Page 78 of Agency
“No one,” I said, glancing back as he closed the door behind him and came over, still maintaining distance. “I still don’t know who you’re talking about, or who Trinity Security is.”
He glanced upstairs for a brief second. “Please,” he said, his tone detached and cold as ice. “Make this easy on all of us. I counted two in the Tahoe with you, last night, plus her. She is only my problem, and not yours. I can just collect her and take her somewhere nice and quiet, then be on my way. None of you men need to be involved any further.”
I blinked up at him. Blinked at the tone he’d used, as if murdering Ambyr was nothing more than an entry on today’s to-do list, simply a little check mark that needed to be made before he got on with the more important parts of living his life. Pick up milk, cream, sugar, but not before he made sure to leave a bullet in one pesky co-worker’s head.
What were the chances that he’d leave me and the guys alive? Not that I planned on letting him take her, or anything. But, say I did…? What was the likelihood we weren’t next on that check list?
Pretty damn low, I’d bet. Almost zero.
More importantly, though, there was absolutely zero chance he’d leave Ambyr alive. Yes, she’d been paid to go after Stella, and, yes, she was a hired assassin. But, I didn’t think she was necessarily a bad person, despite my attitude around keeping her a prisoner. Hell, I’d even been inclined to believe Ambyr when she said her employers lied to her about her target. The dossier Andrew had read out to me while driving from the city seemed to point in that direction, and Joergensen showing up in my safe house’s living room definitely didn’t detract from the case she’d already made.
And, yeah, okay. I’ll admit, she was actually kind of hotter now that I knew she actually was an international woman of mystery.
Even if her license to kill was forged, and under an alias.
But, there were protocols to this game we were all playing. Not necessarily rules, per se, but a certain set of best practices one needed to employ if they wanted to survive the game in one piece. And believing Ambyr wholesale, and leaving her completely unguarded and free to do as she pleased? That wasn’t one of them, that was for damn sure. And neither was fucking her, like one of my guys had likely done.
Still, though, the guys weren’t stirring. Maybe showing him where Ambyr was would give the guys a chance to wake up?
Not that I’d actually give him a shot at her. No way for that. But walking him up there? That might buy us all some time.
After all, he might be intending to kill me, but that didn’t mean he was going to kill me down here. He was carrying a 9mm, which, even when fired with a suppressor, would still be in the 140 db range. Maybe not loud enough to alert everyone in the neighborhood or anything, considering how far away our nearest neighbor likely was, but definitely loud enough to wake everyone upstairs and give them plenty of time to secure the higher ground.
No, he’d wait to kill me. Which still wasn’t very comforting.
“She’s upstairs.”
“Show me.”
I got up from the couch and headed for the stairs. Like before, he gave me as much room as he could, and waited till I’d climbed several steps before joining me. I stomped as I went. Not likefee fi fo fumloud or anything, because that might tip off Joergensen as to my intentions, but I definitely wasn’t taking much care with my weighted footfalls.
I considered going for the first door, right at the top of the steps. But that might reveal one of my chuckle-fucks before they were ready to be seen. No, if I went with Ambyr’s room, and whichever one of my subordinates had actually been stupid enough to risk my ire by sleeping with her last night, I might actually make enough noise to wake up the other one.
If they wereevergoing to be ready to be seen, that is.
I turned right, headed for the kitchen chair sitting outside the door. As the window-styled chair came closer, and within my grasp, I fought down the urge to grab the makeshift club and send Joergensen right over the edge. No matter how much Iwantedto go fullThingon this guy, clobbering time would have to wait. Too risky, especially when there was bound to be an upcoming moment when his gun wasn’t pointed at my back.
So, instead, I raised my fist to knock on the door.
“What are you—?”
“I’m knocking to see if she’s decent,” I growled, fist still hanging in the air. “You can fucking shoot me dead, now, but I ain’t just barging in on a goddamn lady.”
“Door,” he said. “Away from it, now, please.”
“Go fuck yourself,” I growled, looking past him to the first door down back down the landing. If my buddies were going to choose a time to wake up,nowwould be the perfect one.
He glanced back towards Ambyr’s door. “Or, maybe,” he said. “She is not really in this room?”
“What?” I asked, having a flash of worry that the guys wouldn’t be ready yet. They’d have been out here already, if they were. “No. No, man, this is her room. This is where we kept her last night.”
“No. I do not think so.”
“You’re fucking kidding me, right?” I asked. He was already backing up, though, and keeping his eyes on me the whole while. “Because, she’s in this room right here. Seriously, man.” Lamely, I gestured to the door next to me, saying, “Right fucking here. Unless you’ve got some kind of tracking device that says different, she’s right in there.”
His eyes flashed, and he almost seemed as if he was going to laugh. “Not likely.” He reached for the door knob without looking away from me. “You are protecting her, are you not? So, logically, she should be where you do not immediately point me.”
Fuck.
