Secret Weapon Spouse - By B. J. Daniels Page 0,50
the next flight to Knoxville, Tennessee. Take care of them out there. The roads where they’re headed are narrow mountain lanes. It should be easy for you to make sure they never make it back here.”
“Do you realize what you’re asking me to do?” Victor said mentally adding up the cost for two murders.
“I’m not asking you. I’m telling you. I want them taken care of.”
“Then we’d better discuss my fee.” He tossed out a number, having no desire to go to Tennessee. And even less desire to kill Samantha Peters. He’d missed catching her at home last night and clearly tonight was out, but maybe when she returned…
“I’ll pay you double your fee. Just make sure that neither of them returns to Miami.” The phone went dead.
His client had just raised the stakes. Only a fool would turn down that kind of money.
He waited, not surprised when his cell phone rang. “Yeah?”
“I’ve chartered you a jet. You’re still at the airport, right?”
“Right.”
“Take down this address in Tennessee. The area is isolated, nothing but squirrels, mountains and timber.”
“You want it to look like an accident?”
“That would be nice but not necessary. I just want them both dead.”
Chapter Thirteen
They hadn’t talked the rest of the short flight. Samantha had dozed. Or possibly pretended to. It gave Alex a chance to just look at her. He had so many questions. At least one of the big ones had been answered.
He knew the first time he’d touched her that she was more than a little gun-shy when it came to the opposite sex. He knew the look, the feelings, the reactions. He’d been burned himself and hadn’t even dated in months. It took a while to trust again and he wasn’t to that stage yet himself.
But he couldn’t imagine going through what she had. It proved how strong she was.
He wondered if that was why she’d changed her hair, tried to hide her body beneath the oversize suits. She came off as an ice princess when there was molten lava burning inside her. Their kisses had proven that.
She was scared of those feelings. So was he. And with good reason. She knew who he was. He couldn’t say the same of her. More than a wedding planner. But how much more?
Once they landed, Samantha gave him directions and they left Knoxville and quickly found themselves in the Smoky Mountains.
As they left the city and the roads became steeper and narrower, he caught her several times watching her side mirror. With a jolt, he realized why. “You think we’ve been followed?”
“It wouldn’t be the first time,” she said. “Someone’s been following us since the day Caroline was injured in the hit-and-run.”
He gritted his teeth. “And you didn’t bother to mention it?” How did she know about these things anyway?
She seemed to let that go without comment.
“Isn’t it pretty obvious who would be following us?” he asked. “Let’s see. Who lied about who he was? Who doesn’t seem to want to be found?”
“It could be someone who’s hoping we’ll find Presley for them,” she said.
He saw her expression. “Like my brother or my father?” He let out a curse. He hadn’t thought of that.
The road was now only a single lane as it climbed up a series of switchbacks. “You sure we’re on the right road?”
She was staring back at the road behind them. “It shouldn’t be much farther according to the directions we got back at the station.”
“Don’t get me wrong, I wouldn’t put it past either my brother or my father to hire someone to follow us. But you can’t think they hired the guy who almost killed you the night in the condo.”
“I don’t think he came there to kill me. Maybe scare me. But then I surprised him,” she said.
He glanced over at her, recalling what had happened at the hospital when he’d sneaked up behind her. “I’m sure you did.” He had to shift into four-wheel drive to make the next switchback up the mountain. “Or maybe he was there for the same thing you were. Maybe he’d realized he’d left something incriminating in the condo and had gone back to retrieve it. I’m putting my money on Presley Wells. Unless you know something else I don’t.”
“I don’t know any more than you do now.”
He shot her a look, wanting to believe her. Up ahead, the road flattened out a little and he spotted an old rusted mailbox with WELLS printed in crude letters on the side. “Looks like we