“Because the person who took out the contract would spread around that you’d run off with his money and not done the job.”
“Yes.”
“You were hired by a man named Enzo Ruiz. I met with him about it a few weeks ago and I can guarantee that he isn’t going to talk to anyone about you or anything else.”
“Still, you have no reason to release me. It’s all risk and no reward. Why are you toying with me? You don’t seem like the type, and you know full well that none of this was personal. If you want something from me, tell me what it is. If you don’t, then a quick death isn’t too much to ask for.”
He grinned. “It isn’t?”
“No. It isn’t.”
“What if instead of me killing you, we were to talk about a job.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I have someone I’d like dead, but I’m not really in a position to do the work myself. It occurs to me that we could both come out on top here.”
“You’re saying that if I take a contract, you’ll just let me go?”
“Yes.”
“Then I accept.”
“Not so fast. You haven’t heard the target.”
“Does it matter?”
“It might.”
“Who then?”
“Anthony Cook.”
“The president of the United States?”
“So, you’ve heard of him.”
Her brow furrowed in exactly the way he’d hoped. It was an expression he’d seen many times before. Hell, he’d seen it in the mirror. She was calculating. Trying to figure out if she could pull it off. When she spoke again, it was as though she’d completely forgotten she was taped to a weight bench.
“I don’t follow politics, but it seems like I’ve read he’s cut back on his personal appearances and increased his security. Because of some ISIS threat, if I remember right. They caught one of the men involved, no?”
“All fabricated. It’s really me he’s afraid of.”
“That’s why you have an American team watching you.”
“Me and my people. The minute any of us drop off the radar, they stuff Cook in a bunker and surround him with a hundred Secret Service guys.”
“It’s something I’d consider. But I can’t speak for Nasrin and Yasmin.”
“How bad do they want to keep you alive?”
“I honestly don’t know.”
“Terms?”
She didn’t hesitate. “Five million euros up front, another five when the job’s done.”
“I thought your fee was two million?”
“This is a different kind of job with different secrecy protocols. More risk to me and likely extremely costly. We cover our expenses from our fee.”
“Still, ten million seems steep. I assume that comes with a guarantee?”
“I won’t take another job until this one’s done or I’m dead. That’s the best I can do.”
“And you’ll do it in a way that won’t blow back against me.”
“Absolutely. Against either of us.”
“One last question.”
“Okay.”
“Did you once kill a guy by getting his own cows to trample him?”
“Yes.”
He nodded appreciatively and pulled her cell phone from his pocket. “What do you say we find out if your friends are taking your calls?”
CHAPTER 41
RAPP backed the SUV through the outbuilding’s bay doors and then got out to close them. Cyrah was sitting at his workbench wearing a loose-fitting skirt and sweater. Most of her head was hidden by a knit hat topped with a white pompom that flopped back and forth as she devoured a ham and cheese croissant. A pair of Claudia’s sunglasses would eventually complete the ensemble, but for now they were lying next to her plate.
When she was done eating, he’d drive her to Cape Town and drop her somewhere out of sight of the American surveillance team. After that, it would be time to get rid of the other two women in his life. One of Nicholas Ward’s private jets was on its way to a remote strip three hours to the north and it would take both back to the United States—Bebe to the relative calm of her life in Maryland and Sadie to New York and whatever the hell it was she did there.
He couldn’t fight off a smile at the thought of never laying eyes on Sadie Hansen again. While there was no question that he wouldn’t have been able to pull this off without her, enough was enough. He wanted her out of his house, out of South Africa, and out of his hemisphere.