For His Eyes Only

by Lexi Blake

  He stared at the letter and couldn’t help but call Brody out. If he had problems, then so did Brody. “And you? I know Stephanie called again and asked for you. Are you going to call her back?”

  “She’s just being sweet. She’s deserves far more than a grunt with nothing but a basic education. I left her a message, one I think she’ll hear. I guess in the end it’s better for her to hate me than to let me ruin her life, you know.”

  “I think our women are smarter than we give them credit for. They know their minds.” He hoped Brody hadn’t done something stupid.

  Like he’d done.

  “Well, Steph hasn’t seen much, not in any romantic fashion. She’s quite innocent in that way. It’s over and that’s all there is to it. Be safe, brother.” Brody turned and walked out the door.

  And Nick was left with that letter he’d been avoiding.

  Desiree certainly hadn’t known she would die. She had no psychic powers, so that meant one thing and one thing only.

  She’d been ready to play him for a fool again.

  He slid the letter out and immediately recognized her handwriting. How many years had he wasted? How much of his soul had he put into that woman?

  Dearest Nicky,

  How do I say good-bye to you? I thought in the beginning that you would be nice to have around, a big strong loyal man to do the heavy lifting for me. It’s why I saved you that day. I’d certainly done my homework on you. The MI6 analysts had a code name for you. The Siberian Husky. Not because you look like one, but for your dogged loyalty and moral standards. There were bets on you around the office. Which one would win. Your loyalty to your country or your morality, once you truly figured out what was going on. I knew when I saw you that your battle had been fought and you would look for a new loyalty. I decided to make you loyal to me, to make you my faithful pet.

  The funny thing is how attached we get to pets.

  I love you, Nicky. As much as I can love anything, you’re it for me. You should know that all these years I’ve struggled to keep some necessary distance from you because I can’t be one more woman who follows her heart. My heart is a flawed and faulty thing. It’s better for me to love myself. I’m likely the only one who truly can. If you knew half of what I’ve done, you would put a bullet through my heart and I can’t end that way.

  It’s been difficult keeping you out of the more unsavory portions of my life. Working for McKay-Taggart was exactly the distraction I needed, but now the thing that allowed me to keep you is what pushes me away. Damn Damon. He was always smarter than I gave him credit for. I’ve come to believe he’s investigating me and it’s time to disappear. We’ve got one more mission together. As I write this I’m preparing to go back to England where I’ll hop on a plane to the Caribbean and meet you one last time. I’m hoping since we’re helping out Tennessee Smith that perhaps I’ll get some credit points and Damon won’t expend too much energy coming after me.

  I finally have my big haul. I won’t bore you with the details, but I caught a massive fish. A great white whale the likes I never thought to net. I fully intend to bleed him dry. I’ve got something that will keep me comfortable for the rest of my life. I wish I could spend it with you, but alas, I fear you were always meant for her.

  If there’s one thing I regret, it’s the last few years. I can feel that you miss her, but I worry that something broke inside you when we took out the syndicate. You’re darker than before, my love. That spark you had in the beginning is dimmed and I only see it again when I mention her name. I find it important to think of you as happy, as the wild, amazing man I fell for.

  So this is my gift to you. I’m taking my freedom and giving you back yours. You followed me for years out of loyalty and affection and the deep belief that you didn’t deserve better. I’ve always known I was a sort of punishment for your sins. It’s time to stop.

  She’s in Seattle and she’s alone. I’ve watched her from afar for years because I love her, too. Not because she’s my blood. I love her for who she is. For who I might have been. She’s worked hard and she thinks she has everything she wants out of life, but she needs you. She needs the you you used to be. Go after her and sweep her off her feet. Show her that merely having a house you go to every night doesn’t make a home.

  You were my home for so very long.

  Try not to hate me. You know Desiree is a lovely name for a girl. Perhaps that’s too much to ask, but know that somewhere I am out here living it up and wishing you both well.

  And darling, if anything should happen to me, know that I am careful as always and thinking of you. Isn’t that the key to everything? You have my heart and she has yours. I think that is fitting.

  Love,

  Des

  He slumped back, his whole being focused on that letter. He’d made Brody read it in case Des had said anything important. Unfortunately, Brody didn’t know her the way Nick had.

  Des had told him everything he needed to know to solve the mystery she’d left behind.

  She’d left a key.

  Unfortunately, it was currently around Hayley’s neck and she was still the target.

  Nick hustled, his soul somehow lighter than it had been before. He almost ran into Penelope and Charlotte in his haste. The two women were rushing into the conference room, both looking a bit flustered, but in a way that had a smile on both their faces.

  “Nick, I’m so glad we caught you,” Penelope began. “This just came in. You see, I had a thought about the private airfield. Ezra Fain doesn’t run his own team. He’s a solitary operative. That means he tends to be on his own when it comes to getting places, and his per diem won’t cover a private jet.”

  “Ah, but Ezra has friends in high places,” Charlotte continued. “When we realized he wasn’t heading for Heathrow, I decided to check on where the 4L Software jet was.”

  He shook his head, not quite understanding. “Why would a software company send him a jet? Wait. Isn’t your sister-in-law a member of the family who runs the company?”

  Charlotte nodded. “Mia’s married to Case, but at one point in time she needed a bodyguard to follow her all over the world while she was working. Mia always says she owes that bodyguard because he saved her several times. In return, she allows him to use the jet when he needs it. Guess who that bodyguard was?”

  His heart started to race the tiniest bit. If they could track that plane, he could find Hayley. “Ezra Fain. And was there a private jet owned by 4L in London last night?”

  Penelope’s smile was a mile wide. “It was and I got the flight plan. They’re going to Rio.”

  Everything slid into place. His instincts weren’t wrong. He simply hadn’t thought to use them in forever.

  It was time to get his girl, time to start over again, and this time he intended to get it all right.

  He just had to save her first.

  * * * *

  Hayley yawned and forced herself to sit up. The bed was way too comfy for an airplane.

  Of course, the fact that the airplane had a bed at all had kind of blown her mind, but then it wasn’t like they were flying commercial.

  “Morning, sunshine.”

  She turned over, clutching the blanket against her chest. It wasn’t like she was naked or anything. She was in a perfectly respectable T-shirt that managed to hit her knees. Ezra had offered her one of his to sleep in. It felt wrong, but she didn’t have much of a choice. Luckily he claimed that when they got to the place they were staying at in Brazil, there would be plenty of choices for her.

  He strode in, looking like a man who hadn’t stayed up all night. She wasn’t sure how he wasn’t rumpled and managed to be so alert after a night of flying. Not that he’d been the one doing the flying. There was a pilot for that, but Hayley had made it plain that while she was in this with him, she wasn’t looking for a new lover. If Ezra had slept, it had been in his chair in the main cabin.

  Of course this morning he was all sexy smiles, and he looked ready to try a
gain.

  “I’m not feeling sunny, Mr. Fain.”

  He placed a mug of coffee on the nightstand table and proceeded to sit on the edge of the bed. “Well, you look adorable. And it’s Ezra.”

  She gripped the coffee in her hands, loving how warm the mug was. “I thought we agreed that you would stop hitting on me.”

  “I’m not hitting on you. I’m being charming. It’s the way I am. I would be spectacularly bad at my job if I couldn’t make anyone like me. It’s the reason most operatives fail, you know. It’s one thing to know how to blow up a building. It’s entirely another to be able to convince someone else to do it for you.”

  Like she’d blown up her relationship with Nick.

  No. She wasn’t taking credit for that. He’d been the asshole who decided she wasn’t smart enough to make up her own mind. He was the one who had made it plain there was nothing for her in London.

  She already missed him.

  She took a drink of the coffee. It tasted a whole lot like heaven. Whoever Fain’s billionaire friend was, he knew his java. “How far out are we?”

  “We’ll be landing in an hour and a half. I have a friend meeting us at the private airfield with our luggage, and she’s got everything we’ll need to change up your appearance. She’s a whiz with wigs and makeup. After we finish, it’ll take about an hour to get to the hotel, and we need to talk about that.”

  She felt her eyes narrow. “If this involves anything but us having two separate rooms, we definitely need to talk.”

  He pulled out a shiny gold ring. “Now why would I want to be apart from my wife?” He held up a hand as though to stop the argument he knew was coming. “Think about this. They’re looking for a woman on her own. They’re not looking for a couple. This is what we call cover in the business. We have the honeymoon suite at one of the nicest hotels in Ipanema, across from the beach. Also, I’m not letting you out of my sight. I take your safety personally. You’re doing me a huge favor and you’re going to be alive at the end of all of this. I’ve already got some colleagues working on how to get your life back.”

  She had to admit, they did need a cover story. Those men had found her in London quickly. She didn’t want the same to happen here. “Why Ipanema? Is it because of a girl?”

  She couldn’t help herself.

  Ezra laughed, the sound deep and yes, awfully charming. “Isn’t it always about a girl? This time that girl’s name is Desiree and she used to own an apartment a block from our hotel. It’s also the district where my intelligence puts your father.”

  Her father. She had a million questions that would be followed by a hearty smack in the face. Yeah, that would feel good. “So you tracked him to Rio?”

  He placed the ring on the nightstand and leaned back. He looked perfectly comfortable lounging around on a strange woman’s bed. But then he probably did that a lot. “I tracked a man traveling from Seattle on a passport with an alias your father used back in the nineties. He took a ride sharing service to SeaTac. I might or might not monitor those. I find these new ride shares incredibly useful. In order to be safe, you have to share information or have a credit card on file. Many people upload photo ID so the driver knows who they are. So much lovely information. It was harder to track people when we all used cash.”

  Her father had been careful about cash. That meant Ezra was likely right. “If he’s using plastic it’s because he’s out of cash, and that means I should be able to find him. But why go to Rio? There’s no gambling in Rio, no easy-to-find poker games. It would have been smarter for him to head to Vegas or to go to Asia. There’s practically a game on every corner there.”

  “I believe that what he ultimately wants is in Rio,” Fain said. “And you know as well as I do that he can find a game if he needs to. The question is can you.”

  It had been a while, but she remembered how it all worked. “I think I can. I can certainly figure out where to look once we get there. So now that I’ve blown up my life and we’re partners, are you going to tell me what this is really about?”

  That was the moment he lost his charm and his face went blank. “I’m not sure what you mean.”

  She set down the mug and sat up because this was not happening. “What was my father working on when he decided it was time to punch out? To fake his own death.”

  “I knew what you were saying. Your father wasn’t an operative, per se. He was an asset. Do you understand the difference?”

  She was a student of history. Of course she did. She’d done her class on military history. “So you’re saying you used him, but he wasn’t exactly on the payroll.”

  “Oh, I paid him, but he wasn’t a trained operative. Your father was caught in a sting operation thirty years ago for passing off secrets to the Chinese government,” Ezra explained. “I’ve read all his files and even the agent who brought him in was uncertain if he actually knew what he was doing. It didn’t matter. It was high treason. He was brought in and offered a deal due to the nature of his job.”

  “He traveled often and to some countries that would be of interest to the Agency,” she surmised. “He had an awfully good cover. He could go anywhere there was a poker game, and often times he would come into contact with powerful people.”

  “Gambling is an excellent way to pass materials back and forth,” Ezra agreed. “Casinos tend to be crowded and no one would question a man like your father coming in and out at odd times. He worked quite well for a few years and then something happened.”

  She could guess what that was. “He met Des.”

  “Desiree Brooks. She was the problem child of MI6. A brilliant operative who did more good for the Western world than anyone will know. Unfortunately, she also liked to skim a bit from the top, or bottom, as it was. She used her position to gain information that she then used to blackmail various members of political, social, and business organizations. It was a game to her and she liked to win. She saw both an opportunity and a kindred spirit in your father.”

  Thus a partnership and a million lies were formed. “Does this have something to do with her blackmail schemes?”

  His jaw tightened but before she could call him on it, he was shaking his head. “I believe so. I believe that Des and your father decided to blackmail the wrong person. Des died, one of the world’s crazy coincidences, but I think your father attempted to keep the business going. In my opinion, he faked his death when he realized he’d bitten off more than he could chew, as they would say in my neck of the woods. He decided he couldn’t handle the fallout without Des and he faked his death. All hell broke loose when the contents of that apartment got delivered to you.”

  She had to let him know where she stood. “I spent a lot of time with Des, but she never talked about that part of her life. If you’re looking for me to have some great secret, you’re out of luck. Des and I talked about a lot of things. She was incredibly interested in history and we had some great debates, but not once did she explain her blackmailing business to me.”

  “I would be surprised if she had. She was known for being fairly careful. It was why MI6 couldn’t catch her in any meaningful criminal activity. Or your father.”

  “But you believe they were blackmailing people. Powerful people.” People who didn’t mind killing to protect their secrets. “Any idea who they might be?”

  “Given that whoever this is was able to manipulate the police the way they did, I suspect we’re dealing with a US government official. Someone of very high rank. Or someone with access to a government official.”

  “Is that why the CIA is involved?”

  “Your father is why we’re involved. He has information he took with him to his fake grave, and I want that intelligence.”

  A shiver went through her at the chill in Ezra’s voice. He was a charming man. So charming that she sometimes forgot there was a predator under his smiles and polite ways. “Are you going to kill my father?”

  “I’m going to talk to him.” The chill was gone, replaced wi
th an easy smile. “Hayley, this is nothing for you to worry about. I understand why he did what he did, but I need that intelligence. I’m sure he has it. I’m sure he’ll use it to get himself out of his situation. He’s a big boy. He knows what he’s doing.”

  He’d known what he was doing all along. He’d lied to her and dragged her around the globe. He’d used her as cover, too.

  And he’d loved her.

  It was so hard to accept the limitations of others, hard to still find a way to forgive.

  Should she have stayed and fought it out with Nick? No. He’d made himself plain, and not for the first time. Nick loved her, too, but it wasn’t enough.

  It never seemed to be enough. It was always the wrong time.

  “I need you to promise me that you’ll see this through.” She watched Ezra, taking in his every minute expression. Now that she was back to practicing the long unused art her father had taught her, her instincts were coming back to life. “Or do you intend to use me to find my father and then leave me in the cold?”

  He sat up straight, all charm gone, and he leaned toward her. “I do not leave my partners behind. I do not make vows lightly.”

  “You’re in the business of subterfuge and you made an excellent case for why you were better at it than Nick.”

  “This case is important to me. The intelligence your father possesses was delivered to him via an operative in Northern Africa. About ten years ago someone gave the enemy classified information on black ops teams and their missions that ended with ten American lives being lost and several important missions being scrubbed. We lost a team of soldiers who were attempting to liberate fourteen schoolgirls who had been taken by a Jihadist group. It should have been a simple mission. Someone betrayed them. Your father has the name of the man who sold out those soldiers. I want that name, Hayley. I’ve waited years to look at that name.”