Page 17

Chapter seventeen

New Plans

Gideon

I covered Kylie with a blanket after I dressed. We’d fucked her into a stupor. I could use a solid night sleep myself. But we had business to contend with before we could rest. We’d need to have a rotating schedule like we had on the boat with one man on watch while the others rested. As much as I wanted to believe we outsmarted Santos, I knew better. The moment we let our guard down, he would strike.

I jerked my head toward the stairs with a finger over my mouth. Kylie didn’t need to know what we found downstairs. Her husband had been the vilest scumbag. How she survived life with him, I would never know. Mateo had already uploaded the bulk of the data we uncovered and forwarded it to headquarters. He’d also sent a copy to his cloud server as a backup, in case anything went awry with the files at headquarters.

Maybe I was being paranoid, but I’d rather ensure nothing happened to the stuff we needed to take Santos down, then risk it being lost.

Kylie’s sick fuck of a husband had brutalized women. We had hundreds, if not thousands of hours of videos where Carlos Vega had sexually assaulted women. There were email lists with men who’d paid him large sums of money to watch the videos and then bid on the woman.

And the paper trail on the human trafficking went all the way to the top. In email after email, he mentioned Senor Santos thanked them for their continued support of their enterprises. We had Luka Santos over the barrel, because Carlos Vega had not only saved those emails to his private server. There was encrypted email communications between him and Santos, stating the new shipment of women were ready for transport. This house served as a meeting point for buyers to pick up their purchases.

Evil fucker.

But we had lists of buyers that would be a starting point for agents to rescue the women who were kidnapped and sold on the black market. Some of them might not be alive any longer. The requests for what these sick fucks were looking for enraged us.

We would do everything in our power to coordinate rescue missions. And I prayed we’d find them all. But I knew the odds were against us.

After the footage we’d seen, we were ready to end Santos. For that motherfucker, rotting away in a jail cell was too good of a fate. He deserved to be six feet under along with Kylie’s dead husband.

We headed downstairs and into the office Mateo located on his search. The room was sizeable for an office. There was a computer station with a bank of monitors. When he hadn’t been brutalizing them, the cameras fed into the monitors with a live stream. It’s likely how he kept tabs on the kidnapped women. On another wall was a bank of computer servers. Mateo had hooked them up to his computer, loading all the info onto his cloud. So far, we’d barely combed through five percent of what was on those servers.

“What’s going on? Shouldn’t one of us stay with Kylie?” Axel scowled, glancing over his shoulder with a worried frown.

I hated leaving her alone too. But duty called. If we wanted to keep her safe the best way to do that was to finish this case. “She’ll be fine for the time being. I doubt she’ll wake up anytime soon. We need to discuss the way forward with the information Mateo and I uncovered earlier without her around.”

“What did you boys find?” Chase asked, taking a seat in one of the leather chairs.

“A map to the location of a key.”

“And what does this key open?” Axel asked.

“Mateo.” I nodded for him to take over. He was the one who found the map and divined its meaning.

He picked up the map and unfolded it. “This gives us the location of not just the key but what it opens. A safe deposit box in the Bahamas, at the Bank of Nassau. It’s where he hid the diamonds.”

“Well, shit.” Chase said, echoing my sentiments when we realized the diamonds weren’t stored here.

“So we have to sail south, go through the Panama Canal to get to the Gulf of Mexico, and then cross that to get to the island?” Axel asked with raised brows.

“That’s one option.” I had another idea. One I doubted Kylie would like. But it would be the best to keep her safe. It also meant coming clean with her about who we really were, and I wasn’t certain how she would take it.

“And the other?” Chase asked. “Because that route would take us minimum two weeks, if not three. While we’ve all coped with life on the yacht, I would rather we hasten our movements.”

“You’re not wrong. Every minute we delay in retrieving those diamonds and nabbing Santos, more women like what we’ve seen could be battered, bartered and traded for hefty sums of cash, only to put them well out of our jurisdiction, making it infinitely more difficult to retrieve them. I suggest we contact headquarters, get a flight to DC, and visit CIA headquarters. We can put Kylie in a safe house with other agents, while we head down to the island to retrieve the key and then the diamonds. I know her fingerprints are needed. That’s easy enough for us to scan and have with us without her needing to be there. Once those have been secured, we can continue our hunt to bring Santos in.”

“How do you think our little Phoenix will react when she discovers we’re CIA? We haven’t been completely honest with her,” Chase stated, running a frustrated hand through his hair.

It was a tricky spot given we’d been intimate with her. We had developed feelings for her. The lies we told had been to protect her. Although I had started feeling increasingly guilty for failing to disclose the truth. I didn’t know how she would take it.

“Why don’t you ask her yourself?”

Fuck. Me.

Internally I grimaced and turned. Kylie stood in the doorway. She had dressed. Although her hair was still a mess from being fucked three ways to Sunday. Her beauty sucker punched me. Even a mess she was the most stunning woman on the planet. She frowned, accusations blazed in her eyes.

“Kylie,” I sighed, hating that she now knew the truth. The urge to protect her, even from the truth, was hard-wired into me. She was as much a victim as the women in those videos. She was a caring, soft-hearted woman who had the tar beaten out of her on a regular basis.

“No. I’ve had it up to here,” she gestured toward the top of her head, “with the lies. You’re CIA? You’re not the head of White Security? You’re not even bodyguards for hire?”

I took a step toward her. With the urge to comfort her and explain our transgressions before her love turned to hatred.

But she retreated. Moisture lined her inky lashes. I loathed the pain in her eyes. Pain we’d caused.

My need for atonement would have to wait. She needed the truth if we were ever going to put us back together. I lifted my hands up, trying to impart I meant her no harm and retreated a step back. She didn’t want me to touch her right now. I’d respect her wishes. “Yes, we are CIA field agents. Our team was placed on this case after the original team, led by my twin brother, Grant, was murdered by Luka Santos. We’ve been tasked with finding enough evidence to arrest Luka Santos and dismantle his criminal organization. And we needed you because of the diamonds Santos and your husband stole from the Met in New York. Diamonds which your husband stole and hid from Santos. Those diamonds reputedly once belonged to Marie Antoinette. And they’re the reason Santos killed your husband and is after you.”

“Did you investigate me? Am I a suspect on your list?” Stone faced, her bottom lip trembled, and a single, solitary tear trickled down her cheek.

Guilt flooded me. That fucking tear broke my heart. I let myself get too close to her. I violated everything I had been taught about being an agent and fell for her. Christ, I even started imagining a life with her after the case. I wanted her to be the woman I came home to. And I couldn’t lie to her anymore, not if I wanted a real chance at a future with her. “Yes. It was standard protocol.”

She sucked in a ragged breath and clenched her hands into fists. “I see. And fucking a suspect, is that something that was on your agenda too or did you figure since I fucked a member of the mafia, I was a whore who didn’t matter?”

“Angel, it wasn’t like that,” Axel protested, worry stamped across his features.

She shot him a furious glare and tears streamed down her cheeks. “Not like what? Like how you manipulated me with your lies. Like how you didn’t confess who you really were once you realized I had no fucking clue about my deceased husband’s business dealings. You even made it seem like there was a future for us. I let you touch me in ways I’ve never allowed anyone. After everything I’ve been through in my life, that you know I’ve been through, how could you do this to me? I thought you guys were different. I thought I could trust you.” She swiped at her tears. “But I was wrong. I don’t even know who you are.”

“Angel, please, listen to us. We love you. We’re sorry. We—”

“You love me? That’s rich. How can you even say that after what you’ve done? You know what, screw you all. I can’t even stand to look at you let alone be anywhere near you.”

Kylie grabbed the map on the table, swiveled on her heels and charged out of the room. Her footsteps scurried up the stairs.

“Angel, come back.” Axel pleaded. He was out of his seat, striding toward the door.

“She’ll be fine. She just needs some time to process. We have work to do. It’s best if she isn’t further involved. We’ll get the map back from her in a bit.”

Axel shot me a furious glare. “The fuck she will. While you might not care about her, I do. I want a future with her. I don’t give a shit what you think. You can find another second in command for all I fucking care. She’s what matters to me in this equation. We should have told her once we knew she wasn’t part of the organization. I’m sorry about Grant. We all are, but you’ve got to take a look around and see how your determination at all costs to bring Santos to justice, might have cost us the best thing that ever happened to us.”

Then he charged out of the room. His boots thudded on the stairs as he shouted her name. Mateo and Chase were two steps behind Axel, yelling for Kylie to hold up.

Swearing beneath my breath, they were right. I had been single-minded in my determination to take Santos down out of revenge. It’s why I fucked up with the tracking devices. Because I allowed my need for vengeance to cloud my judgement.

Fuck.

Would Kylie ever forgive me? I sure as shit wouldn’t if she didn’t. Grant would be vastly disappointed in my performance as an agent and as a man.

We’d nab Santos. He wouldn’t outrun us forever. We had what we needed to lock him up in Supermax for life and toss away the key.

The thought of it didn’t hold the appeal it once had. Because without Kylie, none of it mattered.

On a muttered curse, I followed them. I swore I would make amends, because when I held her, when she looked at me with her heart in her eyes, I saw my future. And it was a future worth fighting for.

***

Kylie

Tears fell like rain coating my cheeks and blinded me on my mad dash. I had to get away from them. I sobbed, feeling like my world had ended. I thought I knew heart break. But my heart was shattered by their betrayal.

I didn’t know if my heart would ever recover. They’d given me a taste of heaven only to pull the rug out from under me. I had wanted forever with them. I rubbed at the ache in my chest. I didn’t know I could hurt like this.

How could they lie to me? If they had come to me and explained who they were, I would have gladly worked with them. But instead, they chose lies.

And once we began sleeping together, not a single one of them decided to trust me with the truth. I thought they cared about me. But I seemed to only pick men who lied. Was I cursed or something? Had I angered a primordial god with my existence?

At the pounding footsteps on the stairs behind me, I changed course from my initial destination and raced out the front door. I needed to cry and rage without them trying to fucking fix me. I didn’t want to look at them because all it did was break my heart.

I rushed outside without a coat, glancing over my shoulder. And ran smack dab into a wall of flesh.

The impact jolted me. Hands gripped my biceps and held on.

“Steady, senorita. It’s about time you came to me.”

The cultured accented voice slammed into me like a bucket of ice water. Unholy fear exploded in my chest. I lifted my gaze and bit back a whimper. Luka Santos evilly smiled at his apparent victory with a cruel light in his eyes.

I didn’t want to know what he had planned for me. This couldn’t be happening. I had to be dreaming and having a nightmare.

I jerked against his hold and opened my mouth to scream.

He yanked me against him. “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”

“Let me go.” He was all too real. This wasn’t a nightmare. The reality of the situation shredded me. And the hope I’d clung to, that I would escape his clutches for good and get to live my life in peace, dissolved.

“Not a chance.” He glanced beyond me and smirked. “Get rid of them, boys.”

I peered over my shoulder. Axel, Chase, and Mateo were at the front door. Shock etched on their faces.

“No,” I screamed. Gunfire erupted and they dove for cover.

Luka pocketed the map. Then dragged me toward the boat dock and his larger yacht. It was easily three times the size of mine. It was moored on the opposite side of the dock. He had some of his men on board my yacht. Whatever they were doing, it wasn’t good.

I fought him, struggling against his hold. I didn’t want to get on that boat with him. Deep down I knew it would be a hell from which there would be no escape. Luka halted and shook me like a rag doll. “Stop and I will let them live.”

I glanced over my shoulder at the battle taking place. How had he found us? We’d removed the trackers from the ship. Love filled me even through the hurt. They had lied, but I didn’t want them to die. I wished I could tell them I wasn’t mad, that I still loved them and would for as long as I lived. Was this the last time I would ever see them?

If I could save them, I would. I went limp against Luka’s hold. If being docile saved them, so be it.

“Fine. Just leave my bodyguards alive. They’re just hired help. You let them live and I will go with you,” I bargained with my heart in my throat.

Luka gave a signal, and the gunfire ceased.

“See, that wasn’t so hard.” He kept a hand around my bicep, pulling me toward his boat. It worked. They would live.

My footsteps were leaden as I boarded his yacht. They felt like the footsteps of doom.

The moment we were on board, Luka shouted, “Light ‘em up boys.”

Gunfire erupted.

“No!” I screamed with my heart in my throat.

His yacht separated from the dock. I stood beside Luka as the scene unfolded. My guys held their own. One of them must have run back into the house and grabbed some guns. But then one of Luka’s goons stood on the deck of his yacht with a rocket launcher. I shook my head in dawning horror.

The ferocious roar of the missile as it ignited and shot out of the launcher was deafening. It flew fast, in an arc of flames to its target—the house.

The house exploded in a fiery ball of timber and glass. Flaming debris rained over the shore and dock.

I couldn’t see my guys. Were they dead? Had the blast killed them? I wanted to jump over the side of the yacht and find them. But Luka held my arm like an iron manacle.

Luka didn’t care that he was leaving some of his men behind for dead. What kind of sadistic psychopath was he?

The yacht picked up speed, sailing away from the billowing flames engulfing the house. I wanted to believe my guys survived the blast and the gun battle. I clung to the hope that they would live and come find me.

A second explosion rocked the shoreline as my yacht blew sky high. The heat from the explosion knocked me back a few steps, and the boat rocked at the waves. I screamed bloody murder as I was dragged from the deck, down a long hallway and into a bedroom with Luka Santos.

I had never been more terrified in my life.