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My knife was still open and gripped in the one hand that held her. She looked at it and swallowed hard. Good, she could be done with a dose of fear.
If I thought she’d been cow-towed, I was entirely incorrect.
‘We’re going to miss our flight, aren’t we?’ she breathed, a smirk crossing her petulant face.
‘Not if I can help it. Even if we do, there will be another one in the morning. All you’re doing is delaying the inevitable.’
She shifted beneath me, sending warring feelings into my groin. She was making my job difficult, and making me look like an idiot, and anger still bubbled through me, but her soft body pressed beneath me was a fantasy in itself. If only she wasn’t such a pain in the fucking ass.
‘I’m not going back,’ she said with enough intention to show me she really believed that was a viable option.
‘You’re going back if it’s the last job I do. I will not be fucked over by a spoiled brat.’
‘That’s what this is about, isn’t it? You think I’m not worth real love because I had a privileged upbringing? That I deserve this shitty marriage.’
It cut because it was partly true. She had a much better life than I did, and she was going to throw it all away because she had to marry some fucker she hated. He’d probably be dead within a few years anyway with the amount of enemies he’d wracked up.
‘I don’t care about you or your marriage or any of the shit behind this job. I’ve been paid to do a job and I will do it. I care about my reputation.’
She deliberately ground her hips upward, sending a jolt through me as she grazed against my cock. ‘There is more to life than your reputation. I could give you the time of your life and then we could go our separate ways and you can say that you couldn’t find me.’
‘You are nothing but a fucking brat. You’re lucky I don’t take a finger for stabbing my tyre. I’m sure your father wouldn’t begrudge me one or two for the shit you are putting me through.’
‘You wouldn’t.’
‘Stop testing me or you’ll find out.’
I heaved myself off of her and secured her wrists behind her back with some more cable ties, dragging her roughly back to the car and launching her into the back seat.
Pulling up the floor of the car’s trunk, I punched the back of the headrest in front of me, needing an outlet for the frustration building inside of me. There was no spare in the gap at the back, only some foam to limp the car to a mechanic. My knuckles smarted as I pulled out the can and attempted to fill the tyre, the foam bubbling out of the slit she’d made.
I’d call ahead to the next town and see if there was someone there who could fix it today, and just take it slow and hope we could get it there.
When I opened my door and leaned into the car to grab my phone, it wasn’t there. I slapped my pockets but came up empty. Reaching into the back, I pulled out my rucksack and upended it in my seat, shifting through my clothing and toiletries. Nothing.
Esther was lying in the backseat where I’d thrown her and blinked away when I tried to meet her eyes.
‘Where is my phone, Esther?’
She ignored me. I threw my body over the seat and grabbed her by the throat, digging my fingers into the sides as she tried to wriggle away.
‘Where the fuck is it?’
She wetted her lips as she smirked, not knowing when to stop pushing me. ‘In the river.’
I saw red. I wanted to hurt her. To lay claim to my threats like I usually would with an uncooperative prisoner. My fingers dug further into her flesh as her face reddened. She replaced the smirk with genuine fear. Fear that stopped me in my tracks. I may have been fucking livid, but deep down, I didn’t want Esther to fear me. Some tiny part of me, way deep down, liked the brat. Admired her tenacity and her willingness to do whatever it took to get her way. Unfortunately, she used that against me.
She drew a sharp breath as I let her throat go, tears stinging at the edge of her eyes.
‘I’m not sorry,’ she said.
It took everything in me to temper my anger to a workable level, from deep breaths to digging my fingernails into my palms. There was no way we’d make the flight, but I’d just have to get to the next town and book another one. Staring out of the window at the road unfurling before us, I sighed. There was nothing for it but to try to limp the car to the next village and hope someone would contact a mechanic for me.
NINETEEN
ESTHER
Alec’s anger was palpable, even from the back seat where he’d thrown me. The silence inside the car was brutal, contrasting with the awful noise from the wheel with the flat tyre. The small town was finally coming into view as the last golden rays of the setting sun lit up the buildings.
