Page 104 of Pervade Montego Bay

I guided her along the hallway and into a room that served as a study. There was nothing personal in here—it was merely a set piece should anyone visit. Emily certainly didn’t need to know about this ruse of staged areas, one after the other, to make it look like a normal home that didn’t protect the most precious of people.

She pulled away from me. “I know this is hard for you, James.”

“Who told you?” I was going to fucking kill them.

Would Xavier have shared this—a secret so well-guarded that men were prepared to die to keep it? Surely not Louis? He knew better by now.

I towered over her. “You will tell me everything you know.”

She looked around. “I know he’s the most important person in your life.”

Emily

There was something odd about this study. Maybe part of the reason it seemed “off” to me was because I had James staring me down. Still, the room looked impersonal, as though no one ever came in here.

James stared at me. “Who are we talking about exactly?”

I folded my arms across my chest.

It didn’t feel like the right time to ask him if he was a father—I’d bring up that subject later when he’d calmed down. His behavior led me to believe I was on to something. James was acting protective towards Louis—and this house, too.

But getting to the bottom of all that intrigue could wait a while longer. He seemed to be in denial about his true feelings for me, but I had proof.

“Xavier’s been teaching me Russian,” I said, smiling.

His jaw clenched with frustration. “Why?”

Languages werehisthing. James was a linguist and was even fluent in Russian. He may not be as profoundly intelligent as Xavier, but he was brilliant nonetheless—the total package if you were into dark and dangerous.

It was like stepping into the thick of night and getting lost and yet I couldn’t stop chasing after him into the blackness. I knew deep down he was a good man. More than this, Xavier needed him.

I need him.

Standing my ground, I delivered the truth. “When we were on Renaldo Zane’s yacht, you spoke to me in Russian. Now I know what you said.”

I’d defied his order to attend the event on board and had joined my fellow students from the Royal Academy to play for visiting dignitaries. Admittedly, some had been Russians, though not all. But I’d ended up mingling with the bloody KGB—unintentionally, of course.

Diana Zane, Renaldo’s wife, had been there, too. My childhood hero had led me down to the lowest level of the yacht and had nudged me into a cabin. Waiting for me had been a dark stranger who sat quietly in the corner, hidden by shadows. He’d ordered me to play for him. I had obeyed, full of trepidation. My sinister audience of one had tried to intimidate me. But when that man had stepped out of the shadows, I saw that it was James.

Xavier had once told me my recklessness was why I’d been willing to open myself up to these men and their passionate world…and their dangerous existence.

James frowned. “Xavier was listening in that evening.”

“You had an earpiece in, remember? Xavier was monitoring your safety aboardThe Venetian. He overheard everything that happened in the cabin between us. Everything you said to me after I played my violin for you.”

James raked his fingers through his hair. “He told you.”

Raising my chin high I repeated his words that day. “Play for me, little Kitty.”

Recognition flashed across his face. “Em…”

“? ??????? ???????, ??? ? ???????? ????, ? ???????? ? ????,” I said, quoting his Russian. He’d spoken those words believing I’d never know what they meant.

“Well, now you have me believing you’re a Russian agent,” he said dryly.

“You told me you loved me in Russian, James.”

“That’s a pretty good guess at what was—”