Page 18 of Dangerous Obsession

JADE

The simple word yes was exactly what she needed to hear from him. It was a start. It didn’t make up for the harm he’d caused, the lies he’d told, and the trust he’d shattered. But at least it was a start.

The urge to get her pistol, get Max on the yacht, and get the hell out of here was stronger than ever after learning what Cole had done. But this was important. This moment would never return, so she couldn’t turn her back on it.

When they’d spotted the yacht sailing in, both of them had known what it meant. They had raced down to the beach and waited.

She’d wanted a confrontation. She’d wanted a fight.

Maxim had only wanted the truth.

But Cole didn’t try to defend himself. In fact, he’d done everything he could to make himself look as bad as possible.

Now she agreed with Maxim. She wanted the truth too.

The tormented look in Cole’s eyes was almost too much to bear. Part of her wanted to reach out to him. To touch him again. To fix things and make them the way they had been.

But she wasn’t going to be fooled again. Not until he came clean. Not until he showed that he’d changed like they had changed.

“You could’ve left Max to die in that shipwreck,” she said slowly. “I wouldn’t have known until it was too late. But you didn’t.”

He looked at her, his handsome face a mask as if he were trying to hide his emotions from them both. “I didn’t.”

“Why? It would’ve made things easier for you.”

Cole didn’t answer at first. Then, quietly, he said, “Because I couldn’t. I’m not that type of person. And I cared about him.”

She accepted that. It had to be true. Cole had betrayed them, but she would stake everything on the fact that he’d felt something for them too.

Either that, or he was a master con man to fake everything in the bedroom, fake the look in his eyes, and fake the warmth of his smile.

Maybe. But like she’d said, he didn’t need to save Max… and yet he had.

Cole must’ve seen the conflict in her eyes because his expression hardened and his fists clenched.

“I don’t have cancer.”

She raised an eyebrow at him. “We guessed that much already.”

He ran a hand over his short golden hair. It had been growing out since he’d first shown up in that silly wig. His bristly hair rasped against his palm. “What kind of scumbag pretends to have cancer?”

This time, Maxim answered. “The rare kind of scumbag who helps two people who loved each other but lost each other discover that love again. That’s who.”

Cole shut his mouth with a snap, seeming surprised at Max’s reply.

“You said you loved me,” Jade said. “Do you believe we felt the same way about you?”

Cole looked away. She could see the agony in every line of his body. “You might’ve felt that way once. Not anymore.”

“You don’t get to tell me what to think, what to feel,” she said. “Not even Max gets to do that. I’ll speak for myself.”

Cole was silent. She could see he’d been rocked to his core by this.

“I don’t deserve it,” he finally replied. “I wouldn’t deserve you. Either of you.”

“That’s not what love is about,” Max said.

Cole closed his eyes for a moment as if trying to get himself under control. Then he opened them and met Jade’s stare. His gaze was raw. Agonized. “I’m so sorry I hurt you. I believed I had no choice. But that shouldn’t let me off the hook. I need to pay.”

“Stop being so damned ready to kick your own ass,” she snapped.

“I forgive you. Do you understand me? You hurt me, yes. You made bad choices. But so did I. I hurt Maxim with a bad choice. I hurt myself with the wrong choice. You helped me to realize that. I’m going to turn around and help you with this bad choice because I owe you. ”

Max put his arm around her again. “I’d take that offer, Cole. You have my forgiveness too. I love you, man. I can forgive the hard drive and the yacht and the lies. But it’s harder for me to forgive you for hurting Jade. But she forgives you, so I will as well.”

Cole didn’t seem to know what to say. He simply looked at Maxim, emotions shining in his eyes. “I love you, Max. I’m a fool to ever have endangered that.”

Maxim nodded, seeming at peace with that. “We’re leaving the island. Tonight. Now . You’re welcome to come with us, but we won’t force you to do anything.”

Cole gaped at them, stunned to his core. “You would take me along? After what I’ve done?”

“I believe in second chances,” Maxim said. “It helps that Jade forgives you. If she didn’t, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”

Cole looked at her. His smile was tentative, sad and sweet. His eyes were filled with gratitude and love. “I don’t know how many times I can say it without you getting sick of hearing it, but I’m not worthy of you, beautiful. I don’t think I’ll ever be.”

She walked over to him and stood in front of him. She planted her hands on her hips and glared at him. “You can start trying by kissing me.”

A grin slowly spread across his face. He slipped his arms around her waist and drew her close.

He kissed her. The kiss was tender, gentle, loving.

But the sweetness of the kiss soon turned to something deeper, almost desperate.

She could sense his need, his love, and the depth of his gratitude in that kiss.

The kiss pushed aside the last of her worries that they wouldn’t be able to move past this.

The kiss showed her how much he loved her.

“Never again,” Cole swore to them after their kiss ended, his voice vehement. “I will never fail you again.”

Maxim nodded, coming over to Cole. Max kissed him too as Jade still hugged Cole and watched. Their kiss was just as deep, just as desperate and passionate as the one she’d shared with Cole.

She pressed her face against Cole’s chest, listening to the rapid thump of his heart. She didn’t have any fancy words for this moment. She chose to believe him.

It was as simple as that.

Twenty-five minutes later, they were on Maxim’s yacht, with Patroklos Island slowly fading behind them into the deepening twilight.

They’d packed everything they could take quickly and everything important—documents, laptops, valuables, photos.

She had most of her clothes, her fighting staff, and her pistol, so it was a start.

The three of them were on the yacht’s bridge.

Max was at the helm. She was standing near one of the bridge windows where she could still see Patroklos in the distance.

Cole was next to Maxim and watching one of the weather radar screens.

The sea would be smooth and calm tonight. Not a storm in sight.

The plan was to sail to Italy. They’d find a port, restock, refuel, and resupply, and then skip on over to Spain.

There, they’d do the same thing before crossing the Atlantic.

They were headed for the Caribbean. Barbados.

The Cayman Islands. Aruba. Wherever. It would be the perfect, beautiful place to lie low for a while.

After that, they hadn’t made plans. She figured they would bounce around from port to port, never staying anywhere for too long. The luxury yacht had more than enough space for three people.

It would work. For now. Maybe for good.

“Do you think those guys who were after the hard drive will burn down the house?” she asked quietly.

“Maybe,” Cole replied. “But they’ll probably just loot it. At least Max outsmarted everyone, including me. They didn’t get the program. Hell, the program doesn’t even exist anymore.”

Maxim shook his head. “Deleting the program was like sticking a finger in a leaking dam. It’ll be two years at most before someone else replicates the core processes and builds exactly the same thing. I’ve only put it off the inevitable for a little while.”

Jade moved close enough to touch his arm, looking up at him with love in her eyes. “We can only be responsible for ourselves. We’ve done enough. Other people will have to step forward.”

“Or they won’t,” Cole said darkly.

She met his gaze. “I’m going to make a choice. I’m going to choose to believe people will do the right thing, even if it takes them a while to arrive there. You helped prove that to me.”

“That’s why I love you both,” Cole said, giving her a simple look of desperate love. “You’re both completely crazy.”

She stole one last look at the island as they left it in their wake. “I’ll miss this place.”

He put his arm around her and his other arm around Cole. “I won’t. It’s just a place. What matters is us. The three of us. We can go anywhere in the world.”

“Think we’ll be safe?” Cole asked.

“Yeah. I do.”

“What about Dimi?” Jade said, suddenly realizing that in all the drama and upheaval, they’d sent her home and hadn’t told her they were abandoning the villa for good. “She’s going to panic.”

“I called her while you were busy getting your gun and your big stick,” Max replied.

She chose to ignore the part about the big stick. “What did she say?”

He gave her a lazy shrug. “Not much. She seemed surprised when I fired her.”

Jade clutched at his arm, gaping at him. “You fired her?”

“Yep.” He grinned. “Then I hired her as Chief Health Services Coordinator at the spa. It’s largely a ceremonial title, but with a huge pay raise.”

“You put our housekeeper in charge of the health spa? What if she can’t handle it?”

“She’ll be fine. She’ll miss us and we’ll miss her, but she knows never to return to the house.

As for the spa, we have plenty of competent managers there to run the place and to plan for the future.

She understands she’s mostly there to chat with the guests, make sure any Greek food they serve is up to snuff, and things like that.

I’m sure she’ll spend most of her time knitting and talking about her grandchildren. ”

Cole rubbed his chin. “Wish I had a cushy job like that.”

“You have one,” Max said. “It’s not as cushy, maybe, but at least it has fringe benefits.”

“Care to explain?” Cole asked, one eyebrow raised.

“You’re my new bodyguard. One of the two, anyway.”

Jade shot Cole a stern look. “The subordinate one.”

Cole laughed. It was good to see the joy and humor back in his eyes. He slapped a big hand down on Maxim’s shoulder. “You lucky dog. Now you have two bodyguards. A beautiful, badass, sexy one. And you still have Jade.”

“Hey!” Jade said, hauling off and sending a fierce punch right into Cole’s shoulder.

“My bodyguards aren’t supposed to fight each other,” Maxim pointed out drily. “It’s in the contract.”

Cole laughed again, although he was rubbing his shoulder. “Damn, you can hit, woman. That’s gonna leave a huge bruise.”

“You deserve it, wise guy.”

Cole leaned in and kissed her gently. “I don’t deserve you, but I’m never going to let you go.” He slipped an arm around Maxim too. “Neither of you.”