care," he snapped. "As long as he doesn't touch Chelsea."
I slipped my arm around him and pulled him to me. "Losing Storm, Frost and Ramsey was enough. I can't lose you too. Even if I have to…" I couldn't finish the words. "Promise me you won't do anything that will get you killed."
"Considering what we're planning—" Nyla started.
I glared at her until she closed her mouth with a click of her teeth.
I turned back to Dallas. "I meant, don't take any unnecessary risks, especially not for me. We will get through this. We will.”
I drew in a long breath and exhaled slowly, trying to think of the possible scenarios and how many ways this could end up a huge shit storm. Too many.
“Can you get the guys out while I distract him?" Seeing them safe and away might be worth doing whatever I had to do withJones. I'd been selfish in letting Dallas come here in the first place. I wouldn't do that again. I'd put him first, no matter the cost to me.
"Maybe," Nyla said vaguely. "It would be better if they stayed and helped with this coup."
"We're staying," Atlas said. "There's no way in hell am leaving here without Chelsea."
"Me either," Jay said.
Dallas didn't say anything; he didn't need to. I knew nothing would convince him to leave, unless he was forced. Even then, he'd resist.
"I guess we're doing this," I said with a sigh. What could go wrong?
