Page 47 of Deader than Dead
I leaned over to see what salary Bellamy had been offered and let out a low whistle. Not quite as much as my offer, but close to it. With two salaries that high, we could have our pick of where we lived in London and still have plenty to spare. Bellamy’s fingers tapped out a restless rhythm as his gaze found mine. “It’s your decision,” I said before he could say anything. “It’s a chance for you to make a legitimate living if that’s what you want? You’d have a job you could tell your parents and sister about. Maybe not the details of what you do, but I’m sure Cade could come up with some fancy job title for you.”
A glance to Cade had him nodding his agreement.
“It’s a generous offer,” Bellamy eventually said, “but I think John and I need a long holiday. I think we’ve earned one.”
“Have we?”
He turned in his chair to face me, his lips curling up at the corners in a devilish grin. “What would you say to sipping cocktails on the beach with me? To taking a dip in the sea whenever we wanted to? To dancing the night away or going to bed early depending on our mood? I have money saved. Plenty of it, even though I convinced myself I couldn’t take a holiday until I had more. I think I was trying to fill some hole in my life that I didn’t even know existed.”
I pictured the scene he’d painted. Time away from London. Away from O’Reilly if and when she returned from Germany. Away from the PPB. And from Cade. “I would say yes,” I said. “I would say it sounds heavenly. I would say lead and I’ll follow.”
Neither of us paid any attention to Cade’s heavy sigh as we smiled at each other. No doubt he was used to throwing his money around and getting exactly what he wanted. Well, tough. It hadn’t worked this time. There were more important things in life than money.
Epilogue
Bellamy
I studied John as he leaned his head back against the headrest of the plane seat, his eyes closed. He looked far more relaxed now that we’d taken off, a fact that had absolutely nothing to do with being scared of flying, and everything to do with putting distance between ourselves and London. We’d been lucky to get a last-minute deal on a month long holiday in The Maldives, a little beach hut right next to the sea awaiting us at the end of our long flight.
As if sensing my scrutiny, John opened his eyes and sat up straighter, his gaze scouring my face. “Have you given any thought to what you’ll do when we get back?”
“We haven’t even got there yet.”
“I know. But have you? I don’t want to discuss it while we’re there. I want to just enjoy the time away.”
“So you figure we should get this conversation out of the way now?”
John nodded. I could see his point. It was now or wait until we got back. It had been a week since we’d met with Cade and we hadn’t discussed it, spending all our time searching for the perfect holiday. Oh, and meeting each other’s friends and family. Neither of us had been prepared for the flak we’d get if we’d jetted off without the necessary introductions being made, our cover story a carefully crafted one about John and I bumping into each other in a bar, a story with far fewer corpses, guns, and malicious intent in it than the real one. The problem was that I wasn’t sure how he was going to react to what I had to say. “I have given thought to it.”
“And?”
“If it’s still on offer, I figure I’ll take the job. I’d be stupid not to at least try it.”
“You would,” John agreed surprisingly evenly, without so much as a twitch or any semblance of a scowl.
Well, that was interesting, and unexpected. I shifted in my seat to face him. “You wouldn’t be angry if I went to work for Cade?”
John’s brow furrowed. “I told you back when we were in his office that it was your decision. You were the one who told him no and said we needed a holiday.” He softened his words by reaching over and squeezing my knee. An electric thrill ran through me at his touch, my cock sitting up and taking notice. I had a feeling we were going to be fully paid-up members of the mile high club before this flight was over.
I tapped my fingers on the armrest, John’s gaze immediately following the movement. “Say it.”
“Say what?”
“Whatever it is you want to say, that you’re thinking it might be best not to.”
“The PPB,” I ventured. “How long did you work there?”
“Five years.”
“And did it never strike you that there’s more to it than appears on the surface? More than just providing services, that is.”
John laughed. “Would it sound frightfully naïve of me if I said it hadn’t until the meeting with Cade?”
“And now?”
John regarded me silently for a moment. “And now I think Cade seems to know an awful lot of things about an awful lot of people. I guess I always knew he had connections that weren’t shared with us minions, but they seem to go deeper than I suspected.”
“And Asher?” I asked. “And I don’t mean your personal feelings toward him.”