“The shot is lined up,” Aarav confirmed. They were about to do this. If his rifle was equipped with a laser capable of projecting that far, Cash’s forehead would currently be sporting a bright red dot where there soon would be a gaping hole.
Time slowed. Sola’s eyes widened when Cash glanced up and met her gaze directly.
In that instant, something passed between them. Did he know his time was limited? Did he regret the things he’d done?
“It’s a shame to unalive someone so fine,” Sola murmured without realizing she’d said it aloud.
“Are you trying to make me jealous?” Aarav growled, and she imagined his finger tightening on the trigger.
“No, it’s just…” She couldn’t identify why, but her reaction to this man was very different than those she’d had when in close proximity to previous targets. Every single one of her senses hummed, and not due to danger.
“Enough chatter,” Jordan shushed them. “Aarav, you’re up. Sola, are you ready?”
“I…” She looked from Cash to his father and back, her heart suddenly pounding and not because she was afraid of escaping unscathed.
Was Cash truly a beautiful demon who had been trapped in a web of his own making?
Or was he being set up to look that way by someone else?
“Wind is gone.” Aarav grunted. “Now’s our chance.”
Every instinct she had rebelled.
Sola crossed to the balcony door and shattered their carefully laid plans by ripping it open and stepping outside. Cash didn’t even bother to look at her. In a monotone voice, he rumbled, “So who’d my father piss off now?”
He got it. He’d somehow made her and he knew they were about to end him. Yet he wasn’t throwing her off the balcony or sounding the alarm. When he turned toward her, resting his hip on the glass wall, waiting patiently for her to respond, she swore she could see straight into his soul.
It was time for her to stop silencing her sixth sense and listen to what her gut was telling her no matter if it cost her the job she adored or even her life. This man wasn’t the one they were after. And if she let Aarav put a bullet between his gorgeous eyes, then they’d all be murderers.
“Something’s not right. Stop.” With that realization, she dashed across the balcony and stepped between the man who’d turned her every bone to jelly hours ago and the man they’d been sent to kill.
“HOLD! AARAV ABORT! DO NOT SHOOT!” James shouted into the comms loud enough to obliterate Sola’s hearing for a few moments.
“What the fuck is she doing?” Aarav snarled distinctly before her comms erupted in a chaos of incredulous chatter.
The truth was, she had no idea what came next or how she was going to escape alive from the mess she’d just made of their mission.
4
Cash couldn’t believe he’d let his father pressure him into playing a part in their ridiculous show. He didn’t give a single fuck about this casino or any of the other establishments in his father’s portfolio. The only reason he’d agreed to leave the yacht he lived on and come ashore was because he’d always had a soft spot for this island. His mother had brought him camping here once as a child. Cash had thought of asking his father for it so he could make it his home, when he’d believed settling down and having a normal life could be possible.
These days he was disillusioned by the greed and apathy of most humans, preferring to keep to himself, surrounded by nature. He’d spent three years backpacking in the Alps before commandeering one of his father’s yachts and living on the ocean.
He was considering bailing no matter how much his father had pressured him to stay long enough to cut this damn ribbon on another money factory. Why the hell was it so important that he be involved?
It wasn’t like his father gave a fuck about him. Never had. And in fact, seemed to resent the reminder of Cash’s mother, who died before she could be fully tamed by the bastard.
Was he an embarrassment to her memory for hiding away on his ship and turning a blind eye to how much more corrupt his father seemed every time he was forced into seeing the man again? For living simply enough off the wealth he’d inherited from her without trying to turn his father’s excesses into something meaningful?
Probably.
So when he turned and caught sight of the siren in red, he didn’t even flinch. The woman strode toward him and stared, her intensity nothing like the coy flirtations of the women hoping to attract his attention inside. This woman approached with intent. And aggression.
She wasn’t there to charm him or be his false friend.
She was an enemy. He knew it immediately.
And didn’t even care.