Their Virgin Princess (Masters of Ménage #4)(100)

Oh, god, she couldn't die like this. She couldn't die when they thought she didn't love them.

Everything she'd suffered before seemed to fade away. She'd spent so much time holding her pain close to her that she hadn't embraced the love they gave her. Tears blurred her eyes.

She had to keep Yasmin talking. The balcony doors were open to her left. Her bedroom was to her right. If she got the chance, she could bolt one way or the other. Yasmin loved to talk about herself. "Why didn't you just have them kill me? Why have them take me to a brothel?"

She glanced back at the door, but then turned back, the gun held casually in her manicured hand. "I didn't care where they took you, but I laughed my ass off when I found out it was a brothel. I had a blast thinking about you taking it up the ass from anyone with a couple of pesos." She frowned. "They were supposed to ransom you. I was going to get a twenty percent cut as a finder's fee and for working Talib on this end. The assholes decided to squeeze me. If you hadn't been found when you were, I was going to be in serious trouble. They were going to turn me over to Talib."

"And you don't think Tal is going to be mad that you killed me now?"

She shrugged a little. "I've set everything up so it looks like you killed yourself and poor dumb Oliver. You couldn't handle the truth. Everyone knows you helped your kidnappers torture those girls. No one will be surprised you couldn't handle the guilt. And Oliver was having an affair with you. I'll tearfully testify to that. His brother already thinks very little of him. When he hears about this, he'll think even less. He'll open the checkbook to me."

"Is this about money?"

"It's about everything, Alea. I'm not about to just accept my place in the world. I fight for more, unlike you."

Her heart was racing, pounding in her chest like a barreling freight train. She was so mad, but that anger had to come second to survival. Which safe haven was closer? The balcony. But the doors to the balcony were made of glass. She would have to climb down the trellis. The bedroom was the safer bet, but it was much farther away and lacked cover. If Yasmin was any kind of shot, she would hit Alea in a second. What should she do? She had to make the right decision. Her baby was counting on her. And she wasn't the only one with a baby.

"What about your baby, Yasmin? How could you kill the father of your baby?" Keep her talking. She could still see the faint movement of Oliver's chest. He was still alive. She had to hope that he stayed that way.

A nasty laugh came out of Yasmin's mouth. "Are you kidding? I'm not pregnant. I'm not some dumb animal who's going to allow a parasite to suck me dry and make me fat. I pretend to be pregnant every so often and then I tragically lose the baby. To soothe me, he'll buy me whatever I want for a while. I'm not wrecking my body for some disgusting infant."

So pleading to her maternal side wasn't going to work. Alea drew a deep breath. Her cousin was lost, truly without any redemption. She wasn't sure how it had happened, but there was something missing in Yasmin that had allowed her to become a true sociopath. Nothing Alea could do would save her. The childhood they had shared had been a lie. The face Yasmin showed the world had been a mask.

Yasmin sighed as though the whole exercise bored her to tears. She reached into the pocket of her pants and pulled out a second pair of gloves. "I need you to put these on."

Yasmin tossed them her way, but Alea allowed them to hit the sofa that came between her and Yasmin. The black gloves hit the cushions and fell to the floor.



       
         
       
        

"Why?" It was obvious, but Alea would do just about anything to put off that time when she had to make the decision. Her men just needed a little more time. They would be here. She just knew it. She let her eyes roam the room for anything she could use as a weapon.

"Because if you don't, I'll shoot you here and now."

Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Oliver move slightly, his head coming up. He was trying to change positions, turning very slowly.

"It's not going to work," Alea said quietly.

"It is. Men in this country can't believe a woman would do anything terrible. I used to get away with a lot when we were kids. I'm just moving on to murder. And after this, I'll be set. The truth of the matter is, I got lucky when those mercenaries found you because they killed anyone who could have identified me as the person who set you up. I really owe them a lot. And now I'll get an even bigger slice of the pie because I'll get Oliver's insurance money, since you're going to go crazy and kill him."