by Sofia Grey
Juli leaned against his chest. It anchored him.
“Anyway. There was a major fuck up at the Embassy. I’d supposedly given them access to the comms room, then stood guard for them. One of the night staff came down unexpectedly—a young woman I knew—and Caroline opened fire on her. The alarms all went off, the police stormed in, and it turned ugly, with Caroline holding the injured woman hostage.”
Juli removed her hands from his jeans and lifted them to cup his face. “Tell me, Jack. Don’t make me imagine what happened.”
“Caroline decided to go down in a blaze of glory. I tried to pull the hostage free in the confusion, but a shot I fired caught Caroline in the side of the neck. It hit her carotid artery. She had no chance.”
Juli pulled his head down, resting her forehead on hers, one hand now around the back of his neck. “Why didn’t you tell me?”
“It’s not something I like to talk about.”
“Shh.” She held him close. “Lies within lies. Neither of you were as you seemed.”
“I don’t know what Yanni told you, but that’s the God’s honest truth.”
She stilled. “Since you’re being honest with me, I have to do the same. There’s something I need to tell you.”
Whatever it was, it wouldn’t be as ugly as what he just told her. It couldn’t. Jack pressed a hot kiss onto her forehead.
“It was my idea, not Maria’s.” Her voice was low and slightly muffled against his chest.
“Your idea?” Maybe he misheard her.
“To release Yanni. Maria was supposed to help. That’s all.”
Sometimes Jack astounded himself with his self-control. “You were going to go with him?”
The pause that followed lasted an ice age. Please don’t say yes. Please don’t.
“Yes.”
Fuck. Fuck. Jesus Christ, this wasn’t happening. His hands curled into fists, he took an uncertain step backward. Drew a ragged gasp into his compressed lungs. Speech deserted him. He groped for something to say, and fell back on the classic one-worder. “Why?” He took another step back. There was a clear space between them now, cold and brutal.
Juli wrapped her arms around herself. Her gaze searched his face.
“Well? Why the fuck would you go with him? Why, Juli?”
“Because you’re wrong. Because it was wrong to treat him like you did. Because…” Her voice trailed away.
Jack turned around. He couldn’t look at her any longer. “Because he fed you a story, and you believed him over me.”
“I’m sorry.” Her voice was shaky.
Jack stared at the roof of the nearest car. Adrenaline surged and crashed.
She placed a gentle hand on his shoulder. He shrugged her off.
“I said I was sorry.”
“So am I. Sorry I ever trusted you. I should have known better, after Philip.” Jack flung the name at her. Philip was her then-fiancé, whom she conveniently forgot to tell Jack about when they first hooked up. When he fell in love with her. It was a low blow, but it felt justified.
He looked over his shoulder and saw colour flooding her cheeks.
“Wow. Good to know how you really feel.” She met his gaze. “What happens now?”
He’d never seen her so pissed.
Welcome to my world. He needed to figure out what this meant. Whether he could ever trust her again.
*
Maria stared out of the car window, keeping her hands still and relaxed in her lap. She couldn’t let Yanni realise that she was suddenly way more scared than she’d been last night. The stunning landscape blurred before her. Her brain darted from one thought to another. Hysteria was a heartbeat away.
Could she get her phone? They had to stop, eventually. They’d need a bathroom break, and to get more food. If she could grab her Taser without him knowing, at least she’d have some form of weapon. He’d stashed her gear in the side pocket, next to the driver’s seat. She needed the right opportunity—a window of a couple of minutes. One minute would do.
Her fear was close to the surface. She had to fight, to keep it in check.
She hadn’t been paying attention. They’d left the gravel track and re-joined a road of sorts, though it was narrow and winding.
Composing herself, she turned to him and produced a scowl. She had to maintain this act—the cheeky couldn’t-care-less attitude. If he got one whiff of how terrified she was, he’d pounce. “I’m starving. Are we having breakfast soon?”
He didn’t look at her. “Couple of hours until we stop. If you can’t wait, help yourself to more fruit and crackers.”
“Where are we going now?”
“You’ll see.” His amused tone returned, accompanied by a teasing smile.
Before long, they re-joined civilisation and were driving through pretty villages, bustling with tourists. A wide, fast, dual-carriageway followed. They were following signs toward a port called Holyhead, then over a wide expanse of water, too big to be a river, and back onto country roads through villages with unpronounceable names.
“Here we are.” Yanni pulled onto a car park overlooking a boatyard.
Maria frowned, as she tried to decipher the name. It was spelled in what she thought of as the Welsh style, with lots of letters she wouldn’t expect to see together in one word. Moelfre.
“Mo-ell-free?”
“Mole-vruh.”
She shrugged and gazed at the busy boatyard. “And what are we doing at Mole-vruh?”
“Well, Maria”—he seemed highly amused with himself, the smug bastard—“we’re doing what so many tourists do. We’re going fishing.”
Staying behind in his car while he went to collect the keys or whatever he needed from the office wasn’t an option, but Maria took the opportunity to visit the bathroom. When she emerged, it was to find Yanni waiting for her.
He smiled, his eyes crinkling at the corners in the sunlight, and led her to the boat he’d rented. It bobbed gently on the water, accessible down a narrow ladder from the yard.
Maria stared at it. They were going on that? It was tiny. Was it safe?
“Come on.” He stood on the deck, waiting for her to descend. “I’ll help you.”
Down the ladder she went. He guided her onto the deck and led her to a wide bench seat. The surface wobbled beneath her feet, and she clung to his arm. “I should have mentioned this sooner, but I don’t do boats. I’m not a natural sailor.” She dug her fingers into his sleeve and raised her voice. “I’ll be seasick.”
He grinned. “Did you never go sailing as a child?”
“Only once. I was sick all over my shoes.”
He started the engine, and the craft shimmied, the vibration running through her body.
She closed both hands around the bench and gripped for dear life. Death by drowning wasn’t how she saw her future playing out.
He rummaged underneath the seat and pulled out a bright-yellow lifejacket. “Slip this over your head. You can swim, I suppose?”
She nodded. All her manufactured bravery had vanished, her cockiness gone in an instant. She felt vulnerable, and very alone.
“Okay.” His voice was steady. Reassuring. “We’ve got a cabin, in case the weather turns bad, although the forecast is excellent, so we should be fine. There’s a stove and a fridge, and I ordered groceries. We won’t starve.” He faced her, his expression serious. “It’s just you and me out here. Think you’ll be okay?”
She inhaled rapidly, let out her breath noisily and nodded, feeling her equilibrium returning. “What are you fishing for?”
He chuckled. “I’m not. It’s a way of passing time out of sight and catching up on sleep. There are a couple of beds in the cabin, I suggest you have a rest too. We’ll get out of the harbour first, though.”
The boat lurched, and then moved, and Maria resumed her death-grip on the bench.
As they went further out into the sea, the bobbing became more pronounced and she couldn’t hide her panic. Her lungs felt too tight.
The land was receding further with every second that passed. How far was he going? The life jacket smelled musty, but she was glad of it. She could swim like a fish, but normally any swimming was done in a pool, in clean, chlorinated water, with the floor an even surface beneath her feet. If she went overboard, it was miles to the land. There might be sharks or poisonous jellyfish. Did they have those here?
The engine cut out, and she spun around to look at Yanni. Why did they stop? Did they break down?
He stretched. He didn’t look stressed. “Come and check out the cabin, or you can get something to eat if you’re still hungry. I’m going to crash for a few hours.”
She found her voice. “But what about the boat? Who’s going to drive it while you’re asleep?”
“It doesn’t need a driver. I’ve dropped anchor; we’ll be fine here for a few hours.” He appeared to be fighting a smile. “You really are freaked out, aren’t you?”
“No,” she said in a tiny voice.
“Okay. Come with me. I’ll show you the galley and the bunkroom.”
She risked standing. The boat swayed, but she could walk, albeit slowly. The galley was tiny, and little more than a gas stove and a fridge containing milk, bacon, eggs, and sliced bread. Also, a bag of fresh-ground coffee.
“This is the bunkroom.” Yanni opened a door, and Maria peered into the small space beyond. There were two narrow beds, one on either side of the room. Yanni sat on one, and kicked off his boots. “Like I said, it might be an idea for you to sleep. Trust me, we’re safe here.”
Sleep or food? They both held appeal. And so did the third option—taking a covert look through his stuff.
Maria made a show of removing her sneakers and getting comfortable on the bunk opposite his, yawning noisily and settling down, as though planning to sleep.
Trust me.
Easy for him to say, when he held all the cards. It was time to even up the game.
Chapter Fifteen
What the hell possessed Juli to tell him? She wanted to grab the words and stuff them back inside her head, to hold onto them. In a day of things going badly, there could be nothing worse than this.
Words held power. The power to detonate a giant grenade under her relationship with Jack. Maria had tried to prevent this very thing from happening. She tried to protect Jack from the truth, to keep their marriage intact, but Juli just blew it apart. Why?
She watched Jack stomp away, his head bowed, and she kicked herself some more. Idiot. She was such an imbecile. There was no reason to say anything. None at all. Instead, she wanted to share something after Jack told her his heart-breaking tale.
Look what she’d done. Tears pricked at her eyes, but she dashed them away. Crying wouldn’t help. She had to fix this. But how?
She stood by the car for an age, paralysed with indecision. Eventually, she looked up to see Aiden limping towards her.
“We need to get moving,” he said. “Are you ready to go?”
She stared at his cool, grey eyes. She could read no sense of emotion. “Where’s Jack?” she asked. It came out as a whisper.
“He’s coming.”
There he was, flanked as usual by the faithful Tanner. The first time Juli saw Jack, he was with Tanner. Now they both looked furious, with Tanner shooting her poisonous looks as they approached the car.
“We need to go and sort out a hire car for them.” Aiden took control, sliding into the back next to Juli, with Jack taking the seat as far as possible away from her in the front.
“Jack.” She leaned forward, close enough to touch his shoulder.
He swivelled around and stared at her, his face shocked and pale, his blue eyes almost black with fury. “Don’t.” He growled the word. “Just don’t.”
“Fasten your seatbelts,” Tanner snapped. “We’re wasting time.”
She sat in silence the rest of the journey, some twenty minutes or so. She practised little speeches in her head, to decide the right—the best—words to use when she had the opportunity.
Finally, they reached a car-hire agency. Jack practically leapt out of the car, in his haste to get away from her, but she followed anyway. Tanner fixed her with a cold stare, but she grabbed Jack’s sleeve and wouldn’t let go.
“I’m going to talk to you, you stubborn pig-headed mule,” she said, “whether you like it or not.”
His stride didn’t falter, and he didn’t speak.
She hastened to keep up with him. “Either you speak to me in private, or I talk in front of Tanner and everyone in this little office. Which is it to be?”
Jack’s expression was bleak when he looked at her. A muscle flicked in his cheek, his lips a thin line. Without speaking, he moved past the entrance to a few yards away, to stand beneath a large tree on the edge of the car park.
“Well?” He managed to make it sound sarcastic.
Juli swallowed and fell back on her rehearsed speech. “What you were doing at Charlie’s was wrong, Jack. And when I asked you about it, you refused to listen to me. So, let’s turn it around. If I was doing something you knew was wrong, if I wouldn’t listen to reasonable discussion and reconsider my opinion, would you take matters into your own hands?”
His powerful arms crossed over his chest. He delivered such an arctic stare that she shivered. “You mean exactly like you are doing?” he asked.
“You wouldn’t give him the benefit of the doubt. Nothing mattered to you, except getting the chance to threaten your enemy.”
Before she could react, his arms uncurled and his hands gripped her shoulders. He bent his head. They were almost nose to nose. “You don’t know him like I do, Juli.”
She felt the heat from his fingers, pressing through her fleece. His body was always so warm. Her mind wandered for a fraction of a second.
Jack dug in his pocket and produced the tracking pin. “Take this and keep it on you at all times. Just in case.” When she opened her mouth to object, he placed a warning finger on her lips. His mouth opened and closed a couple of times. It looked as though he was struggling to find the right words. “I’ve never loved any woman like you, Juli, and I never will again. I know that by telling you this I’m giving you the power to destroy me. Right now, I feel as though you’ve kicked me in the balls. I can’t understand what you think you’re doing, and it’s ripping us apart. But after all that, I still love you, even if you’re no longer with me.”
She tried again to interrupt, but he raised his voice and spoke over her. “You need to make the choice. I’m not gonna sit on the sidelines while you cosy up to Yanni. I want him in custody and you by my side. You’re my wife. And I take that seriously.”
His possessiveness should have infuriated her, but it wrapped around her like a comforting blanket. He pressed his lips hard against hers, his tongue forcing entrance to her mouth in a punishing kiss.
A stark reminder of what she stood to lose.
*
Nathan watched as Charlie sauntered up the path, hands in his pockets, a scowl on his face. “Hey, babe,” he said to Daisy. “I wondered if you’d be here.”
She went red in the face, the colour spreading down her throat, before she smiled. It looked a little forced. “Charlie. You’re up early.”
“So are you.” His voice rasped as though he’d been smoking cigars. Or dope? He was a rock star. They all used drugs. “C’mere.” He tugged her into his arms.
Nathan didn’t mean to watch, but it was hard to miss the possession in Charlie’s stance or the way his hands roamed over Daisy’s curves. When they locked lips, Nathan managed to drag his attention back to his horse. He unfasted the halter and shoved it back in his pocket. Not looking at Charlie. Nu huh. Nope.
“How’s Irina this morning?” Charlie’s question was innocent, but Nathan read the subtext in his smug
grin. Back off, Miller. She’s mine.
It took everything Nathan had to reply politely. “I’ve not seen her yet.” He managed a smile, unable to avoid looking at Daisy. “Should we go take a look? Either of you like a coffee?”
Daisy seemed nervous. She fiddled with the ends of her hair, and jumped when her fiancé appeared to shove his hand down the back of her jeans. “I don’t mind. It’s your call.” She spoke to Charlie, and his smile broadened.
“Sure. Let’s have a quick coffee.” He leaned down and nuzzled her earlobe. “I love waking up next to you, babe. It’s no fun in bed on my own.”
As if Nathan needed the reminder of what he could never have. He set off, up the track and back to the house, keeping deliberately ahead of Daisy and Charlie.
Irina was in the kitchen, and leapt up to pour coffee. She seemed delighted to see Charlie again.
Telling himself to stay cool, Nathan handed out mugs of the fresh drink. He’d be polite to Charlie if it killed him. “I hear you’re off to New York soon.”
“Yeah. We’re probably leaving next week.”
Daisy turned to him, eyes wide with surprise. “I thought you said the end of June, not next week.”
Charlie shrugged. “I need to be there for the advance publicity. Why would you want to stay behind?” He draped one arm around her shoulders. “I was kinda hoping you’d sort out an apartment for us. Much more privacy than a hotel.”
Nope. Nathan couldn’t stand here a minute longer.
Leaving his coffee, he shoved his hands in his pockets. “I’d better get started,” he said. “I have my first lesson in an hour.”
“I’ll come back later with Andrei, and see if he can coax anything more out of Irina.” Daisy sounded eager, but Charlie looked surprised.