Liam froze.
Lucius smiled. “I help you clear this up, and you never bring up Stephanie ever again. Do we have a deal?”
Liam nodded.
“Roman Robillard.”
“Robillard? We ruled him out from the explosion.”
“Clean your ears out, Rowen. I just told you that mess was mine. But why do you imagine I started this whole publicity stunt to begin with? Much as I dislike you, I have better things to do than dig through minor client files. But when Roman waltzed into my office thinking he could order a contract hit as if it were McDonald’s, it got my attention.”
Liam’s stomach tightened. It did explain the strange delay about the start of the smear campaign. “What did you tell him?”
“To pound sand. But then I heard you were involved, and I milked the details. Last I spoke to him, he believed we actually tried to take the girl out and failed.”
“This is your notion of a good faith gesture?”
“No, but this is. Roman is taking matters into his own insane hands. And if my latest intel is right, he’s your little girl’s new climbing partner.” The colonel looked at his watch. “It’s nine thirty a.m. Which means they’re on the mountain right about now.”
Blood drained from Liam’s face.
Lucius smiled and took a lazy sip of his drink. “I’ll do you one better. I keep a pilot and a hot chopper while I’m here, but as your needs appear greater than mine, I’ll let you make use of them.” His gaze hardened. “I expect to call this incident closed after that.”
38
Jaz
Jaz hauled herself up onto a luxurious two-foot ledge, taking a few moments to catch her breath. They were two hours, three minutes into the climb and had just come to the transition point where the route dynamics changed from speed movements to the much more technical and gear-intensive approach. It would take time to rearrange her gear before continuing to the more difficult portions of the ascent, but she’d planned for that.
The initial adrenaline of the climb had calmed now, but her body felt awake and alive, her lungs drawing large gulps of delicious air with every inhale. Fatigued muscles reported in with a not unpleasant heat. To her surprise, Roman had so far proved to be a very decent partner. He wasn’t Sebastian or Liam—Jaz tried and failed not to flinch at the thought—but he was the next best thing, moving quickly and taking direction well. While the competitors were the ones who set up the climb and handled the equipment, the partners needed to keep up and keep alert to avoid losing precious time. Whatever else Jaz could say about Roman, he moved like a monkey when he was sober. The possibility of true victory, which had seemed so impossible a day ago, now lay squarely within reach.
“We’re going to crush this, Roman.” Jaz swung her pack off her back while Roman hoisted himself onto the ledge beside her. She grinned, extending a hand to help him the rest of the way. “Especially if you can move your ass a little faster.”
Roman grinned back, his brown eyes alert as he reclipped himself into a safety line beside her. “Yes,” he agreed. “There will absolutely be crushing. And winning.” A trick of the light made the man’s eyes seem to flash as he said the latter, but just as a small tightness touched the back of Jaz’s neck, Roman broke eye contact and pulled a water bottle from his pack. Taking a few grateful gulps, he sighed with contentment. “Want some?”
“Sure.” Jaz held out her hand.
Roman tossed the water-filled canteen to her.
Jaz went to catch it, but instead of heading into her awaiting grip, the plastic container flew toward her face. Jaz jerked away, managing to only get clipped on the chin before the bottle tumbled over the side of the mountain. Her breath caught.
“Man, you almost had that.” Roman shook his head. “That was your water bottle too.”
“What the fuck was that?”
“A fallen water bottle,” Roman answered with no trace of remorse. As if the whole fiasco hadn’t been an accident at all. “Doesn’t it suck when something that’s yours smacks you in the face and falls away for no good reason at all?”
Jaz swallowed, her perspective on Roman readjusting itself to a new reality. Plainly, Roman wasn’t nearly as all right with the situation as he’d been pretending, and she needed to stuff this new pissed-off side of him back into the genie bottle before this turned from bad to worse. Shoving down the words she actually wanted to say, Jaz made her tone agreeable. Sympathetic.
“Yeah, it does.” Despite roaring fury, she gave Roman a rueful smile that would have made her acting teachers proud. “Vector Ascent really didn’t handle this well. Let’s win this thing and set them straight.”
“I don’t see it being quite that easy,” said Roman.
“No?” Jaz reached into her pack, taking out the extra quickdraw carabiners she’d need for the rest of the route. “Once we win we—” She cut off as her fingers, which had been running over the gear by long habit, felt something unusual along the webbing. Her gaze dropped to her hands. To the small rip in the nylon webbing connecting the two parts of the quickdraw together. No, not a rip, a cut.
Reaching to the bottom of her pack again, Jaz pulled out the rest of the equipment she hadn’t yet touched and felt blood drain from her face. A third had something wrong with it. The damage was different on each piece of gear. Different damage, but the same end result waiting in the wings: a plummet to the ground.
Jaz lifted her head toward Roman’s gaze, the memory of the colorful plastic zip tie that she thought she saw by his feet flashing through her mind.
The corners of Roman’s mouth curled toward a smile. “Something wrong?”
“What did you do?” she whispered.
Roman stretched his back. “Let’s just say I made the competition more about heart and skill, and less about who you spread your legs for.”
“What are you talking about?”
For the first time since she’d met him yesterday, anger filled Roman’s voice. “I’m talking about you fucking your way into my slot. Did you think I wouldn’t figure it out?”
Jaz’s hands ran over the gear again. The sabotage was limited to the gear she’d need for the second portion of the climb. The things at the very bottom of her pack, which she hadn’t had a chance to check due to its last-minute arrival.
The pack. Roman had been the one to pick her lost pack up from the airport. Except the airline representative kept insisting the bag was never missing. “Did you snatch my pack off the carousel?”
“Don’t be ridiculous.” Roman snorted. “I tipped the handler to bring it out to me early.”
Insane. He was insane.
“You really thought I was going to roll over and let you destroy my life, didn’t you?” Roman’s face darkened. “Tell me, Jazmine, how is that working out for you?”
Heart pounding, Jaz held out her palms. “Roman. Listen to me. You saw the route plan. You know how dangerous and technical the next part is. If we go with this gear, we’re going to die. Both of us. Do you understand me? We need to climb down.”
“Now, now. Climbing down is no way to win.” He walked toward her. “No. What we’re going to do is make this real. Climbing is about skill. Strength. Body and mountain. You know what it’s not about? Toys.”