Don't Hate Me (Club Pétale), page 16
I’d like to think that I was unlike them because Rolf had saved me. Raised me from when I was but a child until I was ready to go out on my own. That he had done this because he saw a poor and struggling family willing to sell their child to the highest bidder.
It could have been much worse, and I should have been grateful that he had saved me from whoever else wanted to do me harm.
So why was I feeling so angry? I should understand that this was his job. Understand that he would do this to any one of his projects. But instead, I feel betrayed.
I had conflicting feelings about Rolf. The child inside me looked at him as a father. Saw him as someone that I should have been close to. Someone who protected me.
But the adult in me knew he was just as flawed as the rest of us. That he was just looking out for himself. And no matter what, I shouldn’t trust him as much as the child inside me wanted to.
Rolf was across from me, not sitting at his desk but standing right in front of it. It made it so he was towering over me. Something he had done on occasion to remind me exactly who was in charge here.
I had only been invited to his office a few times before this. All of them were when he was reprimanding me for something I did. Though this time, I couldn’t tell what I had done. Which made me all the more angry.
I had been getting close to Blake like they had asked. It was taking a long time, but for a job like this, I needed to move with caution. Rolf should understand that.
But this felt more serious than all those other times. He hadn’t once opened his mouth to speak since telling me to sit down.
Which meant he was waiting for something. Or someone.
My phone vibrated in my pocket, the loud, harsh sound cutting through the quiet.
Rolf’s gaze shot to mine, watching my reaction. I kept it as cool as possible.
“Are you going to get that?” he asked.
“Nope,” I said and leaned back into the couch. “I can reply later.”
“Is it the target?”
I pursed my lips, unable to help the uncomfortableness that spread throughout my body. “Yes.”
“Let me see—”
“No,” I said far too quickly. There was a silence between us. Rolf shifted, causing me to tense up and get ready for a fight. “I have it handled. Don’t interfere.”
Rolf let out a bitter laugh.
“If you had it handled, you wouldn’t fucking be here,” he said, shaking his head.
Now that got my attention.
“What do you mean?” I asked. “I have been doing my job. Getting close to her. What am I missing?”
“It will be five months since you’ve successfully infiltrated the club and made contact,” he said. “Even longer since you’ve had the job. The rate this is going is unacceptable.”
“And you should remember that this job came with not one but two complications. Not only did I have to murder her obsessive fuck toy, but she is assigned to a fucking presidential candidate. You even told me this would be a longer job, so I am not sure why I am here.” I growled. “I just got invited to her apartment after cleaning up the mess you forced me into. How do you expect me to get all the information in such a short amount of time?”
Rolf shook his head and let out a bitter laugh.
“Short amount of time? Agent, this is the longest job you have ever been on. I knew I should have sent someone who was better at seduction.”
Anger boiled under my skin. What the fuck happened within the few months that I had taken this job? Did someone say something? Was there a change of plans from the client? Sure, this was longer than usual, but I thought we were all on the same page.
“Seduction isn’t the issue,” I hissed. “You have to be kidding me, Rolf. What the fuck is this about? We both knew it would take a long time, which is why I am also taking small side jobs. Did you forget about that?”
His jaw twitched, and he let out a huff.
“I didn’t forget,” he said.
“So what changed?” I pushed, leaning forward. “This isn’t about me, is it?”
His eyes searched mine. Finally. I was getting somewhere. The child inside me rejoiced. I knew he wasn’t going to call me in here for any of this bullshit.
Maybe he too was under pressure from the client. That’s the only reason I could think as to why Rolf would act like this.
A ping from his phone pulled both of our attention to it. It was face up on the desk and lit up when the message came in. From my spot I couldn’t make out the message, but Rolf’s body language told me it was someone important.
Rolf’s entire demeanor changed to that of my stern handler once more. One step forward, two fucking steps back.
“It’s the client,” he said as he picked up his phone. “He wanted to speak with you.”
My heart seized in my chest. Directly? The client wanted to speak to me?
Was this Alec Crowe? It had been bothering me since I saw the name in the files.
I had done my best to try and research exactly how they could be connected, but I came up with nothing.
He put the phone on speaker as it dialed the number. It took a few rings to pick up, but when he did, it was silent.
“I have the agent here with me,” Rolf said, placing the phone down. “Feel free to speak your mind.”
Rolf’s gaze pinned me to my spot. It was his warning that I better act right or I would join the others that had been decommissioned on this very couch.
“I’m disappointed,” the man on the other line said. His voice was low, a bit husky, but overall calm and not at all as angry-sounding as I thought he would be. I tried to commit the voice to memory, the only clue I had about him. “I pay you good money, and yet she still isn’t taken care of.”
“It’s been difficult to gain her trust,” I said. “But I am working on it. As soon as she spills the information she has, I will gladly put a knife in her chest.”
My stomach clenched at the thought of Blake’s blood all over my hands. I had fantasized about others’ blood on her, but when it came to her own? I didn’t like thinking about it one bit.
Seconds ticked by with no response.
“What have you learned so far?” he asked.
“Only the basics,” I replied. “She’s been hiding from something. She’s been scared. She has to take anxiety medicine to curb panic attacks. Though from what, I am not sure. She has yet to divulge that information. My guess is that it has something to do with Alec—”
“Is this a fucking joke?” he asked. “I told you I needed to know what she knew as soon as possible, and this is what you give me?”
Rolf crossed his arms over his chest. Fuck. I was fucking this up badly.
“She’s had eyes on her the entire time. We need to move with caution, or else there’s no chance at me getting the information you need. If this were any other person, I would torture them until they spilled, but you and I both know whoever is following her would catch me. Maybe even before I was able to get the information you desire.”
The man didn’t speak, and I didn’t expect a man like him to enjoy getting talked back to by me.
“But if your motives have changed, let me know, and I’ll just kill her instead,” I said. “Though if you’d like to stay the course, you could always tell me why you are so interested in this agent, and maybe it would help me navigate her.”
Rolf gave me a warning look and stepped forward as if he was about to teach me with his fists not to speak back.
“The information she has is about the inner workings of Alec Crowe and his close associates,” he said. “Some of whom are connected to me in ways I would rather have them not be. Knowing what she does would help with… damage control and who knows what. If she leaks any names, maybe you’ll get more business from me.”
Relief caused my shoulders to sink. He’s not Alec Crowe at least… but someone who can’t be associated with his gang. That should have been the best-case scenario, but something sank to the pit of my stomach at the knowledge. My gut instincts had never been wrong before, and this time they were telling me that whoever was on the other side of the phone may be even more dangerous than the gang leader.
“Anything else, sir?” Rolf asked.
“Two months,” the voice said. “Finish this in two months, or I will have Rolf decommission you.” There was a sound on the other line that I couldn’t quite make out. It sounded like a soft voice and maybe the sound of footsteps, but I couldn’t be sure, he hung up too quickly.
My shocked gaze shot to Rolf, but his eyes were on his phone. The hot pain of the betrayal burned my insides.
“Rolf, what did h—” I moved to get up but was forced back by his hand connecting with my face.
Normally, I would have been able to see it coming. To at least block it before it made contact. But the shock of what the client said combined with the action caught me completely off guard.
Rolf was no stranger to physical punishment… but I had thought we got through that conversation pretty well. Why would he—
“I’m starting to regret ever taking you in,” he spat at me. “If I had just an inkling of how much trouble you would have been, I would have had your parents cut your price in half.”
The whiplash from his violent change in emotions caused my head to swim. His words were like salt to an already gaping wound. A wound that had been open and festering since I learned the truth about how I came into his possession.
I was young when it happened, maybe six or seven, and since then, my memories have grown blurry. I didn’t remember my parents’ faces, or what they sounded like, or the horrible stories of my life that Rolf told me.
I only remembered the seaside where I grew up. I remembered the black sand beaches and rocky shores. I remember the chill it left in my tiny body.
Then my memories pick up when I first started training. It wasn’t long after I was taken in that they started my training, but it would be a good few years before they even considered sending me on a job. One that I fucked up so badly that I just recently began to pay back the blackmail that was hanging over my head.
I understood Rolf to an extent. This job was his life, just like it had been mine. Any chance of fucking it up would mean the end of our lives, literally.
But I thought he cared more than that. Or at least my inner child foolishly hoped he did.
“I would argue to say that you got far more money out of me than they ever did,” I said and rubbed my stinging cheek. “I don’t need to tally up the jobs to know I’ve been the best investment you’ve ever made.”
“If you don’t finish this up real quick, I will lose all of it. We will lose all of it. So you better get your ass back to her before you ruin this for the both of us,” he threatened.
I gritted my teeth.
I wanted to say so much more to him. I wanted to yell at him. Throw shit. Hit him like he hit me.
Most of all, I wanted to make him take back those cruel words.
I hated him at times and thought about ending his life more times than I could count, but I always thought that there was at least some part of me that he still cared for.
Maybe it was finally time for me to realize that the man who had saved me from whatever fate had in store for me saw me as nothing more than a cash cow.
I turned my back toward him, hiding the grimace on my face.
“I’ll end this soon,” I vowed.
“Before the clients’ deadline,” he ordered. “Two weeks, and I want you back here with her blood staining your clothes.”
I didn’t answer him. I couldn’t. Whatever strength I had left had been used to fuse my mouth shut. There was a sickening feeling in my stomach that threatened to cause bile to rise in my mouth.
I couldn’t put an emotion to it. I had never felt something like this before. Through all my kills. Through all the times I carved the eyes out of my targets. Through all the bloodshed. I had never felt this way.
But here it was. So strong that it threatened to choke me. I almost wished it would.
Blake
“Sir, I have a call on the line for—”
I paused in my tracks when I opened the door to the senator's office.
All the lights in the office were off save for the computer on his desk which glowed softly. He was standing at his desk, slightly bent over the table, and staring down at his phone. His head snapped in my direction. His eyes were narrowed, and his mouth was set in a grimace.
I had never seen him look so angry before.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
I turned to walk right back out the door.
“No, it’s okay, Tiffany,” he said and took a deep breath. He ran his hand over the back of his neck and rolled his shoulder. “Sorry, you said there was a call for me?”
“Yes, sir,” I said, handing him the secure phone we used for communication between him and various government officials. We had strict rules to keep it on one of us at all times and it changed shifts with us. “It’s the treasurer. He has something urgent to speak with you about.”
“Got it,” he said and reached out to take the phone from me. I walked toward him, meeting him halfway. “Thank you.”
“Of course,” I said with a strained smile. I was about to leave when he spoke again.
“How are you liking your new position?” he asked.
Was he just going to ignore whoever was on the phone?
I looked toward him, remembering what he looked like when he came back into the house after being arrested. He was angry then too, but hid it behind the same exact mask.
It caused a shiver to go through me, and suddenly I felt all too confined in the space. A voice in the back of my head told me to turn back and run in the opposite direction.
“Definitely a change from before,” I said with a smile. “But I think I’m fitting in quite well. I’ll leave you and Mr.—”
“Oh, he can wait,” he said, hanging up the phone and slipped the phone into his pocket. “After all, I think it’s in my best interests to learn about the person who’s protecting my family, right? You were doing some events before this and then moved on to former President Grant’s wife?”
I let out a forced laugh and shifted on my heels. This is beyond uncomfortable. The memories of his harsh words when he caught Ryan and I ran through my mind.
He hadn’t acted bothered about it since then, but that didn’t mean I wanted to be in a dark room with him.
“Do you do this much research on all of your secret service agents?” I really didn’t know what I expected him to answer, but it wasn’t for him to give me that slimy smile of his before—
“No,” he said all too cheerfully. “Only to the special ones.”
I don’t want your fucking attention. Inside I was torn between being creeped out and anger.
I knew this was a bad fucking job, so why did my boss do this to me?
“The events were mostly around New York, with the rare visit to DC before my assignment,” I said. “Though it was nothing exciting.”
Please just stop talking. Please just stop talking. Please just—
“Did you want it to be more exciting?” he asked, his eyes never wavering from my face. “I mean, you’re young. Heard you entered this career even younger. I would expect someone like you to want the more exciting role, yet you only just took one after all your years with the Secret Service.”
I swallowed thickly. I don’t know what it was about him that tipped me off, but I got some serious bad vibes from the man. I mostly hung around his wife and kids while he was holed up in the office or doing other things, so I didn’t get to interact with him like this.
I was glad I didn’t fully shut the door behind me.
I tried to stop my eyes from looking back at it so as not to let him know just how uncomfortable I was. But by the gleam in his eye, maybe he was excited about the possibility of me being stuck in here against my will.
“Is this a bribe?”
His face cracked, and he let out a laugh.
“No, just making conversation,” he said. “Is it wrong to try and get to know people in my service?”
Not your service, but the government’s, I wanted to say, but I didn’t let it slip past my lips.
Even if everyone else wasn’t sure he would win the presidency, he sure as hell was.
“It seems your research was pretty thorough,” I mused. “Maybe this conversation isn’t needed.”
Something passed through his eyes before a smile spread across his lips.
“Maybe it’s not,” he agreed and took a step back. “You can go now. Thank you.”
I nodded and left the way I came, feeling his eyes on me the entire time.
Will you come over tonight?
I stared at the unanswered text message on my phone with a frown. The silence in my apartment seemed that much more prominent now that Quinn wasn’t messaging me back. It had been over five hours since I sent it, a new record for her.
Besides the first time I ever sent a message, she usually responded right away, and her lag caused a new anxiety to sprout within me.
Did Sloan say something to scare her off? Sloan didn’t seem like the type of person who would intentionally scare off someone I was interested… but she did seem rather worried about her.
The image of Avery wiping the blood that had come from Quinn’s hair off my hands caused me to shudder.
What kind of person would come to the club drenched in blood? It was obvious that she had tried to shower it off beforehand given her damp hair, but had she really been in such a rush that she would miss it so completely?
That didn’t seem like Quinn.
From what I could tell so far, she was meticulous in everything she did. In the way she dressed, her suit was always without a wrinkle. In the way she interacted with me. She always knew what to say, like she had thought it out well before I said anything.
The only time I seemed to catch her off guard was when we had sex.
Or maybe… she finally got bored of you?
Was our time enough for her? Based on her words, I would have assumed she was just as interested in me as I was in her….
