tmp_2e400c932cd646dccd3ec2acdba43a25_mQf9rc.fixed.tidied

by BSmith

§

  “I think we have a problem.” Vasco touched his brother’s shoulder.

  Lucien set his empty glass on the bar, excused himself from the women, and turned to his brother. “What’s wrong?”

  Vasco didn’t answer right away. He watched Kayla pull her cell phone out of her pocket and step away from the crowd to take a call.

  “V?”

  “Call Headquarters, tell them to get our plane ready and have a team standing by. Operation Ghost is a go, right now.”

  Lucien’s brows shot up, but he didn’t hesitate to pull the phone from his pocket, pressing the speed dial button. “Talk to me, brother.”

  Vasco took a step away from the bar as a line of SUVs came screeching to a halt on the sandy beach, earning angry shouts from the party goers. “The Brotherhood’s calling check.”

  §

  “Me?" Simone looked down at Caleb, lightly shivering as he set his mouth on her and flushed her with heat. "Look at you." Pressed over her body and with cool moonlight slanting down his back, he could have been a Grecian statue, hewn out of marble and exquisitely detailed. Simone had seen him—Kyle—from this angle countless times, and the sight still sent a peal of sensation right through the middle of her, down to the damp heat growing between her thighs.

  Caleb laughed huskily against her skin. He lifted his head, and his humor faded in the darkened, passionate glow of Simone’s gray eyes. He captured her mouth, got rid of his pants, and then he rose over her, to position himself between her thighs.

  Simone cupped Caleb’s face between her hands, holding him against her as she kissed him slowly and deeply, over and over, and grazed his hips with her thighs. "Don't stop." Soft pleading limned the edges of her murmur. "Caleb, don't ever stop."

  §

  “Goddammit, Amadeo, stop!” Christopher shout¬ed furiously.

  The party had been over run. One moment, there was celebration, family and friends. Now, dead bodies littered the floor. Most were security. The ballroom doors that faced the beach had been yanked shut and were guarded by the PLFs.

  Those still alive were being held at gun point, by their own family. Nicholas had looked briefly surprised to discover that his father was actually part of all of this, and immediately wonder if the old man had known about his family.

  Once some measure of order was attained, Amadeo went over to Lucien and struck him.

  Lucien grunted, blood trickling from the corner of his mouth. He worked his jaw back and forth, wincing slightly, and leveled his gaze on Amadeo. “Your uniform shouldn’t read Lieutenant General. We’re going to give you a new special title: Olivia’s bitch.”

  Amadeo hit him again, viciously. When Lucien fell to the floor, he began kicking him. Stopping at Christopher’s shout, Amadeo smirked coldly. “He’s not going to be alive much longer to protect you, Lucien. Don’t feel too secure, all right?”

  “Go fuck yourself, Amadeo,” Lucien wheezed.

  It was difficult to watch his brother get beaten and not lose face. But, he managed. “How do you intend to get away with this?” Vasco asked nonchalantly.

  Olivia set a calming hand on Amadeo’s shoulder and looked pointedly at Vasco. “When you’re all dead, the army will have no choice but to follow our orders. And there are more of us on the way.” Her smile was razor sharp. “Where’s your sister?”

  When Kayla finished giving an order to PLFs’ captain, she walked over to Isabella and Christopher. “I know where they are.”

  §

  Don't stop. As if he ever could. Neither could he make them wait any longer. Caleb curved his hand around Simone’s hip, stilling her for the slow penetration that took his breath away.

  This was what love felt like, Simone thought. The faint stirrings of affection that she had felt for Victor, once upon a time, were like tiny sparks flickering in the dark. They were nothing compared to this consuming blaze of emotion. She lifted into Caleb, reaching for him with her hips, and moaned into his shoulder as he slid home.

  Caleb’s eyes snapped shut as Simone closed around him, pulling him deeper. She felt so good, he thought it impossible that he could spend any lifetime without her. Struck with the blissful weight of emotion and the nerve blazing passion that wracked him, he lifted his head just to press his cheek against hers and breathed into her ear, "I love you. I know I do."

  Shuddering under the sweet torture of Caleb’s words and the delicious friction of their bodies, Simone pressed a hand to his cheek and held him close, committing to memory the way the light played over his shoulders and silvered the fine hairs on his arms. This would be a moment she would remember for ages. "I love you," she murmured with breathless intensity. How could she not love the man who she had loved countless times before? "I always have. I always will."

  "Show me.” Caleb demanded huskily, a second before his mouth smothered hers.

  §

  “Show us, Christopher. Show us all that proud loyalty, now.” Dominic’s smile was cold and laced with the shadow of victory as he watched Kayla walk over to Christopher, pull back the hammer on her revolver and press the muzzle against his forehead.

  Isabella let her eyes fall shut. She was no fool; she knew what happened next—to her little brother. Her heart began to ache, and her years felt like a sudden weight on her back. She pressed her hand to the left and found John’s, squeezing it tightly. John had been in charge of her personal security for years. And some of the rumors about their relationship were true. It was a small comfort when he squeezed back.

  Kayla’s gray eyes were a blank steel wall as they locked with Christopher’s. “Choose.”

  §

  Simone had little choice, as those two simple words infused her with a fresh dose of memories. How many times had Kyle said them to her the lifetime before? A hundred times? A thousand? And how many times had those two simple words coursed through her, ripping a sharp cry of pleasure out of her? At least once more, before Caleb sealed their mouths and the first tightening of sensation slipped through her. Simone pressed against him. She lifted her hips. She spread her knees and dug her nails into his shoulders, urging him closer, begging him deeper as she slaked her thirst for old lusts and new love in the heat of his mouth.

  §

  Christopher stared up at Kayla. “Your father knew what you were, Kayla. We all did. He loved you. We loved you. Be a part of this family. Stand on the right side.” The latter sharpened and raised his voice, his heavy mix of emotions tightly expressed.

  There were five seconds of silence. Lucien felt like his heart was going to pop as he watched; felt like the breath would never get down into his lungs. His eyes darted from Kayla’s gun to Uncle Christopher’s face. He had to do something. Someone had to do something.

  Vasco kept his steady, impassive gaze on Olivia and Amadeo. Inside, the heart that lived with the pain of the loss of three others prepared for the loss of another. Goodbye, Christopher.

  “Wrong answer,” Kayla said softly. She squeezed the trigger.

  §

  Simone’s cry vibrated against the hard, messy press of their mouths. Caleb pulled back, but only far enough that he could watch the way the lines of pleasure moved on her face, so he could make a new memory and paint it in the color of her eyes, drowned in passion, dark with love. He wanted her to be as lost as he was; so far gone that past and present collided and exploded, leaving nothing but the emotion that had brought them together from one lifetime to the next. Caleb demanded more out of her, tested the nearly nonexistent lines of his own control when he met her raised hips with shorter thrusts. Each hard movement earned Simone’s answering cry. Each cry was sharper than the last. Every touch became more desperate, until she was clutching at him, raking him with her nails, and writhing beneath him. Sweat glistened in the hollows of her body. Her breath came in half, shuddering gasps. She kissed him hard enough that she tasted blood.

  "Caleb," she panted, "I'm… Kyle, I'm—!" Simone went rigid, breathless anticipation etched onto her face, and with a
wavering cry of release, she broke.

  §

  “You fucking bitch!” Lucien jumped up from the floor in a blind rage, and was knocked down again by the furious strike from the butt of Amadeo’s gun. He didn’t get back up.

  Olivia smirked, and spoke to Lucien’s motionless form. “Don’t worry, she’ll ask you, too.”

  A single tear slipped from the corner of Isabella’s eyes as she heard the sickening thumb of her brother’s body hitting the floor. Kayla stepped in front of her. Isabella looked up at Kayla with firm; immovable Terenzio resolve. “You know my answer.”

  Kayla pressed the muzzle of her gun against Isabella’s forehead. “Yes, I do.”

  §

  Caleb groaned roughly into her hard kiss and went with her, shuddering against her, pulsing hotly, deeply inside of her and clutching her to him in a bruising grip that would leave its own passionate mark.

  Surrender had never been so sweet.

  Trembling from exertion, Simone sank into the welcoming folds of the couch and pulled Caleb down with her, pressing a damp, flushed cheek to his. Her heart pounded against his chest, beating an answering rhythm to his own. Smiling faintly, she closed her eyes and let herself drift in the haze left in pleasure's wake.

  When he could catch his breath, Caleb murmured lazily against her skin, "Do you know how long I've wanted to do that to you?"

  §

  “Do you know how long we’ve been waiting to do this?” Olivia asked Vasco

  Ignoring Olivia, Vasco called out to Kayla, “If only your mother could see you, now.”

  Four out of five pounds of pressure sat on the trigger of Kayla’s gun. Isabella was certain she saw something move, come to life, in Kayla’s cold, blank stare.

  “If you don’t shut up, Vasco, I’m going to make you.” Dominic slanted his darkly promising eyes over to his cousin.

  “You remember Marilyn, don’t you?” Vasco asked, ignoring Dominic’s warnings.

  Kayla stiffened, turned her head, and set the full force of her gaze on Vasco.

  The corner of Vasco’s mouth curled; just enough. A second later, the door at the far end of the ballroom blew open.

  §

  Simone pieced together the presence of mind to laugh, and to give Caleb’s shoulders a light squeeze. "No, I don't." Her smile deepened when she caught a glimpse of his, and she tilted her head back to meet his eyes. She stroked his face. "How long?"

  Caleb took the opportunity to kiss her, softly. "First time we met, five years ago. The day I dropped coffee on your shoe." His smile grew.

  Simone grinned faintly. Had he known who she used to be on the day he spilled coffee on her shoe? Had he known who he used to be? She opened her mouth to ask him those very questions when his phone buzzed across the floor. Caleb tensed and pushed off her. It was the last thing that he wanted to do, but, if his phone was ringing, nothing good was happening. "You should probably start getting dressed."

  It wasn't the phone call itself that had Simone moving, but the tension in Caleb’s body, and then his suggestion. She pushed off of the couch and snatched her dress off of the floor. "What's wrong?"

  Caleb looked down at the message that appeared, and his blood ran cold. “Everything.”

  Chapter 15

  “The most authentic thing about us is our capacity to create, to overcome, to endure, to transform, to love and to be greater than our suffering.”

  –Ben Okri

  December 1, 2012 - 11:22 PM

  Alcyone Island

  Phoenix Resort Hotel

  When the door blew open, all hell broke loose a second time. All eyes flew to the smoke filling the entrance way. It barely concealed the movement of the military police as they began to rush into the room, guns blazing. John threw his body into Isabella’s, knocking her to the floor and out from underneath the muzzle of Kayla’s gun. Vasco took advantage of the distraction, lowered his shoulder, and went barreling into Amadeo and subsequently Olivia. Thrown off balance, Amadeo went crashing to the floor under Vasco’s weight and Olivia stumbled backwards, barely managing to catch herself on a bar stool.

  Kayla drew her gun’s attention away from Isabella and pointed it towards the doors, backing up as the PLFs moved to cover her. Another explosion rocked the room when the second ballroom door blasted open, this one behind Vasco’s position. A swarm of Dion Corp Security guards came rushing in, crouching down and moving quickly over to the two heirs.

  Amadeo moved fast, throwing his fist up into Vasco’s jaw and flipping him off. Amadeo clambered to his feet, just to duck down as bullets flew over his head, coming from the Dion Corp guards. Amadeo grabbed Olivia by the arm and pulled her towards the doors that led out to the beach. One of the doors stood open, with a member of the PLFs crouched inside of it and waving a hand at them.

  “C’mon, we’ve got to go!” Amadeo shouted at her.

  “No, we don’t!” Olivia wrenched back from his grip, pointing her gun at Vasco, who was bent over trying to pull up his brother. “Not until they’re dead!”

  The MPs formed a line and raised their bullet proof shields to provide cover. Leone saw Olivia from across the room, raised his own gun, and fired at her. Luckily, Amadeo saw it and knocked Olivia to the ground just as she pulled her own trigger, both bullets barely missing their targets.

  “We can’t kill them in here. Wait for back up. They won’t get off the island alive,” Amadeo hissed, and roughly grabbed Olivia’s arm and hauled her to her feet, dragging her.

  John got Isabella safely out into the hallway. She was shaken, but otherwise as sharp as ever and mad as hell. “Get me a radio. Is the triplets’ plane ready?”

  “Army is scrambling,” a MP solider told her, handing over an ear piece. “Two fighters are going over to Loyalty right now. The others are getting ready to engage the enemy. They’ve got more coming.”

  “Sir, we’ve got to go!” one of the Dion Crop security guards shouted at Vasco, grabbing him by the arm. Vasco smacked Lucien across the cheek again, and his brother came awake with a start and a groan.

  “My fuckin’ head,” Lucien muttered, wincing.

  “C’mon. Get up.” Vasco pulled him to his feet, following the guards out into the hallway.

  “Where is Madame President?”

  “Upstairs. You send a chopper to the roof and bring them to the airfield. Do it now,” Vasco ordered, and the Agent brought his wrist to his mouth, speaking hurriedly into the radio. Vasco looked over at Isabella. “We need to go.”

  Isabella met Vasco’s eyes. “Yes, you do.” She stepped into him and kissed his cheek. “You finish it. Go.”

  For a brief moment, Vasco’s brow creased. He took Isabella’s hand, squeezing it tightly. Lucien stood at his brothers’ side, his eyes raw and pained. “We’ll get them, Aunt Isabel. I promise.”

  Isabella gave Vasco a quick, reassuring smile, then turned it onto Lucien. She kissed his cheek. “He loved you like his own son,” she said, meaning Christopher. “And he was very proud of you. We all are.”

  Tears sprang into Lucien’s gray eyes. The image of Uncle Christopher’s death would haunt him for a long time. “I love you,” Lucien said in a trembling voice.

  Isabella smiled and patted his cheek.

  Leone rushed over to them, the sounds of shouts, gunfire and violent chaos echoing out around them. “They’re going to overrun this hotel any second. You’ve got to get out of here. We’ll hold them off.”

  “Let’s go.” Clasping his brother’s shoulder, Vasco nodded once at his family. He didn’t expect to see them again. Not this lifetime. He and Lucien jogged off with the small crowd of Dion Corp security agents around them.

  Outside, it was a war zone. Dion Corp agents stood around a bullet proof Hummer, frantically waving Vasco and Lucien over. The sky above them was littered with the black, hulking shadows of attack helicopters that deposited wave after wave of men in combat uniforms. They carried machine guns and fired at the Alcyone army below.

  �
�We can’t leave without Simone!” Lucien shouted at his brother as they were shoved into the back of the hummer.

  “We won’t. Caleb’s with her. They’ll make it.”

  Lucien nodded, his jaw setting in quiet fury. “I’m going to fucking kill every one of them, Vasco.”

  “Yes, brother, yes we are.”