But as soon as Dimitri reached the port, he realized his mistake. He saw the rover, but Lauren wasn’t standing on the dock, and she wasn’t in the lighted area of the bar either. More importantly, there weren’t any boats with Turkish lettering that he could see nosing up to the dock. The dock itself was more deserted than usual, and the boats looked as if they belonged there, all of them fishing craft.
Where was Lauren heading? The small cove they’d visited earlier today was too tricky for any large boat to enter, though a dinghy could certainly navigate the shallow waters. But why take the extra chance? What had Lauren offered that had made it worth Smithson’s while to play the game…unless it was the game itself that had attracted him? She knew the man better than probably anyone did. What was she thinking?
Then his eyes returned to his rover. He kept a spare gun locked beneath the seat—had she taken it?
He moved swiftly over to the side of the rover, leaning into the back of it. The box was there, apparently locked, but when he lifted it, he frowned—it was heavy. The gun remained inside. As he flipped the box on its side, though, he noticed the paper fluttering in the breeze.
Using his phone as a flashlight, he pointed it at the paper. Lauren’s script handwriting showed in the dim glow, stark and sure.
Please don’t follow me.
He headed for the cove at a dead run.
Chapter Nineteen
Lauren stepped past the last swaying piece of sea junk, her gaze on the far ocean. She could see a yacht far enough out to miss the reef, though she had no idea if it was Henry’s. Had he really come this close, or did he have friends on the high seas? Or, yet more likely, had he commandeered someone’s boat for his own use?
The dinghy pulled up on the beach was a different story. It was large enough to hold six people, yet only three men stood next to it. Two of them with guns, the other apparently unarmed, staring off to sea. Henry.
She didn’t have long to wait for the others. Two men appeared on either side of her, walking her out to where Smithson stood. She was glad for the full moon, glad for the white sand beach. But mostly glad that she hadn’t given in to her impulse to bring Dimitri’s gun with her. She wasn’t a bad shot, but this wasn’t a paper target. It was a man. And there were better ways to kill a man than with a gun you’d never tried to shoot before. She simply had to be patient, go with him. She’d have her chance.
Eventually.
Smithson turned as she moved up to him. “Lauren,” he said, opening his arms to her. It took every ounce of practice and restraint for her to stop with a small gasp and stiffen. Henry was not an idiot. He’d be expecting her to be afraid of him. She was afraid of him, but she was also so furious that it overrode her panic. She wanted to throttle this man, but more importantly, she wanted to keep Maddie safe. So she needed to play this right on the razor’s edge. Afraid but not mute, angry but not stupid. Always aware that he held the upper hand, until she found a way to change that.
Henry’s hard smile showed her that she’d executed her first move well. When she would have backed up, the two men flanking her held her steady, allowing Henry to approach her. “Your vacation has done you well, Lauren. You had to know I would find you.”
“I didn’t think you’d look.” It was a gamble, but it paid off. Henry visibly relaxed, shaking his head as if she were an enigma.
“You say that, and yet when have I given any indication that I wouldn’t be here when the time was right? You always seem surprised to hear from me. Why is that, Lauren?”
Lauren swallowed, then voiced the words that had so long run through her head. “I’m one woman, Henry. Like any other woman. I have no idea why you find me so interesting when you could have anyone in the world—anyone.” Anyone except Maddie, you slimy son of a bitch.
“But that’s the wonder of it, isn’t it? I chose you. I chose you before you were out of the cradle, planned for this day. Watched you grow, develop. I was the one who suggested the dancing lessons, do you know that?”
Lauren blinked at him, her lip curling in instinctive disgust. “I hated those classes.”
“I know,” Henry said, satisfaction thick in his voice. “That made it infinitely better, the idea that I could direct you, force you and your parents into activities you would never willingly have taken on otherwise. But I directed your lessons, your food, your friends. It was…exhilarating. And then when you started reaching your teen years and I saw the beauty you would become, it was as if an entire new vista of opportunity opened up to me. I made you, Lauren Grant.”
“You didn’t make anything about me.” Lauren’s rage boiled out of control. She wanted to spit Henry’s words back at him, and she hated that she recognized the defensiveness within herself. She always reacted most strongly when the accuser was right. Could Henry be right here? Had she changed who she was in reaction to him? The very thought revolted her, and she forced herself to open her eyes wider, her voice breaking. “You didn’t.”
“I did.” He turned to speak to his men. “You two, stay here. You,” he indicated the pair that had flanked her. “Come along. I find I’m not done with the chase yet.”
“What do you mean?” Lauren watched nervously as the men took their positions by the boat. “Where are we going?”
“Don’t look so frightened.” Henry’s laugh betrayed his enjoyment of the moment. “I merely thought it would be invigorating to take advantage of the lovely evening on a Greek island and take a tour around the beach. The men told me that there were some unusual sculptures hanging from the trees. We should have a look at them.”
“It’s a bunch of junk washed up from the sea.”
“But junk someone has seen fit to hang. That makes it art, don’t you agree?” He curved her arm into his, and she didn’t give him the satisfaction of making him tug her across the sand. She moved with him easily, her head high. Why hadn’t she taken Dimitri’s gun? The men hadn’t frisked her when she’d come out of the trees. Then again, they hadn’t really needed to. Her shift was thin. A gun would’ve been immediately obvious.
“I never would have picked you to run away, you know,” Henry said. “Not in an obvious way like that. It proved an invigorating diversion.”
“I’m not ready to get married.”
“But I am, and as my wife, you need to get more in the habit of thinking of what is best for the two of us, and not simply for yourself.”
Lauren steadied herself, willing her skin to stop crawling. “I hadn’t thought of it that way,” she said at length, since Henry was clearly waiting for some sort of response.
He chuckled. “You see? It’s a matter of perspective. And I’ve waited so long for this. Your father proved a hard man to convince, but he had his leverage points. Everyone does.” He drew in a deep, satisfied breath. “He taught me that himself.”
Leverage points? What was he talking about?
In the end, though, it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered now that Maddie was at risk. “If I come with you, you’ll stop bothering my sister?”
“My dear Lauren, your sister is of no real interest to me. You’ve coddled her from the time she was born. She isn’t strong enough.” But as Lauren allowed a tiny breath of relief to escape, Henry squeezed her arm. “Though she is useful, I must admit. So no, I can’t say I won’t draw upon her influence once again. Though only for something I really, really want.”
Lauren closed her eyes, sending out a silent plea that Dimitri was somewhere in the forest around them, despite her hurried note to him. Would he know this was where she’d headed? Had he noticed she’d left yet?
She must have betrayed her hopes somehow. Henry leaned close. “And lest you be concerned about your bodyguard following you, I have additional men in the trees in case he should be that foolish. We’re quite safe.”
Additional men? She knew Dimitri was trained military, that he wasn’t an idiot. She also knew that he was far more familiar with this cluster of sea junk than Henry’s men moving through the sh
adows. That said, they were expecting him. They were prepared. While he didn’t know they were out there…because she hadn’t warned him. Stupid!
She slanted Henry a glance. They were moving among the waving bits of boat and airplane, driftwood and shells. “Well, if you think he’s going to come after you, shouldn’t we be getting out of here?”
“Not yet.”
Henry stopped in the center of the hanging sculptures and drew her close. She tilted her head up to him, forcing herself to play the role, to keep her cool. It wasn’t easy as Henry leaned forward and kissed her forehead, then trembled himself in reaction to the movement. He drew his mouth over to her ear, and she held completely still, unsure of what he wanted. Should she hug him? Stay limp in his arms? Things had never progressed between them beyond dancing and formal embraces. He’d never so much as kissed her. How awful would that be?
Henry’s mouth blew hot breath against her ear, and she did sway then, moving forward to lay her hands on his chest. “You’ve really done such a good job so far, Lauren,” he murmured in her ear. “You’ve learned so much. I truly don’t believe you have done anything inappropriate with that hulking bodyguard, if only because your tender heart can’t abide another man being harmed because of you. It’s unfortunate that your discretion won’t matter, in this case.”
Lauren’s eyes went wide as her brain registered Henry’s words. She reared back, her lips curling into a startled sneer. “The bodyguard?” she said loudly, too loudly, and her next words were a hiss. “You can’t think I did anything with him, Henry. Give me some credit.”
Her heart hammered as he studied her, but whatever was in her face must have convinced him, at least somewhat. “Oh, I don’t. But he could not be in your presence this long without lusting after you. And he did defy me. So he’s going to have to go.”
“No.’ Lauren pressed her hands against Henry’s chest, so lean and narrow compared to Dimitri’s. “You don’t want to cause an international incident, not over this. It isn’t worth it, and the royal family sets great store by that man. If we’re to be invited to Kristos and Emmaline’s wedding, you can’t do anything to harm him, I’m serious.”
Henry’s teeth flashed. “Now that’s what I mean by couple thinking.” And he leaned forward to kiss her.
Dimitri held himself in place, allowing the rage to boil off him. He didn’t know what Henry and Lauren were arguing about, but he’d heard Lauren’s rejection of him. Hell, half the island could have heard her shocked indignation regarding “the bodyguard.” What had Henry asked her? Why had she reacted so strongly?
There was a chance she’d done it so he could hear her, and he held on to that idea as he tracked the two men moving stealthily through the trees. Scratch that, more than a chance. The information that Stefan had finally radioed him about the text messages had been easy to understand. An excited teenager babbling about gifts and flowers from an unknown admirer. They hadn’t gotten the pictures locked down yet, but they didn’t need to. Lauren would have taken the bait completely, believed the gifts were from Henry. Either way, she’d clearly understood the message for what it was: a threat.
And now she was here, thinking that she could solve everything by sacrificing herself. She wasn’t Emmaline, for whom that kind of sacrifice was second nature. Lauren had made it her business to avoid sacrifices. The fact that she was giving herself up so easily was probably the best indicator of how desperate she was.
Did she know he was out here, closing in on her? She had to. She’d written the note.
Regardless, he needed to focus on the task at hand. The men skulking around the perimeter of the sculpture garden were on the watch for him. They wouldn’t be as easy to take out as the men by the boat—those two had been on the ground and out cold before they’d known he was there. These two men had night-vision goggles, however, doubtless with a heat sensor. Which ordinarily would give them the distinct advantage. But Dimitri had waited a long time in the ranks of the GNSF to get proper equipment. He’d learned how to evade nearly every military enhancement out there, using his wits and guile if he had nothing more reliable.
Now he perched motionless on a tree branch, watching the men beneath him. A quiet kill probably wasn’t going to happen tonight. A kill of any sort would be against GNSF protocol, because kills meant explanations, and there wasn’t any official threat here. Lauren had come to this grotto of her own free will. Henry wasn’t binding her, he was…Dimitri shifted his gaze back to Henry. And froze.
The bastard was making out with Lauren.
A new flood of anger suffused him as he watched Lauren tilt her head back at a precise angle, accepting Henry’s attentions as if she hadn’t made love to Dimitri mere hours before. Her body sagged as if in sensual abandon, and she lifted one hand to Smithson’s bicep—a bicep that barely filled out the loose suit jacket that encased it. And who wore a suit to an island?
A snap beneath Dimitri drew his attention back, and he scowled. Henry’s bodyguards weren’t bad, but they also weren’t trained in jungle recon. They were much too far apart from each other. An animal could easily come between them, and neither would be able to defend the other while keeping himself protected. The two were doubtless in contact via headset, though. So one of them dropping flat would raise an alarm.
He lifted his head and scanned the forest. The other man was nearing the sea sculptures, which were swaying in the light breeze, near where Henry and Lauren stood. The moment he stepped into the mass of shifting metal, however, Dimitri could hear the sudden crackle of the other man’s headset beneath him. The guy shook his head, tapping his ear, and Dimitri’s gaze leapt back to the man in the sculpture garden. Interference. From the airplane wreckage? He had no idea. He’d never tried radio communications out on this point.
He leaned forward, and the branch beneath him creaked. Just a little, barely a breath of a sigh. But it was enough to draw the attention of the man below him.
By the time that man looked up, however, Dimitri had dropped down on him, heavy and sure. He didn’t want to kill the guy, so he struck him forcefully on the side of his head. The man fell like a sack of potatoes, and Dimitri fell with him, cradling his body and going flat as he searched the man and divested him of gun, knife—and headset.
“Can’t fucking hear anything.” He could hear the exasperated English words coming through the headset in scratchy confusion. Dimitri rubbed his thumb against the microphone and murmured nonsense, then tucked the thing in his shorts pocket and headed out as the man on the other end hissed a response. Now that he was on the ground, Dimitri was vulnerable again to the night-vision goggles, but as long as the other guy stayed in the sculpture garden, he was safe.
He moved forward carefully until he could find another blind. A break in the moving panels afforded him a clear view into the center of the sculpture garden, where Smithson was now holding Lauren in his arms, gazing down at her as if she was the answer to all his prayers.
Dimitri watched her too, drinking in the view. She smiled up at Smithson with perfect ease, as if she wasn’t in fear for her sister’s and probably her own life. He could have stared at her all night, if there wasn’t the feeling of impending doom closing in. What would Henry do to Lauren once he got her aboard the Turkish yacht? What had he already done to the owners of that craft? He’d broken laws without any concern of paybacks, and his every action was that of a spoiled and entitled multibillionaire, too powerful to worry about the niceties of international law.
This was the man who Lauren was handing herself over to. Willingly. Eagerly even. Rather than waiting for Dimitri to devise a better plan. She was so certain that a psychopath like Smithson was someone that she could get through with merely the proper head tilt and studied smile. That she could handle him better than anyone else.
Dimitri tightened his hand on his gun. The hell with that.
Affixing the night-vision goggles to his head, he swept the space for the other of Smithson’s men and moved through the tree
s. He would need to find that guard, but he’d taken his measure already. He simply needed to take out guy number two, then get the jump on Henry and—
The small scream coming from the center of the sculpture garden caught him up short.
So did the gun at his temple.
A third man. He should have expected that.
Swiftly, expertly, while he held the gun pressed up against Dimitri’s head, the man lifted his other hand. A knife flashed in the moonlight, and a searing pain exploded in Dimitri’s left shoulder before he could block the blow. The guard ripped the knife down and out, and blood immediately welled in the wound. Dimitri staggered but straightened as the man leaned close, the gun never leaving Dimitri’s temple.
“I took out the last guard myself, so he is no longer a problem for either of us.” He spoke the low words in English, but his accent was Russian. “I assume you handled the two at the boat?” At Dimitri’s nod, the man continued. “Smithson wants you alive. It suits my purposes. But do not tempt me.” The man quickly and cleanly divested Dimitri of all his weapons and electronics. This was not an amateur. This man had been the real threat all along, which was why Dimitri hadn’t seen him. The other two had been a distraction…and had probably never known it.
“I suggest that you come out now, Mr. Korba,” Henry’s voice rang out. “Unless you want to see Ms. Grant’s pretty throat get sliced open.”
Chapter Twenty
Lauren froze as the bushes crashed, feeling the bite of the blade at her neck. Henry had moved more quickly than she thought he could. He’d palmed the knife easily after a whir of static had buzzed between them, apparently from some sort of headset she hadn’t noticed in his ear. A second later, his hand was around her throat, gripping her hard enough to bruise. That hand had been replaced with the flat of a thick blade, which now cut into her with cold threat. A thin stream of blood trickled down her neck.
Captured (Gowns & Crowns #2) Page 19