by Blake, Lexi
Ian slapped him on the shoulder and smiled. “That’s because your dick is in charge and your dick is stupid. It’s so fucking good to know. You’re always so stoic and intellectual and shit. It’s good to know deep down your dick is as stupid as the rest of ours. Hey, Jesse. We’re following Simon’s cock so we’re all going to die.”
Sometimes he hated Ian.
Jesse simply gave him a grin. “Hey, he’s my partner. I gotta follow him even when his dick is a little crazy. Although, I will say, it might not be as crazy as I thought. Chelsea looks good.”
He was going to kill the little shit. “Say one more word and I swear you’ll swim to the hotel.” Jesse closed his mouth, but his eyes were lit with glee. It was good. So often he was dark and there was a sadness in his eyes, but something seemed to have changed, as though Ian telling Jesse he was Simon’s partner had given him something real. Jesse was his partner and there really was no reason for jealousy. “She did look lovely though.”
Jesse just nodded.
Ian held his stomach. “Sanctum is never going to be the same. I gotta deal with seeing my sister-in-law running around with her boobs hanging out.” Ian sobered and looked at Simon. “She looks happy, Si. I’ve never seen her look happy. She’s been through a lot. Sometimes a woman goes through what Chelsea goes through and the damage is permanent. And sometimes, she just needs the right man to show her it isn’t all bad. I think the damaged ones become the best lovers. At least I hope they do.”
He truly identified with Chelsea. He saw himself in her.
Charlotte and Ian had worked out. Why the hell couldn’t they?
“Chelsea,” he called for her.
She looked up, her eyes eager as they found his.
When he motioned for her to join him, she practically ran his way. She smiled up at him as she nestled close. It was unselfconscious, that movement of hers. She simply took her place at his side and her arm wound around his waist as though it belonged there.
And his arm wrapped around her shoulder. “Stay close to me.”
“Yes, Simon.”
If only she would always say yes to him.
* * * *
Chelsea loved Venice. She’d loved the city the moment she’d seen it and back in those days, she hadn’t really looked up from her computer long enough to see much. But something about Venice called to her. She stood up on the boat that was driving them toward the lagoon. One minute all she could see was the Adriatic, and then a left turn and Venice rose like a jewel from the ocean. It made her breath catch, but no more than the man who stood beside her.
Simon’s hand was on her waist as they watched the city come closer and closer. “You don’t leave my side unless you’re with Jesse or Ian. Am I understood?”
Something about the dark, possessive way he commanded her sent a shiver down her spine. He didn’t want to lose her. He was serious about not losing her and she couldn’t believe it was all about the mission. “I understand. And you stay safe. I don’t want you going off alone.”
He turned his face down slightly, and she thought for a moment he would argue with her. He sighed and then went back to staring at the city. “All right.”
She tamped down her irritation. They were going into the world’s most romantic city and she got a feeling he would fight her every inch of the way. She looked to her left and Charlotte and Ian were standing together. Ian was behind her, his body protectively curled around hers as the wind whipped through her hair. He put his chin on her shoulder and Chelsea could tell he was whispering in her sister’s ear. Charlotte’s smile curved her lips up. He was likely saying something naughty.
Husband and wife. Despite the fact that they were a D/s couple, they were always a husband and a wife first, with all the rights and responsibilities inherent with being in love.
All of her rights were in some contract she hadn’t read.
Simon moved in closer as he spoke. “When we get to the hotel, I expect you to settle in. I’ve been informed that the place has Internet. You can use the laptop Adam sent for you and start trying to put the pieces together. We need real information we can use, not just Ten’s rumors and innuendo.”
She turned her face to his. “I already know what company we’re looking at. I’m sure of it. Only one had pending court cases with all the victims. I put it together after I brought you the tea. Malone Oil pays for some serious satellite Internet.”
“Well, of course, you did.” He sighed a little, and she could tell something she’d done had disappointed him. “Tell me.”
She hesitated. Normally she would bluster her way through, but Charlotte had done a number on her. She’d given her a hard lecture on being honest and vulnerable with the people she loved. Simon was the chief person she loved, so she couldn’t give him an arrogant grin and tell him how smart she was no matter how much she wanted to. “Why are you mad at me? Did I do something wrong? I had the laptop. I thought you would be happy I figured it out.”
His face was a stony mask. “I’m sure Ten will be. Do you need to call him?”
Jealous. He was jealous. “No. Simon, I don’t have a thing for Ten. He just offered me a way to help you. I took the job because he said he would get you off the murder rap.”
“I certainly didn’t ask you to save me. I could have gotten out of it myself. Has it occurred to you that I have a degree in law?”
He was splitting hairs, and she couldn’t win if she played that way. She needed to make him really understand. “What do I mean to you, Simon? If you don’t need me to care for you, then what am I to you? Because I honestly didn’t think about anything but saving you from the cops. I saw that news spot on TV and I knew I had to make things right.”
He stopped, looking the slightest bit startled. “I didn’t need your help. I could have handled it myself.”
Honesty was kind of awesome. Honesty had that gorgeous Brit on the ropes. “I didn’t think. I saw the person I loved might get hurt and I did whatever I could. We didn’t have time to talk about it. So I need to ask you again, what am I worth to you? Did you just want sex? Don’t I get to stand up for you? Protect you when I can?” It was time for a gamble, but it was a meaningful one to her. “If you just want me in bed, you should tell me now.”
She couldn’t be meaningless. It was why she really thought she should work out terms with Ten. Ian didn’t need her. He had Adam. She could do good work for Ten. She just couldn’t be in his cave. She had to be with Simon.
His jaw locked and she worried he was about to turn away. He might join Jesse, who was watching the boat captain’s every move, ready to shoot the dude at the first sign he wasn’t on the up and up. Finally he reached for her hand and tugged her close. He put her in front of him as they made the turn into the grand lagoon. He covered her back with his body, his arms coming around to surround her. “You’re an unconscionable brat and don’t think anything of this. Our cover is as vacationing lovers. We have to stay close. Now, tell me what you know.”
So he wasn’t ready to answer her questions but he wasn’t willing to turn her away either. She would take his affection. She sighed and let her head roll back to rest on his chest as the boat cut through the lagoon. Around them, gondolas made their way through the water, the familiar red and white shirted gondoliers using poles as they sang in deep baritones.
She was here with him. Here in Venice. She would take this lovely time with him and then she would watch over him even if he didn’t want her anymore.
Her love…it was meaningful. It had value. It was a gift and a gift didn’t have strings. A gift didn’t require anything. She loved him and it had made her a better human being.
A deep warmth suffused her. “I love you.”
He stiffened behind her, but he didn’t move away. If anything, his mouth got closer to her ear. She was sure he would say he was trying to make her hear him better. All she felt was his heat. “Just tell me.”
“Nieland Affiliates. They’re a parent corporation. A major c
onglomerate. Three of their subsidiaries have ties to potential multimillion-dollar cases that were either being tried by or in the courtrooms of the victims Ten identified. It’s the only company that has ties to every victim. All but one of the cases—the one dealing with the patent—have either been dismissed or given a ton of time for both sides to deal with the loss.”
Many times, the longer a trial went, the less chance the defense had. Oftentimes witnesses died or complainants got sick of waiting and accepted a pennies on the dollar deal.
“We need whatever’s in the files Al sent you to prove it,” Simon murmured. His cheek was against hers and the world got quieter as the motors on the boat slowed and they entered the canals.
He leaned into her, his body curling around hers as though he’d detected a threat. As they moved from the grand lagoon into the smaller canals, the buildings around them towered over, each a testament to Venice’s long history. The boat slowed and the city seemed to quiet, the sun blocked by the houses that surrounded them.
Something about the whole thing worried her. “Why would they need Al?”
Al was a hacker, not a doctor. He wouldn’t know about poisons. He certainly wouldn’t administer them. He rarely left his place. She simply couldn’t see him assassinating anyone.
“Perhaps they wanted him to change the medical records.” Simon’s voice went low in deference to the change in noise levels.
She lowered hers, too. “Anyone with half-assed skills could do that. Al wouldn’t have taken that job. He liked a challenge.”
She thought back to the things he’d said to her. He’d said something about not understanding what he was doing. He’d hacked a password but that didn’t necessarily mean he knew where it had led to.
He would have seen it as a challenge, one he likely got paid well for.
How would a hacker kill someone?
“Oh, shit. Did they have pacemakers?” Now that she thought about it, it made sense. “I bet they either had pacemakers or someone changed their medical records so they got something that would kill them. Like a prescription. I think I read in one of the files Ten had that the DA who died had a prescription for high blood pressure. It would be fairly simple to get into a pharmacy’s system and change the records—especially if someone working for The Collective changed the drugs to something lethal. There are a lot of pills that look alike. Then they could change the toxicology records, but again, that’s fairly easy. But hacking the code to a pacemaker, now that would be a challenge.”
Charlotte moved closer, Ian following behind as the boat turned again. Chelsea could see the brilliant white arches of bridges ahead of her.
The Rio de Palazzo. She recognized the gorgeous white bridge spanning the river ahead of her. The Bridge of Sighs.
The boat slowed further in deference to the gondolas all around them.
“Didn’t this come up years ago?” Charlotte asked.
Years before, when Dick Cheney was the vice president, he’d had his pacemaker taken utterly offline out of fear it would be hacked. The Secret Service would protect vulnerable politicians, but no one would likely think about lesser civil servants. “Yes, and it was proven that it is possible to hack into a system and send a deadly charge through a device, though until now I haven’t heard of anyone actually doing it.”
“What would he have sent you to prove it?” Ian asked.
Chelsea stared at the bridge. The late afternoon sunlight was shining on it, making the elaborate arch look pearly and perfect. Her head should be on the case, but all she could think about was the legend about the Bridge of Sighs. “He could have printed out a record of his work. He was damn good at his job. He could have sent it to himself and printed it out. Apparently they checked his work and found out about it.”
The boat floated toward the bridge where it was legend that if lovers kissed under the bridge at sunset in a gondola, they would be together forever.
She seriously doubted she would get Simon in a gondola any time soon. She would be lucky if he flew back to the States with her after it was over.
Ian glanced around. “We’ll be at the hotel soon. I’ll check out Chelsea’s place and talk to the housekeeper. You two keep your heads down and stay in the room. I don’t want Chelsea out on the streets until she has to be.”
Chelsea frowned. She didn’t want to be left out. If Simon had his way, he would likely leave her with Jesse as a bodyguard. Not that she didn’t like Jesse, but she wanted the time with Simon.
“Hush,” Simon said in her ear as the shadow of the bridge began to cross. “Obey him. We’ll keep our heads down and get through this. Turn around.”
The sunlight disappeared and the world seemed to narrow down to just him as he leaned over and thrust his hands in her hair. His mouth covered hers in a hungry kiss, forcing her lips open as his tongue surged in. Just like that she didn’t care about anything but the feel of his body against hers. If he’d stripped her naked, she wouldn’t have cared. When he kissed her like that, she was his.
And then the sunlight hit her face again and he broke off the kiss.
He glanced back at the bridge.
He knew. He knew the damn legend. Maybe they weren’t on a gondola, but he’d kissed her and she definitely sighed.
His face went blank again and he turned her back around. “It’s our cover.”
“Of course,” she replied, happy he couldn’t see her smile.
Chapter Nineteen
Simon looked out over the small canal outside their hotel. It was quiet outside of the well-traveled portions of the city. Not that he’d seen them. Forty-eight hours in and all he’d seen was the outside of Chelsea’s flat.
And Chelsea. He’d seen plenty of her. It had taken everything he had to send her to bed without him the night before, and he was coming up on the time when he would have to do it again.
Could he do it again? Could he lie on the bloody couch with his cock pulsing against his belly while she was asleep in the next room? Could he take another night of knowing she was soft and warm and he was a fool?
He stared out and wondered what he was waiting for. Was he really not going to take what she was offering? He kept telling himself it proved he was in charge and that he could take her or leave her. It was his choice. He wanted her to know that he was the Dom and she was the sub and she should stay in her place.
The problem was he was rather miserable.
The real reason he hadn’t let himself sleep with her the night before was he didn’t trust himself not to get on his knees and beg her to stay with him. God, he was a fool.
He could hear her talking in the bedroom. Charlotte was with her. She’d barely left her sister’s side except to sleep. He’d walked them down the narrow streets to a quiet restaurant where they had dinner while Jesse prowled around the outside and Ian finished his investigation.
Simon knew he should have been the one to question the housekeeper, but he couldn’t leave Chelsea. He couldn’t trust her to anyone because the instant he closed his eyes at night, she disappeared. She would be smiling up at him, her face more open than ever before, and he would reach for her and she would disintegrate in front of him, that damn smile on her face like it didn’t matter she was leaving him.
He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. He needed this whole thing to be done. He needed to move on. Sometimes it was better to simply pull the bloody bandage off and get it over with. Let the misery start now so he could get used to it.
“And you’re all right with everything?” Charlotte was asking.
“What do you mean ‘everything’?” Chelsea sounded curious.
“You know, everything about sex.” Charlotte was speaking cautiously, as though she didn’t want to scare Chelsea off.
He was relegated to eavesdropping. It was pathetic. And yet, he couldn’t quite move away until he’d heard her reply.
“Well, I’m pretty pissed I didn’t get any last night.”
He had to smile a bit. She had b
een upset. She’d walked out wearing nothing at all, her body a beacon in the night, and he’d been the bloody bastard who sent her away.
Why had he kissed her under the bridge? Because he’d wanted to. Because he’d wanted for a minute to believe that some stupid mystical power could grant him a wish—that they would work.
Charlotte snorted. “I’m talking about how scared you’ve always been because of what happened.”
“I was at first, but he’s Simon. I can’t be scared of Simon,” came the sure reply.
Because he wasn’t worth being scared of. He wasn’t as masculine as the rest. He was far too concerned with the cut of his suit to be taken seriously. It was the story of his life. He was tired of it. He certainly didn’t want it from her.
There was a little knock on the door before he heard it opening and Ian walked through. He was dressed in black, a cap on his head. He looked like a burglar, which was fitting since he’d likely broken into the flat.
“Did you find anything?” Simon stepped away from the door as Jesse joined Ian.
Jesse seemed to be the only one having a good time. He’d stopped at every gelato stand in the city. He took a bite of his current obsession before he talked. “I got to beat the shit out of a guy.”
Ian nodded. “And he didn’t even flip out. That’s why he got gelato. I’m trying this whole new ‘positive reinforcement’ training with the puppy. So far it’s working. And don’t freak out. We needed a distraction so we found a pickpocket, flashed some cash, and drew his ass where we needed him. It worked beautifully. I’m pretty sure they didn’t see me slip inside. They were too busy watching the fight.”
“What did you find out?” His impatience was getting to be a problem.
“The housekeeper said she left the notice of the package delivery on the bar in the kitchen.” Ian pulled out a little slip of paper. “Which is exactly where it was. I should have bought her a gelato, too.”