With a turn of my key, I was back in my cabin, ready to strip off and change into my military grade wetsuit. This was not how I’d envisioned my day would go. Chasing after an operative that was too valuable to lose.
Xavier was a smart civilian who didn’t deserve a uniform. He bore none of the traits of camaraderie one would expect from someone who held a commission or who had been trained at Sandhurst. He had evidently been plucked out by British Intelligence to serve in new and interesting ways.
To say he’d gone rogue was an understatement.
Even if he’d pissed off into the ether with both our secrets and the kind of money that could keep him hidden for a lifetime, I had the skill to find the bastard. Had he gotten to know me better, he’d have realized this fact.
Xavier had taken a leap into counterintelligence without knowing who was about to hunt him down. HQ had informed me of the money-wire tracked from the Bank of China to Coutts of London on the day after he arrived…right into his personal bank account. In the two days he’d been gone, Xavier had apparently dabbled in espionage.
The knock on my cabin door carried with it a level of anger that could only come from Oliver Hague. This need to know level of insight always drew unwanted attention from the higher-ups.
I slung my waterproof backpack over my shoulder and braced myself to face off with the Commander. He was certainly more courteous than me. I’d have thrown an officer off my sub if he’d pulled what I was up to.
“We need to talk.” He closed the door behind him.
This well-respected officer was hardly ever rattled. Considering he commanded a nuclear sub this was a good thing. No doubt it was my diving gear that rubbed salt on his bruised ego. That, and the fact our man had vanished. We were meant to be out of these waters by now.
Tension between Oliver and I had hung unpleasantly in the recycled air since I’d pulled rank at Portsmouth.
“I just received a Sit Rep from HQ.” He leaned back against my cabin door and folded his arms. “They appear disgruntled.”
“They don’t have the intel,” I assured him.
His jaw flexed as he continued his rant, “The Admiral of the Fleet sent the transmission himself. He’s not the only one riled up that we’re in Chinese waters. Do you know how many lives I have onboard?”
Being a former submarine Commander, I sure as hell did know.
I gave a respectful nod. “The Chinese won’t know we’re here.”
“What’s your plan?”
“You know what I do.”
“What if we lose you both?”
“You go home.” I grabbed my diving facemask. “How close to Macau are we?”
His lips curled in fury. “Goddamn Secret Service. We’re in enemy territory and I have the Navy ordering us to go back. So, we’re going back.”
“Get me to the surface.”
“And what then?”
“Wait twelve hours. If you don’t hear from me take the sub home.”
“What do you think happened to your operative?”
“Right now I know as much as you.”
“Damn it, James. You’re the one who sent him into the field.”
“I escorted him.” I was trying to remain calm.
Either way, lives were at risk. Mine, specifically.
“James, there’s other ways of entering a country.”
“They can’t know I’m here. If they do…” They’ll move in on him.
“Your career is over. You know that, right?”
From the outside it would appear so. From inside, I was right where I’d been ordered to be. Get Xavier into China unseen. By any means possible.
Nuclear sub it is then.
“You were the youngest Commander this Navy has seen, Ballad.” He made it an accusation. “They’ve ruined you.”
I suppressed a wry smile because I was ruined well before I’d joined the Secret Service.
The years I’d given the Royal Navy flashed through my consciousness. My time with MI6 was wearing thin, too. My boss had talked about Xavier like a commodity. We were pawns to be moved around at will to get the job done. I was getting too old for this shit.
“They’re denying this mission, James.”
“That wouldn’t be a first.”
“I’m destined to take the fall.”
“I’ll take the fall. I outrank you.” I yanked up my oxygen tank. “I’m guessing we’re at the coordinates.”
“This could be a national disaster.”
“My specialty is preventing them.”
“Look, you never got over what happened to Victoria…”
Nice try, buddy, but I was too hardened to care about my widower status. Or my family reputation. I’d always fought against my privileged background and kept it to myself. Getting servicemen to respect my word had nothing to do with the wealth I’d inherited. No amount of money could protect a man destined to live a life of danger. Which meant I lived with a certain code. The kind that brought a level of loneliness most men shied away from. The walls around me were higher than those of the castle I’d been bequeathed.
Still, I had a good life waiting for me on the other side of this. An estate I could wander around, with no chance of getting assassinated.
I intended to live long enough to enjoy it. That castle had a decent supply of wine in the cellar. In my mind I’d uncorked all of them and finished them off, from the Saint-Cernin Blanc I’d been saving to the bottles of Dom Perignon. I couldn’t wait to make that a reality—getting boozed-up and privately wallowing in my grief.
Alone.
Getting home and getting drunk felt like a goddamned luxury at this point.
All that was left was to get this mess over with and find the fucker.
“We believe they have him in their sights,” I replied calmly. “If we don’t retrieve him, that disaster you’re talking about could happen.”
It was unpalatable to tell him I might even bring back Xavier in the form of an inanimate corpse. Especially as I’d be the one to place our agent in that state.
Oliver straightened. “If this crazy plan of yours doesn’t work out, there’ll be hell to pay, Ballad.”
James
You might imagine that finding your missing operative hanging out in the same location where he was last seen—one of the most expensive hotels in the world—would be a good thing.
Not so much.
As soon as I stepped out of the elevator on the top floor of The 13 Hotel and entered the swanky lounge, I spotted Xavier sitting alone at the bar nursing a drink.
This scenario made my pulse race. He knew we’d come for him. Betraying one of his brothers-in-arms would be added to his repertoire of fuckery. Adrenaline surged though my veins and I embraced it, soaking in the fear of possible danger and weaving it into gold. This was so damn arousing it almost made me hard.
Scanning the area, I assessed how many foreign operatives I was up against. Five, apparently, all standing out with their savage glances.
Okay, good to know.
Leaning with my elbow on the bar, I held back a quiet rage as I studied Xavier’s pretty-boy face. I saw him in a new light now. His Norwegian ancestry and that hint of a tan added to his privileged air. Those pale blue eyes held an expression that left me in the dark as to whether he had any good left in him. His dark blond hair was military grade, and yet he made the tuxedo ensemble work.
He was checking me out, too.
“You scrub up nice.” He flashed me a warm smile. “Commander.”
“Steady,” I warned.
Let’s not announce to the entire place my rank, status, and mission.
Little shit.
And, yeah, I too had donned a tuxedo. It’d taken me less than an hour after arriving in Macau to get to the safe house. My contact, Jason Zhao, had ensured my entry into the country was as smooth as it was covert. Our journey to the safe house had been uneventful. Half an hour later, I was changed into a tuxedo with my gun discreetly hidden in i
ts holster, ready to find Xavier.
The pianist in the corner was playing Gabriel Fauré’s Pavane and it was easy to discern that the piece was being performed slower than the composer intended. Or maybe it was the effect of the tension that filled this luxurious place.
“What do you want to drink?” Xavier gestured to get the barman’s attention.
I gave him a thin smile.
He arched a brow and said, “Somehow I don’t think it would affect your aim.”
“You don’t strike me as someone who’d set a trap for one of their own,” I said. “Yet here we are.”
“Those men aren’t with me.”
The barman topped up his drink with top shelf bourbon.
I scanned the room to make sure the operatives weren’t moving in yet, or getting ready to—the ones I could see, anyway. The hairs prickled on my nape thinking of the ones I couldn’t.
“What’s the plan?” he asked.
“Classified,” I said softly.
Xavier turned to face me. “Before you do the deed at least let me talk.”
“A waste of time I don’t have. We have all the evidence we need.”
“Are you here to…?”
“By any means possible.”
He tipped back his drink and finished it in one gulp. “May I suggest a head shot?”
“I have to present you to your family when we get back. I’m thinking they might want to have a peek at your pretty boy face before they bury you six feet under.”
“That’s very thoughtful of you.”
“I like to think so. Why, Xavier?”
He gave a smirk, which was oddly sexy.
He was devilishly good-looking in a European way. Tall, fit, and his hands looked like they could play an instrument. His long fingers were sensually tapping his tumbler. Whoever had plucked him out of the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst to train him should have realized he would stand out like a fucking Abercrombie and Fitch supermodel. I imagined all eyes had been drawn to him the moment he’d stepped into the room.
He dragged his teeth over his bottom lip. The look he gave me messed with my concentration—something in that moment had passed between us and it was hard to define.
Xavier held my gaze for a beat too long and this time I had trouble dragging mine away. He had an extraordinary presence and his intelligent eyes were hypnotic. His stare slid to my mouth and a foreign sensation made my dick twitch.
It had to be the adrenaline rushing through my veins. I sensed he was about to bolt. The end for him was imminent. That’s what this was, me drawing on my dark side so I could implement this order flawlessly.
He smiled at me. “This is not what you think.”
“That bank transfer says otherwise.”
He looked surprised, as though he’d not expected us to have caught his illegal wire transfer.
“You’ll never get to use it,” I added.
“That money has nothing to do with me.”
“Other than the fact it landed in your bank account.”
He looked offended. “You don’t know me at all.”
“You stayed in your cabin for the entire trip here.”
“Those were my orders.”
“Right.”
He raised his empty glass to the barman. “I wish I’d gotten to know you back on the…”
Xavier was careful enough not to say “submarine” in front of the bartender.
He glanced at me with a grin. “Rumor is you’re some kind of hero.”
“Don’t believe everything you hear.”
“You do realize the irony?”
“Head for the lift.”
“I have another drink coming.”
“Would you like to wear it?”
Xavier slid off the barstool and strolled ahead of me to the lift. He punched the button and when the doors opened we stepped in.
He leaned back against the wall. “Aren’t you intrigued by what I know about you?”
“No.”
He pulled out his phone and began punching the screen.
“Put it away.”
“I’m cutting the cameras and audio so we can talk.”
“With your phone?”
“No, with my dick.”
“Is this the elevator pitch where you try endearing yourself to me?”
“Now we can talk.” He tucked his phone away. “What’s an Earl doing out in the field?”
“Earldom things.”
“You have no interest in leveling with me, then?”
My back straightened. “You haven’t earned my trust.”
“This is a suicide mission and I’d like to know why you accepted it.” He hesitated and then said quietly, “Victoria’s death was why you left the Navy?”
I assumed the crew aboard the sub had been gossiping. It made the hairs on my nape prickle.
“Something like that changes a man,” he added.
“Don’t even go there.”
“You joined MI6 so you could find her killer?”
My chest tightened. No one knew that…
“James, I have the skill to find the man who made you a widower.”
“You’re a loose cannon.”
“You keep everyone at arm’s length.”
“Now you’re boring me.”
He shrugged. “Looks like we both know too much.”
“Or not enough,” I muttered.
“That’s my point.” He folded his arms. “So, this is the great James Ballad in action.”
“You might not like my endgame,” I said as the lift reached the ground floor.
He bit his lip and he even made that look erotic. I imagined he’d pleasured women to within an inch of their lives with that smart mouth. The trust I saw in his eyes when he looked at me made me want to know more about him. He didn’t seem the type who’d betray his country.
The doors to the lift slid open. Foreign operatives in the bar hadn’t prevented us from leaving, which made me suspect there were more men here on the ground floor. Getting the location of our safe house and the name of our operative here in China would be a coup for them. Chances are they also didn’t want to be captured on the security cameras, which meant once we slipped outside the hotel the danger would be elevated.
We stepped out of the lift and the way ahead appeared clear. We strolled through the luxurious lobby where high-paying guests hustled about, dragging along their over-priced luggage.
“Don’t try anything,” I snapped at Xavier.
He gave me a wicked grin, which did nothing to reassure me.
“Going back to the U.K. is not an option,” he admitted. “Not until I’ve cleared my name.”
“That’s the risk you take when you dabble in espionage.”
He gave me an incredulous look. “You’ve got it all wrong.”
“Then you can enlighten me on the way.”
“I’m not going back to the sub.”
“Let’s agree to disagree.”
The oppressive humidity hit us as we strolled out into the night. The rumble of city life reminded me of Hong Kong. Macau was a thriving metropolis and with its casinos and malls on the Cotai Strip, it easily earned its reputation as the Las Vegas of Asia.
I led him toward the waiting Jeep, and was pleasantly surprised when Xavier willingly climbed in the front passenger side. I got behind the wheel.
Xavier turned to face me. “You don’t strike me as the kind of man who follows orders blindly.”
“I’m full of surprises.”
He shook his head. “What I don’t understand is why they sent you. You’re a national hero, James.”
That was a personal dig at my relationship with the royal family. I’d done some personal work for the Monarchy, and he seemed to be alluding to it. Now that secret was going to my grave.
“I’m just trying to get it through to you that I’m innocent.”
“Are you this annoying at parties?”
He ignored that comment. “Turns
out my skill is a liability to those in power back home.”
“And what skill is that?”
“A classified one.”
That made me smile.
“I have secrets, too,” he said, smiling. “The kind that could blow up a career. Someone in London has been very naughty. He knows that I know he’s a double agent. That’s the reason you’ve been sent to deal with me. He wants me to go away. He wants me silenced.”
“You need to tell me that person’s identity.” I said. “Right now.”
If it was even true.
“I’m not putting anyone else in danger.”
My hand reached into my jacket. This used to be a lot easier.
He stared at me. “You’re doing their dirty work.”
“Depends on your point of view.”
“They knew what time I was arriving. Just as they knew they’d be sending you after me.”
“Not convinced.”
“Five hours ago, you received a message by way of VLF radio via the Coms Tech. That message was an order to kill me.”
How the hell did he know that?
“Someone wants us both dead, James.” He used my first name like we were friends.
I pulled my hand out of my jacket and placed it back on the wheel. “Are you referring to the MSS?”
“British side. Have you not been listening, Commander?”
I glared at him. The bastard was paranoid.
“You know we’re being followed, right?”
I’d already seen the Range Rover following us in the rearview. “Give me specifics, Xavier.”
“Someone at MI6.”
“Who?”
“I need more time…”
“Keep talking.”
He huffed his frustration. “I reached the rendezvous in Macau and there was no one there to meet me.”
“Where have you been for forty-eight hours?”
“Got a hotel room. Used my tech skills to order food and clothes.”
“Like that tux?”
“Why not?” He let out a sigh. “Couldn’t risk trusting the safe house.”
“What made you nervous?”
“You mean what had me running for cover?” He reached up and grabbed the handle bar. “I hacked into MI6. They know.”
“You work for MI6. What would motivate you to hack into their system?”
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