He stood, gave an abrupt nod. “It’s been a while since I’ve been duped, so I’ll give you credit for that. I don’t play games and don’t associate with people who do. Goodbye, Ms. Stone.”
“Mr. Drake…Ash…wait, please.”
He was halfway to the door, but he stopped and turned. “One chance to change my mind. Use it wisely.”
* * *
Jules waited a second to gather her thoughts. Asher Drake wasn’t the kind of man who gave second chances. He definitely wouldn’t give her a third. She had made a complete mess of things. If she had told him the full truth, she wasn’t sure she could have screwed things up more than this. Believing she could play it her way without getting burned had been foolish.
“I don’t trust easily.” She said the words haltingly, but no truer words had ever come from her mouth. “I wanted to…I needed to…” When had lying been so difficult? For the past ten years, that’s all she’d known. But this? This was different, so very different.
“You needed to know if I’m as good as you were told.”
He said it without an ounce of ego. He knew his worth—what he had and could accomplish. And miraculously, he had given her an out. She grabbed on to it gratefully. “Yes.”
He headed back to her, his intent unclear until he stopped in front of her. Grabbing her shoulders, he pulled her to her feet and brought her face within an inch of his. “Lie to me again, and you won’t like the consequences. Understand?”
She tried to swallow, but her mouth was so dry she made only a strange sound in her throat that could have been a moan.
He shook her lightly. “I’m waiting for an answer, Jules.”
“Yes…okay. Again, I’m sorry. I won’t…”
He let her go and stepped back. “I have some things I need to do. I’ll be back tonight at seven. We’ll have dinner, and you’ll answer all my questions. Correct?”
“Yes.”
He walked out the door before she could come up with anything else to say. On one level, his high-handedness and arrogance were both insulting and off-putting. But she had reason to know that his arrogance was well earned, and she found she couldn’t hold on to an ounce of resentment about that. She had deceived him and deserved his wrath.
She had created the ruse for two reasons. One, she wanted to see if what she’d been told was true. Was Asher Drake really that good? If not, she might have considered backing away and going about this a different way. What she had discovered in those hours of watching him work was that the intel she’d received was somewhat inaccurate. Asher Drake wasn’t just good at digging out secrets, he was a master.
The second reason for the ruse was much more self-serving. She had wanted to watch him work. See him on a different level. Over the years, she had built him up in her mind. Would the reality live up to her imaginings? He had. So much more than she’d ever expected.
Why hadn’t she been able to fool him as she could so many others? Was it because a part of her wanted him to know the truth? To go ahead and face the pain…get it out of the way? She’d never considered herself a masochist, but she was no stranger to self-flagellation. Was that the reason, or was there something more?
If he found out the truth, everything could be ruined. She had worked too hard for this opportunity to screw things up now. Too much was riding on achieving her goals. She owed him this. She owed him much more, but this would have to do.
* * *
Ash stopped on the other side of the door and cursed softly. What was it about Jules Stone? With anyone else, he would’ve issued a carefully worded threat and been out the door without looking back. Instead, he’d given her another chance.
And she was still lying. Even as he’d told her he’d give her one more chance, he already knew that she wouldn’t tell him the full truth. She didn’t trust him. He understood that to a point. After what happened in Colombia, he’d trusted only a few. After Meg’s death, that number had shrunk to barely a handful.
Whoever had hurt Jules had damaged her. He could identify with that, but that didn’t mean he’d give her a free pass.
He should’ve called her out on her continued lies immediately, but the terror he’d glimpsed in her eyes had pierced something inside of him, so he’d relented. He detected no evil in her intent, only an extreme caution. And something else…dammit, what was she hiding?
Ash headed to the elevator. He’d wait till he got to a secure phone before he called Kate and demanded to know more about the woman she’d sent to him. However, he had his own avenue he would pursue. And it was the best there was.
He pounded out a brief, tersely worded text to the op center at OZ headquarters: Juliet Stone. Get me everything.
Chapter Nine
Ten minutes after Ash left her hotel room, a cellphone chimed. Every part of Jules’s body went stiff with tension. She’d placed the burner phone in the bottom drawer of the dresser, under a pile of clothing. Yes, to keep it hidden, but mostly because she didn’t want to hear from the only person who had the number.
The call had come quicker than she had anticipated, and the timing sucked. Having Ash call her out on her lies had rattled her more than she wanted to admit. She desperately needed to regroup before her meeting tonight, settle her thoughts and repurpose her mission. She didn’t have time to play politics.
Snatching the phone from its hiding place, Jules snapped out, “Diamond,” hoping the caller would get the message that this was not a good time to talk.