by Katee Robert
He leaned down and pressed a surprisingly soft kiss to her lips. “No regrets.”
She wished … Delilah wished a lot of things. She gave him a small smile. “I promise I’m not bolting from the room.” Maybe just the island. How long would she have to wait before she could go to Esther. Should she go to Esther? Talking to her sister on the phone might keep full on panic at bay, but she wouldn’t truly draw a breath until she saw Esther in person. She had a shit ton of vacation time saved up.
Delilah almost laughed. Vacation time? Really? As if she’d ever be able to come back here. Even if Ryu never found out what she did, she knew. She would always know, and the guilt might choke her to death if she spent too much longer with him.
Ryu smoothed his thumbs over her cheekbones. “I’ll walk you back to your room.”
Something warm bloomed in her chest, but it was tainted by the truth. She might not have seduced him with the sole intention of getting to his phone, but she hadn’t tried too hard to find another way.
Because you want him.
No shit, I want him. Who wouldn’t?
They dressed in silence, and it took everything she had not to stare at the phone he pulled from their pile of clothes and tucked into his pocket. Was it in a different spot then where he’d dropped it? She couldn’t be sure, just like she couldn’t be sure if he’d noticed one way or another. They’d both been extremely distracted at the time.
The betrayal of what she’d done coated her throat like acid, but she managed to dress and slip on her shoes without collapsing into a tearful confession. Instead of leading her to the front entrance, Ryu used his hand on the small of her back to guide her around to the side entrance of Pain. There, a cart waited for them.
As they drove back to Pleasure, she wrapped her arms around herself. “I hadn’t meant this to happen when I tracked you down tonight. I mean, obviously I wasn’t opposed to it happening, but I didn’t plan on seducing you.”
“Delilah.” He waited for her to look at him to continue. “You seduce me just by breathing.”
Her jaw dropped. “You can’t say things like that.”
“It’s the truth.” He shrugged in a way all the Horsemen seemed to—like it meant everything and nothing at all. “I had every intention of keeping our interactions confined to the club and following the rules there. Obviously, it wasn’t meant to be.” His hands tightened on the steering wheel. “If I was a better man, I’d leave you alone. But I’m not. I’m just selfish enough to keep you.”
Keep you.
She couldn’t breathe. “Ryu, you really can’t say things like that.”
“We’ll talk more at dinner.” As if it was already decided.
She couldn’t dredge up words the rest of the way to Pleasure. What was there to say? He couldn’t keep her because she was a traitor. She couldn’t stay close to him because there was every reason to think his enemies would use that connection. Delilah knew how this worked, no matter how much she wanted to pretend it was over the second she clicked that link on his phone. If his enemies thought she meant something to him, they would use that connection.
They would force her to use that connection.
The burning in her throat crept up toward her eyes. It would be so much easier if she didn’t like Ryu, if he was the kind of monster that so many people believed the Horsemen to be. But she was starting to realize that he wasn’t monstrous at all.
She had to hold it together. She didn’t have any other choice. Delilah pulled on damn near a decade’s worth of playing a role and smoothed out her expression. “At dinner, then.” She barely waited for the cart to stop to step out. “I’ll walk the rest of the way myself. No need to go out of your way.” She hurried away from him and into Pleasure before he could call her back.
It was only when she closed and locked the door to her room that she sank to the floor and let the tears fall. To be so close, to see exactly how this could play out if they were left to their own devices …
God, it hurt.
It hurt so much more than she expected.
The tears came faster, until she gasped for breath and pressed her hand to her mouth to keep the sobs inside. It took several seconds for her to realize the sound she heard wasn’t internal. Delilah lifted her head and pressed her lips together. Yes, that wasn’t in her head at all.
The phone beneath her mattress was ringing.
“No,” she whispered.
She knew better than to ignore it. Delilah staggered to her feet and crossed to pull the phone out from its hiding spot. The now-familiar number taunted her from the screen. She really, really didn’t want to take this call.
She slid her thumb over the screen. “I did what you asked. Leave my sister alone.”
“Aw, Delilah, you know better.” Even when he sounded happy, his voice still made the hairs on the back of her neck stand at attention. She’d survived on her own too long to ignore her body’s instinctive response.
“I sent the text.”
“You did.” He laughed, low and harsh. “That was well played. You just bought yourself another week.”
The room swam around her. “A week? What are you talking about?”
“Our boy Pestilence has taken a real shine to you. Keep doing what you’re doing. Keep him happy. In a week, I’ll call again with your instructions.” The amusement bled out of his tone. “I don’t have to tell you what will happen if you ignore my call.”
No, he didn’t have to tell her. He’d hurt Esther. She pinched the bridge of her nose and tried to think. Could she get to her sister inside of a week and convince Esther to … To what? To leave New York, to drop out of school and go into hiding? Esther had a whole life set up, one she’d worked too damn hard to abandon just because Delilah chose the wrong place to work and caught the attention of the wrong man. Even if Esther was willing, even if she could get to her sister without anyone noticing …
“You’re thinking about running.”
She pressed her lips together. Hard. “Of course not.”
“That’s good, Delilah. That’s really good.” He lowered his voice. “If I see you get on a plane, your little sister might suffer from an unfortunate accident. New York isn’t the safest place, after all. A thousand different tragedies could befall her.”
Her stomach lurched. How did this man get his information? He knew everything she’d done, everywhere on the island she’d gone, even when she and Ryu were alone. Maybe he didn’t have someone on the inside at all. Maybe he’d somehow hacked the system …
In the end, it didn’t matter. He had the one threat that would ensure she did anything he asked. No matter how horrific.
She closed her eyes, but it didn’t relieve the burning. If anything, it got worse. “I understand.”
“That’s good. That’s really good.” He laughed. “Enjoy your week.”
She couldn’t shake the feeling she’d just sold her soul to the devil.
And he got a hell of a bargain.
RYU BYPASSED the hub and walked directly to his suite without talking to anyone. He locked the door and pulled his phone out of his pocket.
The same phone that Delilah swiped when she went into the bathroom earlier. He’d almost missed it, had been so blissed out on what they’d just been doing that he wasn’t paying attention. If she hadn’t shot him an almost guilty look before she shut the door, he wouldn’t have investigated …
But he did.
So here they were.
It took 10 seconds to find the backdoor she’d created, probably by clicking a link in a text message. He moved to shut whoever it was out … Stopped. If he moved defensively now, whoever it was would know he was onto them. They might rabbit, and then he’d lose what little leads he had. Yes, he’d still have Delilah as a potential source of information, but even now Ryu had a hell of a time believing she’d worked here for two years without fault and suddenly become a spy.
Especially when she was so shitty at it.
No, this r
eeked of being in the wrong place at the wrong time. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what leverage they used, either. She practically had a neon sign flashing over her head every time her sister came up.
Ryu grabbed his personal laptop and did a quick search. By all accounts, Esther Velásquez was still living a normal life in New York, attending school and laying low. It would take him a few hours to dig deeper and see if she had anything to do with this mess, but he didn’t have the time right now.
He sighed.
Delilah should have come to him the second she realized how in over her head she was. She had no reason to trust the Horsemen, even though they had a long history of protecting their people. That history wouldn’t mean shit to her. Not when it came to her little sister. Her instincts to protect Esther were too ingrained, just like her belief that she couldn’t rely on anyone but herself—not really.
So, no, he wasn’t surprised that she’d tried to power through this clusterfuck alone, but hell if it didn’t sting.
Ryu shut his laptop and set it aside. There was nothing to be done for the time being. He would switch out phones and keep a few texts and calls going out on the compromised one in order to maintain appearances, to play the clueless idiot until their enemy decided to make their move. Because there would be a move. Whoever this was didn’t go through all this trouble just to get access to a phone.
Whoever this was. Ryu almost laughed. He knew who was responsible. If not by personal action, then at a least by giving the order.
His father.
Which meant it was doubly important that he not tell Amarante about this development. She might have all the appearance of being as calm and collected as ever, but he couldn’t trust her reactions would reflect that. Especially to a threat that rose from within their ranks. The double betrayal would fuck his sister up, and she’d haul Delilah out to the third little island that they only used when they had ill deeds to accomplish. Amarante would torture her, and she wouldn’t believe that Delilah didn’t know anything.
No, there was a better way to play this.
He dropped his head into his hands and let loose a rough laugh. A better way to play this? More like he didn’t want to admit that he’d started to feel things for Delilah he’d never felt for anyone before. He didn’t want her to be the cold and calculating enemy that his sister would make her out to be.
In short, he was compromised. He just wished he could give a fuck.
There was a better way around this. He just needed some time and space to figure it out, which was shitty because time and space where two things he didn’t have nearly enough of.
A knock on his door brought his head up. “Yeah?”
Amarante stepped into his room. To anyone outside their little circle, she’d seem just as put together as ever, but he’d known her his entire life. Ryu saw the exhaustion and worry she tried to conceal from him. And he saw the deep well of rage she didn’t bother to hide. She closed the door and leaned against it. “For someone who spent a night with the woman he’s been pining over for months, you don’t look particularly relaxed.”
“Like you would know.” The sharp words escaped, and then there was no calling them back. Ryu sighed. “Ignore me. I’m just tired.”
But Amarante, being Amarante, wasn’t about to let him off the hook so easily. She tilted her head to the side, her long black hair flowing over her shoulder. “I wouldn’t know what relaxation looks like? Or I wouldn’t know anything about fucking someone I care about all night?”
“Damn it, Te.” He shook his head. “I’m sorry, okay? Everything is backwards right now, even things with Delilah. It’s not simple, and it’s not easy, and it’s messing with my head.” He held up a hand. “But that’s no reason for me to take it out on you. I’m sorry.”
For a second, he thought she might push the issue, but her shoulders dropped a fraction of an inch. “We’re all wound too tightly right now.”
“You can say that again.”
She walked over and dropped down onto the bed next to him. “It’s going to get ugly, Ryu. Really ugly.”
“I know.” He leaned his shoulder against hers, offering the only comfort she’d accept. “We’ll get through it. We always get through it.”
“Maybe not this time.” She shook her head before he could question those cryptic words. “Let’s go. Chances are we’ll have to haul Kenzie out of bed with her Irishman, but Luca and his princess are already in the hub.”
Luca and his princess.
Kenzie and her Irishmen.
Their tiny family was a little less tiny now, even if none of the new bonds would ever be as strong as the original ones. Somehow it didn’t matter. Liam and Cami made life better, and not only because they made his siblings happy. They represented a future that might extend past this vendetta.
He just wished he could look into that same future and see something like their happily ever after for himself. Instead of an asset who was determined to do whatever it took for the sake of love, he’d gone and lost his mind over a woman who showed all evidence of being a traitor.
An active traitor.
“Ryu?”
He pushed thoughts of Delilah away. Amarante couldn’t divine thoughts, but she read people well enough that she might as well be able to. “Yeah?”
“We’ll get through this.”
“I know.” He wished the words didn’t feel so much like a lie.
CHAPTER 11
A n hour later, the inner circle of the Island of Ys took their places in the main room of the hub. Six now, instead of their original four. All were uncharacteristically quiet as Amarante paced in front of them. Ryu studied his siblings’ faces, finding no evidence of wanting to turn from their course. Both Liam and Cami seemed just as resolute.
It should have made him feel better. This was what they’d been working toward for so long, after all. They couldn’t afford a stumble or second-guessing or anything that might draw them away from finishing this once and for all.
Like knowing that someone wanted to spy on them and keeping it to themselves. Like not sharing that Delilah was compromised.
Amarante stopped and turned on her heel to face them fully. “You’re not going to like this.”
Everything in Ryu went still, all his tangled bullshit over Delilah disappearing in an instant of perfect clarify. “What did you do, Te?”
She smoothed her hands down her red silk shirt. “We are going to have a summit, of sorts.”
“A summit.” Luca leaned forward and winced when the move pulled at his injury. “We agreed to plan together. Organizing a summit without talking to us? Are you out of your fucking mind?”
“You will cease reacting until you have all the information.” She didn’t raise her voice, but she didn’t have to. There were too many times in their past when her orders saved them. Even now, as adults, they responded to that tone. “I didn’t plan a summit. I am attending one.”
The distinction clicked into place. Ryu shot to his feet. “No. Absolutely not. You’re not leaving the island.” They all left from time to time. It was unavoidable, especially when hunting their enemies. But she wasn’t talking about a hunt. She was talking about putting a target on her forehead.
She shot him an icy look that had him dropping back into his chair. “We’ll never reach him without drastic measures. You’ve seen the facts, the schematics, the schedules. We could spent the next ten years trying to plan the perfect assassination, and it wouldn’t matter because he has enough enemies to be paranoid when it comes to his security.”
“We’ll find a way.” This from Kenzie, who’d been strangely silent until now.
“If we could find a way, Ryu would have done it by now.” Amarante flung a hand in his direction.
Everyone’s attention turned to him. He wanted to say something to contradict his sister, but he couldn’t lie. Not about this. “He’s protected himself from threats both physical and digital. I can’t get to him, and his travel schedu
le is so randomized, without someone on the inside, it’s nearly impossible to anticipate with enough time to stage an assassination.”
“So it will take time,” Luca said. “That’s fine. We have time.”
“No, we don’t.” Amarante stalked to the nearest desk and perched on the edge of it. “You want to start a family.”
He startled and winced again. “That’s something we’ve only talked about in theory.” Luca shot an apologetic look over his shoulder at Cami, but she shrugged. She always seemed to roll with the punches being in love with a Horsemen brought. It was one of many things that made Ryu respect the hell out of her.
“You cannot bring children into this world while he still breathes.” She held up a hand before Luca could start in on her. “Don’t you dare act like I’m forbidding it. I’m not. I’m stating a fact. Children might be innocents, but they’re cannon fodder to someone like Fai Zhao. We know that better than anyone. I will not have my nieces and nephews raised in fear.”
Cami cleared her throat. “We’re a few years out yet, Amarante.”
“The fact remains. It could be years and longer before we get access to him. It’s an unacceptable timeline.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Which is why I accepted an invitation to the summit being hosted in one month’s time at the Warren.”
The Warren.
Ryu’s breath left his body in a rush. “Then it’s pointless. You can’t touch him while you’re there.” The Warren was a very specific kind of business with a very specific kind of owner. Hotel and resort and stage all acted as a cover for one of the few neutral territories in the world. Its owner, Nicholai, had a reputation for hosting the most dangerous people their world could offer and allowing deals to be made without anyone finding a knife in their back in the process. At least a physical one.
When the Warren first came into being, people still thought they could break the rules. It had only taken Nicholai making examples of three of them before people stopped testing him for the most part. Every few years, though, someone got it into their head that they could break the rules of neutral territory. None of them survived.
