Misguided Vows: Chapter 10

She’s a spicy one, that’s for sure. And I like it. I’m humming her praise all morning.

“Will you stop smiling? It’s freaking me out more than usual,” River says as he inspects his new shipment.

I’ve been working with River Bentley for years. If he needed someone found, I was his guy. I’d recently spent the past year here in the States, predominantly in New York, because there was a lot of money to be made here. But I also take great pleasure in pissing him—and Alek, especially—off. It was also the most settled I’d been in years, even if I still lived out of a suitcase. If I didn’t stay anywhere for too long no one asked questions, no one tried to delve deeper. The only other person who knew about my demons was River but never asked about them. If he did, I’m not so sure I’d stay around.

“Did you get laid or something?” he asks as he leans down and opens a crate with a crowbar.

“Nope,” I reply with a shit-eating grin.

He looks up at me then. “Alek told me you have your eyes on some brunette who’s working for Dawson. Is that true?”

I lean back against one of the other boxes. “For a man of few words, he seems to like to gossip a bit. Do you think he’s jealous?”

River shakes his head and chuckles. “Just don’t piss my wife’s brother off too much, okay? So, what, you like this woman? More than just wanting to fuck her?” he asks.

“Not particularly. She just won’t fuck me.”

“Ah. Not used to hearing no?” he teases as he drops the crowbar. Reaching into the crate, he pulls out a gun and inspects it appreciatively.

“I’m quite used to hearing no, considering Alek still hasn’t taken me up on my offer,” I reply, and River just laughs, shaking his head.

“You and Alek have a weird relationship, one I don’t care to understand.”

The truth is, I just absolutely love winding Alek up because it’s so easy to do.

“It’s not weird, it’s just taking longer for him to realize he loves me.” I wink as he sets the gun back down and goes to the next crate and repeats the process.

“If you say so.” He shakes his head. “You got her the job too. Does she know that?”

“How did you know that?”

“Alek,” he says. “You know Alek and Dawson are business partners.”

“Hmm.”

“Also heard you paid for her flight and hotel room. Very sweet of you. All this just to fuck her?”

“Something like that.”

His forehead crinkles, but he doesn’t press me with any more questions. I didn’t take him for a romantic who cared about other’s affairs. Then again, his and his wife Anya’s way of foreplay seems to be her lighting his cars on fire, so I’m definitely not ever turning to him for dating advice.

“Are you actually going to help or stand there looking pretty?” he asks, just as my phone begins to buzz in my pocket.

“Oooh, I really do want to help, but I need to take this call first,” I lie. In fact, I’ve avoided this call for the last week, but it seems like as good an excuse as any to get out of doing the heavy lifting. Besides, River’s a big enough guy, and they’re his guns. He’ll be fine.

I step away and answer the call.

“Finally. I’ve been calling you for a week,” the man on the other end of the line seethes. I pick up one of the guns from an open crate and admire it.

“Mr. Percy, to what do I owe the pleasure?” I ask. I don’t like this asshole one bit.

“Have you found my bitch yet? I paid you a fuck ton of money, so you better have results, punk.”

I try not to laugh. Punk? Who even says that anymore? “What you paid me was a deposit for my services. So I’m assuming you’re calling to tell me you have the rest of the money.”

“I told you I can get it for you as long as you bring her to me.”

I snort. I’d found his woman in London months ago. It was the reason I had to fly there in the first place. This wasn’t the first messy breakup I’d had to deal with. This guy is a no-one who could easily be knocked off within minutes if I wanted it. I was just bored at the time and it seemed like easy money.

Him not having the money now changes that, of course.

“There’s a difference between ‘I can get you the money’ and ‘I have the money’ Mr. Percy.”

“You upped your price after the fact.”

I shrug. “You delayed the payments. Now I’m starting to think you can’t fulfill our agreement. No money, no location of your ex.”

I hang up the phone.

When I turn, River is looking in my direction.

“Is that the job you went to London for?” he asks.

I shrug. “More or less. Fucker’s trying to underpay me.”

“Want me to handle him?” he asks, admiring the next gun.

I laugh. “That might make Anya hot and sweaty, but I can handle a guy like him myself, thanks. I was sick of waiting for his money, so I came back here in the meantime.”

I have more money than I know what to do with. I’m the best of the best. I really could retire at any moment, but it’s the business of this role that keeps me distracted from things I’d rather leave in the past.

Maybe that’s why I find Alina a delightful new distraction.