His resemblance to Daniel…
“Bro.” Asher stepped forward to cuff Caleb lightly over the back of the head.
“Next time you bring us in on whatever you have going on before you disappear,” Ethan warned darkly.
“There won’t be a next time,” Gabriel bit out tautly before turning to the prince. “We’re ready to leave whenever you are, Alexandre.”
Lena had so many questions she wanted to ask Caleb. It was obvious now they were being rescued by the prince and Caleb’s brothers. But who was Nikolai? And how had Caleb’s brothers known to find them on Petros? What was their connection to the prince? What was Gabriel’s connection to Daniel?
Questions that remained unasked as the Knight brothers first ascertained that Dukakis’ staff were just that, and not involved in his less than legitimate business dealings. They then searched through Spiro’s office and removed any incriminating documents and his laptop, before the four brothers traveled together on one of the helicopters, along with Spiro. His bodyguards were put on another one with half the prince’s personal bodyguards. Lena was put on the third helicopter with Prince Alexandre and the rest of his bodyguards. None of them seemed inclined to conversation.
The three helicopters landed on the private grounds of the royal palace on Androcco, after which Prince Alexandre escorted Lena to Princess Anastazia’s private sitting room. He lingered only long enough to introduce them and kiss his English wife before excusing himself.
“Call me Stazzi,” the other woman insisted as she poured Lena a cup of coffee. “Since I arrived on Androcco, we don’t stand on too much ceremony.”
Lena’s head felt as if it were about to explode, mainly from the speed with which she had been taken off Petros. Yesterday, she had been living her worst nightmare; today, she was sitting in a royal palace, drinking coffee with a princess.
Traveling here in one of the helicopters hadn’t exactly been a pleasant experience. It was both noisy and bumpy.
Hysteria seemed to be hovering on the horizon of her emotions.
She also had no idea where Caleb was, hadn’t so much as set eyes on him since leaving Petros. And she wanted to see him. To speak with him. To be with him.
“Lena?”
“Sorry.” She leaned forward to take the coffee cup from the other woman. “I’m still a little dazed. I can’t believe I’m really off that island.”
Stazzi gave a pained frown. “I can’t imagine how awful that must have been for you. I know his brothers are a little angry with him right now for putting himself in danger, but I say thank goodness for Caleb!”
She nodded. “I— Do you know where he is?”
The other woman grimaced. “I believe they are showing Mr. Dukakis and his men to their new accommodations.”
Well, at least Lena knew Caleb was still somewhere near. She hadn’t even had a chance to thank him yet. His brothers and the prince might have swept in and effected the rescue, but Caleb was the one who had found her, who had given her hope when she’d had none left. Without him, she knew she would have been sold and perhaps never seen or heard from again.
She gave a shudder at how narrowly she had escaped that fate. Because of Caleb. “I hope they’re left to rot there after the misery they’ve caused, not just to me but many other women.”
The princess nodded. “Alexandre is furious something like this has been happening so near to us. Not that you can tell that from looking at him. My husband is the master of understatement,” she added affectionately.
“Do you think they’ll manage to find any of the other women who were taken?” She couldn’t forget the fate of the three women who had accompanied her to Petros. Or the others who had gone before them.
“I’m sure the Knight brothers will do whatever they can to make that happen, Alexandre will help too, of course. Knowing the Knight brothers and Alexandre as well as I do.” The princess smiled. “I don’t suppose any of them bothered to tell you what their connection is to us?”
The newspapers had been full of the love story between the eligible Androccan prince and the young English woman who had been working as a hotel manager when the two of them met. The couple now had a baby son, the Androccan heir, in the royal nursery.
But no, Lena had no idea how Caleb and his brothers came to know the royal couple.
“Asher and Alexandre were at university together, so Alexandre has known all the Knight brothers for years,” Stazzi explained. “My best friend, Lissa, is now married to Asher. Believe me, that romance is a story in itself!” The princess chuckled.
Lena appreciated that the other woman was trying to put her at ease. And, to a degree, it was working. But she couldn’t relax until she knew where Caleb was. Until she had spoken to him again.
Until she knew if he wanted to speak to her again.
What had happened between them on the island had been so far removed from anything Lena had ever known before, she would never be able to forget it. But she had no idea if it had meant the same to Caleb. Or if it was just a question of circumstances: the two of them naked and sharing a bed. It hadn’t been that for her, but that didn’t mean Caleb felt the same way about it.
She desperately needed to know the answer to that question. To see and be with Caleb.
“We’ll talk again about your reckless behavior once we’re all back in England,” Gabriel told Caleb grimly as the four brothers returned to the palace after ensuring Dukakis and his men had been arrested and safely locked away.
“There’s nothing for us to talk about,” Caleb dismissed. “Lena is free, and it’s now my intention to continue looking for all the women listed in the files we found in Dukakis’s office. If you want me to resign from the company so I can do that, then that’s what I’ll do.”
“Don’t be fucking stupid,” Gabriel snapped.
He shook his head. “You have to know, if I was presented with the same set of circumstances again, that I would do exactly what I did this time.”
“You’re an idiot,” Ethan put in without rancor.
“Hot-headed.” Asher nodded.
“Fucking stupid,” Gabriel repeated.
“And I love all of you too!” Caleb drawled.
“You could have gotten yourself killed,” Gabriel bit out fiercely, hands clenched. “I didn’t go all the way to Afghanistan looking for you eight years ago just so you could take yourself off on a suicide mission to a Mediterranean island!”
Caleb rolled his eyes. “Dramatic, much?”
Gabriel’s eyes still glittered with anger. “I don’t like the odds against you on Petros. It was one man against eleven, plus Dukakis’s house staff.”
“Twelve.”
“What?” His eldest brother scowled.
“Twelve,” Caleb repeated. “Dukakis, his ten bodyguards, and his lover.”
Gabriel’s expression was totally blank. “We didn’t find any lover.”
Now that Caleb thought about it, he hadn’t seen Dukakis’s blond-haired lover today either. He had been so surprised by Alexandre and his brothers’ arrival, he hadn’t given the other man a thought. He couldn’t even remember the lover’s name. Had he ever known it? Caleb had been so concentrated on Lena last night, he didn’t recall whether or not Dukakis had ever introduced the younger man by name. He had just been there. A quietly smirking presence.
Caleb’s mouth thinned. “Shit, we missed one.”
“How?” Gabriel barked. “We secured the island within ten minutes of our arrival.”
“Maybe he saw what was happening and took one of Dukakis’s boats?” Caleb surmised. “He has three.”
“I counted only two moored at the dock when we left,” Asher confirmed.
“Is the boyfriend going to be a threat?” Gabriel was the one to ask.
“I have no idea,” Caleb answered honestly. “He was pretty much a nonentity, to be honest. Blond-haired, blue-eyed. Nothing that made him stand out in a crowd.”
“Or you were just too busy looking
at the beautiful Magdalena?” Ethan teased.
He glared at his twin. “Don’t get any ideas in that direction.”
“I wasn’t even thinking about it.” Ethan held up his hands in surrender.
“So did you and the lovely Miss Roig…?”
Caleb turned to include Asher in that glare. “None of your fucking business.”
“The two of you seemed very…close on Petros?” Ethan taunted.
“I was there to save her, so of course she was grateful.”
“How grateful?”
“Ethan, you’re my twin, and I love you.” Caleb spoke evenly. “But if you ever ask me something like that again in connection to Lena, I’m going to beat you to a pulp. Understand?” A nerve pulsed in his tightly clenched jaw.
“Completely.” But the threat didn’t stop Ethan from eyeing him speculatively. “Are the two of you going to see each other again once you’re back in England?”
He shrugged. “I’m presuming Lena will want to go back to Spain with her parents for a while. After which she’ll maybe come back to look after Daniel.” He looked at Gabriel for confirmation of that suggestion.
“I have no more idea than you do what Lena’s plans are for the future.” The older man bit out. “Angel would love to have her back, and Daniel too, but I’m presuming Lena will want some time to get over her ordeal before that happens.”
That was what Caleb thought too.
And he genuinely had no idea whether or not Lena would want to see him again once they were all back in England. It wasn’t something they’d had the time to talk about.
There were a lot of things they hadn’t had time or opportunity to talk about.
For example, if he, along with everything else that had happened to her on Petros, was something Lena would rather forget had ever happened.
Chapter 9
“Caleb?” Lena strolled across the moonlit and meticulously cut lawn toward where he sat on the wall surrounding the fountain in the royal couple’s private garden.
This evening had been almost as surreal as yesterday’s. A casual dinner with the four Knight brothers and the Prince and Princess of Androcco, in their private family dining room.
As if by tacit agreement, the men had kept the conversation light as they talked about some of their antics together in earlier years. But Lena was too distracted by Caleb’s presence, seated on the other side of the dining table to her, to be able to concentrate on the conversation for long.
She thought she’d felt Caleb’s gaze on her a couple of times, but every time she looked up, his attention was elsewhere, leading her to believe she must have imagined it. Or it was just wishful thinking on her part.
Either way, she could barely contain her disappointment when Caleb excused himself immediately after dinner without so much as attempting to have a private conversation with her.
Her heart had fluttered wildly when the forceful Gabriel strolled over and joined her as she stared out the window to where she could see Caleb standing beside the fountain.
“My baby brother is an idiot,” he said after glancing out the window. “But he’s a lovable idiot.”
“He’s so much more than that!” Lena rounded on him fiercely. “I know you’re all angry with him, but without his intervention, I would have ended up as someone’s sex slave.”
Gabriel’s expression didn’t soften in the slightest. “As I said, he’s a lovable idiot.”
“You have no right to be angry with him—”
“I have every right.” His eyes were steely. “Caleb is my brother. I protect my family. All of them.”
“Caleb isn’t a child.”
“If he was I’d know exactly how to ensure he was never this reckless again,” Gabriel snapped.
Tears stung her cheeks. “He saved me.”
“And he might have been killed trying!”
Her eyes narrowed. “I’m not sure I like you, Mr. Knight.”
“It’s Gabriel,” he drawled. “And the only person I need to like me is Angel, and she likes me just fine.”
And if Angela Sinclair really intended to marry this man, then he might just end up being Lena’s employer.
“I spoke to her on my cell phone earlier,” Gabriel changed the subject. “She’s very relieved to know you’re safe. Did you manage to talk to your parents?”
“I did.” It had been a very traumatic conversation, with lots of tears on both ends of the telephone line.
“Good.” Gabriel nodded before turning to look out the window again. “Was Caleb…okay, while he was on the island?”
Lena bristled defensively. “I don’t know what you mean.”
He glanced at her sideways. “Your tone tells me he wasn’t okay.”
“He was fine,” she defended. “I think Caleb is entitled to a few nightmares after what he went through.”
His brows rose up to his hairline. “He told you about that?”
“Shouldn’t he have?”
“I’m just surprised.” He shrugged. “It isn’t something he usually discusses with anyone.”
“I saw his scars.” Her cheeks warmed as she recalled the circumstances under which she had seen those scars. “He explained to me how he got them. That you saved him. How the two of you killed the men who did that to him. When he had the nightmare later that night, I put two and two together…”
“And concluded PTSD.”
“It isn’t a disease, Mr. Knight,” she snapped. “After this ordeal, I may suffer with it myself.”
He turned to make Lena the complete focus of those piercing green eyes. “I’m not the enemy, Lena.” His voice had softened. “I love my brother. I hate what those bastards did to him. What they’re still doing to him.” His expression was grim.
She lowered her eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sound rude. I just… Caleb is a very special person.”
“He is,” Gabriel agreed. “And I like the fact you want to defend him.”
Lena felt the increased heat as the color deepened in her cheeks. “Why shouldn’t I? He rescued me from a life of hell.”
“Is that all it is?”
Her eyes narrowed. “Isn’t that enough?”
“Of course.” His reply was noncommittal.
Lena looked at Gabriel searchingly for several seconds. “If you don’t mind, I think I’ll go and join Caleb outside in the garden.”
“I don’t mind at all.” He gave a wry smile. “Lena,” he added deliberately.
“Gabriel.” She nodded in acknowledgment of their tentative truce.
Which was how she now came to be walking toward Caleb, her heart in her throat, not knowing how or what she was going to say to him, but determined to speak with him anyway. She might never get another opportunity.
“Lena.” Caleb stood as she approached him.
It had been a weird evening for Caleb so far, to put it mildly. He and Lena had been together so much on Petros—including that mind-blowing sex—but they hadn’t been alone since Alexandre and his brothers landed on the island. They hadn’t seen each other at all since arriving on Androcco, except for dinner, when they were surrounded by his brothers and the royal couple.
Arrangements had been discussed for them all to fly home tomorrow in Alexandre’s private jet. After which, Caleb knew from the conversation at dinner, Lena intended going back to Spain for a holiday with her parents. He had no idea for how long.
Or whether she would come back at all. He understood if she didn’t. He had resigned from the army after that last tour in Afghanistan. Some things should never be revisited, and England was where Lena’s captivity had begun.
She looked up at him from beneath lowered lashes. “Ethan is your twin.”
“Yes.”
“You don’t look alike.”
“For which we are both truly grateful!”
“This is a bit awkward, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.”
She drew in a shaky breath. “Last night—”
&nb
sp; “I know what you’re going to say, Lena,” he cut in quickly.
“You do?”
He nodded. “And my advice is to forget about it. It was a mistake. A result of circumstances. Nothing for either of us to feel guilty about.”
Her chest tightened. “Is that what it was?”
“Of course,” he dismissed. “We were both under tremendous pressure. Needed to let off some steam, and that’s the way we chose to do it.”
Her frown felt pained. “Has that happened to you before?”
Caleb pushed his hands into his trouser pockets to stop himself from giving in to the impulse to reach out and take Lena in his arms. She smelled so fucking good, lemon and floral, with that underlying musk that was all Lena. She looked good too, in a knee-length dress lent to her by the princess, and the same smoky-gray color as Lena’s eyes.
“Not exactly like that, no.” He wasn’t about to regale her with stories of how he and his army buddies had so much adrenaline pumping through them after a particularly bloody battle, they had needed to go out and fuck. Last night hadn’t been like that at all. “You’re safe now. That’s all that matters.”
Was it? Lena had so hoped Caleb had felt the same way she did about last night. Going to bed together had been a result of circumstances, but they had both taken it a step further than that. Much, much further.
Because, as Caleb said, they had both needed that physical closeness to bleed off the pressure they were both under?
It hadn’t felt like that to Lena.
If Gabriel had been the one to rescue her, for instance, she knew there was no way she would ever have made love with him. She found the man’s leashed power and self-contained coldness totally intimidating.
It wouldn’t have happened with Asher or Ethan either. She had watched and listened to the brothers this evening, and although they were all very good-looking, Asher was too mocking and Ethan too flippant for her taste. Her response last night had been specific to Caleb and no one else.
Capturing Caleb (Knight Security 3) Page 8