"You might be more interested if I told you that you have a target on your back right now."
Elijah didn't bother looking around. If Woolf had him covered, it wan't going to be obvious. Instead he made an effort to look relaxed. "You really think I'd go out without a backup plan? I've got someone on Violet. If I don't come back, then she won't either." A total fucking lie, but that didn't matter. He'd organize it as soon as he got back to the apartment.
Jesus, he wasn't on his game right now. He'd let her distract him, turn him from his purpose, and that couldn't happen again. He'd call some of his contacts, get something in place to make sure Violet stayed guarded. Then he'd put the pressure on Jericho, get this thing fucking done.
Woolf didn't say anything immediately, but there was something going on behind those hard, dark eyes. The man hadn't gotten where he was today by being stupid. "What was so important to you about Fitzgerald?" he asked after a moment.
"Why the hell should I tell you?"
Another moment of tense silence.
"Violet's my half sister," Woolf said. "Which makes her family. And you don't fuck with my family, understand?"
The words were hostile, no mistake about that. But Elijah also understood he'd just been given something important.
Violet was Woolf's half sister? How the hell did that work?
"Why would you tell me that?" he asked, ignoring his own curiosity.
"I give you something, you give me something." Woolf folded his arms. "Now's your chance, fucker."
"I don't have to give you a thing. Not when I have what you want."
"True. I could just have you shot right now and Violet'll have to take her chances."
"If Violet dies, your woman will be upset." Honor St. James, of course. Violet's best friend and sister of Alex, the man he'd warned off back in Monte Carlo. The man who hadn't listened.
He didn't give a shit about either of them.
Woolf's features hardened. "Sacrifices. We all have to make them."
Of course they did. And hadn't Elijah sacrificed everything to get where he was now? To be within striking distance at last of what he wanted?
He stared at the other man. He knew about Woolf. Knew about the man's friends. Knew that revenge was what had motivated them.
Once, many years ago, he'd actually met Alex St. James. Back in another life, when he'd had Marie at his side, he'd been a member of Alex's exclusive Second Circle club. Privately Elijah had despised the man, thinking him a shallow, arrogant playboy who used his money and popularity to make himself feel important.
Now though, it was different. A man with demons was easy to recognize when you had a legion of your own following you.
St. James, Woolf … they're like you in many ways.
The Colt was warm against his palm. So easy to pull the trigger now, shoot this bastard in the chest. Except of course that would draw attention.
Gabriel Woolf's dark eyes held his without flinching, and Elijah was sure the bastard knew exactly how close to death he was. And didn't seem to give a shit. It was … impressive.
"You wanted Fitzgerald's head?" Woolf said in a low, hard voice. "Well, so did the rest of us. We wanted him dead, just like you. And now he is, yet you've got Violet. Which says to me that you're planning something more. Something bigger. Something that involves her." He paused, his gaze sharp. "Revenge. That's what you want, isn't it?"
Well, shit. The guy was guessing clearly, but they were pretty well-educated guesses. Still, that wasn't any surprise, not when it had been Woolf's own quest for revenge that had ended with Fitzgerald dead on the floor by Eva King's hand. In fact, if he hadn't been so set on revenge himself, he wouldn't have begrudged the tech CEO her own little piece of it. But unfortunately, she'd taken what he'd been waiting for and working toward almost an entire decade.
"Revenge," Elijah spat. "If it was as simple as that, I would have killed that motherfucker years ago. But it's not, and you've got no fucking idea what I want. So keep your guesswork and your speculation to yourself."
Woolf ignored him. "I know revenge. I know exactly how simple it is."
But Elijah hadn't trusted another soul for years. He wasn't about to start now. Easing off his finger on the Colt, he said flatly, "This conversation is over. I'm going to turn around and walk away, and if you don't want Violet Fitzgerald dead, you'll let me. I suggest following me is also a pretty bad fucking idea."
The other man's jaw tightened. "She's still alive then?"
"Yeah." Elijah gave him one last cold look. "She is. So far."
Then without waiting for him to respond, he turned around and began to walk away.
Woolf didn't call after him and no shots were fired.
And no one followed him.
CHAPTER NINE
Violet turned the shower mixer straight to hot, as hot as she could stand, then she pulled off all her clothes and got underneath the stinging spray, flinching only slightly as it hit her still-sensitive skin. She shivered, feeling weirdly hot all over, like she was burning and yet there was a piece of ice sitting in the middle of her soul.
No wonder. You screwed your captor. Just how fucked up are you?
Losing her virginity up against a wall in an alley to the man who'd kidnapped her … Yeah, that ranked pretty highly on the fucked-up scale. It should have felt sleazy and wrong, but it hadn't. It had been painful and raw and … God, amazing. Addicting. Feeling connected like that to someone else, for the first time her in life … She didn't know quite how to describe it. As if there had been a hole in her soul and he'd filled it.
There was no use pretending she didn't know how it had happened this time. She knew, oh yes, she did. She'd wanted him. She'd been desperate for him. For his heat and his hard, rough touch. Loving the fact that she was the absolute focus of that intense, cold black gaze. That he'd come after her, chased her down like a deer in the forest.
Shit, she was so screwed up. Was she really that desperate for attention she found it thrilling to be chased by her captor? Did she really want to feel wanted that much?
It's not surprising when you consider your parents.
No, she wasn't going to think about her parents. Not now. There were too many skeletons in that particular closet and she didn't particularly want to go digging through them.
Violet grabbed a cake of soap and began washing herself with deliberation, shivering a little at the slickness of her hand on her own skin. He hadn't hurt her and yet she felt raw, like the top layer of her skin had been taken off, leaving the rest of her flesh achingly sensitive to any touch. And the soap and water seemed to make no difference to the feeling. If anything, they only made it worse.
God, she had to stop this. She'd just had unprotected sex with the man who'd kidnapped her at gunpoint, and who knew what was going to happen because of that? Encouraging the feeling was only going to make it worse not better.
She sighed and put the soap back, shutting off the water firmly, then she stepped out of the shower stall and grabbed a towel, drying herself off before pulling on her clothes again. Wiping away the steam from the mirror, she examined the graze on her cheek from where she'd turned it against the brick wall as Elijah slammed himself into her.
Definitely insane. How could she have let that happen? The chances of her getting pregnant were slim since she'd just had her period, but the chance was still there. And as for anything else, she'd believed him when he'd told her he was clean. He didn't have any reason to lie and given how icy and remote he was, she couldn't see him being a dirty manwhore with tons of other women.
Not that appearances were anything to go by clearly, her father being a case in point.
And speaking of …
Yeah, that whole mess hadn't gone away. She might have made a very poor decision to finally have sex and had her mind completely blown, but she remained Elijah's hostage and that hadn't changed. And if she didn't figure out a way to escape, he was going to use her as bait to draw out a major crime boss whom he was then going to kill. What would happen to her after that was anyone's guess, but she didn't want to find out.
What she wanted was to follow up the lead she had on Theo, because God knew she wouldn't ever be able to come to terms with anything until the mystery of her brother's disappearance was solved. And in order to do that, she had to escape.
Perhaps there's a better way. Perhaps you can work with Elijah on that.
She frowned at herself in the mirror, her brain turning over the thought.
Okay, so Elijah wasn't going to kill her and he clearly wasn't going to hurt her either. But he wanted this Jericho guy, and she was apparently the key to drawing Jericho out. Maybe if she told Elijah that she was willing to help him get Jericho, he'd help her follow up her Theo lead?