Passionate Obsession by D.M. Mortier
Chapter Fourteen
The Scientists
“What took you so long?” Giselle whisper-yelled urgently. She hurried down the hall after opening the door to the flat to let in Dr. William Everette and the two muscle-bound, black-suited men accompanying him. “He has been out for more than an hour! I don’t know how much longer he will be out. He’s so damn big! Usually, one sip of the wine would have brought down a normal-sized man. He drank the entire glass before dropping.”
“You’ve been most helpful, Ms. Cambridge. You will be well compensated for your efforts,” Dr. Everette murmured drolly.
Giselle led the group into the spacious living room of the flat. It was still unnerving to see the usually vibrant large frame of Andrew McAllister laid out on her carpeted floor.
“He is rather big,” Dr. Everette said with a stunned awe. He walked over to the unconscious figure of Mac and stared down at him as though he were big juicy steak he couldn’t wait to devour.
“What does the CIA want with him anyway? He worked for the FBI. You could have gotten his cooperation then.” Giselle took the satchel one of the muscled men passed to her. She smiled, loving the weightiness of it. Yes, compensation seemed to be in order.
“Not your concern,” Dr. Everette dismissed abruptly as he turned to gaze at Giselle steadily. “Is this going to be a problem for you?”
Giselle didn’t like the cold stare. In fact, Dr. Everette’s demeanor started to make her feel clammy and uncomfortable. She had been in the spy business long enough to know to never ignore her gut feelings. This man was a stone-cold killer. Stepping back a few steps casually, Giselle tried to put as much space between her and the men as possible. She knew that it would be stupid to trust them. She cleared her throat, trying to buy time and decide how she could get them out of her flat as soon as possible without any bloodshed. “You realize that he works for another powerful agency, right? I’m not sure which intelligence agency he works for, but I know it’s not CIA, MI6, or Interpol. I was as close to him as any woman could be with a man, and he still never told me.” Giselle tried to maintain a calm façade in the face of Dr. Everette and his men staring at her intently. “Whoever they are, they’re powerful. And if his people even suspects that I helped you, I’ll be dead.” She chuckled to try to hide her nervousness. “You won’t let anything happen to him, right?”
Dr. Everette smiled coolly. “Right.”
Giselle’s skin crawled. She had known that it was possible that anyone putting out a contract this size intended killing the target. However, she had been too furious over Mac’s refusal to give their relationship a second chance to let that bother her. Now, she discreetly felt for the gun strapped to her thigh under her dress and tried to regulate her heart rate to prepare to rescue him when they tried to leave. This would show Mac once and for all that they were a great team and were meant to be together. In addition, she would have the reward money to split with him. Win, win all around. Giselle didn’t dare take her eyes off Dr. Everette and his goons. She was waiting for her opening.
“There’s no need for you to worry about Mr. McAllister and his possible associates. My associates are undoubtedly more powerful.”
Although Dr. Everette hadn’t moved a muscle toward her, Giselle tensed further under his cold scrutiny. “Well, I hope you get what you’re looking for.” She lowered her lashes, not wanting him to see her hate.
“Ms. Cambridge, please check your payment so we can complete our transaction. We have a lot of ground to cover before today is out. Let us conclude our dealings and never cross paths again.”
The doctor’s chilling disdain was really starting to get to Giselle. And her unease grew. Stalling for time, she slowly pressed the catch on the satchel to open it. Holding it securely to her chest, Giselle peered into the weighty hard-leather container anticipating the many folds of British pounds that were certain to make her activities tonight very profitable. She was a bit confused initially when the item in the bag appeared solid black and coiled. Giselle moved closer to the light to get a better look inside because she had to be certain before reacting to what looked like a reneging on their terms. Unfortunately, when she peeked into the bag again, she was not quick enough to avoid the snake’s swift bite to her left eye.
She screamed in both outrage and excruciating pain. Pain unlike anything she’d ever felt before laced through her body. She didn’t even notice her legs buckling, and she fell hard to the floor.
“Take her and her payment to the bedroom,” Dr. Everette muttered dispassionately. “Do it quickly. I don’t want to be in this country any longer than I damn well have to.”
As the men gathered the writhing woman on the carpet and corralled the snake back into the bag, Dr. Everette moved back across the room to view the splendid specimen of Andrew McAllister. The usual cool unemotional demeanor of the doctor had an instant, dramatic change. His roar of outrage was perhaps as hard or harder than Giselle’s on being bitten. “Godfrey! Beneby!” Dr. Everette frantically looked about the room in search of the body of Andrew McAllister. Nothing! It was nowhere to be seen. “Godfrey! Beneby! Where the hell are you?!?! Where is Mr. McAllister?!?!”
The men rushed back into the room, and they, too, began a frantic search of the room and then the flat. They spent long minutes searching the entire flat and were still searching long minutes after the horror-filled screams of Giselle had turned to moans and then deadly silence. Dr. Everette left the flat consumed with rage and renewed determination to acquire Andrew McAllister and his family.