by Mara McQueen
"Very serious," he said, lowering his head. "Scream my name this time."
Chapter Sixteen
ENZO
Enzo couldn't remember the last time he'd slept so well.
After a long, steamy shower, he'd carried Patrice into his bed, and she'd rested her head on his pillow, tangled in his arms.
Enzo had watched her fall asleep, running his hands through her gorgeous hair.
Only sleep had stopped him from staring at her. The woman was going to be his undoing.
Now that he'd had a taste of her, he knew he could never stop. Everything about her, from the way she blushed to the sexy, smoky looks she sent his way, drew him to her.
It was insane, but the kind of insane Enzo definitely wanted in his life.
When he was with her, the need for revenge, the bloodlust, the violence seemed to vanish. She made him feel alive and wanted, not because of the secrets he could steal, or because of his wealth, but because of him.
He woke up the next day with the sun beaming down on him through the gauzy drapes, Patrice snuggled at his side.
"Good morning," she purred, kissing his neck while her hand traced each line of his tattoo.
Best morning of his life.
"I didn't wake you up, did I?" she asked oh-so-innocently, even though she totally had.
"Missed me, did you?"
She propped herself up on her elbow, leaning over him. Her hair fell, cascading over her shoulder. She was gorgeous.
"Would it be totally weird if I said yes?"
No, it would be totally exhilarating, because, for some bizarre reason, Enzo felt like he'd missed her, too. And all they'd done was sleep.
They were weirdly perfect together.
He tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, caressing her cheek. "I know I'm going to say this a lot from now on, but you're so beautiful."
Patrice smiled, ducking her head back down again. She mumbled something against Enzo's skin.
"What was that?" he asked.
"I said you're beautiful, too," she muttered.
A lot of women had called him that and much more, but this was the first time Enzo was in danger of blushing at a compliment. Him. Blushing. He was the goddamn Phantom. One of the most feared men in all the world, but Patrice made him feel like a giddy teenager.
"Now stop distracting me," she said, all bossy and serious. "I have a plan and not nearly enough time for it."
"Planning on breaking some more stuff in your lab?"
"Don't have enough beakers for that," she grumbled.
She didn't have enough beakers yet. Because Charles had gone to the closest village yesterday to order the large shipment, and Enzo would be going to collect all those dozens upon dozens of beakers for Patrice today—if he ever managed to get out of bed.
"Then are you planning to take over the world?" he asked.
"That's a Tuesday kind of a thing." She cleared her throat. "I actually have an online Brotherhood Elite meeting later on."
"My house has a strong VPN. They won't be able to track you." Enzo tried hard not to tense, he did, but his words had still come out a bit harsher than he would've liked.
He didn't trust that Clan. With anything. But he trusted Toni and the insane number of precautions she'd installed on the entire system in the house.
A stillness settled in the room.
Enzo and Patrice had to get better at this whole trusting the other's Clan thing.
"They won't even try to track your island," Patrice said evenly, gracing Enzo's morning with another smile. "The meeting's happening. So you'll have to bear living without me for a couple of hours."
"It's going to be absolute torture." And if she didn't stop tracing circles all up and down his sides, it really would be. "But I need to make a quick stop to the village. Craving anything?"
"Yes." Patrice met his eyes; there was a devious shimmer in hers. "You."
She straddled him. She was naked. He was naked. He'd totally blanked on that detail.
"Very, very good morning." He grasped her hips, grounding her to him.
All the memories from last night came rushing back. The heat, the kisses, how she felt wrapped around him, screaming his name. Paradise.
"You were fantastic last night." Patrice bent over him. "But it's payback time."
"If this is your brand of revenge, I'll just have to withstand it."
"Big talk for someone who's about to get his mind blown in a couple of minutes."
"God, I love how competitive you are." Especially in this. In anything, really. He liked that she could face him head-on, always.
"What was it you said last night?" Patrice's lips twisted into a sinful grin. "You're going to love this even more?"
As long as she was at his side, he knew he'd love everything.
Patrice ignited his skin, leaving a hot trail of kisses down his neck, torso, and abs, where she lingered, tongue circling each muscle.
Before he was even aware of it, Enzo had wrapped her hair around his fist.
"You're obsessed with my hair." She grinned up at him, lips traveling lower and lower as she slid down his body.
Enzo was obsessed with her.
He hissed when she grabbed the base of his length, licking the tip. His hips rose of their own accord.
Patrice placed her hands on his stomach, pushing him back down into the mattress.
"No, no. You just sit back and enjoy."
He did. And just like Patrice had promised, she blew his mind in a few short minutes.
Chapter Seventeen
PATRICE
"Quit complaining, I only logged on two minutes late," Patrice grumbled at the computer screen.
She was staring at the four faces she'd come to trust most in this world. The Brotherhood Elite. Axton, Raiden, Logan, and Mason. All very dangerous, very powerful men, who would get an earful from her if they didn't stop moaning about the lag.
"You always complain when we're late to a meeting," Axton pointed out.
"Because you're always actually late. I was on time, I just had to understand this new system."
Whatever virtual private network Toni had installed was infuriating. It had rerouted Patrice twenty-three times before she'd finally been able to access the Brotherhood private chat.
"While this little exchange is lovely, we do have important things to discuss," Logan said in that unflinching way of his. The man was efficient down to the bone and the most ruthless one of them all. The difference was he kept his hands clean; he twisted minds and destroyed lives with his brain. He was all chiseled angles and unforgiving glances. Patrice was glad she was on the same side as him. "We've been searching for that hybrid plant. No lab we've checked so far has done any botanical experiments that would have produced any species similar to it."
Patrice sighed, running her hand through her hair, which was still damp from the quick shower. Okay, it hadn't been that quick. Enzo had jumped in and things had happened. Wonderful, sinful, toe-curling things.
They'd lost track of time and had to rush to get ready. He'd left barely five minutes ago, with a quick peck and promises to bring back gelato.
"If we find out who created the plant or where it comes from, then we can track whoever's responsible for it," she said. "An experiment like this takes time and financial resources very few Clans have. There has to be a money trail."
"Perhaps it wasn't Clan money." Raiden leaned closer to his camera. "I hear someone has a Runagate bounty on her head."
"Well." Patrice flicked her hair over her shoulder. "That's a misunderstanding. It'll blow over soon."
"Want us to take care of it?"
Patrice smiled. They might not have been blood-related, but her Brothers had always been there for her. They'd give their lives for her, and Patrice would do the same for them.
Which is why it absolutely killed her that she had to keep Enzo's real identity a secret from them. She knew he wouldn't cause any trouble for her Clan as long as they were together
, but that didn't stop the guilt from worming its way inside her.
Good thing Mr. Oscar was purring in her lap. Patrice pet him again and again to keep her hands busy. Her Brothers would see she was hiding something as soon as her arms did that weird twisting thing.
Patrice was an awful liar.
"Thanks, but no. That would cause more trouble than it's worth." She nodded at Mason, eager to change the subject. "Has Toni found anything else on that list?"
Mason, a mountain of a man whose wide shoulders took up almost the entire frame, frowned. "How do you know about the list?"
"How do you?" Patrice grinned. "It was supposed to be a Syndicate secret."
Axton narrowed his eyes. "Getting along well with that Syndicate princeling of yours?"
Patrice rolled her eyes. "Oh, do not give me any attitude, Commander. I can see the hickey the Syndicate she-devil left on your neck. She's a biter, isn't she?"
Axton pursed his lips. "None of your concern."
"Answer the question, Patrice," Raiden said in that Prince voice of his that didn't leave any room for argument. "How do you know about the list? Before any of us, might I add, Mason."
Mason cleared his throat, but didn't say anything. None of them liked to be on the receiving end of Raiden's sharp tongue, and the Brotherhood Prince had been in a right mood since his wedding.
"How do you think I got to the top of the Runagate bounty hunt?" Patrice shrugged, and she knew it didn't look the least bit natural. "Enzo and I borrowed the list from them."
It was a good thing the connection was piss-poor and laggy, because Patrice felt her cheeks getting all shades of red. How could she lie without blinking to her targets, but turned scarlet with half-truths around people she cared about?
Easy. She'd never, ever lied to them. Until now.
But practice made perfect, right? Patrice felt rotten for even thinking it.
"You need to watch your back around him," Logan said, sounding concerned for probably the first time in his life. "He has a reputation. The bad kind, which says a lot coming from Underworld people."
The good thing about having four of the most dangerous men in the world as her Brothers was that Patrice knew they'd always—always—have her back. The bad thing was that they sometimes acted like her real brothers.
"You don't have to worry about him," Patrice said and she meant it. "He's harmless."
To you. For now.
Patrice's right hand kept on petting Mr. Oscar, while her left gripped onto the chair's arm until her knuckles turned white. She was one half-lie away from trembling.
"He's a distraction," Raiden seethed. Good to know he disliked Enzo just as much as her fiancé disliked him. "You had a clear mission—find out what you could on the Phantom and find out where that toxin came from. That mission did not include breaking into the Runagate headquarters."
Patrice gasped. "Did you have someone track me?"
She was ripping out all of their throats when they'd be in the same room together again.
Raiden scoffed as if it was the most ridiculous idea in the world. "Of course not, we trust you."
Patrice's heart clenched tighter.
"The news spread fast and the Fireman likes to chat once he's had a few too many at the bar," Axton said.
"Ah, I see." Damn it. Patrice had forgotten Axton knew the Fireman, the biggest gossip the Runagates had in their ranks. Of course everyone knew about her little dash through Paris. "We got valuable information out of it, didn't we? Now we have proof the Runagates might've been involved in the wedding massacre."
"No proof is worth a bounty on your head," Raiden said. "What if they come to collect? You're on your own, wherever you are. By choice. If someone comes after us, I can send an entire squadron of assassins. I can't do it for you, because you've hidden your location."
"If you can't find me, you really think the Runagates will?" she asked. Good Lord, her palms were sweating. She had to deflect, fast. "And I didn't hide it, it's part of the delightful deal I was forced to take when we all had to enter arranged marriages because you just had to uphold the Code and stop Ava's wedding."
Raiden clenched his jaw. Patrice saw the shadows crowding his eyes. She knew how guilty he felt for dragging all of them into this mess, but they were all grown-ups here. All of them could have declined the marriage alliances and decided to go to war. All of them had decided to avoid bloodshed instead.
She didn't like this. She didn't like this at all.
This is what she was afraid of. Being put in the middle between her Clan and Enzo.
"We don't know what the Runagates are capable of," Logan said gravely. "We're worried about you."
"Just tell us where you are," Mason said. "Promise we won't come visiting, but we'll sleep better at night."
"I'm in a secret location," Patrice bit out. "In a safe secret location."
"Where?" Logan pressed.
"At least tell us the continent. We can take it from there," Axton said. "Ella and I just got attacked by masked assassins. This is really serious, Patrice. We don't know who we're up against."
Shit.
Shit, shit, shit. Patrice knew her Brothers. They weren't going to leave this alone, and everyone was on edge right now.
She needed to think up a really good lie. One that could fool the people she trusted most in the world. She was rotten, down to her core.
But she really did believe she was safe on the island. She wasn't stupid. If she would've felt the slightest hint of danger, she would have found a way to send a message to her Clan.
If she was wrong, so be it. But her gut didn't lie.
"I—it's—" She licked her lips. How was she so bad at this? "Fine. It's somewhere near—"
The mountains was what she was going to say. But she didn't get a chance to, because her Brothers' faces vanished.
The screen went dark.
What the—
Patrice whirled around. Her heart dropped. Enzo stood in the doorway, the unplugged computer cable in his hands, accusation in his eyes.
Patrice saw red.
Chapter Eighteen
ENZO
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Patrice said in a deadly whisper. "I was in a Brotherhood meeting."
"I heard," Enzo spit out, throwing the cable away from him. "I also heard you being on the brink of revealing our location."
He was furious.
He'd barely boarded the yacht—to go pick up her beakers and fucking gelato, because she said she'd never tried it and he wanted to give her everything this world had to offer—when he'd realized Charles still had his wallet.
And when he'd come back what had he found? His fiancée on the brink of betraying him.
He couldn't believe it, even now, while he was in a staring match with her.
"You absolute asshole." She jumped up, startling Oscar. The cat landed on his feet, letting out a confused meow. "You don't get to disrupt my meeting with my Clan."
"When it's about our safety, I do."
"Oh, it's suddenly our?" She faced him head-on, rage rolling off her in waves. "You asked me not to tell them where the island was. You think I'd forget from one day to the next?"
"You didn't promise you wouldn’t tell them," he fired back. "Or about me being the Phantom."
All he'd gotten was a nod. He'd been waiting for her to swear she wouldn't, day in and day out. Then he'd convinced himself that maybe, just maybe, she didn't have to say it as long as she didn't reveal anything.
But here they were.
"I didn't know I had to for you to believe me," she hissed. "I wasn't going to tell them anything, because, like the naive fool I am, I trusted you when you said I'd be safe here."
"You are safe."
"Sneaking up on me and interrupting my conversations is not safe."
"I didn't sneak anywhere, I came into the room." Enzo's nostrils flared. "And I interrupted because you—"
"I was about to lie to them. To my own Clan. For y
ou."
"It didn't look that way from where I was standing. You were all jittery and sweaty—"
"Because I'm a shitty liar," she erupted. "And with each secret I keep from them, it feels like I'm betraying the only people that really care about me."
Enzo clenched his jaw. Was she telling the truth? Because if she was…
"You're a walking lie-detector. Look at me! I was going to tell them I'm somewhere near mountains, freezing my ass off." She breathed heavily. "Am I lying now?"
He did look at her. And his dread grew by the second. Nothing on her face said she was lying.
Nothing.
Enzo sighed.
Fuck. He'd made a huge mistake.
"Listen," he began, voice even. "I thought—"
"You thought what?" She looked at him with nothing but disappointment in her eyes. "That I was so stupid I'd dare reveal our location out loud? After years in the Underworld, don't you think I have my ways of sending secret messages, even from the middle of fucking nowhere. I'm the Viper. I escaped a goddamn Russian torture room while half-passed out. If I would've wanted to, I would've escaped this place that first night. Which I'm starting to think I should have done in the first place."
Enzo took a step toward her, hand reaching for her shoulder.
Patrice flinched back as if scalded. "Don't touch me."
His body tensed. He'd been an idiot, letting old fears crowd his judgment. Now he had to pay for it.
"You are safe here. I shouldn't have jumped to the worst conclusion possible, but you know what would happen if your Elite found out about this place or who I am. I don't want to be tied to anybody."
Patrice slashed a look his way. There was still rage in her eyes, but underneath it, there was only a sea of hurt.
"I didn't mean it like that," Enzo pleaded. "I meant them and Clan obligations and blackmail. Not you."
"Oh, yeah, you've made it very clear you can't wait to be tied down. With your island and your rules and your house and your bed. You keep saying we're a team, but you don't really believe that, do you?"