Risky Temptation

by Hart, Gemma

  I gave a small huff of a laugh, proud that Tobias recognized Marco and his lethality.

  “But,” he quickly countered, dampening my small rise in spirit, “he has you now, doesn’t he? And as smart as you are, you’re no trained killer. I guarantee it’ll take less than a year for his presence to be noticed around town and even faster yet for you to get caught in the crossfire.” He made a broad gesture with his drink hand. “Look at where you are now. And trust me when I say, most of Marco’s enemies are not this hospitable.”

  I eyed him warily as he spoke, unraveling what my potential future looked like.

  “Within three years, you’ll be regularly targeted. And protecting two backs is much harder than one. With how notorious the Desmond name is, Marco will have to constantly be fighting to protect himself but more importantly, to protect you.” Tobias raised a brow at me.

  “He is taking on an impossible job right now to save you,” Tobias said bluntly. “He wants to rescue you from this plush imprisonment. What would he be willing to do if someone had a knife to your throat?” He let the words hang. “What would he do if someone had a gun to your head?”

  I swallowed, wanting to deny the truth of his words but unable to. What would Marco do? Or more correctly, what wouldn’t he do? We were completely rogue now. We had no large Families or resources to protect ourselves with. It was just the two of us. Just him and me.

  “And let’s say one day Marco fails,” Tobias continued. “Let’s say one day down the road, maybe a few years on, he makes a mistake or something goes wrong and he fails to save you. What’s to stop someone from slitting that pretty little throat or putting a bullet through your pretty little head?”

  I swallowed dryly. What then? a little voice asked me.

  Tobias took another sip of his drink. “That’s where you’ll be in five years, love,” he said with finality. “You’ll be bleeding out in some abandoned warehouse or drowning in a dirty river while Marco searches futilely for you. Stay with Desmond and that’s your future.”

  Tobias drained his glass and set it on the mantle.

  I bit my lip, hesitating before I spoke. But finally, I said softly, “What was her name?”

  Tobias’s face twisted harshly momentarily before he managed to resume his normal detached expression. “Elizabeth,” he said roughly.

  I remembered being taken aback by his sudden interest in my love life when we had first met. I had thought it odd and quite invasive. But it began to become clear when I realized perhaps he was speaking not from a place of nosiness, but a place of heartbreak.

  He spoke about my hypothetical future with such conviction and ease, as if he had already seen such a reality happen.

  Maybe to him.

  “What happened?” I asked.

  Tobias gripped the mantle, his hand knuckling white. I didn’t think he’d answer me. But I was wrong.

  “It was several years ago. Before I was a member of the Black Saints. Another Family wanted me. They had heard how effective I was at bringing men in line and they wanted me to shake up their own Family. Get rid of dead weight, basically.” He glared at the fire as if he could see the faces of his past in there. “But I said no. Elizabeth and I were finally falling into a routine. And I knew I could keep her safe where we were. With the Family I was already working with, I knew I could keep her protected. So I said no.”

  He jerked up and whirled his gaze at me, a twisted humorless smile on his face. “I actually thought it was that simple. Just say no.” He shook his head. “A week after my refusal, the police found her floating out near a dock, her ankles tied to a cinderblock.” He stared into the fire. “It had been a message. A message of their displeasure at my refusal.”

  My heart clenched at his words, the horrifying scene playing with painful clarity in my mind. I imagined Tobias staring down at the cold and lifeless body of his love, guilt ridden and heartbroken.

  “Do you see what I’m saying now?” he said. “I had a Family, I had men, I had protection behind me and still they got her.” The end of his voice broke a little at the word ‘her.’ “No, they couldn’t give her the mercy of a bullet or even a knife. They let her drown in a freezing ocean, wondering where the fuck I was and why I wasn’t there saving her!”

  A pained silence fell between us. Moved by instinct, I rose to my feet and walked over to him. The heartbreak of losing someone you love is unforgettable. But the heartbreak of having someone you love taken from you, that was pure torture.

  After only a moment’s hesitation, I put my hand softly on his cheek, wanting in some way to show him that I understood. I knew where he was coming from. I too loved someone deeply and worried for their safety. I too have felt that kind of love.

  But with a sudden jerk, he grabbed my wrist and yanked me against him, making me gasp in surprise. I craned my neck up towards him. “And what does Desmond have?” he whispered harshly, his whiskey laced breath brushing against my cheek. His eyes gleamed with long ago pain and fury. “What does Desmond have to protect you with that my Elizabeth didn’t have?” He gave me another humorless smile. “Elizabeth was different from me. She was good. She was better. Don’t follow her mistakes and stay with a Family man. You’ll lose your life for him.”

  His grip on my wrist was tight. His hand was able to circle my entire wrist, leaving me now room to wriggle free. But I didn’t try to wriggle free. Instead, I relaxed my hand and looked up at him with the truest sympathy I felt.

  I saw his eyes waver. Those chilly green eyes, ragged with pain and with regret, melted a little as they looked at me.

  “She didn’t wonder that,” I whispered.

  Tobias’s eyes widened a little at my words then narrowed. “What?”

  “She didn’t wonder where you were,” I said. “She worried about you.” I took in a breath, my throat feeling tight. If Elizabeth had loved Tobias the way I loved Marco, and it was clear their love had been deep by the pain in Tobias’s face, I could imagine exactly what she must’ve been feeling in those final, desperate moments.

  “She worried that you would blame yourself,” I said, my own voice breaking a little. “She knew she had made her own choices. She knew the risk. I’m positive her last thoughts were prayers that you wouldn’t blame yourself for what happened.”

  A wave of emotions rippled across Tobias’s face. Surprise, hurt, anger, denial, scandal, and a tiny flicker of redemption.

  I took a step back, making to pull away from the intense moment when Tobias pulled me towards him, crushing me against him.

  Rough lips were crushed against mine. I gasped instinctively, unwittingly opening my mouth to him. His tongue entered me, exploring me baldly and bravely and with no hesitations.

  I struggled and pulled against him but he wrapped his arms around me, trapping my arms between his chest and mine. He held me to him easily and I felt every inch of his body pulsating and hardening against me. He meant to keep me there and had no intention of letting me go until he was good and ready.

  Still, I jerked and pulled. Not wanting to fight me, he pushed his body against mine, shoving me up against a wall while his mouth explored mine with absolutely no shyness. He kissed me with a knowing passion that raised the hairs on my body, making my toes curl.

  “You don’t know us,” he whispered harshly against my lips, his breathing ragged from pain and passion. “You don’t know men like us.” I knew he was also referring to Marco. “There is no redemption for us.”

  He gathered my arms and pinned them easily above my head, despite my resistance. “Why would you risk your heart for a man that’s just like me?”

  I imagined Marco. I remembered the way he had saved me from being assaulted by a table full of Desmond Mafia men. I remembered the way he had teased and taunted me while I had worked. I remembered the pain in his eyes as he revealed the story behind Jamie. And most of all, I remembered the warmth of his love and the heat of his embrace—things I knew I could never live without.

  Thin
king of Marco, I replied, “Because my heart is mine to give. And I will not let fear stop me from loving who I want to.”

  I saw Tobias’s face jerk in surprise at my response. His eyes searched my face, a look of something akin to admiration blooming in those green depths.

  “That kind of bravery will always be punished with a man like Marco. With a man with his history,” he said quietly.

  “Then so be it,” I said.

  I had enough time to catch his mixed gaze of surprise and heat before his lips descended on mine. His body was pressed against mine, letting me feel every hardening length of him. His hand held my wrists easily, keeping me completely captive. He had no intention of stopping.

  But I had no intention of continuing.

  Blindly, I began stamping my feet. It took two tries before I found his foot. I stamped again hard, crushing my heel against his toes.

  Tobias jerked in response but didn’t cry out in pain or even curse. But he did pull back. His eyes, hazy and darkened with a fiery desire that made me itch with nervousness, flicked over me as if he was just barely able to recognize who I was.

  He brushed a thumb against his lower lip, not breaking his gaze. “Remarkable,” he whispered. “You’re remarkable.”

  But before he could say anything more, I jerked free and ran towards my rooms, throwing the doors shut behind me and missing Marco more fiercely than any tears or cries could express.

  Chapter Eleven

  Marco

  I spin the black cellphone around in my hand, resisting the urge to crush it. Any connection to Lestrade made me want to smash bricks and toss over cars in anger.

  The plan was set.

  Zeke and I had carefully gone over every inch of the building’s layout. The best entrance was actually the most direct entrance—walking through the front door. But to get to walk through the server door, I had to make sure I cleared several layers of security.

  I also had to get a quick education on exactly where I was supposed to plug in the spy drive.

  Zeke had handed me a small tablet and a cable. “You’re going to have to plug it in here,” he said, pointing on his computer screen of a black box with a whole side of plugs and outlets. “This is where we’ll get our best shot at entering the internal mainframe. It’ll take about sixty seconds to upload the whole virus and to connect it with the home station here.”

  It would’ve been easier to have Zeke break in but he needed to stay back and make sure that the upload was connecting and working properly. If any problems occurred, he needed his computers so he could troubleshoot the issue.

  So we had to resort to him giving me a crash course on hacking. Apparently creating a program to sneakily steal something from a server wasn’t too hard. It was the not getting caught part that was hard. So, Zeke had created a program that would steal the key in small bits over a period of time so that suspicions wouldn’t be aroused. It would also allow for a more precise copy of the key.

  My job was to get into the server room and first hack into the security system so Zeke could have access to their cameras and keep a look out for me from afar. Then I had to find the correct server, plug in the spy program, and not get caught in the sixty seconds it took to upload it. Then I removed the whole thing and walked out.

  Easy.

  I gave a half groan, half sigh. A million and one things could go wrong with the plan and I could clearly envision the consequences for each one.

  But it didn’t matter. I was doing this.

  It had now been over a week since Halle had been taken. Lestrade was insane if he thought that I would let this matter go lightly after it was all over. I was going to make sure it was crystal fucking clear that Halle was off limits. He wanted to talk to me, he can grow a pair of balls and come talk to me.

  I finally punched the dial button and waited.

  “Checking in, are we?” Lestrade’s voice sounded amused and casual, like always, making me grit my teeth in annoyance.

  “Where will the drop point be?” I asked shortly. I wanted to know the meeting place so that we could do the exchange as soon as I had the key and had made the hit.

  “Do you already have the key?” Lestrade asked in surprise.

  “I will,” I said. “In three days. And by then, Copper will be taken out as well.”

  “Well, you must have some plan in place to sound this confident,” Lestrade said.

  “Where’s the drop point?” I asked again.

  Lestrade sighed. “Thatherton Docks. Are you familiar?”

  I was. It was outside of London, near Kent. “Fine,” I said. “But first, I want proof of life.”

  “Proof of life?” Lestrade asked incredulously. “You don’t even have proof of key or Copper. And you’re demanding proof of life? Honestly.”

  “Proof of life,” I said firmly. “Put her on the phone.”

  “You really think I would kill her?” Lestrade said. But before I could answer, I heard his aggrieved sigh and a shuffle as he seemed to walking somewhere with his phone pressed against his chest.

  I heard a few mumbles and then my heart rose as I heard the only voice my soul answered to.

  “Marco? Marco? Is that you?” Halle asked frantically.

  “I’m here, sweetheart,” I said. “Are you okay? Just answer yes or no.”

  “Yes, yes, I’m fine,” she answered quickly, her voice thickening with tears. “Are you okay? Please be careful.”

  “Don’t worry about me,” I said. “I’m coming for you soon, babe. Don’t you worry. Before the week is out, you’re going to be here in our house, in our bed. Believe me.”

  Halle sniffed. “I believe you. I love you. I miss you. Marco—”

  “Honestly, it’s only been a few days of separation,” Lestrade interrupted. I heard Halle make a sound of protest as the phone was taken away from her. I fisted my hands, dying to have Lestrade in front of me for just five minutes.

  “You two are acting as if you haven’t seen each other in years,” he said. “As you heard, proof of life.”

  “Lestrade,” I said in even, measured tone, “I won’t forget this. I won’t forget what you’re doing right now. And I am going to pay you back.”

  There was a caustic laugh on the other end. “Ha! What could you take from me that has any value equal to your lady?” he asked in a bitter voice. “Anyway, we both know in the end, she’s no more in danger here than she is at home with you.”

  “What the fuck does that mean?”

  “You know what it means. It means, you’re a man with a shadowy past and some of those shadows are going to come back to get you. And when they see your lovely girl, all light and innocence incarnate, they’ll get her too.” He paused. “She’s no safer with you than she is with me.”

  I gave a dry huff. “But the difference is, she chooses me,” I said.

  Rather than hear, I felt Lestrade jerk in offense at my words.

  “Don’t underestimate her, Lestrade. She’s beautiful but she’s no fool,” I said confidently. “Love is never safe. But you can choose who you risk your heart with. And she’s got mine and I’ve got hers. So you keep her whole until I see you at Thatherton, you fucker.”

  With that I hung up, ready to finish preparations for tomorrow’s big sting.

  Chapter Twelve

  Marco

  I walked into Turn Tech’s lobby, my toolbelt bouncing casually along my hip. The technician shirt was a little small on me so I tried to keep a bit of a hunch.

  It was the big day. Today was the day that I made the steal.

  “Remember,” Zeke whispered in my ear through my hidden earpiece, “you need to check in with Mr. Blythe first.”

  I headed first to the large black enameled front desk. A pretty young receptionist smiled up at me. “Can I help you?” she asked.

  I nodded. “Looking for Mr. Blythe,” I said in my best British accent. I would only draw attention by being American.

  When I had tested my accent on Jamie, he had
scrunched his face hard trying not to laugh seeing his older brother pretend to be British but even he had to admit that the accent was pretty damn accurate. A good thing too. Without it, even the clueless Mr. Blythe would be a little suspicious of an American technician.

  The receptionist looked at my uniform. “Are you here for a servicing appointment?”

  I nodded. “That’s right,” I said.

  This was where Mr. Blythe’s cluelessness really played a role. I only hoped he lived up to his reputation.

  The receptionist typed a few things into her computer before looking up at me and nodding. “Alright, he’s in his office,” she said with a smile and no further directions. All technicians that currently worked for Turn Tech should be familiar with where the office for the head of security is.