East Bound

by Nana Malone

I frowned at that. "What do you mean, then what?"

  "So you'll take me in, and then what happens?"

  "I get the respect I’ve earned."

  "But you don't need respect; you already have it. Your colleagues, whether they like you or not, they respect you. Well, except Denning. But that has to do more with his fragile ego than anything else."

  "How do you know Denning?"

  "Like I told you, Agent Kincade, there's very little about you that I don't know."

  "Are you stalking me?"

  "No, my dear. I am far too old for those kinds of pursuits. That's really where your boyfriend, or partner, prevails. Which is it now? Have you two reconciled or not? Quite frankly, I was saddened when you split the first time."

  My jaw unhinged. "What?"

  I knew he'd been watching us, but that closely? Holy hell.

  "Stay out of my business."

  "Well, my dear, I wish I could. But since you're doing me a favor, technically working for me, your business is my business.”

  “I’m really over the patriarchal shite.”

  “It’s not about controlling you. It’s about getting what I need. Where are we on Warlow?”

  “We’re working on it. You sent us in to find a needle in a haystack.”

  “Is that an excuse from you, Agent Kincaid?”

  I clenched my jaw tight. “No. I know what’s at stake. I’ll find him.”

  “See that you do, Agent Kincaid. See that you do.”

  Chapter 21

  East

  Theroux’s impromptu visit at Nyla’s had us pressing to research Henry Warlow. Our inability to find anything on him returned us to the one place we had a lead. We needed a better look at that image in Lord Jameson’s office.

  Nyla was due back at Ben and Livy’s as soon as she was done with work. And I couldn’t deny I was pretty antsy to see her. Since Theroux had shown up at her flat the night before, I was nervous when she was out of my sight.

  Bridge stared at the map of the Jameson estate. “So we’re really doing this bit of crazy?”

  Ben nodded. "Yeah, we really are." He leaned closer, dropping his voice like he had to keep a secret. "Yeah mate, speaking of crazy, what the hell is going on with you and Mina?"

  Bridge rolled his shoulders. "There's nothing going on. Everything is fine."

  Ben laughed. "Okay, if you say so. Except I don't believe you."

  Bridge rolled his eyes like Ben was nothing more than a gossiping schoolgirl, which to be honest he really did resemble. "Emma and Mina had a disagreement at the house last night during the team meeting."

  "What, did Mina catch you and Emma in another disagreement and tell you to play nice?"

  He shook his head. "She found Emma and I talking, made her own conclusions, got in an argument with Emma, and it didn't end well for Mina."

  “What do you mean by ‘didn’t end well’?”

  He sent his gaze heavenward. “She called Ems a whore. Ems said that she was the one who was the whore. Mina slapped her.” My jaw unhinged. “Then Mina tried to kick you lot out and I might have reminded her that until we get married she’s not lady of the house.”

  I winced. "Holy shite. Why didn't you call us to come in and watch? That sounds epic."

  He sent me a glare. "Come on, as if you would want to watch that. This is not about your sex life, East."

  "I regret telling any of you that I like to watch. Remind me to never tell you lot anything again."

  Drew just chuckled. "Wait, Mina actually slapped her?"

  "Yeah. Legitimately. No questions asked. It was a full on I'm-not-fucking-with-you slap."

  Drew's laugh was low. "Mate, what did you do after? Knowing Mina, she must be well ticked off?"

  "Later, I told her that she was never to lay hands on Emma again if she knew what was good for her."

  We all just stared at him as Ben said, "Jesus Christ, mate, have you no sense of self-preservation?"

  He shrugged. "Well, she did deserve it. She had no right to call Emma a whore, for Christ’s sake."

  I winced. "True. What the hell is wrong with her?"

  It was Ben who cleared his throat and asked the question, "Did she have a reason to think Emma was behaving like a whore?"

  Bridge scowled at Ben. "Fuck no. She’s Toby’s fucking sister."

  Ben just held up his hands. "Easy mate. I'm just asking a question. Questions are important. I was just curious if you and Emma had ever gone there, because sometimes it seems like you have."

  "I never would have done that to Toby. She’s his little sister, mate."

  Bridge had always had this thing about Toby's little sister. It was as if Emma couldn't look after herself, couldn't have destroyed any man who looked at her cross-eyed. Emma Varma was a force, and the only one who couldn't see it was Bridge.

  "Mate, do you have a thing for her? Because that changes everything."

  He scowled. "I do not have a thing for Emma. I’m engaged, remember?"

  I shrugged. "Okay, if you say so."

  Ben just chuckled. "I remember when I told you I didn't have a thing for Livy.”

  “Ah, the good old days,” I muttered to myself.

  Bridge wasn’t having it. "I don't. I just... Long before he died, Toby asked me to look out for her if anything ever happened to him. You know, some basic shit we all say. But I took it seriously. Obviously, I didn't know what was going to happen, but now it's like I can't let it go. He said look out for my sister, so I do the best I can. At least as much as Emma allows anyone to look after her, which isn't much, because she's stubborn, and mule-headed, and a pain in the arse."

  Ben, Drew, and I exchanged glances. We were all desperately trying to hold back our laughs.

  How could he not see that, for all his protests, Emma had wound her way under his skin?

  "So, just to make sure I have this right, Toby asked you to look after Emma."

  Bridge nodded. "He did."

  "And you thought what, that was for perpetuity?"

  Bridge rolled his eyes. "All I know is my mate asked me to look after his sister, so I have. I should have looked out for her brother better."

  That was a tough one to swallow because, yeah, we all should have looked out for Toby better. And as much as we tried to rectify that, it was always going to be a sore spot. We had failed him. And Bridge felt like he was failing Emma.

  "Mate, I know Toby was our friend, but just in case you did have a thing for Emma, which you don't, obviously, but if you did, I'm pretty sure there's no one he'd want to be with her more."

  "Are you daft? Are you forgetting I'm already engaged?"

  We all knew that was the magical word that meant shut the fuck up.

  Bridge had a blind spot when it came to Mina. There was a part of me that thought she could be good for him. And in the beginning, he’d been obsessed with her. He’d thrown himself headfirst into the relationship, and something about her had calmed him down.

  He'd been less angry, less closed off since he’d met her. And so we'd celebrated her sudden appearance in his life, his sudden establishment of her as the woman he wanted to be with. We accepted all of it, but it had never felt like something that should be happening. It had never seemed like something that was on point.

  And then we’d discovered the one thing that would be guaranteed to split them up. But he was happy, so I’d fought Ben on telling Bridge the truth. But in hindsight, that was the wrong way to go.

  "Right, Mina. Of course."

  Bridge scowled at us. "You lot have got to let this Mina thing go."

  Ben put up his hands. "We've let it go. We didn't say anything about Mina, okay?"

  Bridge changed the subject. "Can we get back to the task at hand? Jameson?”

  I guess that was that. "I'm on it. I’m trying to find a way in. Maybe a remote camera if we can get a workman to smuggle it in. I'll ask Telly for help."

  Drew clutched his hands to his chest. "God is real. If you're going to ask Telly for he
lp, what has this world come to?"

  I rolled my eyes. "Ha-ha, very funny."

  Still chuckling, he shook his head. "I could do this all day."

  I looked to Ben. "If you can't shut him up, I will."

  He laughed. "I hate to say this but maybe Lucas is the one to go in."

  Bridge laughed. "You know full well it won’t be simple and that he won’t be contained. He’ll rob Jameson blind."

  I laughed. "Yeah. But, it would be brilliant to watch."

  Bridge nodded. "Yes, but it would bring a slew of complications. But hey, who wants to do anything easy?"

  Drew raised a hand. "Me, I like it easy."

  We all chuckled.

  "Jameson will be a problem,” I muttered.

  Ben’s voice was low, "Yes, but this is the in we need. Besides, Jameson elder and younger were always in the crosshairs. Any connection to Warlow just speeds it up."

  East

  An hour later, the team was all together, and we were reviewing the map of the grounds on Ben and Livy’s massive coffee table.

  And the woman I loved suggested she draw the short straw to get us the image from inside Jameson’s office. "I don't like it." I stared at the plan. "I have no idea about their security. This is bad. This is a bad plan."

  Bridge clapped me on the shoulder. "Oh yes, East, forever our worry wart. Relax, Thanks to Telly finding out the security company and working her contact there, we know all camera placements. We know the pitfalls."

  I scowled at my mate. "I'm sorry, are you the security expert? No, right?"

  Bridge just laughed. "No need to be so testy."

  “I just need more information. No offense, Tel, the information is good. It’s just not complete. It’s a bloody closed system. I can’t hack it unless I’m inside. We sneak on the property and we’ll be blind. Like how many, in what locations, and what are they pointing at?"

  "I knew he'd be like this." Drew muttered to himself.

  "Like what? Trying to keep everybody alive? Pardon me if that's the whole purpose of what I'm doing."

  Nyla watched our exchange back and forth. "This is a delight. I love to see other people giving him shit, not just me."

  I grumbled under my breath, "This is not funny."

  "No, of course, it's not funny. I'm the one who’s breaking into a state-of-the-art secured compound. None of this is funny. Matter of fact, this is all downright dangerous. But you will help keep me protected."

  "Yes, but the point is, this is so much harder than it needs to be."

  She shrugged. "Well, it is what it is. We need access to that photo if we hope to ever have a good lead on Henry Warlow."

  The shitty part was, I'd seen that image the last time I'd broken into Jameson's office. But Warlow hadn’t been on my radar then, and I couldn't remember any of the other names.

  Telly stepped forward with her laptop open. "Okay, East, what is it that worries you the most? Is it the fact that we'll have to actually search the office physically, the security protocols that we don't know about, or the fact that we have to also be super close to the buildings so that we can hack in?”

  "All of the above. It just seems reckless."

  Ben nodded. "So noted. Now, if we had nothing to lose, how would we do this?"

  Nyla sat up. "Okay, we need access to the photo. East you’ve seen the photo?"

  "Yes, but it’s in the heart of the compound in Lord Jameson’s office."

  “Bryna, you and I will monitor from here." She pointed the egress route that we'd taken that night we'd gotten hit by sprinklers.

  Don't you mean the night she rubbed herself all over your cock and you had blue balls for a week?

  Yeah, good times.

  "Okay, so it would seem that the room you were in is here." Telly pointed out Lord Jameson's office on our schematic.

  "Yup."

  "And this is what, the front door?"

  "Yep, that's the one."

  "Obviously, this has to be done when no one is looking."

  "Yeah, which is just about never."

  Nyla frowned, chewing the corner of her bottom lip. She always did that when she was thinking something through. "Amelia? Any ideas?"

  "No. I was counting on your gut to tell you something."

  "I wish my gut was operating like that right now, but it's not."

  Emma spoke up. "How important is this?"

  Amelia and Nyla exchanged glances. "Well, it's everything."

  "There's no way you're going to make it in there without anyone noticing you are in there. So the best we can hope is that nobody notices. Disguise yourself. Dressing up as a maid is a good one. If we need to physically be on-site for this, you would want to be as inconspicuous as possible."

  I tried not to bite her head off. I did. No way were we serving Nyla up to Jameson dressed like a French maid.

  "Okay, why don't we walk right through the front door?" Nyla asked.

  A long exhale escaped out of my lungs as she continued. "Maybe Amelia and I can distract him while, East, you break in and get the photo we need. Hell, this might even be a one-person job. Which I can do. Get into the office. Get a photo you say is there, walk out."

  I vetoed that play right away. "The hell you will."

  She threw her arms up as if to say, be reasonable. "We have badges, and we will walk right in that front door. Hell, we only need one agent to go in. Better if it’s me. I’m the one known for going off half-cocked. I can go under the pretense of being concerned about missing pieces of artwork he lost during the Monaco museum forgeries. Amelia that could work, right?"

  My bestie nodded as she chewed her bottom lip. “It’s simple, and I can cover you better from the outside. In case you get caught or something. I can make calls.”

  Nyla rolled her eyes. “I’m Interpol. It would stand to reason I’m following a lead.”

  "Are you insane?"

  "No. I’ll flash them my badge, and they’ll have no choice but to let me in. East, how long will you need to get in and out of the office?"

  "Ten minutes if I want to avoid the cameras inside."

  "It's doable. And honestly, we just need to see the photo. Trust me, this will work. You'll see."

  I had a feeling that every time Nyla said trust me it was going to take several years off my life.

  Chapter 22

  Nyla

  "What's with the face?"

  East had been quiet since we’d left Ben’s. East wanted me to move in with him, even if it was temporarily, which... I still wasn't sure what to do with that.

  "Nothing. Nothing is wrong."

  "Something is obviously wrong. You're never this quiet."

  "I can be quiet," he grumbled

  "You’re cheesed off with me."

  A moment of silence ticked by, and I watched his hands grip tighter on the steering wheel of the sports car. I’d never seen another model like it, and with its low carriage and modern spaceship-like interior, it was almost akin to riding inside a hoverboard. The crisp apple scent of the leather screamed of its newness. Or maybe he just didn’t drive it often. It didn't smell like him. As I made all my observations, I waited, not so patiently, for him to speak. If he was angry, we needed to talk it out. I’d seen what happened when he didn't talk to me.

  "Well, I'm not really thrilled about you and Emma being involved in any of this.”

  I tried to think of the best diplomatic response, but opted for directness in the end. "We're grown women, East. We make these choices for ourselves."

  "Yes, I know. Obviously, women's empowerment and all that, but I care about you, so I'm worried."

  "All right, then tell me you're worried. Don't try to control me, or tell me what to do, or tell me this isn't my fight. Because if it's your fight, it's my fight, right? That's how caring about people works in case you didn't know."

  He scowled at me. "You know, if you weren't so bloody gorgeous, I might have something to say about your attitude."

  I laughed. "My attit
ude. You're the one who's been stomping around all night. Grumpy. Uncommunicative. Remember, we were going to start talking to each other?"

  "Yes, I remember. But this is hard. Usually, it's just me. I never have to think about anyone else when I make decisions."

  "I get it. You have been living a very lovely and convenient life. It must be nice. Welcome to how the other half lives."

  He scowled more. "You know what, I'm not talking to you."

  "Oh yeah, real mature."

  "Just understand where I'm coming from. I want to keep you safe."

  "And just understand where I'm coming from. I'm the one with the gun."

  His lips pressed into a firm line. "Must you always remind me of that? It's just, what I couldn't do for AJ, is definitely something I need to do for you. I need to protect what’s mine. Call it some kind of primal instinct."

  "I hear you. And I'm appreciative. I am. Trust me. I don't want anything to happen to me either. I'm amazing. Or haven't you heard?"

  His lips twitched, and I could see some of the tension rolling out of his shoulders. Perfect. Now he might be more reasonable. "I get it. Everything that happened with AJ makes you more aware. More alert. But I'm not someone who needs to be protected. I am a protector myself. So, you should trust that I won't make dumb decisions. When I need help, I'll ask for it. And I trust you. I know that seems weird to you, but I do. I believe that you will protect me in your own way. But also understand I'll protect you. It's a two-way street."

  He rolled his eyes hard. "It's not the same, Nyla." Once he parked, he climbed out then came around to my side to open the door.

  In the lift up to the penthouse, he turned to me, still scowling, and I couldn’t help but poke the bear a little. "I'm just saying, who has the badge?"

  He coughed out a laugh. "You can't end every argument like that. I want to keep you out of this."

  "I'm sorry, but you can't." Once upstairs and in the penthouse, I tossed my keys onto the tiny porcelain dish he had by the door. I hadn’t given him an answer about a more permanent relocation, but I was staying the night.