Heir Untamed - By Danielle Bourdon Page 0,85
put the pieces together,” Elise said. She wore the usual gray athletic wear with white stripes down the sides.
“I just don't understand why, Elise. Why?” Chey hadn't put the phone down yet. She held it cradled in her laced fingers.
The muzzle of the gun trembled. Elise stared at her down the barrel, dark eyes gleaming and intent. “You should have taken the early warnings we gave you and left after the shooting. Come to the table and drink from the water.”
Chey wasn't so shocked to hear that those shots in the early morning by the lake had been a warning. An attempt to scare her off before she really got in deep with her job. She glanced at the table and the bottle of innocuous looking water. Something insidious must be inside. Poison? An undetectable substance that would stop her breathing or her heart? She'd heard of such things.
Perhaps if she screamed, a guard would get here not long after Elise pulled the trigger. Chey might have a chance to recover from a bullet wound as long as it wasn't to the head or a major organ.
As if reading her thoughts, Elise shook her head. “Do not think it. I am an excellent shot and you will not have a chance to summon a guard before I kill you. Now come over here.”
In Chey's hands, the phone chimed a text alert.
Elise narrowed her eyes. “Put the phone down. Now.”
Chey couldn't text Sander back without risking her life. She tossed the phone onto the bed.
“You still didn't tell me why. Or who. Who put you up to this, Elise?” Chey stalled approaching the table. She wasn't drinking whatever was in the bottle. Certain death lurked there. At least she had a slim chance of surviving a bullet wound.
“You ask many questions. Move.” Elise gestured with the gun.
“I deserve to know. I'm carrying it to my grave anyway. What does it matter?” Annoyance flared to temporarily smother the fear. She wanted to know whether it was Natalia or Viia that ordered the attacks. It had to be one or the other. Elise, as far as Chey could discern, had no reason to hurt her.
“Viia sends her regards. You should not have meddled.” Elise gestured again, this time more impatiently, toward the water.
Chey had expected Viia or Natalia but hearing a name put to the madness still shocked her. Viia. The woman probably paid the staff for inside information. It wouldn't have been difficult for her to find out about the meetings with Mattias. There were eyes everywhere, as the attacker the night in her room had suggested.
Taking a few steps closer to the table, Chey glanced across the surface for a weapon. A basket of fruit sat in the middle, useless.
“You don't want to take the fall for this, Elise. If you shoot me, then you'll be prosecuted for murder.”
“I think not. It will be covered up like all the other dark secrets of the Ahtissari's.”
“What dark secrets?” Chey frowned. Did Viia have enough pull to create that kind of cover up?
“On the count of three, Miss Sinclair, I am going to pull the trigger whether you have taken the water or not,” Elise said. “One--”
“Okay, okay.” Chey flashed her palms and closed the final few steps to the table. Picking up the bottle, she twisted off the cap. Elise stopped counting. Chey bought herself another second in the guise of lifting the water. At the last second, she gripped the base and shook water out of the bottle at Elise. Right at her face. A hard splash that landed exactly where Chey intended.
Startled, Elise jerked. The gun wavered.
It was now or never. Chey lunged for Elise's wrist, swinging her arm wide. A bullet thwipped from the silencer, penetrating the ceiling.
Elise clenched her teeth and shot her other hand out for Chey's throat.
Struggling to keep the gun trained away, Chey was about to shout for help when Elise clamped her jugular and squeezed. All that came out was a low garble of noise that wouldn't gain the attention of anyone.
The door to the bedroom burst open as the women tilted precariously, wrestling for control of the gun. Chey saw motion in periphery and the next thing she knew, blood bloomed bright in the center of Elise's forehead. The maid slumped to the ground.
Chey whipped a look to the door, fear lodged thick in her throat, sure that whoever had just entered meant to take them both out.
Allar stood there, gun still drawn,