Page 82 of Playing for Keeps

We were on a boat, bobbing on choppy waters.

And worst of all, I had no idea where Levi was.

A shiver raced through me. I tucked my bare feet up underneath me, struggling to stay upright as the boat and my head swayed. The pants and light sweater I’d put on this morning for work were spotted with drops of blood, and it made my own blood run cold.

Drawing my eyes up to Kelly, I opened my mouth to plead for as much information as she could give. Before I could form a single word, a metal screech sounded from the other side of the room.

Swinging my head around toward the sound, I lost my balance and fell onto my elbow. A sharp pain sliced up my arm, and it took everything in me not to close my eyes and surrender to sleep again. But the sight I found when I raised my gaze from the floor had my heart jumping in my chest.

“Rhys!” I struggled forward, struggled against the plastic that bit my wrists and the rope that tied me to the floor. My boss’s gaze landed on me, his lips twitching up into a smirk. But all the lightness that rushed through me at the sight of him was promptly shattered as it was dropped through the floor.

Because behind Rhys was a sight that nightmares were made of, and suddenly everything Aaron had said started to make sense.

“Be careful of him,” Aaron warned. “I don’t like the way he looks at you.”

I huffed out a breath, irritated that his eyes were on my hair wrapped around his finger instead of on me. “Do I need to be worried? He’s my boss.”

“No, I just don’t want you to be alone with him.” His dark eyes finally met mine. Even though his warm palm cupped my cheek, a cold shiver raced through me. “I don’t want you to get hurt.”

Rhys stepped to the side and the man behind him came into full view. The man who’d perched his ass on my desk, crowding my space, giving me weird vibes as he’d scrutinized my work. The man who’d held a gun to Aaron’s head, then pulled the trigger without so much as a blink.

Jim Parker’s eyes roamed over my body as he clutched at the bar on the wall near the door. He was swaying worse than the boat, but the look on his face was creepier than any I’d ever seen before.

“There she is.” He stumbled, slurring his words, and nearly fell as he took a step forward. Rhys rushed to steady him, then stepped away, coming toward me.

“Rhys, what’s going on?” I wanted to reason with my boss. I wanted him to tell me this was all a mistake. But all he did was kneel beside me, yank my chin up, and stare down upon me.

“Do you know how long I’ve waited for this?” he asked, twisting my head side to side, looking at me like I was some sort of prize. “How many months I’ve been trying to get you right here?”

“Wouldn’t have been so long if my fucking son had just done what he was told.” Wrenching my face out of Rhys’s grasp, I glared at Jim. “He thought he could protect you. Kept getting in our way.”

“It’s been months. Months that I’ve chased you. Stood by your side. Fucking protected you, hoping that someday you would see in me what I see in you. If you had any idea what I’ve done for you.”

Aaron had been protecting me from this. Stopping his father and my boss from dragging me into this dirty scheme.

And his father shot him because of it.

“How could you?” I asked, my voice shaky from more than just the cold.

“Don’t take it personal, sweetheart. It’s just business.”

“You killed your own son!” My voice screeched, echoing around the room.

Jim’s face fell, his pallor turning white. His eyes darted to Rhys, who had left my side but turned back at my yell.

“What are you talking about?” Rhys spit.

Struggling against my binds, I got my knees underneath me. As if that little bit of height might make them listen to what I said. “I saw it on video. I saw it all. Jim shot him in the head, Rhys. He shot him as Aaron begged for his life.”

“He was begging for yours.”

“What?”

Rhys turned away, his back to me as he walked among the girls. “He wasn’t begging for his own life, Jen. He was begging for yours.”

“He thought he could protect you,” Jim slurred as he gripped at the steel beam overhead. “Thought he could keep you from this. But they were insistent. No matter who you had ties to, they wanted you. They were fed up with Aaron’s interference, and he paid the price.”

“How could you do that to your own son?”