Suicide Mission (Guarded Secrets #1)

31: "She was my first love, you know."

I felt my head dip back suddenly, before I felt like I was falling and jerked from fear. It was as if I was trying to sleep and suddenly woke up because of a sound, the darkness was shattered as light finally made its way back into my eyes. Panic raced through me when I tried to move and felt restraints holding my hands in place behind me. Once the darkness had faded away completely, I was able to regain my bearings to see that I was back in Ash's office. I was backed up against the wall near the filing cabinets, and there was nothing for me to use in order to escape. Although, as I looked around the room I realized that they had left me alone and that would be their mistake.

A smile curved onto my lips as I tried to maneuver myself so that I could grab my knife with my bound hands to cut the rope, but quickly realized that was only able to happen in movies and television shows. No matter what position I contorted into, there was just no way to reach the knife on the side of my hip. I attempted to spin in the seat so that I could slide my arms up and off the seat, but that failed as well. If I made it out of this alive I was going to have to talk with Ms. De Luca and tell her that the knife sheath was too far from the waist band of my pants, and the fashion sense would have to be taken out as a factor of the design.

"Look she's awake," a voice rejoiced as the door opened. I glanced over to see Ash and Theo enter the room with four other large men that could easily throw me out a window without breaking a sweat. "Glad to see that Dennis didn't do my dirty work on this one. I wouldn't want you to go before I had a chance to talk to you."

I stared at him, refusing to talk to him and trying to figure out a way to escape. There was a darkness in his eyes that caused my skin to prickle. He was dangerous, and I was in no position to mount an escape. It would take time, I had to play my cards right. Keep him talking, make sure that I had something up my sleeve that made me worth more alive than dead. I wasn't even sure that was possible for a hit man. He was paid to kill people so everyone was worth more dead than alive.

"Leave," Ash ordered, shocking everyone in the room, including Theo who looked as if he was about to speak out against the order. "I want to finish her with my own two hands," Ash said as he waved his hand to dismiss his guards. There was a small sound from behind me as if someone was about to speak up again, but Ash cut them off. "Come back in an hour. She won't take that long."

His eyes cut to me when he spoke that last sentence, allowing me to see that the cruel smile had reached his eyes and there wasn't going to be a way out of this for me. At least, not without a few bruises, but something inside me knew that I wasn't going to be that lucky. The men left the room, although slightly reluctant at first, leaving Ash and I alone in the office. Ash paced around the room for a few minutes, taking the time to open the filing cabinet that he had me set next to so that I could see the almost empty drawer. I heard a growl leave his lips as he eyed the drawer, and then turned back to me. The anger was prevalent in his eyes, but there was something else, something I couldn't place.

"I'm honestly surprised you're still alive. I thought you would have killed yourself years ago," he said, letting his words hit close to my heart because of how true they were. A shiver raced through my body, which resonated through me the longer he let his words sink in. How could he have known that I tried to kill myself? That wasn't in the file and that hospital report was kept out of sight from everyone. "Do you know that I spent years tracking you down?" he asked, but continued so quickly that it was clear that I hadn't been meant to answer. "Clearly I failed, because you're still here and breathing."

I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. The tone in his voice scared me, I could see where this conversation was going and I didn't like it. There was a darkness that I could feel, a heavy pitch blackness that reminded me of my depression. It was hard to fight off, it was hard to breath, and it was hard to want to survive.