Page 4 of Breaking Rosalind
I slip my hand between our bodies, trying to reach for his cock, but he snatches my wrist with a punishing grip. Sweat breaks out across my brow. Seduction training wasn’t part of my academy’s curriculum, and I’m naturally inclined to despise men. My boss knows I’m no honey trap, but he always sets me up to fail.
Shit. If I can’t maintain this man’s interest, then I’ll never get invited to the Montesano mansion and I’ll never reach my targets.
Movement at the far end of the living room snatches my attention. I glance over his shoulder and lock gazes with a tiny blonde who can’t be much older than Miranda.
Bile rises to the back of my throat. Leroi must be like Matteo, dating age-appropriate women in public, but privately, favoring the young. I’m tempted to stick Leroi with the syringe, but I’m already in enough trouble with the Moirai.
Instead, I spew some bullshit so heinous that Leroi just laughs. He hurls me out of his apartment, and I make a mental note to myself: Men with lumps of coal instead of hearts don’t react well to the news of fake pregnancies.
I hang around outside his closed door for several minutes, wondering how the hell to salvage my mission. Maybe I could arrange the blonde’s unfortunate disappearance?
No way. I’m a murderer, not a monster. Monstersleave their victims alive to wallow in trauma and pain.
With a sigh, I hobble down the hallway toward the elevator. Fuck Leroi and his humongous dick. That soulless bastard made me break my fake Louboutins.
At this time of the morning, most of the rush hour traffic has died down, leaving the streets relatively quiet. I hobble past office blocks, apartment buildings, and the occasional cafe, daring anyone to ogle me in my slutty red dress.
When a black van slows in my periphery, every fine hair on the back of my neck stands on end. This vehicle can only belong to the Moirai Group, New Alderney’s largest firm of assassins, and my employer of fourteen years.
The vehicle makes a right turn at the next intersection and stops in my path, making my steps falter.
Shit.
I’m supposed to be in bed with Leroi, pursuing pillow talk, not pounding the pavement.
There are only so many times I can bullshit my way out of this failing mission, and I’ve already exceeded my quota.
As I approach the van, a side door slides open, revealing my recruiter and handler. In the almost fifteen years I’ve known him, Gunther has been perpetually thirty-five. He flashes me a grin of ice-white teeth, his pale blue eyes glittering with suppressed annoyance.
I step into the van, take a seat, and try not to sigh.
“What progress are you making with infiltrating the Montesano stronghold?” he demands.
“Leroi only communicates with his cousins at the nightclub or via text,” I reply.
“So, what’s he messaging them?”
My jaw tightens. It’s this level of intrusiveness that wrecked my progress with Leroi. After catching me snooping through his texts, he choked me to the brink of unconsciousness. The only thing that saved my life was humping his leg until I climaxed.
That was enough to convince him I manipulated him into breath play by fucking with his phone. He kicked me out for topping from the bottom, and I left with my life.
“He’s deleting those messages now,” I lie with a shrug.
Gunther’s eyes narrow, an impressive feat considering all the Botox. “Is he getting suspicious?”
“Not of me.” I smooth down my mahogany hair. “Leroi is completely infatuated.”
He turns his gaze to a laptop, and some of the tension in my shoulders melts. “Keep working on him,” he mutters. “He might be helpful with a potential job that’s paying multiple seven figures.”
I perk up. “Who do I need to kill?”
Gunther chuckles, the sound mocking and harsh. “Nice try, but you’re still demoted.”
“This makes no sense. I’m the closest we’ve ever gotten to the Montesano?—”
“The last time we trusted you on a large-scale mission, you damaged two-hundred grand’s worth of assets on a side quest.”
My jaw clenches. He wouldn’t understand, even if I explained why I went to rescue my daughter. Gunther would only use his knowledge of Miranda as a weapon to get me under his control.