Her Enemy Protector (Tempt Me)

by Avery Flynn

  “You don’t have to like it, you just have to do it.” Rolf’s voice. Closer, almost to the cabin. “You know what’s at stake here.”

  The last piece of paper in place, he lowered the kitchen island’s top. It clicked softly back into place. Ruby whipped around and grabbed the potted plant, placed it on the island, and adjusted it so it was in the same spot as before. Without a single word between them, they turned in unison and hustled silently to the backdoor.

  “That bargaining chip won’t always be in your possession.” The Sparrow’s voice was right outside the front door.

  Lucas opened the backdoor. Ruby hurried through it with him on her heels. He was pulling it shut just as the front door began to open.

  “The wedding changes nothing,” Rolf said, his voice a low snarl. “Everyone knows it but you.”

  The closed backdoor blocked out whatever the Sparrow said in response. He rolled the conversation around in his head, examining the different possible meanings as he and Ruby slipped through a second gate cut into the hedges behind the Sparrow’s cabin.

  The wedding changes nothing.

  A reference to the arms deal or something worse? He’d known he was putting Ruby in danger by blackmailing her into this plan, but that hadn’t mattered before he’d met her. Now? It was like he’d swallowed a bag of glass shards.

  Finally, far enough from the Sparrow’s cabin to offer a modicum of safety, he wrapped his fingers around her wrist and pulled her to a stop beside him. His lips were on hers before his brain had caught up to his instinctual intention. She opened beneath him, wrapping her arms around his neck. It was an invitation he wasn’t going to turn down. He swept his tongue inside, plundering her sweetness and teasing one of those soft moans from her.

  The kiss wasn’t a promise. It wasn’t an apology. It was a wish he knew couldn’t come true, but that didn’t make him want her any less. There was more danger in that than all the goons on Fare Island.

  A rustle up ahead sent adrenaline spiking through his veins, and he broke the kiss in time to see Ingrid come around the corner. He and Ruby jumped apart like kids caught making out in a school hallway.

  “Oh, there you two are,” Ingrid said, her eyes less focused and duller than usual, the air of manic energy replaced by an almost drowsy haze. “Come on, Ruby darling, you need to help with the seating arrangements. Nearly everyone has said yes, and I think Rolf invited half of Europe, and you know most of them hate each other, which is going to make dinner an unholy misery.”

  Giving him a wan smile, she linked her arm through Ruby’s and led her back to the main house while all Lucas could do was watch from a distance as she disappeared inside.

  Chapter Eleven

  The next night, after another day of fake wedding preparation madness and frustrated attempts to steal some alone time with Lucas to search for any information about the arms exchange, Ruby cut into her lamb chop and tried to focus on her mother’s question about the wedding bouquet.

  “She doesn’t give a damn, Ingrid,” Rolf slurred from behind a full plate and a nearly empty glass at the head of the dinner table. “Just do what you want.”

  It might be true, but it didn’t change the fact that her stepfather was drunk and an asshole. Since he was a total prick when he was sober, Ruby had a lifetime of practice dealing with that aspect of his personality. The slurred words and bitter snarl right on the surface instead of under a thin veneer of smarm was new, though.

  There hadn’t been a lot of non-Ingrid-wedding chatter at the dinner table up to that point, but the room went silent at his comment. Across the table from her and Lucas, Jasper and Talia went still, their forced cheer and false flirting quashed by the tension. Lucas tucked her hand into his under the table, and her shoulders ratcheted down from her earlobes at his warm, comforting touch.

  “Are you feeling all right, dear?” Ingrid asked in a small voice from her spot at the opposite end of the table from her husband.

  “Why wouldn’t I be? I’m sitting here surrounded by those who love me most.” He shot back the rest of the akvavit in his glass. “I’m a man who has it all, aren’t I, darling?”

  He added enough derision into what should have been an endearment to force an angry heat up from Ruby’s toes fast enough she was surprised her hair didn’t catch fire. Lucas’s cool grip on her hand was the only thing keeping her grounded in the moment rather than flying across the table and letting the bastard have it, once and for all.

  Her mom smiled, but it was a small one that didn’t even come close to reaching her eyes. “Of course.”

  “Excellent answer.” He reached for the decanter next to his glass. “Shall we have a toast to the happy couple?”

  Ruby stiffened at the words that came out of her stepfather’s mouth that sounded six shades of ugly. “I don’t think that’s necessary.”

  The engagement may be a cover, but her stepfather didn’t know that. She glanced down at her fingers intertwined with Lucas’s. His words stung all the more because she was beginning to wish it wasn’t all a lie, that she really was about to have life beyond the borders of Fare Island and outside of her stepfather’s criminal organization.

  “You’ve never been as agreeable as your mother, have you?” Rolf asked, pouring a double’s worth of liquor into his glass. “Why is that? Have I not given you everything you could want?” He toyed with his glass so that the ice cubes swirled around inside, just one more thing he sent this way or that, depending on his mood. “If it wasn’t for me, God knows what would have happened to the little trio. No doubt your mother would be in ja—”

  “Rolf. That’s enough.” Ingrid’s voice was as sharp and as mean as one of the Sparrow’s deadly blades. “May I speak with you outside?”

  She pushed her chair away from the table with a loud screech and stood, her white-knuckled hands in fists at her side.

  “Anything for you, darling. You know that.” Rolf’s chair stuttered as it went back, little jerks that made the ice in his glass clink hard against each other, then stood and walked with deliberate intention to the door and swung it open with more force than necessary. “Shall we?”

  Heels clicking on the hardwood floor, Ingrid crossed the room with an extra bit of iron in her spine that Ruby couldn’t recall ever seeing before. First, Jasper and his secret life working with the Americans, and now her mom standing up to Rolf. Maybe Jasper was right. Maybe they didn’t need her to always be watching out for them, running interference, and cleaning up their—mostly Jasper’s—messes. If that was the case, she had no idea what to do next. Keeping them safe had been the only thing she’d ever really worried about.

  “After you, my lady.” Rolf executed a mocking bow.

  Ignoring him, Ingrid looked back at the rest of them. “Please don’t wait on us to continue with your dessert.”

  After that she swept through the door. Rolf closed it behind both of them.

  Lucas let go of her hand. “Thank God. I didn’t think Osborne’s latest invention was going to work.”

  “Was it the alcohol volume doubler?” Talia asked, pulling a gold tube of lipstick and a small gold compact out of her bra.

  “Yes. The man is a giant pain in my ass, but he’s a genius.” Lucas vaulted up from his seat and made a beeline toward Rolf’s vacant seat.

  Lucas, Jasper, and Talia moved in concert to her stepfather’s empty spot at the head of the table while Ruby sat frozen in her seat trying to process what in the hell was going on. While she’d been stuck looking at menus and seating charts, her brother, his fake girlfriend, and Lucas had been up to something much more interesting. This was bullshit. Her ass was on the line as much as theirs, if not more, and yet they left her in the dark.

  “Watch the door,” Lucas said as he picked up Rolf’s phone.

  Jasper snorted. “You watch the fucking door.”

  “I’m point,” Lucas shot back. “You’re just the interfering brother.”

  “Who is working with the Americans,”
Jasper grumbled as he stalked to the door.

  Talia uncapped the lipstick, revealing a USB drive instead of the pale-pink shade she wore on her lips. She handed it to Lucas along with her matching compact mirror.

  “How long?” He slipped off the back of Rolf’s phone and then pushed the compact’s decorative hinge to reveal a plug that he fit into the phone’s exposed inner-workings.

  “Forty-five seconds,” Talia said.

  After a quick beep, he flipped the clasp that held the compact closed and slipped the lipstick USB into it. “In the lab or real world?”

  “This device has never been used on the job before,” she said.

  “And you thought this was the ideal time to field test a new toy?” He cut a glare at the other Silver Knight.

  Talia didn’t flinch. The woman had to be made of solid ice. “Osborne guaranteed it would download the virus that would let us monitor the phone remotely, no matter what encryption is on it.”

  “It won’t be his dead ass getting dumped in the North Sea if he’s wrong.” Lucas dropped his gaze back to the compact, the mirror showing a countdown clock instead of a reflection.

  “He never is.”

  The whole thing was like having a front row seat to a spy movie, but it wasn’t enough. She wanted—needed—to be a part of it.

  “Twenty seconds.” Lucas glanced up at the door. “Can you hear them?”

  “Voices are low, but they’re going at it.” Jasper’s jaw was clenched hard enough to break a tooth.

  It wasn’t like they hadn’t heard Rolf in all his nasty glory before, but their mother wasn’t usually the target. No. It was his stepchildren who had grown up dealing with the verbal shanks. Both of them had learned how to zone out as he sliced and diced them. Their mother hadn’t. Despite her unusual show of spirit tonight, Rolf’s barbs had to be hitting their mark if Jasper’s reaction was anything to go by.

  “Ten seconds,” Lucas announced in a hushed voice.

  Jasper stiffened. “They stopped.”

  The doorknob turned.

  “We need five more seconds,” Lucas said.

  Jasper grabbed the knob and held it still before shoving his shoulder against the door.

  “Three seconds.” The vein in Lucas’s temple throbbed.

  Ruby’s heart clogged her throat.

  “What is going on with this door?” Jasper mumbled loudly, sounding almost as drunk as Rolf. “It won’t open.”

  “Done.” Lucas unplugged Rolf’s phone from the compact converter and tossed it to Talia before setting the phone back down where it had been next to the decanter.

  He hustled back over to his chair and sat down a moment before Jasper released the door.

  Ingrid stood by herself on the other side, hands on her hips and a weary downturn to her mouth. Ruby tried to hyperventilate as quietly as possible while Lucas took a bite of the creamy Skyr panna cotta with raspberries and licorice shavings as if it was just another boring family dinner.

  “Did you forget how a door worked, Jasper?” Ingrid asked, her tone softer than her words, before strolling into the room and heading straight to Rolf’s seat. “Ah, there it is. Your father refused to retire to his room until he had this damn thing. I’m going to deliver it.” She picked up the phone in one hand and rubbed her temple with the other. “After that we really need to finalize the dinner menu, Ruby. Do you mind coming up to my rooms so we can do that? I’m afraid my head is really beginning to ache.”

  “Of course.” She stood up, playing the ever dutiful daughter while mentally plotting how to get Lucas alone and make it known she wasn’t sitting on the sidelines again. “Good night everyone.”

  She brushed a kiss against Lucas’s cheek to cover what she had to do next. “Tomorrow. Noon. The library.”

  How she’d sneak away from all of the fake wedding plans she was sure her mom had, she didn’t know, but she would. No matter how hot he was, her Silver Knight wasn’t going to keep her clueless again.

  …

  The next afternoon, Lucas had to pass by Rolf’s office on his way to the library. Taking a quick peek in, the first thing he spotted was Joey glowering in a corner; the second was a green-faced Rolf hurtling straight at him. The older man’s shoulder slammed into Lucas’s, sending both men backpedaling to regain their balance. Lucas came back, hands loose at his sides but primed to strike. One close look at Rolf, though, and he changed his mind. Landing a solid hit would probably result in his shoes swimming in puke.

  Rolf steadied himself with a hand on the doorframe. “Luc.”

  “Are you okay?” he asked, taking a safety step back.

  The older man shook his head then groaned, obviously regretting the movement. “Not feeling well.”

  Lucas gave him a once over. Bloodshot eyes. Green pallor. Dry, cracked lips. Rolf was hungover hard. Osborne would be eager to hear about the alcohol doubler’s after effects, but Lucas had no interest in being on the receiving end of them.

  He pivoted out of Rolf’s way. “I won’t hold you up then.”

  The other man narrowed his eyes, distrust written all over his face underneath the obvious signs of the mother of all hangovers. “What are you doing down here?”

  “Ruby asked me to meet her in the library.” Lies of omission were always better than straight-up falsehoods, especially when dealing with a dangerous man like Rolf who would only be more suspicious and on edge when injured. “I think she needed a break from wedding planning.”

  And to chew his ass up one side and down the other for last night. He hadn’t missed the annoyance in her voice when she’d issued her edict before she’d strutted out of the dining room last night. Someone didn’t like being left out of things. After growing up in a place like Fare Island, he could understand how not being in the know led to bad things—like one of the Sparrow’s blades in your back.

  Rolf looked like he was about to say something else, but clamped his mouth shut tight, shuddered, turned another shade of green, and then took off at a fast clip for the stairs.

  Now that was a man he didn’t envy.

  Shaking his head, he turned his attention back to the office. Joey stood inside the doorway, his beefy arms crossed over his chest and a scowl curling up one lip. Obviously, the Macintosh crime syndicate’s number two man thought he was a badass. He was wrong.

  Lucas cocked his head and grinned at the muscle-bound idiot. “It’s really too bad your mother never warned you that your face would freeze like that.”

  Not waiting for the oaf’s reaction when he finally managed to untangle the insult, Lucas continued down the hallway to the library two doors farther down.

  The double doors were open. Ruby stood with her back to him on the opposite side of the room in front of a pair of French doors that looked out onto the gardens. It reminded him of the first day he’d met her at Moad Manor when she’d taken one look at the flowers behind the house and noticed more about them than he had in three months of living there. He’d been ready for the woman he’d thought Ruby was, he hadn’t been prepared for the woman she’d turned out to be.

  He closed the door behind him. She turned at the quiet click of the door shutting, her pale-pink skirt fluttering around her knees and giving him the perfect view of her long legs that had felt so damn good wrapped around him. Ruby cleared her throat, dragging his attention to her face, framed by her wild rainbow hair, and didn’t hide her amusement at his distraction.

  “This is all very cloak-and-dagger,” he said, walking toward her, as if he could even pretend to stay away.

  “It should be right up your alley, then.” She played with the long gold chain around her neck, the length of which disappeared beneath the low V of her white shirt. “You should have let me know about what was going on last night.”

  Her technique was basic spy tradecraft. A quick diversion followed by a direct strike with the intention of getting your target to share crucial information before they’d realized what he or she was saying. No doubt the inte
l game came easy to her, but he wasn’t the kind of mark she was used to when sent out on errands by her stepfather.

  Letting his gaze wander over her every curve, his fingers twitching to touch even the smallest sliver of exposed skin, he crossed to her. “Was it that easy for you with the men Rolf targeted to rob of their prize jewels? A little push. A little peek. Then he’d hand over his passwords?”

  She didn’t back away. Instead, she took a step closer so their bodies were only a few inches apart, electricity sparking between them like a transformer on overload. “Pretty close.”

  “Did you like it?” Again, his focus dropped to her perfect mouth as he imagined all the things he wanted her to do with it.

  As if she knew exactly what he was thinking because she was too, the tip of her pink tongue darted out and wet her lush lips. “The thrill of the adrenaline rush? Yes. The knowing that any man who met me was destined to be either much poorer or dead afterward? Not so much.” Her chin trembled and she closed her eyes for a split second before opening them again and staring up at him with renewed intensity. “Now answer my question. Why not bring me into your little circle of trust with Jasper and Talia?”

  A sense that he’d used her too much already? A worry that he wouldn’t be able to keep her safe once he was gone? A fear that the more time he spent with her, the more likely he was to forget the real reason he was on Fare Island? All true, and none of which he could say.

  A lie of omission is always better than a straight-up falsehood.

  “You’re not an agent,” he said.

  She rolled her eyes. “No, but my dead body will be sinking to the bottom of the North Atlantic right along with yours if something goes wrong.”