Black Jack

by Lora Leigh

  Breathing heavily, she collapsed against him, shudders still racing through her body as the aftershocks of pleasure continued to pulse through her. The wildly exciting penetrations of her body left her exhausted, left her mindless. She could do nothing but hold on to him now, to pray that for this moment, he would continue to shelter her, that he had the strength to hold her as she fought to catch her breath.

  As she felt his fingers ease slowly from her a small moan escaped her lips. The pleasure was still brutal. The feel of his fingers retreating caressed those nerve endings, so sensitized she could barely catch her breath from the added caress.

  “Easy, baby.” He sounded sated, relaxed, as his hand smoothed down her back. “Give me a second here and I’ll carry you to the shower.”

  She had to laugh at that. A low, weak sound, but one filled with a deep satiation. “You’ll drop me.”

  “Right now,” he agreed, his lips smoothing over her shoulder. “No breath right now.”

  He gave a deep sigh, one that assured her that he had been just as satisfied, just as fulfilled as she was.

  “That’s okay.” She snuggled closer. “I like being right here.”

  “I like you being right here.” His lips pressed against hers gently. “Right here in my arms, Lilly. It’s where you belong.”

  And it was exactly where she wanted to be.

  It was still dark and Lilly lay pressed against his chest when Travis’s cell phone rang. Travis picked up his phone and looked at the display. He frowned when he saw “Harrington” on the screen.

  He sat up in bed, careful not to disturb Lilly. She turned over with a soft murmur. “Hello.”

  “Caine,” Desmond said. His voice sounded grim. “We have things to discuss. You, me and Lilly. If I make sure Angelica is not here will you both meet me at the house around noon? I really think you both need to hear what I have to say.”

  Travis was silent for only a moment. Then he looked down at Lilly and said, “We’ll be there.”

  Chapter 18

  the limo pulled into the stately, oak-tree-lined drive that led to the house her family had taken for the summer. After pulling to a stop, Nik got out from the driver’s seat, came around the car, opened the rear door, and stood aside as Travis stepped out.

  His eyes narrowed as the door opened, and rather than the houseman at the entrance, he instead saw Isaac, Desmond’s personal, chief bodyguard.

  The dark silk suit he wore almost hid the bulge of the weapon he wore beneath his arm, but not quite. He was a formidable figure, if one wasn’t confident in their ability to stand against him.

  Travis was rather confident.

  Isaac’s dark brown eyes flicked to where Lilly stood beside him, resplendent in a soft, light blue camisole and matching skirt. Strappy flat sandals covered her feet. Her shoulder-length brown hair was pulled back into a casual ponytail and she even carried a small clutch purse rather than a rifle.

  She looked every inch the perfect little lady.

  Travis held his arm out to her, and almost grinned at the arrogant little tilt of her head as she laid her hand on his arm.

  “Lady Lillian. Mr. Caine,” he greeted them as they moved up the steps. “Lord Harrington is awaiting you.”

  “I’m certain he is,” Travis responded. “And Lady Harrington? She’s gone?”

  “Lady Harrington is in D.C. shopping, I believe,” Isaac informed them as he stepped aside. “Lord Harrington may have neglected to pass along the information that her daughter had been found and was returning.”

  “Her daughter was never lost,” Lilly informed him coolly as they stepped into the foyer and waited for Nik to step in before Isaac closed the door behind them.

  “So I see.” He inclined his head in approval. “Follow me, Lord Harrington is waiting in his study.”

  Travis placed his hand on Lilly’s lower back as they followed the bodyguard. It was hard to believe Isaac McCauley was involved in anything nefarious. He had been with the Secret Service, served a short stint with the CIA, and had then gone private. His reputation was sterling and above reproach.

  Isaac paused at the study doors, gave a brief knock, then opened them and stood back as they entered.

  Desmond Harrington stood in front of the cold fireplace, his leather-shod foot propped on the hearth as he leaned an elbow casually against the mantel. He’d shed the suit jacket he usually wore. The sleeves of his white, fine cotton shirt were rolled to his elbows and the dark blue silk slacks were still perfectly creased.

  At first glance he was the epitome of professionalism, until Travis looked closely at his face. He looked like an exhausted thug. The red hair closely cropped, the lines on his face. Desmond Harrington was a hard man, and it showed in every line and wrinkle of his face.

  In his free hand he held a short glass of what appeared to be whiskey. Watching them, he remained silent as he lifted the glass and sipped from it before nodding to Isaac.

  “Can I offer anyone a drink?” Isaac asked as Travis, Lilly, and Nik came to a stop in the middle of the room, facing Desmond.

  “I’ll have my regular, Isaac,” Lilly answered, her voice smooth and sweet and so ladylike it was hard to believe she could wield a sniper’s rifle as easily as she held that glass of Crown and Coke.

  “I’ll take the whiskey straight,” Travis answered as he pressed his hand into Lilly’s back, urging her to the love seat despite the fact that they hadn’t been invited to sit.

  Nik stepped back, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned against the wall beside the door and watched everyone with narrowed eyes.

  Silence filled the room as Isaac poured the drinks, then moved across the room to hand Travis and Lilly theirs.

  “Isaac, would you mind stepping outside now?” Desmond asked.

  “I do, Lord Harrington,” Isaac answered firmly. “You know that’s not a very good idea at the moment.”

  Desmond sniffed disdainfully as he turned his head, threw back the rest of his drink, and grimaced tightly. “There are days, Lilly, when I wonder what the hell made me think I could handle the legacy your father left behind.”

  He slapped the glass to the mantel, raked his fingers over his head, and blew out a hard breath before glaring back at her.

  He looked tired, she thought. Tired and filled with regret and grief.

  His gaze focused on Travis Caine for long, intense minutes.

  “It’s damned hard to trust you,” he said, sighing.

  “I’m a man of my word, Lord Harrington,” Travis reminded him. “You know that as well as anyone.”

  Lilly looked at him in surprise. He sounded as though her uncle actually knew him.

  Desmond shook his head as he turned to her. “Six years ago I contacted Mr. Caine to negotiate an agreement between Harrington Translation and Dictation and a much larger company intent on taking it over. Your father was buried in an internal investigation at the time and I agreed to handle the attempted merger. I contacted your Mr. Caine to aid in that.”

  “A legal negotiation?” she murmured as she turned to Travis.

  He grinned, sliding a look at her from the corner of his eye. “I do stay within the law occasionally, my dear.”

  Desmond grunted at the comment. “We would have lost the company if it hadn’t been for him. With your father’s death, and what we believed was your death, the family was in chaos for months.”

  “It appears to me that the family is still in chaos,” she stated sadly.

  Her uncle shook his head before lowering it for long moments. Finally, he heaved another sigh before moving to a nearby high-backed leather chair and taking a seat.

  “Mr. Caine contacted me with the information that you had been found,” he stated as he leaned back. “He told me then that he had known of your existence for years and
had remained quiet. With your injuries, though, he was afraid you wouldn’t make it, and he wanted your family close if that were true.”

  Lilly remained silent. That didn’t sound like the truth to her; it didn’t feel like the truth, though she had no doubt it was what he had told her family.

  “Why are we here, Lord Harrington?” Travis finally asked. “You sent Lilly’s mother away and were rather intent on this meeting. I will assume there’s a reason for it.”

  “Of course there is.” Desmond glared back at him irritably before turning back to Lilly. “Returning may not have been a good idea, child. Perhaps when Mr. Caine called I should have simply gone to the hospital alone and advised you to continue hiding.”

  “Why would you do that?” she asked, wondering herself why her intuition hadn’t warned her to stay away.

  “Because this family is more fucked up than any dysfunctional American family that you’ll find,” he stated roughly. “Jared rather surprised me, though. I didn’t expect him to disown you.”

  “Perhaps he doesn’t like losing the additional inheritance,” Travis suggested.

  Desmond shook his head. “Lilly’s money is in trust. Nothing could be done with it until you turned twenty-six—if you were still alive, that is. And upon Lilly’s death it wouldn’t go to Jared anyway. It would go to a charity chosen in Lilly’s name. Your brother’s trust was set up the same way.”

  Yet another surprise.

  “When was that decided?” Lilly asked. “Father told me nothing of this.”

  “And he wouldn’t have until you were old enough to begin drawing from the fund,” he answered her. “Unfortunately, you ‘died’ before you reached the age that you could touch your inheritance.”

  “What is the point of this, Uncle Desmond?” she asked.

  “Someone tried to kill you six years ago, and then three times in the past six months. It’s hard to believe it isn’t personal, isn’t it, Lilly? And now you know there’s less reason to suspect your brother. So tell me I haven’t risen on your list of suspects.”

  Lilly looked to Travis, then back to her uncle. “I don’t know who to suspect,” she finally stated, wondering what the hell was going on here.

  “You were helping your father on that investigation,” Desmond said then. “You were working with him and MI5 before you disappeared.”

  Now, she was shocked. Her father had made her swear to never reveal anything about the investigation. She stared back at Desmond silently, trying to figure out what he knew, and what he simply thought he knew.

  “She has an excellent poker face.” Desmond nodded toward her. “She always did have.”

  “What do you want, Harrington?” Travis sat forward now.

  “I want my brother’s killer. And I want the person trying to kill my niece stopped,” he said, his voice soft. “I want the slow, steady embezzling of Harrington funds to stop, and I want my life back.”

  “And I’m to facilitate this, how?” Travis asked.

  “Better yet, why should you be drawn in?” Lilly rose to her feet, tipped her drink to her lips, and finished it in one hard swallow before moving slowly to the bar.

  She needed a moment to think, to figure out what the hell was going on here.

  “You argued with Mother when I left?” she asked as she moved past Isaac to pour herself another drink.

  Desmond chuckled. “Oh yes, my dear. Your mother and I argued quite loudly and for well through the next day. When Ridgemore showed up, we argued quite a bit more. You know how it works. She screams until she gets what she wants, and if she doesn’t get what she wants, then she makes your life hell. Correct?”

  Lilly poured herself another drink before turning back to him and leaning against the bar. “Mother never screamed at me. Not when Father was alive, anyway.”

  His expression softened, turned gentle. “No, she didn’t scream at you. Because whenever she did, she had to face not just your father, but also your uncle. We did our best to shelter you. Sadly, it seems it was in vain.”

  He was gazing at her as though he held some affection for her. The way he watched her when she was a child. He had spoiled her just as her father had.

  “Your father and I had hoped that by combining forces we could compel your mother to allow you to have your dreams,” he said quietly. “You wanted to join MI5. You wanted to be adventurous. She wanted you to marry well, have children, and become a replica of herself. To her, that was her measure of success. Unfortunately, it seems to be how she and her friends measure their success. By how well they can turn their daughters into younger versions of themselves. She had your husband picked out, the sex of your children and their names. She had already decided where you would live, close to her of course, and who your friends would be. It would be her way, or no way at all.”

  “You make her sound crazed. I mean, more than usual.” She needed another drink just to hold back the anger that she was only now seeing this. And not because he was telling her it was the truth, because she had witnessed it herself.

  “Not crazed, simply arrogant, and certain of her own power.” He shook his head. “She’s royalty, remember?”

  It was coming together so slowly, too slowly. Lilly felt the heavy weight of agonizing knowledge as it began to settle into her heart, to slice at her soul. She wanted to scream in denial, but she couldn’t. She had to hold it back, she had to focus on the truth rather than the fantasy world she had lived in as a child.

  Desmond wiped a hand over his face as Lilly kept a careful eye on him, as well as Isaac.

  “I was helping your father.” He stared at the whiskey in his glass for long moments before gazing back at her. “God, he loved her.” He leaned his head back against the chair and stared at the ceiling. “He loved you better, though, and she knew it.”

  Lilly’s lips trembled for a brief second before she controlled it. Instead, she met Travis’s gaze, saw the compassion in it, the regret.

  “How did she manage it?”

  Once again Desmond shook his head. “I don’t know. Harold had figured it out. He told me that night, but he didn’t tell me it was Angelica. He was going to fill me in the next morning. The next thing I knew, you were both supposedly dead. I only figured out it was Angelica about six months ago and have been trying to pin her down with hard proof ever since.”

  Lilly swallowed tightly as Travis moved from the loveseat to stand beside her, to lend her his support, his warmth.

  “How did she find me? I changed everything about myself.”

  “Everything but certain mannerisms,” Desmond pointed out. “You attended a party in Bangladesh a few years ago for the ruling family’s oldest son. We were there, along with Jared.”

  Lilly flinched at the pain that struck her temple, as well as the memory. She remembered it. Clearly. She had been forced to leave the party early when Jared had kept hitting on her. He’d danced with her, flirted with her. Her own brother. It had been more than she could bear.

  “Your mother commented several times that Lilly Belle was so similar to her Victoria.” He gave a harsh laugh. “Hell, I didn’t even catch on.”

  “The pictures found in Desmond’s files were taken by Samuel,” Travis revealed. “Your mother had him following you.” He turned back to Desmond. “I’m guessing you stumbled across the pictures in Angelica’s files and made copies.”

  Lilly watched as Desmond pinched the bridge of his nose and fought back the dampness in his eyes.

  “I hired Isaac for his reputation and his ability to keep his employers alive,” he finally stated harshly. “We’ve been trying to catch her embezzling the money. We’ve tried to find a way, especially since your return, to get the proof we needed.”

  “She’s smart, and she has the money to hire others to do her dirty work,” Travis said coldly. “She sent a hit o
ut on Lilly yesterday. They found the safe house she was staying at. Ten men arrived to kill her and the three young women she had taken refuge with.”

  “My God.” Desmond sat forward, swallowed tightly, then looked to Isaac. “I may need another drink.”

  Isaac turned to the bar just as the large glass window of the room shattered.

  Travis pushed Lilly to the floor as Isaac was thrown against the bar by the bullet that slammed into his body and jerked him around. Another tore into his shoulder and he landed on the floor unconscious or dead, she wasn’t certain which.

  The doors to the library flew inward and four assailants rushed the room, automatic rifles drawn and leveled on them as Lilly stared up in horror.

  Her gaze went around the room quickly. She couldn’t see Nik. Where had he gone? Had he been in on this? Had he betrayed the Ops?

  She had to swallow against the bile in her throat as pain pierced her head. Memories were swarming her now, racing into her brain with a speed she couldn’t fight.

  She was an operative. A highly secret operative, one whose very existence depended on the agency that had saved her. An agency whose survival depended on their ability to never be revealed.

  “Well, Desmond, it looks as though you’re as stupid as your brother.” Angelica walked into the fray.

  Resplendent in cream silk, she wore slacks, a matching top, and heels, which, combined with her light hair, gave Angelica the angelic appearance her name implied.

  She appeared innocent, unthreatening, untouchable.

  She stopped in the middle of the room and stared down at Lilly. Her head tilted to the side, and for a moment, regret flashed in her gaze.

  Desmond sat down slowly in his chair, his hands resting casually on the arms as he leaned his head back and obviously fought with the realization that they may have failed.

  “You always were a nosy little bitch.” Angelica sighed as she glanced at Isaac’s fallen body before turning back to Lilly. “You should have returned as my daughter rather than some little whore determined to destroy what I’ve built over the years. Really, Lilly? A call girl?” She shook her head. “I truly hope the money you made whoring was worth the loss of your life now.”