'What was it about this girl that made every man seem to fall at her feet?' Anna pondered, tilting her head curiously as she was standing off to the side with her arms crossed firmly over her chest.
As her boss was pacing in cocky strut in front of the three men kneeled in front of him with their arms bound behind them, the female assassin was observing the small brunette with her hands clamped to her sides by one of the men Anna worked with.
The last time she had confronted the heiress and her bodyguard, the girl had the same frightened, wide-eyed look on her face. Anna scowled at the thought of how that worried look on the girl would only cause wrinkles, but her thoughts immediately returned to her previous one.
Anna's grey eyes travelled to the handsome soldier in the middle of the two older men. His jaw was in a tight set, and his green eyes continued to look up at her boss with a lethal glare.
Frowning, Anna narrowed her eyes, thinking to herself, 'The heiress may perhaps be a little pretty, sure, but not enough to handle all of HIM.'
When she looked back at the shaky female again, Anna wondered if it was because this girl was so pathetically incapable of defending herself; constantly becoming a damsel in distress so that her military knight would have to come rescue her, maybe that was what was attractive to this man.
Anna rolled her eyes.
That man needed to sort out his priorities. And even though she found that part of him undesirable, the rest of him was clearly not. When she had first seen the lovers at the diner, it was hard to believe Hallden would have hired such a remarkably gorgeous man to protect his daughter.
Men that looked like him should never be trusted with a woman. Especially not an isolated one as the heiress.
Anna looked up, pulling her shoulders back with her arms still crossed when Travosky turned to her. He had his brows raised and his head leaning forward.
She frowned, lifting a brow to counter the look he was giving her. "What?"
Travosky straightened, along with his expression, and pulled his hands behind his back in his usual business like posture. It was only obvious as to why she'd ask 'what'. And the jealousy in the pit of his stomach warmed it completely.
Looking at Anna, he raised his brows, and voiced back with a snapped, "Well, it's certainly no surprise that you, too would be buckling at the knees when a fresh piece of meat is thrown in your bowl."
He saw the usual barrier she had falter, but only for a moment.
Anna rolled her eyes, leaning her hip out to the side, "What are you talking about?"
Travosky stared a little longer before he paced slowly in a circle, flicking his hand at different points in his sentences.
"Here I am... trying to get what is rightfully mine, where I have the very man who turned my life to shit the moment he backed out of our deal," he stopped after waving a hand at Hallden, then looked directly at Anna. "And here you are gazing at the man who had knocked you unconscious when you had one simple job to do."
Anna's teeth gritted, feeling her cheekbones fill with heat. She narrowed her eyes pointing at Travosky and shook her head, "I was doing my job."
She snarled in Mara's direction when she added, "But the princess here had to make everything difficult. If he wasn't holding her hand then she'd bump into walls!"
The blonde man roared back, snapping Anna's attention back to him, as well as making some of the others jump.
"PERHAPS IF YOU WEREN'T ALWAYS IN HEAT WHEN A PRETTY FACE COMES ALONG, I WOULDN'T HAVE HAD TO WAIT SO DAMN LONG FOR WHAT IS MINE!"
The man took a deep breath, running his palms over his greasy slicked back hair, leaning his head back.
Anna growled under her breath. She didn't like being showed up. She didn't like being humiliated, even if it was true.
It was just that the damn man in the middle was so attractive, it had thrown her off that the girl with him could have possibly been who Anna was hired to look for. Anna would admit, however, the man was good at his job. The bodyguard was extremely skilled when it came to fighting and she only found him more irresistible.
Unfortunately, she had a policy about dating younger men. It was too complicated in the end when they wanted someone their own age or younger, but if Anna could have, she'd keep this one on a leash.
Anna huffed, glaring back at her boss who pointed a finger at her.
"Don't give me that look, Anna." Travosky warned. His brows shot up, reminding the woman, "I own you. You do well to remember that."
He took hold of the flaps of his clean suit and tugged at it in an 'I'm running the show' manner as he continued, "If it wasn't for our little arrangement, you most certainly wouldn't be able to keep your sis---"
When her hand shot up, Anna's voice spoke over his, "Alright! I get it! No need to get all high and mighty, and as for my attraction towards the guy..." she glanced at Nathan narrowing his eyes back at her. "Sure, it's only natural when someone who looks like that, overwhelms a woman."
She glanced at Mara, raising a brow, "Am I, right?"
Mara narrowed her eyes slightly before looking away and Anna scoffed, rolling her eyes back at Travosky. He shook his head waiting for her to shut up before he asked, "Shall we get back to business?"
With a flick of her hand, Anna shrugged and Travosky turned back to Hallden. He leaned downward, narrowing his eyes and through gritted teeth, demanded, "Where... is my money, William?"
Hallden's eyes darkened, his brows in a deep crease, and shook his head with a small grin.
"It's all gone."
Hallden smirked wider at the wide-eyed surprise on Charles face.
"Every single penny that I had to my name is gone. The properties I own are not under my name, nor are the accounts in the bank with my surname. It's. All. Gone. This whole ploy you had has just blown up in your face once more, Charles. You can pretend like it isn't true, but with all the power I have anywhere I go, do you really believe I'd rehire the men that screwed up their assignment before, to get back my daughter?"
Travosky glanced at Mara and then at the two hired men. Looking back to meet Hallden's taunting gaze, Travosky spoke softly, "You're lying."
Hallden raised his brows, "Am not."
He stuck his chin up, puffing out his chest, "Why do you think it was such a desperate move to marry her off? Without being able to support her, I had to resort to the next best thing. And that was to give her a husband that would be able to afford anything she wanted and needed."
The father lifted a brow, turning his head slightly to tease Travosky a little more, "What's your move now, Charles? You won't receive anything at the end of this. It's pointless."
Everyone in the factory stared at Hallden with wide eyes. This information he spilled was slowly sinking in, and Travosky was the only who twitched his lip up into a sneer. He straightened, turning his back a moment before spinning around and punching the father backwards.
Mara cried out for her father, her bottom lip trembling and struggled to get loose from her captive's grip.
Travosky looked upward, sighing heavily at how pathetic William was lying there, moaning from the apparent pain in his face. Ben scowled, looking up from Hallden groaning on the floor and trying to lift himself up.
Ben snapped his attention back to Travosky, still glaring at Hallden, as he shouted, "Damn, you! You think this is still a game!? You are playing with innocent people's lives! Why don't you let them go, and disappear!?"
This time, when Travosky looked at Ben, his brows were raised. He started to grin, chuckling to himself.
The others eyed him carefully. Travosky was simply unpredictable; he was the definition of bipolar as far as anyone can see; so Anna, Ben and Nathan seemed to be the only ones prepared for any reaction Travosky may have.
The blonde man made his way over to Ben, staring him down from his straight posture.
"Because you know too much. You all have seen my face, William knows who I am, and now you three have stumbled upon who I am, too. So it is only fair, my beer bellied friend, that I throw away the rules of this particular game..."
He stopped from pacing away from them all with his back to them. Then he looked over his shoulder, that evil grin crawling onto the lower part of his face. "And cheat."
Travosky kept his stance, raising a brow and ordered towards one of his men, "Bring the girl to me!"
If Ben didn't know any better, he could see on Anna's face, a sudden rush of... jealousy? Or was it remorse? Or was it both? Clearly she knew what Travosky was planning the way her eyes glared at his back. And as Mara was being pulled towards Travosky, Anna closed her eyes, turning away.
Beside him, Ben could feel Nathan trying to break free from his rope bindings, and glanced at the young man whose focus was on none other than Mara.
When she was faced with the large blonde man, and that eerie smile appeared, Mara's mind flashed back to her nightmare. And somehow, she felt that was his way of getting back at her father; by taking advantage of her, and then probably killing her after.
Mara struggled back against the man that had been guarding her, but Travosky reached out and took hold of her by the jaw and yanked her towards him. Her whimpering had no effect on him, nor was her whispered pleading to release her.
Travosky kept dragging his eyes up and down Mara as he directed his words towards Hallden.
"Tell me, William, do you know what it feels like to have everything taken from you?"
His eyes went over to the group of men, struggling against the men holding them back, and shifted his blue eyes to his old partner.
Hallden scowled, shouting, "LEAVE HER, CHARLES!"
Ignoring his request, Travosky squeezed Mara's jaw more, her hands gripping his wrist as she tried to tug out of his hand. He grinned again, raising his brows. "Would you like to find out?"
His hand started up Mara's thigh, under her summer dress, pressing his bearded face against hers. His eyes solely moved to her father, "She's absolutely precious, you know... it's a shame that... once I'm through with her..." he grinned at Mara's horrified expression. "That I'll have to kill her."
He forced his mouth onto hers, but Mara had pulled her head aside, so he was only kissing part of her lip and more of her cheek. Her brows lowered and eyes shut tight, Mara grimaced with disgust.
As if being restrained wasn't enough to piss off Nathan, it was now seeing Mara being man-handled that set him off completely.
The whole time the mad man was giving his stupid lecture, Nathan had been cutting away at the white rope around his wrists. He'd taken his pocket knife from his back pocket when the man behind him wasn't looking, since he'd been staring at Travosky the whole time, and made tiny incisions into the itchy material. When he'd cut just enough that he'd be able to break through it, Nathan timed his moment to do so.
After Travosky made a pass at Mara, Nathan snapped, along with his bindings. His movements were so quick and smooth; it took everyone a minute longer to realize what was happening before actually reacting. Nathan tore through the rope; turned from the position he was in to give a hard punch to his guard's thigh, making the man double over to grip his leg. He took hold of the man's head, swiftly turning it with his neck snapping as a result.
The man guarding Hallden had raised his gun, but Nathan's foot kicked it upward; bullets straying in an upward motion when the soldier dodged them, and they took down three other men instead. Nathan elbowed the man in the face once he was standing and punched another man that had made his way over to them, dropping his gun when a kick shot to his face.
Nathan picked up the abandoned weapon, taking a stance with it pointing directly at Travosky.
The remaining men, including Anna, had robotically raised their guns at Nathan, waiting for the order to gun him down, but Travosky was silent.
He had ceased his assault on the young woman before him, and turned his gaze to meet the barrel of a gun directed at him. His vision went past the gun to the strong-jawed man holding it.
Nathan's chin was tilted downward, with his face slightly turned, but his eyes were glued to Travosky; the muscles in his jaw tensed, before his deep, husky voice grumbled, "Back... the hell... away."