Broken by His Hand - Piper Stone Page 0,78

the man’s hand. “You need to find out and let me know pronto. Do you hear me?”

“Ya... Yes, sir. Of course, sir.”

As the bellman scampered out, barely managing to close the door, I held back. “What is going on, Michael?”

He turned around after thirty seconds, taking gulping breaths, the anger evident by the murderous look in his eyes. “Get dressed. We’re leaving immediately.”

“What is going on? You have to tell me.” Daring to walk closer, I placed my hand on his arm, suspecting he’d yank it away. When he merely looked into my eyes, for the first time, I saw real fear in his.

“We’ve been compromised.”

* * *

“Why aren’t you opening the box?” I asked after the plane finally got into the air. I studied his face, the tension creating lines in his face, his jaw clenched tightly.

He shifted his hate-filled gaze toward the box, hissing under his breath. “It doesn’t matter. I don’t need to.” He’d changed out of his suit, now wearing tight black jeans and an equally dark polo, the leather jacket from the night before draped over the back of one of the seats. While his weapon had been hidden in his jacket when we left the hotel, it was positioned prominently in a location he could retrieve at a moment’s notice.

While I was aware the various items that he’d purchased had been brought to the plane, I’d chosen to wear the clothes I’d brought. What I hadn’t seen during the transportation was the bag holding the necklace.

The thought of his desire to control everything made me shiver even more than the night before. Whatever was going on had yanked him back into the darkness I’d fought so hard to drag him out of. He’d spent twenty minutes on the phone, barking orders and cursing, his anger off the rails.

“Yes, I think you do. You just don’t want to do it in front of me. Right?” I pressed.

“You don’t understand.”

“You’re absolutely right. How the hell could I? If you want me to buy into this aspect of danger as well as share a life of any kind with you, then you’re going to have to let me in. I’m a big girl. I can take whatever is inside.” I leaned forward, placing my hand on his knee. His initial response was to fist his hand. When he finally exhaled, I could see a small change in him. What could be so horrible inside the damn plain brown box?

“This is the third box I’ve received in a few days. While it’s not necessarily about the contents, there is no possible chance that our location could have been discovered. None. Whoever this asshole is must be someone I know and up until now, trusted.”

“I don’t want to disagree with you, but unless you signed into the hotel under an assumed name, it would be easy for someone to track you down.”

“Not with the secure system that the corporation has spent making certain that kind of shit can’t happen,” he retorted, finally leaning forward and placing his head into his hands.

“Then who knew where we were going?”

“My brothers. No one else.”

Sighing, I wasn’t entirely certain how to counter his thoughts. “It’s not one of your brothers.”

“Then who the hell could it be?”

“The pilot?”

He chuckled. “He’s been with us for years and paid handsomely to look the other way. Not a chance. There’s another reason that concerns me deeply. I arranged for it to appear that I’d been injured critically.”

“What?”

“I wanted whoever was responsible to believe that I was sequestered in a hospital after the shooting, barely hanging onto life.”

“Oh, my God,” I whispered, trying to take everything in.

“There were only a few people who knew anything about the truth, including Gregory’s fiancée, who is a detective with the DC police. The meeting that I had this morning was with a person I believed could shed some light on the individual I believe to be responsible.”

“You already have too many loose ends, Michael. You’re playing a game that you might not be able to win.”

“That is entirely possible, but the plain truth is that someone opened their mouth, betraying me.”

“If your enemy is as powerful as you deem him to be, then he either found a weakness or figured out the required price to pay for the information. Everyone has a price.”

He lifted his head, giving me a half smile. “You’re right. I need to start thinking like him.”

“Then open the box. Every clue will lead you closer to his