by Hart, Gemma
So when an invitation for dinner was slipped in with my breakfast, I knew I would accept. I did not relish the idea of spending another minute with Tobias Lestrade but for Marco I would. I needed to know what was happening to him.
Tobias poured me a generous glass of wine.
“You look lovely,” he said as he handed me the glass.
“Thank you,” I said, not knowing what else to say. He had bought me the dress.
I was wearing a dark sleeveless navy blue dress that flared out around my hips. It was a flattering cut that gave just enough skin and cleavage without being too bawdy.
“I’m glad you decided to join me for dinner,” he said pleasantly. “I’m sure it was getting quite stuffy in your room.
“Did I have a choice?” I asked, knowing I should try to sweet talk him for information but unable to help myself. My room was plush and lovely but I was no fool. It was still a prison cell.
Tobias’s fork and knife paused above his steak. He looked at me with mild surprise. “No one would’ve forced you to come. You have your free will,” he said.
“What about my free will to walk out of here?” I countered.
Tobias gave a small smile as he cut into the thick steak. “Free will, within reason,” he corrected.
A lull fell over us as we cut into our food. Everything was sumptuously plated and the food was unfailingly delicious. But my palate was as dry cardboard. I waited what I felt was an appropriate amount of time before asking, “Did Marco accept your job?”
“He didn’t have much choice,” Tobias replied, taking a sip of his wine. “He is very fond of you, isn’t he?”
It made my stomach turn at the thought of Tobias dangling me in front of Marco like that. I knew he would risk everything, his life even, for me.
“Why did you pick Marco?” I asked, unable to keep the desperation out of my voice. “I’m sure you had hundreds of men to pick from. Why Marco?”
Tobias swallowed his bite before putting down his fork and knife and leaning back in his chair, eyeing me levelly.
“Let me ask you that same question—why Marco?” he asked. “You worked for his family, albeit under a ruse, but still, you saw what the Desmond Family was like. They are not a wholesome bunch, to say the very least. Why pick Marco?”
I sat, stunned by the question. Why would he care who I picked or didn’t pick as my partner, as my love?
“Because I love him,” I answered simply and honestly.
Tobias gave a shake of his head and a little dry laugh. “Surely you can’t be that naïve,” he said.
I felt my fists tighten in annoyance. “What is so naïve about loving someone?”
“Because one must also live by the brain as well as the heart,” he countered quickly, his green eyes turning a shade darker. His wavy dark hair fell around him like a dark halo, making him look even more shadowy and dangerous.
“You think he loves you back?” Tobias asked, a brow raised, waiting for an answer.
“He took your job, didn’t he?” I retorted. “I doubt he took it just because he was feeling generous.”
Tobias grinned suddenly. His brilliant smile lit up his dark face, again making him arrestingly attractive. He eyed me with interest. “You’re quite remarkable, Miss Margot,” he said softly with surprise. “I don’t think most people being held captive in a place like this would want to be so sassy.”
I bit my tongue, wondering if I had just caused Marco additional trouble for my lack of discretion.
But instead, Tobias looked amused. He looked at me with renewed interest.
“So you think he truly loves you because he’s taking my job,” he said. He tucked a hand under his chin, his head cocked a little. “Don’t you think that’s really just selfish?”
I stared at him, confused. “Selfish? Selfish that he’s taking on what is likely a very dangerous job so he can find and rescue me?” I said, giving me a look like he had lost his mind. What the hell was he playing at?
Tobias pressed his lips in a noncommittal gesture. “If he truly loved you, if he truly cared for you, if he truly worried about your safety, would he have let you be in such a situation like this?”
“He didn’t—!”
“What I mean is,” Tobias interrupted, raising a hand to stop me, “if he really loved you and cared for you, he wouldn’t have brought you with him to Europe. He wouldn’t have even dared to look at you back in America. He would’ve known that life with him meant certain risk and danger and if he really loved you, he would’ve spared you that.” He lifted his wineglass, swirling the contents. “You’re here, right now, with me because of him.”
“I’m here because you broke into our house and physically assaulted us,” I corrected, fighting to keep my tone even. “I’m a grown adult. I can make my own decisions in who I love and where I’ll live. I’m here because I chose to love a man who against all odds has managed to survive a hellish past and father. It’s not his fault for having baggage. I have my own as well.”
Tobias watched me as if watching a rare animal peek its head through the forest. A small smile played at his lips. “You’re very good at surprising me,” he said. Then shook his head. “But I disagree. No one is arguing your adulthood or agency. What I’m saying is that if you really love someone, you’ll do all that you can to protect that person. You’re not diminishing them by keeping them safe. You, for all that you accomplished, are still very new to the worlds Marco and I walk in. You don’t know the kind of risks and dangers that are in front of you. He does. To keep you with him is to risk certain death.”
I lowered my own fork and knife. I leaned back in my seat, my head cocked a little as a realization slowly began dawning on me. A small seed of understanding and even pity began to blossom within my heart.
“Who was it?” I asked softly.
Tobias raised a brow. “I’m sorry?”
“Who did you lose to danger?” I asked again quietly. “Who did you risk?”
An immediate change came over Tobias’s body. His broad shoulders stiffened and his eyes narrowed till all I saw was a pointed green stare. There was a small crackling noise in the background from the fireplace.
“Once again,” he replied coldly, “you surprise me, Miss Margot. Now if you’ll excuse me.” He swiftly rose to his feet, throwing his napkin down on his chair. Within moments, he was gone, leaving me alone in the room with the half finished dinner.
I stared at the door leading to Tobias’s room, a mixture of confusion and understanding swirling through me.
Chapter Eight
Marco
Germany
“This is a bad idea, yeah?” Zeke said, looking intently at his computer screen. “Sure you want to do it?”
I crossed my arms. “Not much choice in the matter,” I said. Not unless I could magically find out where Halle was. Then I’d literally punch through the walls to get her.
Zeke pulled up another window on his computer, tapping a finger against his chin while also tapping his foot on the floor. The skinny little hacker was never able to just be still for one minute. Some part of him was always moving or shifting.
Same applied to his loft. Or, what could be considered a loft. It was really three apartments whose walls had been knocked or rotted off, creating one giant loft. And you’d think Zeke would want to clear the brick and debris from each division but nope, he just left the mess there, using it as crooked and haphazard bookstands or computer tables.
To carry out this insane mission, I needed help. And if the mission called for anything tech related, I knew Zeke was a necessity. So I had immediately flown back to Germany to find the hacker.
Though he looked like a nervous man because of all his shifting and moving around, he was surprisingly easy to talk to. Nothing ever seemed to ruffle him.
“So you need to kill Marshall Copper, yeah?” Zeke had said in summation after I had explained the situation to him. “And we need this key. And then you get your woman.”
“That’s the long and short of it,” I said tensely, more from anger at Lestrade than anything else.
Zeke had nodded, his large coke bottle glasses giving him a mosquito like appearance. “Yeah, this is very dangerous. It’s not a good idea,” he finally said.
“Well no shit, Sherlock,” I had replied back. “But let’s forget that for the moment and just figure out a plan.”
Zeke had shrugged. “Yeah, okay.”
Zeke pointed a long thin finger at his screen. “See here, yeah? This is where they have the server room. They made it central to the building’s design so that it could be completely protected from all four sides.”
I looked at the blueprints of Turn Tech Security on Zeke’s screen. I didn’t bother asking how he had gotten them. Illegally, no doubt.
At the smack dab center of the building was a central column that was the server room. Normally such rooms would be hidden away in some far off corner. But no, at Turn Tech, it was right where the elevators should normally be. They knew what their golden goose was. They wanted to showcase it and protect it at the same time.
“So no cutting a door through the back walls, huh?” I said dryly looking at the impossible structure. There would be cameras everywhere.
Zeke shook his head. “Nope. And from these plans, it’s difficult to see exactly what kind of security they have in place for the server entry doors. It could be impossible if its biometric locks. Unless we have a person on the inside working for us?” He looked up hopefully.
I gave him a dry look. “Just the two of us, I’m afraid.”
Zeke blew some air out of his lips. “Well, yeah, okay then. This is hard. We’ll need to do a reconnaissance mission first to check it all out. Then once we have a better idea as to their locks, we can figure out how to pick them.”
“Then let’s say we get into the room,” I said. “You know how to steal the key from there?”
Zeke pursed his lips, looking up from his screen. His foot was still tapping below as he thought. “Well, yeah, I should. I can make a spy bug based on some defining characteristics of the key and we should be able to trap it and copy it.”
“Copy it?” I asked, interrupting. “So they’ll still have a copy?”
Zeke nodded. “There’s no way to ‘steal’ something like that. But what we can do is leave something in its place as we copy it, altering the mother code. That way, we’ll only have the true key.”
I stared at the computer screen, the lines of the blueprints waving in and out of my vision as I thought.
“I heard that Turn Tech offers tours,” I said slowly. “They’ll take you around the grounds and give you an idea as to what it is Turn Tech offers, which clearly is nothing since they’re only interested in blackmailing every nation by holding them by their fucking balls.”
Zeke raised a brow at my colorful language.
“But a tour would be a good place to start so we can get an idea of the layout,” I continued.
Zeke nodded. “True,” he said. “But we’ll need more than layout knowledge. Getting you into that server room might be next to impossible. Without a great deal of luck, none of this might work.”
I sighed. It had been a long day. After flying into Germany, I had checked on some business before immediately heading over to recruit Zeke. We had been dissecting the plan for the last two hours.
“We’ll just make our own luck,” I said nonsensically. I slapped the table, making Zeke jump in surprise.
“Be ready by five tomorrow,” I said. Zeke would be coming back to London with me tomorrow so we could put our plan into motion.
I left his crumbling loft and headed towards my own place. I had a small apartment near the plants that I had kept for years now. Halle and I had stayed there briefly before heading on to France.
Thinking of Halle again, I felt my chest ache.
And my cock twitch.
But it wasn’t from simple mindless lust.
Yes, Halle had a face and a body that could drive a man mad. With her creamy skin and lush curves, any man could go blind with desire for her.
But right now, that wasn’t why my cock had hardened.
I stripped and stepped into the shower, letting the hot water run over my tense body. My blood coursed with its hunger for her.
My body ached for her because it needed her.
After years of abuse from Roy, years of killing for the Family, and years of pain and separation from Jamie, I had walked away with a heart so fractured and broken that I was positive I would never learn what it meant to love someone.
Until Halle had walked into my heart.
Then with each passing day, her presence soothed my soul. It was as if her love was some kind of healing balm for my heart. I couldn’t get enough of her—her sweetness, her kindness, her savviness. She had it all.
And when our bodies joined, that was the ultimate reach of pleasure and peace I knew I would find on this side of life.
Wrapping my tongue around her breasts, nuzzling and biting her till she groaned in need, running my fingers through her slick cleft, urging her pussy towards that spiraling desire for release, yes, it all filled and sated a physical hunger in me. But it also filled a hunger within my heart. Knowing I could bring someone I loved, someone I truly and sincerely loved, such pleasure redeemed me. It made me feel human. It made me feel like I could be more than a dirty killer.
Halle made me feel more.
And when my cock, throbbing and tight with desire, thrust into her waiting warmth, my whole body groaned with pleasure. Heat rose through me and consumed me. Each deep plunge, each breathless sigh from her, felt like a blessing onto the darkness that is my soul.
My body reveled as she holds onto my shoulders, clinging on for dear life as I push her body further and further to the edge. I felt her pussy stretch for me, making me feel enveloped and big.
And when we came shuddering together, our highs mingling just as our bodies were, I saw absolution, salvation, peace, and happiness in her warm and sated blue eyes.
Halle, I’m coming for you. I swear it, with my body.
Chapter Nine
Marco
London
“You must have some kind of crazy American luck, yeah?” Zeke said, shaking his head as he looked at his laptop screen.
Sitting in the dining room of our Chelsea house, Zeke had a mini command station set up. I had met him at the German airfield and had eyed his five large trunks. The man looked like he barely owned two pairs of pants. I could only imagine what were in the trunks.
But I said nothing and gave the nod to load the trunks.
Once we had arrived at the house, he began unloading his equipment. Clearly Zeke had tried to restrain himself and had only brought what he had considered necessary. But that meant a three screened computer, two different laptops, a CPU, a very long keyboard that seemed to have special buttons that differentiated it from the normal keyboard and several smaller black boxes that he said did various things like catch radio frequencies and trace signals.
“Yeah?” I said, unable to help myself from catching onto Zeke’s unique phraseology.
Zeke nodded. “It looks like the a Mr. Thomas Apple, head of security for Turn Tech, is currently on an emergency leave of absence for two weeks,” Zeke said, reading something from his screen.
“How do you know that?” I asked, amazed.
“From his emails,” Zeke answered distractedly as he continued to read.
Of course, his emails. Although I’m sure Turn Tech had good firewalls in place, Zeke was a pro, a fanatic. He would get in anywhere he set his mind to. So it wasn’t too surprising that he had managed to hack into Mr. Apple’s emails.
“Mr. Apple is notoriously paranoid about who he has brought in for technical support. Usually he has a list of vetted and approved techs that he has for servicing,” Zeke continued. “But with him being out, we’re left with Mr. Garrison Blythe.”
“Who I’m guessing is much less di
scerning,” I said, catching onto where he was going.
Zeke nodded, his eyes zooming across his screens. “Much. He hardly can remember his secretary’s name. There’s no way he’ll remember or much less care what technician comes in to work on the servers. With him in charge, we might have a small sliver of a chance at having this actually work.”
Excitement danced in Zeke’s eyes. He could care less who had the key or who the Black Saints were. All he enjoyed was the challenge. He liked having a lock to pick. And this was certainly one hell of a lock.
Human error. That’s what Mr. Blythe was. There was always human error in the end. Roy’s had been paranoia. Mr. Apple’s will be his oversight in hiring incompetent people. When nothing else will work, human error will always be the downfall.