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Chapter Twenty-Five

Finn

W e’ve been in Switzerland for a week with no problems. Things have been so good between me and Carys, but there’s this weird heaviness in my chest. I’ve always been content. I’d never have labeled myself as happy, but I had the business, my brother, a shit-ton of income, and enough women to keep me from longing for the one I’ve got now.

She travels around the office getting things organized to talk to Sean about my money. She’s sure we can secure it without having to go to Boston and without the FBI catching on. I am less convinced. Broke is better than Carys being in jail. I couldn’t care less about what happens to Sean or anyone else from my old organization. That life is so far away.

Even though I’m worried, I can’t very well live off her wealth. For the rest of our time together, I’d be a kept man, or I’d slide into something illegal just to have control. I hate her solution, but I don’t have an avenue around it. Cash equals independence.

At the darkest corner of my mind, like a fucking ticking clock, is Eric’s determination to get Carys. Whatever he’s attempting behind her back, he’s confident his plan will draw her closer to him and not farther away. Late at night when she sleeps, I wrack my brain trying to determine what he’s got, what he’s doing to make her want him.

“You won’t be able to stay in Switzerland long-term with your head office in Chicago,” I say as she settles behind her desk.

“I know.” She doesn’t meet my gaze. “I’ve been thinking of a solution. We’ll have to figure out a way to make it work. I can fly here on weekends or work from here if there’s nothing urgent there. Delegate more. Have virtual meetings.”

I press my fingers into my forehead. “A lot of fucking work.”

A slow smile spreads across her face. “You’re over there glowering. Are you happy?”

Her amber eyes are shining with so much love it’s impossible to break eye contact.

“Yeah. I am.” With a deep breath, I run a hand down my cheek. “Makes me paranoid something will knock me down a peg or two.”

She comes around the desk to sit on my knee. “Well, there’s still a lot going on. But there haven’t been any more packages since we returned. No more thefts. At least some product from the original warehouse went to the PLA. We haven’t been shot at, and no one has died in the last week.”

I laugh. “You’re making my point for me. Things are going too fucking well.” My loose hold around her waist isn’t enough, and I tug her closer. “We still don’t have a clue what your father and Eric will drop in your lap in a few weeks.”

She grimaces. “Whatever it is, we’ll be fine. It can’t be anything too serious, or Jay would have caught wind of it. He hasn’t seen his family in so long. I’m feeling like the worst employer ever.”

My mouth quirks up. “He’s still alive. You’re not the worst employer.”

She slaps my shoulder, and I haul her against me so her face finds the crook of my neck. “What time is Sean calling?” I murmur in her ear.

“Any minute. He needed a secure line that couldn’t be traced.”

“I have a minute or two.”

She laughs. “That’s not going to satisfy me.” When she gets off my lap, I give her ass a little swat.

“Would have satisfied me. Temporarily.” She holds my gaze as she goes to her seat. Our minds are in sync. “You’re thinking about it, aren’t you? Pulling up your skirt, bending over the desk, me coming up behind you, my hand—”

The shrill ringing of the phone on her desk makes Carys jump.

I grin.

“Hold that.” She picks up the receiver, breathless.

Bank numbers and routing codes go back and forth between them, with her clicking through various websites. She asked an IT guy at her company to set up the backdoor shit she’s doing with Sean right now. Makes me fucking nervous. It’s unnerving to care this much for someone else and to be unsure everything will work out, that she’ll be safe, unharmed by the fallout I brought to her door.

When she gets off the phone, her gaze meets mine.

“It’s done. Modest amounts in dozens of bank accounts, but you’ve got money again. We can go to the bank later today and decide which account you want to use as your primary.”

“I’m surprised Sean was fine with handing over that much equity.” I search her face. “He give you any resistance?”

“The legal side of the exchange. He’s not keen to go to jail for aiding you.” She winks at me. “I told him a broke Finn was an angry Finn with nothing to lose.”

I smirk and glance away. That’s not true anymore, but I can understand how her argument would be persuasive.

She kneels between my legs, and my chest aches at the sight of her. Shouldn’t giving into these emotions have stabilized me or at least not made them worse? My desperation to keep her safe, to keep this closeness forever, has peaked. Anyone who hurts her will suffer my wrath.

I smooth a piece of her hair behind her ear. “When does Ekaterina arrive?”

“Two hours.” She undoes my jeans and gazes at me under her lashes. “I wonder how we can pass the time?”

I slide my hand up her leg and under her skirt to caress her ass. She’s not wearing any panties. God, I love her . “You want to see the stars?”

Her smile is wicked as she frees me from my jeans. “I love mapping the constellations.”

Cupping her ass with both hands, I lift her onto her desk. “Well, who am I to deny you?”

Her laugh gets swallowed up when my lips descend on hers.

There are still rooms in the chalet I didn’t realize existed. We’re in the boardroom above the garage. I thought the door into here was a closet. Architecture is not my forte. Lena is showing Ekaterina through when she arrives. While we wait, I make a mental note to revisit this space. The wooden table stretches across most of the room with rolling chairs at regular intervals. Table. Chairs. Projector wall. I want every nook, crevice, surface in this house to remind her of me, of us, of how good being with me is. No matter what Eric’s got planned, she won’t be able to consider anyone or anything other than me. She’s mine, and I have no problem playing dirty to keep her.

“Finn.” Carys grabs paper off the printer. “Did you hear me?”

Her voice brings me out of my head, and I raise my eyebrows at her in silent question.

She frowns and finds an imaginary hair to stuff into the complicated braid. When it’s the two of us, she wears her hair loose around her shoulders. The braids and buns and whatever else she designs seems to be part of her defense against the rest of the world. Every day I discover something I didn’t notice the first time.

With a sigh, she sinks into a chair a few seats away from me. “At the risk of being the girliest-girl, what were you thinking about? I haven’t asked any of the other times because I’m not sure I want to know. But maybe I should know. Whatever it is, it’s bothering you.”

“It’s nothing.”

She lets the lie sit between us for a beat, and I can’t meet her gaze. “A week ago, I said I wanted a partner I could trust, and then I said you were always honest with me, even when I didn’t want to hear it. That’s the guy I love. That one.” She frowns. “I love this guy too.” She swirls her finger at me in a circular motion. “Who is lost in his own thoughts. But I prefer the other guy. The honest one.” She gives me a pointed look.

I wince. Except she isn’t the person who doesn’t want to hear it, it’s me. My jaw tightens, and I glance toward the door. “Just something I overheard Eric say.”

Carys rises and steps around the chairs between us to roll my seat back and perch on my lap. “Tell me.” Her fingers stroke my furrowed brow.

“He seems to believe that whatever he and your dad have cooked up, it’ll bring you and him closer together.” I clear my throat. “You’ll pick him.”

She grins and wraps her arms around my neck. “Never in a million trillion years. There is nothing he could say or do to make me leave you and go to him.”

“He seemed very confident.”

Her lips quirk up in derision. “That’s his thing—he’s confident even when he’s wrong. One of his worst qualities.” Carys’s gaze focuses above my head. “He is a win-at-all-cost sort of person, though.” Her expression morphs into one of determination. “I wouldn’t be with him even if he threatened to kill me.”

I tighten my arms around her at the suggestion. “He’d never get a chance. He’d be dead as soon as the idea entered his head.”

There’s a sharp knock on the door. She tries to stand, but I increase my grip on her. She brushes her lips against mine, and her hand rests on my chest over my heart. She skims my earlobe with her teeth, and she whispers, “I’m yours. Just yours. Always.”

I move my hands from her waist to frame her face. There’s another knock on the door, but I pull her into a kiss anyway. When whoever knocks again, I let her go with a sigh, trailing along whatever part of her body I can connect with before she gets too far away. She glances at me over her shoulder. So fucking sexy . I can’t wait for this meeting to be over. A tug on the thighs of my jeans shifts the tightness enough to make it bearable.

Carys opens the boardroom door, and instead of Lena, she’s met with Jay and Ekaterina. I ignore the new woman and stare at her bodyguard. He has one fucking job—guard the front door. What’s he doing in here?

He tips his chin at me. The urge to throttle him causes my hands to clench.

“I hired more security. Got two guys on the door.” He reads my mind.

I’d ask if they are competent, but Jay’s idea of apt security and mine aren’t even close. I grunt and rise to offer my hand to Ekaterina. Her dark hand slips into mine. She scans me with her midnight eyes. She’s little and round, but she carries an air of confidence and authority.

“Finn Donaghey?” she asks.

“The one and only.” I release our handshake and sink into my seat. “You heard of me?”

“CIA is offering a tidy sum for information on your whereabouts.”

“CIA can go fuck themselves. I’m not going to jail.” Is she threatening me or warning me? “And I’ll kill anyone who tries to get me there—reward or not.”

Ekaterina laughs and goes to the other side of the table, away from me and closer to Carys. “I wasn’t suggesting I’d be turning you in.”

She has almost no trace of an accent. If it wasn’t for her name, I might mistake her for American. Jay leaves a seat between us and slides into another, closer to Carys who sits at the head of the table with her various charts and graphs printed.

“Thanks for coming here.” Carys’s smile is strained.

“I’m hoping you can give me insight into what the hell happened with Valeriya,” Ekaterina says. “I go to Moscow for a meeting, and when I return she’s flown to Ireland and gotten herself killed.”

“We’re trying to put those pieces together.”

“She wasn’t always the most reliable employee, but she didn’t deserve that end.”

“She wasn’t reliable?” Carys frowns.

“Last four or five months, she was full of herself. Seemed to think she could do what she wanted. Followed her schedule, not mine.”

“Why didn’t you mention something to me?”

“Eric was around at least once a month to check on things at the warehouse and to speak to Valeriya about her attitude. I thought you arranged that. I thought you knew.”

Carys leans back in her seat, her frown deepening. “Once a month?”

“Like clockwork.” Ekaterina taps her nails on the table. “He said you were aware of the problems with Valeriya, and you’d asked him to step in.”

“I wouldn’t have undermined you like that. Not without talking to you first.” Carys checks her papers and then glances at Jay. “Did you realize Eric was going to Russia so much?”

He shakes his head. “I pulled the expense reports and phone records for those five or six people we thought might be in touch with Valeriya. Eric was one of them. Nothing logged.”

Carys appears puzzled for a moment. Does she realize Eric must have been paying his own flights, hotels, and meals while he took those trips? Whatever he was doing with Valeriya, he wasn’t reining her in.

“Until four or five months ago, Valeriya wasn’t a problem?” I lean my elbows on the table, tired of bearing silent witness.

Ekaterina cocks her head while she contemplates the question. “Maybe the last year or so she hasn’t been quite right—distracted, forgetful. But the last four or five months, she was unbearable.”

“And Eric?” I ask. “When did he start his visits?”

She takes her phone out of her purse and scrolls through it. “About six months ago. I had returned from a meeting in Moscow and found him at the warehouse with Valeriya. It was the first time I’d seen him in years.”

She and Carys exchange a glance loaded with meaning.

“And the last time you saw him before that was…?” I relax into my chair and cross my arms. Carys might give me the backstory later if I ask, but I like to have the puzzle pieces.

“She flew to Chicago three months before I was supposed to get married, to tell me Eric paid for his mistress to have an abortion.” Carys stares at the papers in front of her. Her voice is brisk and businesslike, but Jay gives me the side-eye. I’ve stepped in shit. “What was that? Maybe five years ago?” She looks to Ekaterina for confirmation.

As if she doesn’t remember.

“Sounds about right.” Ekaterina flips her phone face down on the table. “Anyway, you two remained close despite his obvious flaws. Frankly I had a hard time believing you didn’t fire him, even if his actions had nothing to do with work.”

Carys shrugs. She hated disappointing her dad. Much easier if she’d get over seeking his approval. Fire Eric. Let me kill him. I’m easy as long as he’s gone. It’s not as though her father has her best interests at heart.

“So,” Ekaterina continues, “I didn’t question his involvement in my branch. Apologies. I should have talked to you. I know better than anyone he’s a master at deception.”

Her final comment makes me wonder what else she’s discovered. Is it only his cheating? Or is there more? One glance at Carys fixing an invisible flaw in her braid tells me not to push it. At least not here.

“Our information shows Valeriya was flying to Ireland to meet with the PLA. We also think she or someone associated with her might have been moving the product from the warehouse theft,” Jay says as Carys passes papers to Ekaterina.

“Well, we put her in charge of finding the missing inventory. Makes it damn easy to cover it up if you’re selling it too.” She scans the information in Carys’s crafted charts. “Good thing European sales are strong overall, or this theft would have completely fucked us.”

“Still might.” Carys’s smile is tight. “Our fingerprints are all over those weapons now being used by an organization hoping to usurp their government.”

“At least you don’t have to worry about the FBI dickhead who was sniffing around trying to extort more money,” Ekaterina mutters while she shuffles through the papers.

Carys, Jay, and I grow still, and the room hums with tension.

Ekaterina glances between us.

“What am I missing?” She focuses on Carys. “You warned me about him. He came nosing around while you were doing your bedside vigil.” She tips her head at me. “I took care of it.”

Carys tugs on her earring and sighs. I lean across the desk, on the cusp of losing my shit. Jay slides a piece of paper in my direction, and I glare at him. On the paper are the words Calm the fuck down in a hasty scrawl. Did he write that now or before he even came in the room?

My jaw clenches, but I focus on the message.

“The other half of his money never made it to him,” Carys says. “His grievance was legitimate.” She rolls her shoulders. “And you almost got me killed since I was there the morning you took care of it .”

Ekaterina closes her eyes and presses her fingertips into her forehead. “The day before, I tried to call you on your mobile, but it was turned off. Then when I called Lilly in Chicago, she said you were on vacation and not taking any work-related calls.” She sighs. “She said you were in Switzerland. You like initiative. I used mine. You warned me he might try to fuck you over. I thought I was helping.”

Of their own volition, my hands flex into fists, and I force them to flatten on the table on top of Jay’s note.

“If you ever need to talk to Carys, you can call me. I can always get in touch with her.” Jay breaks the tension.

“Unless you fucking lose her in Ireland for hours on end.” I pitch the words for his ears only. His Adam’s apple bobs as he swallows. Gritting my teeth, I rise from my seat and ball up his note. “I’ve heard enough.” I focus on Carys. “Come find me when you’re done.”

She turns to me with surprise and a hint of confusion. “Finn?”

I run my gaze over our guest one last time. “I’ll double-check security at the front.”

She scans my face before giving me a curt nod and then turns to Ekaterina. “I have a few more questions on a couple other accounts.”

I close the door behind me. We’ve got what we need. Eric and Valeriya were fucking, and they’re both mixed up in this PLA mess. The mystery of who shot Ricardo and whether the incident was a direct threat to Carys is also solved.

The biggest question is the same one I started the day with, and it’ll be the one nagging me every day until something materializes. What is Eric planning?