I hit the “Answer” button and hold the phone to my ear. I don’t say anything, I just listen, gauging the quality of the silence and waiting for him to speak.
After a moment, a deep, rough male voice says, “This must be Naz.”
I’m so shocked I almost drop the phone. The anonymous, untraceable burner phone. I didn’t include my name in the text message, so how the hell does he know it’s me?
“Raphael?”
“Raphael’s dead. I stuck a knife in his chest and threw him overboard.”
His voice has an Irish accent, not French as I was expecting. Judging by that and his words—which sound honest—this isn’t Raphael playing some kind of game.
“Who is this?”
“This is Killian.”
Killian? Who the fuck is Killian? All my senses have sharpened until it seems I can hear the atoms vibrating in the air around me. Then it hits me.
This is probably the big motherfucker who put his hands on Eva.
Unless it’s one of the crew, but I don’t think so. Especially considering what he’d said. Yacht crews don’t generally find it in their best interests to kill their employers and throw them into the sea.
The words leave my throat in a gravelly scrape of pure hatred. “You have something of mine.”
After a pause, he says disapprovingly, “I doubt Eva would be keen on hearing you call her a ‘thing.’”
My eyes flare as wide as my nostrils do. The way he said her name is bad enough, but the implication that he knows how she’d feel is like a sword of fire shoved down my throat.
I demand, “What have you done with her?”
“She’s in good hands,” comes the calm response to my heated question. “You don’t have to worry.”
Is he fucking kidding me?
Beside me, Connor is frowning and tense, but I can’t pay attention to him because of all the murder and mayhem wreaking havoc in my nervous system. “What do you want? What is this about? Where are you going with her? If she’s hurt, I swear on my mother’s grave—”
“It’s beautiful, you know.”
His tone has changed. Now it’s soft, thoughtful, and I have no clue what he’s talking about. “What? What’s beautiful?”
“The way she loves you.”
It feels as if King Kong just punched me in the chest. Eva told this man she loves me? This man who grabbed her by the throat and dragged her across the deck of a yacht? She hadn’t even told me herself.
My God, has he tortured her for information?
Before I can respond, he says, “I hope you deserve it. To be honest, you sound a wee bit unstable. Are you sure you’re good enough for her? You might have to convince me. After everything she’s been through, she deserves the best.” His voice drops. “And Christ, she’s exquisite. Those eyes. That body. That fire. No wonder you and Dimitri are so desperate to get her back.”
Breathing hard, my heart feeling as if it’s about to explode, I say, “Put her on the phone.”
“She’s sleeping.”
I growl, “Listen to me, you son of a bitch—”
“Naz. What kind of a name is that? Is it short for something?”
Connor is motioning for me to give him the phone. I think he can sense things have gone completely off the rails. I wave him away, frustrated and needing to hit something.
“Yeah. It’s short for, ‘If you hurt her, I’m gonna kill you in every way there is to be killed.’ It’s short for, ‘I will track you down to the ends of the earth and make you and everyone you’ve ever met pay a thousand times over for any pain you cause the woman I love.’ It’s short for, ‘I WILL NEVER STOP UNTIL I GET HER BACK.’”
There’s a pause, then what sounds like a satisfied grunt. “All right. You’re a little too hotheaded, but you sound sincere. So I’ll answer your questions. What I want is something Eva’s going to help me get. What this is about is the future of nations. Where I’m going with her is . . . well, I can’t tell you that yet because if I do you’ll probably be here before I can get what I want from Dimitri and then all my careful plans will be ruined.”
I let loose a frustrated holler and Killian laughs.
“I get that a lot. Eva made almost the exact same noise a short while ago. She didn’t like what I did to Raphael.” His voice turns wistful. “She’s sensitive that way, isn’t she? Concerned for the well-being of other people. Even to the point of sacrificing herself. Honestly, Naz, she’s remarkable. I’ve never met anyone like her. She’s . . .”
In his pause, I hear how loudly I’m breathing.
“Compelling, I think is the right word. Or maybe fascinating. Once you start looking at her, it’s impossible to look away.” He chuckles. “But you know that already. You sound obsessed.”
“Killian—”
“I’m going to destroy this phone after we’re done talking, because I’m sure you’re tracking it. But I want you to know I was truthful when I told you she’s safe with me. And I’ll try to get my business with Dimitri concluded as quickly as possible.”
He hesitates. When he speaks again there’s a new tone in his voice that raises all the hair on my arms.
“Because the more time I spend with your woman, the less I want to give her back.”