“Let me go.”
“You just tried to kill me.”
“I wasn’t going to kill you.” She kicked out at me, but I had her hips locked between my knees and she couldn’t even reach me. She grunted in frustration and glared up at me with those sexy eyes. “I just want the file. It’s not even important to you, goddammit.”
I struggled to hold her arms still. She was stronger than she looked. “It could be.”
She slowed her fighting and stared up at me. Then her eyes flew wide. “I knew it! You’re not Spanish. You’re Italian. You’re from House Salvatici. You bloody fucking lying son of a bi—”
“Calm down.” I squeezed her hips with my knees until she gasped and quieted, then quickly released the pressure. “If you’ll shut the hell up for two damn seconds, I’ll answer you. Yes, I’m from House Salvatici, but I’m on your side.”
“No one from House Salvatici is on our side.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. There’s an entire resistance movement building in Italy. Spurred on by what’s happening here in the UK. Some of us want change as much as you.”
Her eyes grew skeptical. “How do I know you’re telling me the truth?”
“Because I’m going to show you what was on that file.”
“It’s a list of members working for the cause.”
“That’s what I was told. I assumed you were on it. My House sent me to warn you to back off what you and your group are doing or you’d pay the price.”
Her eyes flew wide again. “So you are on House Salvatici’s side.”
“They sent me to warn you.” I tightened my hold on her, pinning her down again when she flailed. “But the resistance movement I’m secretly aligned with sent me to intercept that file. They want to see who’s on that list as much as your people do.”
“So you’re working both sides?”
“Depends on who’s asking. I’m doing what I need to do to stay alive and instill change. Same as you.”
Her jaw clenched down hard. She didn’t like that answer. Or maybe she just didn’t believe it. I wasn’t sure. “Where is it?”
“Safe.”
“You said you’d show it to me.”
“I will. As soon as I’m sure you’re not going to try to murder me again.”
“I no longer have the knife.”
“Something tells me you’re a threat with or without a blade.”
A smug expression slid over her face. One that made me hot all over again. One that made me hard.
I quickly released her so she couldn’t tell. Being turned on by her when we were flirting was one thing, but I wasn’t like the other men in my House. I didn’t get any kind of pleasure from hurting women.
She sat up quickly and brushed the hair back from her face as I crossed and grabbed her dagger from the floor. Moving to the closet, I jerked the door open, threw her dagger into the open safe, and closed and locked the metal door.
When I turned, she was already on her feet, her arms crossed over her chest, her head cocked to one side, her eyes narrowed. “Really? You were afraid I was going to murder you? You have a handgun tucked into the back of your pants. You could have reached for it at any time.”
“I didn’t want to scare you.”
She rolled her eyes, and the action was so cute, I had an uncontrollable urge to grab her, to drag her against me, and kiss that exasperated look from her pretty face.
“Fine. Whatever.” She dropped her arms with a huff. “Where’s the damn file? I just looked in the bathroom when you were confiscating my weapon, and it’s not there, liar.”
I chuckled. Damn, but I liked this woman. I liked her a lot. She had spirit and fire inside her, and she wasn’t afraid to let it show. And now that she’d ditched the wig and color contacts, she was even hotter than she’d been before. The perfect version of my ideal woman.
You’re not looking for a woman...
I cleared my throat and pointed toward my laptop. “I uploaded it.”
“To the cloud? Are you mad?” She rushed for the desk and pushed the laptop screen open.
“Give me a little credit, will you? I’m not stupid.”
She pulled out the desk chair and sat as I typed in my code, fired up the dark net, and accessed my cloud. But when the file was loading on the screen, I hesitated with my fingers over the keypad because I suddenly realized this wasn’t something any woman should see.
Fuck.
“Um...” I fumbled for an excuse, for something I could say that would explain why I was going to shut it down before she watched the whole thing.
“That’s not a text file.”
I glanced down only to realize the file had finished loading while I’d been trying to get my brain to work. “No, it’s not.”
“It’s a video file?” Her confused green eyes glanced up at me. “Of what?”
“A meeting. Between a high-ranking member of the Entente and Interpol.”
Her eyes widened. “Oh shit. Someone turned on the Entente? That’s not good. If the House leaders find out, he’ll be executed.”
No kidding. I leaned back against the desk but still didn’t start the video.
Her eyes grew wary. “What else is on there?”
I didn’t want to tell her but couldn’t hold back. Not now. “I’m pretty sure it’s the evidence that was being handed over to the Interpol agent. It’s graphic.”
Her face paled. “Turn it on.”
“I don’t think you should watch it.”
“I’m a licensed medical doctor. I can handle graphic. Turn it on.”
I scratched the back of my head. “Felicity—”
“Marc,” she tossed back.
I grimaced.
“Oh. I get it. Marc isn’t your real name, is it?”
I hated that hint of disappointment in her voice. I wasn’t sure why, but it gutted me. In a way I didn’t expect. “No, but it’s close.”
“How close?”
“My real name’s Marco.”
“And your last name?”
When I didn’t answer, she nodded, lips tight all over again. “You’re not gonna tell me. Fine. Whatever. Turn on the video.”
“I really don’t think—”
“I don’t care what you think. I’m going to watch this video one way or another, and if I have to steal your gun to do so, I will. I’ve got tricks up my sleeve that don’t include knives, so save us both the trouble of a knock-down, drag-out fight I’m going to win anyway, and just turn the damn thing on.”
I stared at her irritated eyes and that cute little mouth tossing out threats she could never follow through on. But instead of being annoyed or amused, I was impressed. The woman was outgunned and she knew it, but she was still fighting, still putting me in my place, still making me crazy for her in ways that scrambled my brain.
“Fine. Okay.” I pushed away from the desk. “Just know I tried to stop you.”
“Yeah, you’re a big ol’ knight in shining armor, aren’t you?”
As I moved away, she hit the play button. And after only twenty seconds she gasped, “Oh shit.”
Something in my heart went out to her as I stood behind her, watching that awful video all over again. “Now you understand why I have to destroy the damn thing.”
Chapter Four
Felicity
A mixture of disbelief and disgust rolled through me as the screen went dark.
Marc—correction, Marco—leaned past me, closed the window on the dark net, and shut down his laptop.
“I...” My throat was thick, my hands damp against the thighs of my pants. “That girl. Do you think they really...?”
I pursed my lips, unable to even say the words.
“I don’t know.” He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned back against the wall.
He was still in the slacks and dress shirt he’d been wearing earlier, but now there was no jacket, and his shirt sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, showing off muscular forearms cov
ered in dark hair. He’d undone another button at his chest, too, and every time I glanced his way, the glint of skin between the two halves of his shirt was like a blinking beacon, taunting me with the chiseled physique I knew he was hiding under that cloth.
It was ridiculous to be turned on by the man after what I’d just watched, but I was. This wild attraction had absolutely nothing to do with what had been on that tape and everything to do with the way my whole body seemed to come to life whenever he was near. A reaction that unsettled me, because I didn’t experience it around men often. If ever at all.
“It’s possible,” he went on. “God knows there are some deranged men in my House. House Salvatici has a reputation for being particularly debauched.”
And savage, I thought. Since that was what the name translated to.
“I didn’t recognize anyone from my House on the recording,” he said. “And that kind of ritual is not sanctioned by any means. But you know how the Entente works. The parties and gatherings aren’t just for fun. They’re blackmail events, so the Entente can lure in business, military, and political leaders outside the Entente who will do their bidding so they can go on controlling from the shadows. Most of those sickos who get lured in are satisfied with the orgies. But if this guy had a snuff fetish...”
My stomach pitched as his words hung in the air. “Then it was a ghastly form of Choose Your Own Adventure.”
“Yeah.”
“That was the guy from tonight. The French guy, wasn’t it?”
“I think so.”
He studied me carefully from several feet away. Close but not close enough. And I wasn’t sure how I felt about that at the moment. I also wasn’t sure how I felt about the concern brewing in his eyes. Concern for me—a woman he barely even knew. I was still reeling from what I’d seen and the fact my father had turned on the Entente to try to right the situation. Something that would get him killed if he were ever caught.
“There is another explanation,” Marco said quietly.
“And what’s that?” I was willing to grasp onto anything that didn’t involve ritualistically killing some poor girl.
“It’s possible it was a set up.”
My gaze lifted to his. “How so?”
“That girl didn’t seem scared to me. The knife was visible in that guy’s hand before he moved around behind her.”
“She could have been drugged. They’ve been known to do that to poor, unsuspecting women.”
“True. But now that I’ve watched it again, it struck me that she wasn’t scared when he first flashed the knife. If it was all staged, that would explain her reaction.”
“Why set something that elaborate up?”
“To frame your father. Everyone knows the resistance movement is strongest in House Merrick. My House leaders blame the spread of that resistance on your father for not squashing the uprising when he could have. If someone wants him gone, I could see them filtering a tape like this his way and waiting to see what he does with it.”
That made sense but... “If that’s the case, then what’s the purpose of this recording? Showing him handing it over? If they already have evidence he betrayed the Entente to Interpol, the Entente would just go after him. But they haven’t. I spoke to him tonight after I left that party. He was fine.”
“Yeah, I thought about that. I’m not so sure he was the target tonight.”
My eyes narrowed. “What do you mean?”
He shifted his back against the wall. “How much do you know about the Entente?”
“Um, everything. My father’s the head of House Merrick.”
“Women aren’t supposed to know everything. It’s forbidden.”
“My father doesn’t agree.”
“And that’s why he’s not the sole target.”
I had no idea what he was getting at.
“Your father’s been debating changing the order of succession in House Merrick. He wants to hand it over to you. The other Houses are fighting him on it.”
My brow lowered. “I knew he was thinking about it, but I thought it was just a precautionary measure. In case something happens to my younger brother Jasper. He’s only sixteen, and he has a history of health problems.”
“That’s your father’s excuse. The truth is, he knows the stronger choice to head your House eventually is you. The other House leaders know it as well.” He pointed at the computer. “If you were to be caught by any other Entente House with that recording in your possession, how would it look?”
The blood drained from my face. “It would look as if I was trying to cover up my father’s crime.”
“Right. And the question of whether or not that murder was even real would be moot.”
Shit. He was right. I looked up at him. “You think someone was trying to set me up?”
“To get you and your father? It’s looking like it. I got in the way.”
Bloody hell, he had.
“And the French guy? Basile?”
“Little prick? The one you slept with?”
I frowned up at him. “I did not sleep with him.”
“Then how do you know he had a small dick?”
“Because before you got there he was pawing at me. I couldn’t exactly knee him in the balls because I didn’t want to make him suspicious. I was waiting for the roofie to work so I could search him for the file. He rubbed up against me a couple of times.” Revulsion rolled through me at the memory, but it quickly morphed to rage. “In retrospect I should have cut his balls off.”
He chuckled. “Remind me never to piss you off that bad.”
I tipped my head trying to gauge his mood. Was that relief I heard in his voice?
“And he’s a pawn,” he said, his voice sobering. “The fact he was the one transporting that file makes me believe it really was a staged ritual and not an actual murder.”
“How so?”
He pinned me with a look. “You got up close and personal with him. Did he strike you as someone who could commit murder?”
No, he hadn’t. He’d struck me as a horny little Frenchman and that was about it. In fact, I could have easily subdued him even without the drugs.
“There’s still something I don’t understand, though.”
“What?”
“If that was their plan, to set my father up to betray the Entente, to frame me and make it look like I was trying to destroy evidence so no one would find out, then why hasn’t anyone come after me?”
“Maybe they weren’t planning to until you got home tonight. What did you do after I left you?”
I bit my lip, thinking back. “I checked the Frenchman for the file again. Then I checked his coat. When I couldn’t find it, I went back upstairs and checked all the places where I’d seen him loitering earlier in the evening, in case he’d stashed it somewhere. That’s when I realized you must have taken it.”
“And how did you find me?”
“I called around to the most expensive hotels in the city and made a list of the ones that offered eighteen-year Laphroaig on their after-dinner menus and I ticked them off alphabetically.”
“And they just gave you my room?”
“Well.” I shrugged. “I had your description. And I can be very persuasive to the right people.”
He smirked. “House Merrick either has inside people at all the best hotels, or you are one incredible seductress.”
My lips curled. “I am a woman of many talents, what can I say?”
He chuckled, and the sound sent a thrill through me because I knew I’d just impressed him.
“That still doesn’t answer my question about why no one has come after me.”
“Maybe they’re waiting for you at your house right this minute. Or...”
“Or what?”
His eyes narrowed. “Or maybe they just haven’t caught up with you yet.”
Yet. My heart skipped a beat. They could have followed me here.
I pushed out of the chair. “I should leave.”
&n
bsp; He shoved away from the wall and dropped his arms to his sides. “Where you go, I go.”
“Why? You’re not involved in this.”
“My House is involved. And I don’t like that involvement one bit. Until I know what’s really going on, we’re partners.”
A wicked thrill whipped through me with that word—partners. And my heart sped up, bruising a rapid rhythm against my ribs. I could think of a dozen different ways I’d like to partner up with this man. And every single one had the potential to ruin me for life.
“I...I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” I managed.
A knock sounded at the door. We both jerked toward the sound and froze.
The knock echoed again.
Lifting his forefinger to his lips to signal me to be quiet, Marco said, “Who is it?”
“Room Service,” a male voice answered. “I have your order.”
“Did you order room service?” I whispered.
Marco shook his head and reached back for the weapon at his back. Pushing me behind him, he yelled, “Hold on one minute. I’m not decent.”
He turned and shoved me into the bedroom, then headed for the door. I waited with bated breath until he returned to me several seconds later.
“Well?”
“No way that’s room service out there.”
“Shit. Is he alone?”
“Nope.” He tucked the weapon into his back waistband again and quietly opened the balcony doors. “How good are you at climbing?”
My eyes flew wide. “You want to climb down?”
“Not all the way. Just one level. The railing’s iron. Lots of places to hold on. All you have to do is drop down to the next balcony.”
“It’s at least a fifteen-foot drop.”
“I’ll go first and catch you.”
My hands were already sweating as he started climbing over the railing. When he was on the other side, he shot me a quick smile, then slowly worked his way down, using the decorative iron bars as hand holds until he was dangling several feet above the balcony below us.
Gripping the railing tightly in my hands, I leaned over as far as I could to watch. If he didn’t angle in, he’d drop straight down to his death. Gripping the bars tightly, he swung his legs back and forth to get his momentum going. And then he let go.