Page 69 of When He Lies
He’d started to weave his way to the door, but at Hugo’s mutter, Frederick paused. “What did you say?” He hadn’t fully caught Hugo’s response.
“I said…” Louder, “I don’t doubt that.”
Good. Excellent. “It’s too hot in here.” His fumbling hands yanked at his collar even as Frederick kept heading for the door. When had he put two doors in his study? His hand reached out, and he missed the doorknob. Oh. Maybe only one door was actually there. His hand slid to the side. Fumbled. And found the doorknob.
“What about the hit on Simone?”
Why would Hugo not stop talking? He was making Frederick’s head hurt.
“Do you want me to call off the hit on her?”
Now that was a weird question. “Why would I want you to do that? She’s a thief and a killer. She needs to be eliminated.” Simone was a problem.
“But—”
“Eliminated.” He yanked open the door and stumbled out.
“You’re a dumb bastard,” Hugo groused as he watched Frederick weave out of the study. The man nearly crashed to the floor and had to grab the doorframe for support.
Hugo propped a hip against the desk and watched the drunken idiot stumble away. Ryan Quinn had given a very clear order. No one was to harm Simone Sailor in any way, shape, or form.
Or there would be hell to pay.
Apparently, Frederick was too drunk to be afraid.
Major mistake.
He was also too drunk to listen to reason. Hugo had warned him that the morning meeting at the hotel would be a trap, but Frederick refused to listen to reason. His funeral.
And, as far as who paid his salary, Hugo certainly could not forget that important detail. His hand reached out, and he scooped up the phone that Frederick had left behind. His fingers swiped over the screen. He knew Frederick’s passcode. He’d watched the bastard type it in earlier that night. It had taken three fumbling attempts before Frederick had done it properly.
So unlocking the phone was easy. Scrolling to check through the recent call log was easy, too. And hitting the screen to dial one of those numbers again…
So easy.
Hugo smiled as he put the phone to his ear. It rang twice before it was answered.
A gravelly voice demanded, “What now?” A voice with the hard hit of a Russian accent.
“Hello, Konstantin,” Hugo greeted him.
“Who is this? You are not Frederick!”
“Don’t hang up! Don’t! I have news that you want to hear.”
“You have Frederick’s phone.”
Indeed, he did. “Frederick is currently passed out drunk.” If he wasn’t dead to the world yet, he would be soon. “And I really felt you needed to know about some of his plans for tomorrow morning.”
Konstantin didn’t hang up.
He did listen.
“A trap is about to be sprung,” Hugo began.
Chapter Sixteen
He did not drop to one knee. He did not look soulfully into her eyes. And Ryan did not ask for her hand in marriage.
