His Contract, page 8
He nods, and I’m not sure if he’s answering both questions or just one. I cock my head to the side and he rubs at the back of his neck. “Rosalie is one of us. She’s a femme fatale. Working closely with hits before taking them out. She’s amazing and badass, but I sometimes wish our dad would’ve kept her out of the life-like your father did you. You went off and became a businesswoman and a baker. I sometimes wish she could’ve had that. I think she’s jealous because you’ve gotten to do what you want, but she feels like she has to honor our family. She’s one of the best on our team.”
I blink. I didn’t think about it like that. Because of my ignorance of what was happening around me, I was able to live my life how I wanted to. My father has never stopped any of my dreams, but growing up, I remember Dimitri and him would get into epic fights about his future. Dimitri wanted to go off and see the world or something and father made him first go to university for business and then go work for him, and that’s where he’s been the last ten years. Why did I get freedom when he wasn’t allowed a choice?
I suppose I wasn’t either. They chose to not tell me anything, so I never knew there was a choice to be had. I do remember when I was really little, I used to say one day I would work for my father as well, and take over his company, and he always told me that would never happen as long as he was living. I used to think he was a sexist jerk, who didn’t want a woman running the corporation he built, but now I realize he was trying to keep me from learning about his secrets. Did he think he would be able to keep it a secret for my entire life? Eventually, all secrets come to the surface. At some point, either before or after his death I would’ve figured something out.
“Shit! The quiche!”
Cason bolts from the chair and hurries out of the room.
“Shit!”
The acidic scent of smoke meets my nose. He burnt the crust if that’s how he made it. My heart hurts for the pastry. I hope he doesn’t expect me to eat the burnt crust. He left the door open. Standing, I go to it, the chain prevents me from passing through it, but I can at least see the rest of the place from the door.
I frown. All I’m seeing is a living room, a small log burning stove and oven, and a small kitchenette space. There’s a couch that faces the hall, but it doesn’t look like one of those that pulls out into a bed. Why would a place like this need more than one bed, when it’s clearly built for one person?
Where did he sleep last night? On that sofa that looks like it hasn’t seen cotton filling for the last decade?
I watch as he grimaces over the quiche with the browned top and burnt edges. He looks back down the hall and meets my gaze. His eyes glance at the chain secured around my ankle, making sure that I can’t make it out the door. “I burnt the quiche.”
A smile pulls at my lips. “I can smell and see that. The middle should be fine. I don’t advise eating the crust, it doesn’t look like any of the edges can be saved.”
He laughs as his gaze goes back to his ruined creation and he ruffles his hair. “Yeah, I suppose you’re right. I was trying so hard to make something that doesn’t come from a can. Well. The crust came from a can, but everything else was from scratch, sort of.”
I laugh with him. “Well, for our other meals, you could let me off this leash and I can help you. I might be a baker, but I can cook some, too.”
His blue eyes turn on me again and he frowns.
“I’m not going to try and get away, Cason. I’ve already told you, I have a fear of bears and I know that there’s a grizzly just waiting for me to take a step out into those woods to come and find me.”
Cason chuckles lightly and shakes his head. “There aren’t any grizzly bears in the woods here. It’s still New York, even if we’re in the rural part of it. There are black bears though.”
I tighten my hold on my mug. The thought of running into any bear no matter their kind sets me on edge. “I don’t care if cuddly-looking pandas roam these woods, I don’t want to run into any of them.”
A deep laugh bursts forth from him, and he places his hand on his stomach. “Cuddly pandas?”
My lips curve into a smile. I guess it’s a little funny, even if I’m dead serious about not wanting to wander the woods alone. I don’t do well with nature. I was raised in the jungle that is called New York City. The few hiking trips I did go on while on school trips were enough for me to get a taste of nature and decide that it wasn’t for me. “It’s not funny, Cason. Pandas are dangerous, too!”
He wipes a tear from his eye as his laughter dies down and he looks at me. “Like I said, Jo, I would never let anything hurt you.”
His stare goes straight to my core, wetness begins to pool and the ache in my clit from earlier has returned with a vengeance. I’m reminded of the fact that I’m not wearing my clothes, and that there’s no underwear between me and Rosalie’s shorts. Hell, I’m not sure if underwear could save the shorts at this point. Part of me wishes I could close the door and keep him out so I can take care of myself.
Being here, alone, with him, I don’t know if I’ll be able to hide my desire for him. Before all the shit happened, I was going to make a point of telling him how I feel. His gaze turns away from me and he starts to cut into the burnt quiche.
My thoughts go back to what we were talking about before he remembered he was cooking. I hadn’t gotten to hear what he planned to do if he had kids. Would he want them to be killers like him? When I was younger, before my thoughts turned to sex and nothing else, I would daydream about us getting married and having kids. A boy and a girl. But with this new knowledge, I’m not sure I would want kids with him. At least, I would want them to be able to choose what they want to be and not be forced into it like he was.
I shake my head, like that would even be an option. I need to get these thoughts out of my head. He’s not into me and us running off together can’t happen. He’s clearly too honorable to his family to ever be willing to break the promise, right?
“Jo?”
I blink, he’s standing in front of me with two plates. It looks like in the end he just scooped the egg filling onto the plates and we’re having scrambled eggs. I take a step back, realizing he’s wary of me standing so close to the door. “Sorry.”
He holds the plate out to me. I take it as he motions for me to go back to the bed to eat it. I do without hesitation, the chain clunks on the hard floor as it follows me. I set my coffee on the floor. I wish we had a table to eat at or something, it would be nice not to have to hold my food.
Taking a seat on the edge of the bed, I pull my legs up to sit cross-legged. Oh god, I can smell my arousal. I didn’t think it was that bad. Can he smell it, too? Who knows what he would think of it. The burnt smell is probably covering it, I’m being paranoid. I take a bite of the eggs and nod. “Not bad.”
He grimaces. “I was really aiming higher than not bad, but I’ll take it since I burnt it.”
I raise a brow at him. “I’m serious about cooking for us if you’ll let me. You can stand by the front door the entire time and chain me back up after if you really don’t trust me. I just want to be able to eat food that doesn’t smell burnt while we’re here.”
His nose wrinkles as he takes a bite of the food and then sets his fork on his plate. His gaze meets mine. “If you’re honest about not snitching on me or my family, we don’t have to be here much longer. We just have to wait for your father to report you missing and think Sacha took you. Then I can return you to him. So another day or two.”
Yeah, my father should notice soon that I’m not around. Ensley has his number in case of emergency, she should be contacting him soon if she hasn’t already. I shrug a shoulder. “Or, we could stay here longer, until we can’t anymore. Like a vacation. Just make your family think you’re turning me and I’m resisting, but almost there.”
He raises a brow. “You want to willingly stay here with me? Even after everything? I assumed after everything was all said and done, you would want nothing to do with me, and I would be banned from your bakery.” His voice falls a bit at the last part.
Does he look forward to him coming to the bakery nearly every morning as much as I do?
“I was mad, no I am mad, Cason. At you, at my family. I don’t like knowing that everyone has kept such a big secret from me all my life. Do you know how that feels? I feel like I’ve been living the Truman Show and I’ve just figured out what everyone has known all along. I feel like a moron. But even with that anger there, I don’t think I could ever hate you or not want to see you. You’ve been a big part of my life. Knowing you kill people is hard to digest, but I’d rather know about it and have you in my life, than know about it and not have you here.” My heart thuds against my breast bone. That was practically a confession of love. How is he going to take it?
Cason’s adam’s apple bobs as he uses his fork to play with his food. I guess he doesn’t like it at all.
I take another bite. It’s not terrible. The peppers and ham he put into it are good.
“Spending time with you would be nice. We haven’t gotten to really hang out since you were a kid, and I haven’t had a day off in I don’t know how long. I’m sure you could use longer than a day off as well. I know you still go to the bakery even when it’s closed to bake other things. Some time off for the both of us would be good.”
Well, it wasn’t a rejection. I’m not sure he fully understood what I said, but I’ll take it. He probably thinks I mean in a platonic capacity. A brother and sister hanging out together and having fun. My nose wrinkles at the thought of him being like a brother to me. I already have one, more if I count the other Bancrofts. I kind of grew up with Silas and Beckett as well. They used to play with me before they got too old to want to play with a kid. Rosalie is the only Bancroft who wasn’t years older than me. And, due to her upbringing, she didn’t stay a kid for long either.
“What are you thinking about?”
I shake my head. “Nothing. It’s just crazy how life happens. One second you think you’ve got a handle on everything for once. Nothing is slipping anywhere and then something comes out of nowhere to knock it off-kilter again. It’s like your spinning plates constantly, and no matter how hard you try, one of them ends up falling and crashing to the floor. You know? Nothing can ever be good for long. Something always suffers so something else can keep going.”
He nods and stands. “I feel that every day. Something always suffers. This time it’s you, and I’m sorry. I will keep saying that until the end of time.” He frowns at his plate. “I don’t think I can eat this. Do you want yours? I can take it from you. I need a shower... I mean bath, and then together we can work out something else to eat. You can be off the chain as long as I’m with you.”
Hell, the thought of him in the bath, being naked feet from me. I don’t know if I can handle that. I look at the food. It might not have been terrible, but I don’t want any more of it. “That sounds good. I can take stock of what there is and plan out some meals for us.”
Cason takes the plate from me and nods. “And if we decide to stay longer, and make my father believe I’m still working with you, then he’ll bring us more at the end of the week. I don’t think we’ll be able to go longer than that. He’ll want it handled after fourteen days. We also don’t want him to think we’re shacking up and breaking the family promise.”
My heart falls a bit, he sounds super unwilling to ever go against his family and the promise. Even here, in the middle of the woods, with no one around to tell on us, I can’t have him.
Chapter Eleven
Cason
I brush the food off the plates and into the trash, before putting them in the sink. My mind is abuzz with so many thoughts. She wants to stay here with me for a week or longer. Not because we have to, but because she wants to hang out. Could there be another reason behind it? She made it sound like she couldn’t live without me, and most people don’t think of people they see as siblings in that sense. At least, I never had. I would be devastated if one of my siblings died, but I would be able to carry on without them.
My hands shake as I think about Josie dying, I wouldn’t be able to do it. I don’t think I would be able to function, or I wouldn’t want to. If this all turned out different and I had to put her down, I don’t think I would be able to handle it. I would get the job done, but in the process, I would follow her. Then Michail could think that It was a murder-suicide. He might hold it against my family, but the culprit who took his daughter away from him would be dead. There would be no revenge to be had.
I shake my head. I shouldn’t be thinking about things like that. She’s already said she won’t say anything. I can watch her for the next week to make sure that’s true. In the end, none of us will know what she’s going to do until we get her back to civilization, but I can at least try to make her fully see we aren’t the bad guys. At least, not when it comes to her.
My phone buzzes in the pocket of my black sweats. I’ve been wearing the same thing since everything went down. I don’t care for baths, but I’ll take anything right now, just so I don’t feel like I stink in front of her.
I pull my phone out. Michail. I figured he would be calling me soon. I already reported to him that Sacha never showed for the shipment and that I would be out looking for him in all his usual haunts.
“Hey. I haven’t been able to find him. It’s like he disappeared out of the city. Don’t worry, I’ll catch the bastard. He’ll be dead soon.”
Michail growls from the other end. “That bastard took Josie!”
I growl back, making sure it uses the real emotion I would have if it had happened like that. The man would be dead a thousand times over if he’d actually taken her. “What do you mean he took Josie? I watched him drop her off at home before I went to wait for him at the bakery.”
“I don’t fucking know. All I know is her friend called in a panic. She said that Josie got an alert on her phone about a security problem at the bakery and went to check it out. Apparently, my little girl doesn’t listen and had cameras set up in the back. We were only able to find one in the storeroom, but it didn’t have anything to show us. The second one is gone.”
My heart hammers. It doesn’t sound like he suspects me in anything. I don’t think he would, he knows how much I care about her. “I never saw him that night or her. If I had, she would be safe right now. I waited until midnight and then left to check out the casino and strip clubs he was at earlier in the week. He’s been working closely with Petrov, I’m certain of it. I have a feeling he didn’t decide to take her on his own. He’s probably working with someone. Don’t worry. I won’t rest until I find her.”
“I knew I could trust you to find her. Be quick and, Cason, when you find the bastard and whoever else is in on this. I want you to string them up by their sacks and let them bleed out slowly as their balls turn blue. Petrov will rue the day he ever thought to mess with me like this.”
The line goes dead and I let my hand drop as I let out a sigh. He believed it, but I think I’ve caused issues for Petrov. It’s fine, the two of them have been at each other’s throats for a long time. He’s one of the red flag people, but I’ll take him out gladly if it makes it so Michail doesn’t notice my actual involvement. It’s better that way.
Leaving the kitchenette area, I head outside to my Ford Bronco and grab a duffle bag from the back. It has a full week of clothes, hair dyes, wigs, and fake facial hair if I ever need any of it, or to go into hiding for a while. I wish I kept a second one for a woman in my truck as well, but I never thought something like this would happen.
I take it back inside with me and head to the bedroom. She’s standing at the window, peering out at the trees. I frown as my gaze goes to the chain linked to her ankle. I hate it. I know she’s afraid of bears. But I don’t know if she’s serious about that fear or if she wants me to think she is. I’ll keep her on it for a few days, and only take her off it when I’m next to her.
She glances over her shoulder. “I heard you leave. I thought you were going to leave me in here alone.”
I shake my head. “I would never do that to you. I just went to go get my travel bag.”
I hold it up and she nods.
“Do you need anything before I go take my...” I grimace, “bath?”
She laughs. “Still not a fan of bathtime, huh? I’ll never forget some the stories your mother has told me about when you were younger. How you hated bathtime so much that you would get out of the water and force her to chase you across the house na―”
I clear my throat. “Let’s not relive those memories, shall we? I can’t believe she talked to you about that stuff. When did that happen?”
“Christmas two years ago, when it was at your family’s estate. She brought out the albums. You weren’t there, you were away on a... business trip. You killed someone on Christmas?”
I grimace at her tone and the fact she’s probably seen way too many polaroid photos of me naked as a child. I seriously regret those years when I hated clothes. “I didn’t kill them on Christmas, I gave them the holiday and killed them the next day while they were on a ski trip. I made it look like they hit trees while snowboarding and broke their necks.”
She winces at my detail. “Them?”
“They were twin brothers from France; they were serial rapists. One of their victims hired Bancroft I.N.K to take them out. I usually make deaths for people like them painful, but the only time I could get them before they took another victim was while they were vacationing with their family in Aspen Colorado.”
She frowns. “They were really rapists?”
I nod. “You can look them up, they were known in Russia and had been in prison for it once, but their family had money, so nothing ever sticks when people can be bought off. There’s articles warning women to not interact with them if they see them. Bancrofts don’t kill the innocent, Josie. We never have, and as long as I’m in charge, we never will. The men and women on our lists have valid reasons to die.”
