AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Tenley rolled her eyes. “Oh, come on. I didn’t do anything to you that you didn’t deserve. And that you wouldn’t have done to me if given half the chance. You know as well as I do that I was nothing but a tool for your scams.”
The fucker had the nerve to tap her nose with his index finger. “And a pretty little tool you were…and will be again.”
Now she was getting really nervous, because he was even more delusional than she thought, and no one was more dangerous than delusional people. “I’m not working with or for you ever again.”
“I figured you’d say that. But what you don’t know is that I was hired to kill your little jailbird, and if you want to keep him alive, you’ll play ball.”
OK, kidnapping her, handcuffing her to a chair, slapping her, and insulting her was one thing. Taking a contract on Knox was another. “What’s your game?”
He boosted himself up on the counter and grinned at her. “I’m so glad you asked! See, when I managed to track you down, I watched. I watched everything, Ten. I know exactly what you have planned. So, when the board chairman you’re trying to fuck over put out a request on the dark web for a hitman, I took the job.”
She shook her head. “You’re a lot of things, Jordan, but we both know you’re not a killer. You have no intention of carrying out that hit.”
“No, but Richter doesn’t need to know that. Knox can play dead, and you and I can take the money and run.”
“And if he doesn’t play dead?”
He shrugged. “Richter will just send someone else—someone who won’t be as squeamish about killing as I am. Him stepping aside and you working with me is a win win. Come on, Ten. It’ll be just like old times.”
The idea of leaving Knox and hitting the road with Jordan to help him grift made her so nauseous she almost gagged. “That’s exactly what I’m afraid of.”
His eyes narrowed. “You owe me. You ruined my life. And you’re going to help me get back everything you cost me.”
“You never had that much, asshole. I’ll write you a check. Just take the money and disappear.”
The laugh he let out was so sharp she winced before she could stop herself. “It’s not going to be that easy, I’m afraid.”
She raised a brow at him. “If you’re insinuating that I owe you a few fucks, I’m gonna have to decline. Disrespectfully.”
Tenley was ready for the backhand this time. It barely stung. Jordan always had hit like a little girl. “You. Owe. Me,” he hissed in her face. “I taught you everything you know, and you betrayed me.”
She’d humored this asshole more than she should’ve already. It was time to end this conversation and get the hell out of here. Nothing—especially not the worst fucking blast from the past ever—was going to keep her from that board meeting.
But more importantly, nothing was going to keep her from Knox. Because imagining how he must feel right now, wondering where she was, made her realize something.
She loved him.
She loved Knox more than any con she’d ever pulled off. More than…peanut butter cups and the scent of fresh rain in the springtime. He was the first person she wanted to talk to in the morning, and the last before she went to bed. She wanted to watch him build furniture and sketch new ideas on scrap paper.
She wanted him in her bed—and her life—forever. Like, the until-death-do-they-part kind of forever.
And it was way past time she told him so. Especially since she wasn’t anywhere near ready for death to part them.
“Well, Jordan,” she said on a sharp exhale, “you’re partially right. You taught me everything you knew. But my education didn’t end with you.”
“Is that so?” he sneered. “What could you possibly know that I don’t?”
She cocked her head to one side. “How to get out of handcuffs, for one.”
He reared back, but not fast enough.
Tenley whipped her now uncuffed hands—thanks to the bobby pin she kept up her sleeve at all times—out from behind her and shoved Jordan until his back hit the counter.
“You bitch!”
“Now, I’m getting sick of being called that.”
She didn’t give him a chance to reply. Instead, she caught him in the chin with a front snap kick. Because one of the other things he’d never taught her was how to kick the ever-loving crap out of an attacker. She had Ren to thank for that.
