Page 16 of Dangerous Obsession

COLE

Not only had Cole stolen the hard drive with years of Max’s work on it, a prize worth billions, but he’d stolen the man’s yacht as well. It had been easy enough, and he knew how to sail it.

Earlier in the week, he’d asked to take the yacht out with them, to man the helm.

Jade and Max had shown him all the startup procedures.

Nearly everything was simple and computerized.

It didn’t take a lot of brainpower to use the engines, the radar, or to steer the ship to the mainland.

After docking, he’d hired a driver to take him to the cafe.

The heavy weight of the hard drive seemed to slow him, to drag him down with every step. He gritted his teeth and pressed on, finding a seat at the cafe and waiting on the client.

He chose a table near the outside edge of the open-air cafe.

From his seat, he could see anyone approaching him.

The hard drive was next to him on the table, wrapped in paper and stuffed inside a plastic bag.

That was less memorable than a fancy briefcase for the handoff and would attract far less attention.

It was late afternoon by now. He was growing more uneasy by the minute.

The client was already late. That didn’t necessarily mean anything, but it still bothered him.

Rich and powerful men liked to make their underlings wait.

And that was what Cole had turned out to be.

Nothing more than a lackey. A common thief.

After all his planning, the job had come down to a grab and go. Jade panicked and rushed out to Max as he’d known she would. She loved Maxim with all her heart, after all. He had exploited that with expert precision.

After she was gone, he grabbed the hard drive and escaped. He headed away from the terraces, avoiding Max and Jade. When they had headed back for the house, he’d raced down the stairs and cliffs, to Maxim’s pier where his yacht waited.

All so simple.

He waited some more, ignoring the empty hole inside him.

Finally, a man made his way to the open-air cafe—a man who looked like he might be connected to the client. Cole smirked sourly. The man actually stood out like a sore thumb. Shaved head. Sunglasses. Nice suit. Good shoes. Big guy, too. Probably not the client but only some goon.

The guy slowly scanned the patrons sitting at their tables until his gaze locked on Cole. Recognition flashed in his eyes, and he made his way over, walking like a man on a mission.

Cole sipped his tea and ignored him. He didn’t really like tea all that much. Or he was used to American and British tea. He would rather be drinking a beer, but it was way too early for that. He needed his wits about him in any case.

The guy dragged out one of the chairs, unbuttoned his suit jacket, and plopped into the seat. He leaned forward. “You Cole?”

There was a slight Eastern European accent to his voice. He had the look of a killer. Cole had seen this type of guy before.

Cole made a show of smiling at him, even though he would’ve rather kicked the guy through a window. “That’s me.”

The man stared at him, his face like stone and his eyes hidden behind the sunglasses. “You have what we want?”

“I take it you’re here to fetch and carry?”

“You have what we want?” the man repeated coldly.

He pushed the plastic bag across the table. “What about my payment?”

The man took the bag, wrapped it tighter, and slipped it into the pocket inside his suit jacket. He stood to go.

“You aren’t gonna check it?” Cole growled.

The man looked at him as if he were a bothersome fly. “If you’re wrong or lying, you know what we’ll do.”

With that, he turned and walked away. Cole watched him move to the side of the street where a dark luxury sedan with tinted windows swung out of traffic and picked him up.

The car slipped away again into the chaotic traffic of Athens.

Cole sat there alone. What the hell was he going to do now?

That was the huge question, wasn’t it? Because he’d just torched his entire life.

He’d refunded the initial payment, hoping they would believe him.

After their threats, he’d finally given them what they wanted, but he had no faith they would pay him anything else.

Why would they? They had what they wanted.

They had all the leverage. And he sure as hell couldn’t go to the Hellenic Police and report a crime.

So what now?

Except, he knew, didn’t he?

He had to be a man and deal with the fallout of his betrayal. He’d stolen Maxim’s yacht. The least he could do was return it to the man. He couldn’t give back the hard drive, of course, but at least he could do this one last little thing.

Or maybe not the last. He needed to send Jade a message, warning her about the client so she would be on her guard. And maybe Max would stop worrying about distractions and his damn mediation bullshit and hire an entire army of security.

He would send Jade a text to her phone with the warning. If the gods were good, Maxim and Jade would be gone, and Cole wouldn’t have to face them. Maybe they would head down to the village, trying to find him. Jade would probably shoot him if she ever saw him again. He wouldn’t blame her.

He snorted, disgusted with himself. It was highly unlikely they would head to the village or the health spa.

Neither of them were fools. Jade would instantly know what he’d been up to.

The authorities would be on the lookout for him by now.

He’d stolen their damn yacht. They sure as hell would notice that.

There were no police on the island, but maybe they’d be waiting for him at the pier.

If so, he wouldn’t try to escape. He would salvage the last of his battered dignity, and he would face the music like a man.

He stood, dusted himself off, and moved to the busy street. He hailed a driver to take him back to the slip where the yacht was temporarily moored.

The sun was beginning to set when he guided the yacht to the pier on Patroklos, reversed the engines, and drifted into the protected slip.

He’d managed to moor the damn thing twice without sinking it.

Even though he’d served in the Army Special Forces, maybe he would’ve made a halfway decent sailor too.

The journey here had been long and grueling. He felt the weight of what he’d done crushing down on him the entire time.

He couldn’t even grieve over what he’d lost. The wound was self-inflicted. What right did he have to grieve? He had done this. All his regrets and his sorrow for the pain he’d caused Max and Jade added up to nothing in the end. He would never seek redemption. It was beyond him.

He didn’t deserve it.

He walked from the yacht’s bridge to the deck. From here, he could see Maxim’s villa at the top of the cliff. The colors of the sunset painted the white villa and terraces in shades of red, orange, and purple.

No lights were on. The house looked dark and abandoned. The sight of it hurt his heart, a stab of pain going deep. He had to look away quickly.

Cole extended the gangplank and crossed it to the pier. Then he walked down the long pier toward the beach.

He had enough cash on him to leave the country if he wasn’t apprehended outright.

He would head deeper into Europe. After that, maybe he’d make his way back to the States.

He was done with this life anyway. This last job had broken him.

Hell, right now, he didn’t care if he lived on the streets, but he was finished doing someone else’s dirty work.

Never again.

He left the pier and began to walk along the beach toward the village. He could catch a ride back to the mainland from there. Again, if the police weren’t waiting for him. He discovered that he didn’t really care either way.

“Lost, are you?” Jade said, her voice fierce, cold, and loud, carrying even over the wind coming off the sea.

He whirled around. His heart was lodged somewhere in his throat. So much for escaping clean.

Jade and Maxim were standing in the shadows beneath the winding stairs that led up the cliffside. Both of them moved forward so he could see them better.

She didn’t have a gun pointed at him. That was surprising. In his opinion, she would’ve been within her rights to shoot him.

He didn’t know what to say now that he was face to face with them again.

He had a thousand things to tell them and more, but his mind wouldn’t form words.

His lips wouldn’t speak them. If he thought that getting on his knees and begging for forgiveness would work, he would’ve done it in a heartbeat.

But he knew that with some things, there was simply no coming back. Some betrayals cut too deep. This was one of those times.

Maxim was staring at him with those fierce, dark eyes, his jaw set. Everything in his posture spoke of barely restrained fury. He looked like he wanted to run over and punch the hell out of Cole.

And again, in Cole’s opinion, the man would’ve been within his rights to beat the shit out of him.

Instead of attacking, Maxim only narrowed his eyes and demanded, “Why are you back?”

Finally, Cole managed to find his voice. He didn’t drop his gaze as he stared back at the two of them.

“I borrowed your boat. Thought you might want it back.”

“You bastard…” Jade said. But there was no fury in her words. Only sorrow.

Hearing that sadness almost unmanned him. Seeing that sorrow in her pretty eyes. Knowing he’d been the bastard who’d caused it.

He’d been the one to betray their love.

“You took the hard drive,” Maxim said coldly. His expression was hard to read now, and Cole had gotten good at reading him over the last week. The man was angry, but there was something else…

“Yeah, I took it. I tricked Jade. Made her think you were dying so she’d run off and leave it out. Then I stole it. And I stole your yacht.”

Maxim was still looking at him with that unsettling intensity. “You brought the yacht back.”