Dangerous Lines by Moira Callahan Page B

eyes raking over Adam, before he
gave a nod and moved off.
    A good man that one, always looking out for his
interests and safety, and yet still always aware of who paid him.
    Rubbing his palms together for a moment, Gabriel Moreau
watched as the woman, Rhonda according to one of his many informants, tried to
lift her head. She didn’t get far, likely still too affected by the drugs.
Undoing the buttons on his suit jacket, he carefully slid it off and folded it up.
With a glance around, he found a clean spot, the chair that Adam had likely
occupied while he waited, to hang the jacket over. Next off was his tie before
he removed his cufflinks to roll up his sleeves.
    He wouldn’t admit it to anyone he knew currently,
but he quite missed being hands on. In his early days, fighting his way to a
position of power, he’d been one who quite liked to hurt people. He’d been an
enforcer, and an interrogator when necessary back in the day. He’d missed it.
    Oh, he still got off watching others attend to the
dirty work, but really there wasn’t anything more satisfying than feeling skin
split under his own knuckles, or bones breaking for him. It was something that
very few truly enjoyed enough to make their lives work. Too many went for the
quick kill, a bullet to the head.
    Truth be told, in some cases such things were
needed. In other cases a full work over before snapping a neck with your own
bare hands was required. More for a personal sense of
fulfillment than anything else.
    In Rhonda’s case, Gabriel was more than willing to
lower himself back to that place he’d vaulted so far from over the years, just
one more time. Cracking his knuckles, he eyed his rings. Wouldn’t
do to have her DNA trapped in the little crevices. They would be
beneficial in harming her, but he still needed to be mindful of getting caught
by his own stupidity.
    Humming under his breath, he slipped off the rings
and stashed them in an inner pocket of his jacket. With a flick of his fingers,
he loosened the top two buttons on his shirt as she let out a longer, heartier
moan.
    Time to get his party on the road. He would be reasonable, he would allow her
time to come out of the drugged state more before demanding answers to his
questions. If, or rather when, she failed to give him what he wanted, then he’d
allow himself the pleasure of striking her.
    A quick glance at Adam showed he lounged back
against a crate, relaxed and yet vigilant. Definitely a man Gabriel wanted to
keep around. Making a mental note to set up a meeting early next week, he
turned his focus back to Rhonda.
    She was struggling to raise her head. A curse
slipped from her lips before her head fell again. Bored with all of it, Gabriel
grabbed a large handful of hair and jerked her head back. She screeched, then let out a moan, her eyes squeezed tight.
    “I’ve been looking everywhere for you, my dear. So nice to see you again.”
    With a squinty look she peeked at him, then her eyes went wide, even as they watered in the dim
lighting surrounding them. Her lips were moving, but no sound came out.
    “Ah, we should get you a bit of water, I think. We
do need you to be able to speak, and I’m guessing your mouth is full of cotton
right now. Adam, do we have any water?” he asked.
    “Of course, sir.” A bit of shuffling behind him before a water bottle, no cap, came into view.
    “Thank you, Adam.” Tipping the
water to her lips, he let her drink down a bit before pulling it away. “Easy now, not too fast or you’ll be ill.” He waited a moment more before
letting her take another sip, then passed the bottle
back to Adam.
    “That should help you regain your wits. After all,
we do need to have ourselves a bit of a chat before we decide anything. You
left so unexpectedly after our last one that we really didn’t get all that far.
I know, it was rude of me to take that call, but business is business. Sadly,
not all my people are as diligent about their tasks as Adam here