by Lexi Blake
“A friend? I had no idea you were meeting a friend. Is it Theresa? She seems nice enough.”
Theresa worked in promotions and outreach for the UOF. She was ten years older and spent all her free time with her husband and five kids. “No. It’s not Theresa.”
She could hear his disapproval over the phone. “Well I hope it’s not the younger girls, Avery. They can be rather wild. I don’t like the thought of you getting involved in their antics.”
Sometimes he sounded like an overprotective father. “It’s no one from the office. It’s a man I met yesterday at the museum, but it doesn’t look like he’s going to show up.”
There was a long pause. “I had no idea you were looking for male companionship.”
What was wrong with Thomas? His tone had gone positively glacial. “I wasn’t really looking. I sort of fell into him.”
“Well, it’s probably best he didn’t show up. Men take advantage of women like you.” His voice went right back to silky smooth. “So I’ll be expecting you in twenty minutes or so? I’ll have chef make a nice luncheon.”
His words sort of faded into the background because Lee was standing right in front of her. There was no mistaking him. He was staring at her, the heat from those emerald eyes nearly scorching her. She couldn’t tell if he was still flaming mad or happy to see her. She just knew that she was so very aware of him.
Her heart sped up. Was this lust? Love at second sight? It didn’t really matter because she felt something for the first time in forever. She’d fooled herself that she was fine, that she was over the tragedy and starting to live again, but everything she’d felt had been echoes of real emotion.
This was what she’d missed for years. Heart-pounding desire at the very sight of him.
“I have to go, Thomas. He’s here.” Even to her own ears, her voice sounded breathy.
“What? Avery, we should talk about this. What do you know about this man?”
She knew that he’d gotten tired of waiting. Lee stalked the distance between them.
“Hang up the phone, Avery,” he said in a deep voice that brooked no disobedience. Yeah, she kind of liked that, too.
“I’ll see you on Tuesday, Thomas. Sorry I can’t make it for lunch.” She hung up the phone and looked up. He was invading her space, forcing her to tilt her head up to look at him. It was a blatant show of alpha male dominance. He was bigger. He was taller. He was stronger. “Hi, Lee.”
His dark hair was falling over his forehead as he stared down at her. “Did you decide you could afford me?”
Tears filled her eyes. Damn it, she’d told herself she wasn’t going to cry. “Are you going to make me regret coming here?”
If she had to, she would make her apology and then leave. It had been a dumb mistake, but she hadn’t meant to hurt him.
His eyes softened slightly, his hand coming out to touch her hair. He brushed a loose strand away from her face. “Why are you here?”
She could totally save face. She could apologize and walk away and then she never had to know if he would reject her. He could be perfectly relegated to fantasy. She would be safe. She could make her way to Thomas’s place and spend the afternoon playing chess and having tea, and she would never know if Lee might have changed her life.
“Because I want you to forgive me for being so afraid.”
He looked down at her chest, blatantly eyeing the valley of her breasts that were oh so visible because Adam had convinced her the V-neck sweater was a good idea. “Is this new look for me?”
“I wanted to be pretty.” If he laughed at her, she would likely break down.
A brilliant smile crossed his face, like the sun coming out from behind the clouds. “You can’t not be pretty, Avery. You’re beautiful. And you’re forgiven. Tell me something, sweetheart. Did you come here to just be my friend? I made it very plain what I want from you.”
Sex. God, he wanted sex. “I’m nervous. I don’t really know you.”
“Then you should get to know me.”
“You’re going to leave. You’ll go back to the States.”
“Not for a while. I’m here for a couple of months and then we’ll see. Avery, I’m not going to push you. Let’s go do some sightseeing, and we’ll see where things go. I like you. Let’s consider today a date and take it from there. Can you trust me that far?”
He backed off, and she could breathe again. “Yes. I would like to spend the day with you.”
She wasn’t sure she could pull off the whole brief hook-up thing, but she could go on a date. God. She was on a date. He reached out and took her hand, threading his big fingers through hers. Warmth spread across her skin.
“Come on. I want you to meet my friend. His name is Ian. Don’t let him scare you. He only looks like he eats small children for breakfast.”
Avery followed him. Her day was definitely looking up.
* * * *
Thomas stared down at the phone in his hand, an unholy rage threatening to take over.
What the hell did she think she was doing? Had she picked up some local? Or some bloody fucking tourist?
He should have insisted she stay here with him, but no, he’d sent her to the tiny flat Brian used to use because he wasn’t ready to make his play. In Dubai, he intended to meet with some doctors who could use “inventive new therapies” to strengthen his legs. He’d also scheduled some plastic surgeries of a most unusual variety. Thomas Molina had several spinal surgeries over his miserable life. The lack of scars hadn’t mattered until he’d decided to take Avery into his bed. She would be looking for scars and thin legs. He had to have a reason they were stronger than they looked. The whores he paid didn’t give a shit, didn’t even realize who he was.
Who he was supposed to be. Fuck. Sometimes it got jumbled in his head. He needed to get rid of the fucking cane so he could be a man again.
He was sick of the cane, and god he hated that fucking wheelchair. He was a man. He was a brilliant man who’d killed his way to the top, and the fact that he couldn’t just throw down Avery was starting to chafe. She should be in his bed, begging for his cock.
He should be her god.
Maybe she wasn’t as innocent as he’d thought.
Who was this fucker?
Molina took a long breath. He hadn’t gotten where he was by being impulsive. He also was a brilliant judge of character. Avery was sweet and lonely, and he’d waited too long to make his move. He’d put it off because dealing with Eli Nelson was harder now that he’d left the Agency.
Nelson was a danger to everything he held dear. Nelson was also necessary to the Lachlan Bates deal.
Ten million was too much to push aside because his dick wanted to play with someone he didn’t have to pay.
He forced himself to calm down. If he called back, he could lose her. He had to play the supportive boss. He’d been right in the first place. He needed to cull her from the herd. He needed her alone and vulnerable.
This was a long game, and he was damn good at long games. Patience had gotten him to where he was. Patience and the willingness to destroy anyone who got in his way. Even his own family. Taking care of some tourist would be a breeze.
He’d purposefully squashed her friendships here in London. A word here and a word there and suddenly no one invited her to lunch, and she was perfectly free to spend her afternoons with him. It would be even easier in Dubai. She would feel much more isolated as a woman in a Muslim country. He would make sure the people around her were friendly enough, but they would keep their distance. She would be alone, and she would feel the need to have a man protect her.
But it wouldn’t hurt to figure out who this fucker she was seeing was before he killed him. A man in his position couldn’t be too careful. The last thing he needed was some dumbass intelligence agent bumbling in and fucking everything up.
He pressed a button on his desk, and within seconds his door opened.
“You rang, sir?” Malcolm was dressed impeccably in a three-
“I need you to find Avery and follow her.”
Malcolm’s expression never left the blank, bland facade he wore even when he was slitting a throat. “Should I kill her, sir?”
Again, he was forced to hold his temper. “No. She’s got a boyfriend.”
“Will wonders never cease?”
“I don’t need your sarcasm.” Malcolm had made it clear he didn’t understand his attraction to Avery, but then the man had no use for innocence. As far as Molina knew, Malcolm’s grand love was his SIG Sauer and his bank account. “I need information on the man. I have a trace on her phone. Call her if you need to find her, but as far as I know, she was visiting the Tower of London this morning. I don’t want her to know she’s being watched.”
“And what should I do with this boyfriend of hers?” Malcolm asked, his eyes finally glinting slightly as though he was sure what was coming.
“Get me information and then you can handle things as you see fit, though you will make sure Avery is left out of it.” Yes. He liked this plan. Avery would be more vulnerable, and she would turn to him.
He’d been her boss and her friend for months. This fucker had just shown up. She would turn to him. No doubt.
He nodded toward the door, sending Malcolm out.
This man Avery was meeting had an “end-by” date. He just didn’t know it.
And when he died, Avery would turn to her friend. She would be in his arms in no time.
Calm settled over him. He was getting far too emotional. Malcolm might not understand, but Molina was self-aware enough to know what Avery’s appeal was.
He’d sold his soul long ago, but he was still able to appreciate true innocence and purity.
He just wanted to corrupt it. It was his final frontier.
When he had Avery in his bed, he would twist that pretty soul until hers was just as dark as his own. It would be fun. He would do it with pleasure and a good deal of pain—both emotional and physical. Her tears would feed his soul.
Molina pulled the file on “Lachlan Bates” and got back to work. He whistled a little while he did it. After all, work was fun.
* * * *
Liam was ready to kill Adam. He was the one who had convinced Avery to walk around with her boobs on display. He looked across the table and would swear he could practically see a nipple. He’d followed her up and down medieval prison rooms and past the crown jewels, and all he could think about was the fact that every man walking around the Tower was staring at her breasts.
And her bum. Yesterday she’d worn perfectly respectable jeans that hadn’t hugged her every curve. Those jeans yesterday hadn’t sported little diamonds on her cheeks that just begged a man to find out how much treasure was buried beneath.
“So where did you say you were from, Avery?” Ian asked in an absolutely flawless London accent. There was just the faintest hint of working class in the way he rounded his vowels.
Avery smiled at him, leaning on the table. She’d barely had half a glass of wine, but her face was already flushed and she’d relaxed, her hips brushing his in the booth.
“I’m from New York originally, but now I kind of live out of my suitcase,” she explained. She’d seemed a little wary of Ian at first, but it hadn’t taken her long to warm up. She’d teased both him and Ian about how difficult it had been for them to fit into the Tower’s narrow staircases and small rooms. The Tower hadn’t been built for bulky men.
This was what Ian had been waiting for. There was no question in Liam’s mind. He’d been waiting for a break so he could get her to talk about her job. A knot of guilt twisted in Liam’s gut, and he rather wanted to go back to the hours when they’d just been tourists enjoying their time together. He’d been to London many times, toured the Tower, but seeing it through Avery’s enthusiastic eyes had been a novel experience. She’d wanted to see everything. She’d stood on the yard where Anne Boleyn had walked, and he could see her mind wandering, likely imagining what it had been like to have her hours numbered, trapped inside.
“So what exactly do you do?” Ian asked.
“I’m kind of a Girl Friday. I assist my boss with the running of the charity.”
“United One Fund,” Liam offered. “The way she explained it yesterday, it’s a relief fund.”
“We go into war-torn or disaster hit countries and offer food, water, all the necessities. We also offer microlending. We’ll give out small loans of as little as fifty to a hundred dollars, and it helps women in Third World countries start businesses and begin to support themselves and their children. We work with a couple of medical charities, too.”
She was a believer. It was right there on her face. Avery Charles believed she was saving the world in some small way. Liam had thought that once, back in his SAS days. Back before he’d found himself in a dingy, blood-soaked hellhole.
Avery might believe, but Liam had his doubts. If her boss was so very angelic, what was he doing meeting with Eli Nelson? And what did Nelson want with a humanitarian organization?
“So the organization is based in the States?” Ian asked. To an outsider, it would seem to be a very polite question. Just a friend asking all the trivial things of a new girlfriend. But Ian Taggart already knew the answers to his questions. Most of them, anyway. He wanted to trap Avery in a lie.
Seemingly of their own accord, Liam’s fingers brushed against hers. Ian wouldn’t catch her in a lie. She didn’t know how to lie.
“I wouldn’t say based exactly. There are small offices all over the place. The London office is one of the biggest, but Thomas is planning on spending most of the rest of the year in Dubai. From there we’ll tour a lot of Africa.”
“That’s interesting.” And potentially very dangerous. Thomas Molina would be a target of kidnappers and any number of troubles. “Does your boss do this every year?”
She shook her head. “Oh, no. This is brand new. Up until a couple of years ago, Thomas ran everything from his place in upstate New York. He was very isolated. He had a childhood accident that caused his legs to be very weak.”
“So Molina just one day decided to see the world?” Liam asked. It was odd. Liam had read a couple of reports that hinted Molina was agoraphobic.
“I guess so,” Avery replied. “He seems to really love it here in England. We go for walks in St. James’s Park, and he has this place he loves to eat at. It’s got a view of the Thames and St Paul’s Cathedral. He meets a friend there every now and then. It’s all very mysterious. I keep his appointment book, but he never asks me to put down a name. Just that he’s having lunch there and shouldn’t be disturbed. I kind of think it’s a woman. I have to admit I’m a little curious.”
It wasn’t a woman Molina was meeting. It was Eli Nelson. And he would love to know when that next meeting was going to take place. The booth they were in was small. Liam decided to make it a little smaller by taking up more space. He put an arm around the back of the booth and scooted close to her, his fingers brushing her shoulders.
She leaned into him, accepting the affection. But his move had shoved her hips right up against her purse.
“Why don’t you put that monstrosity over on Ian’s side of the booth? He isn’t doing anything interesting with half his seat.”
Ian grimaced. “Well we can’t all get to London and find a girl in a matter of days. I’ve been here for years, and I’m still bloody alone. Some of us work more slowly.”
From what Liam had heard from Alex last night, Ian had already slept with a couple of subs. He was plowing his way through The Garden the way he did back at Sanctum. Always with a contract, never for more than a night or two. “Yeah, buddy, you’re going to die alone the way you’re going.”
Ian shrugged. “At least it’s peaceful. And hey, I can now say I’m dating Avery’s bag.”
Avery handed it over. Ian settled it to the side, giving the big black bag plenty of space, and the minute Avery turned her head, Liam watched him palm her cell phone. It was buried in his pocket before Avery could look back.
Ian slid from the booth and stretched. “I’m hitting the loo. Be back in a minute.”
Copying and tagging her phone was the first line of business today. They would pull down all the data she had and then place a small tracking device in it so they could locate her. They would dupe the phone and the number so when Avery received a call, they could listen in. Liam didn’t have a single reservation about doing it. It was a clear invasion of her privacy, but it was also the best way to protect her if her boss was dirty.
But it required that the subject not realize her phone had ever been taken.
“Maybe I should follow Ian’s lead. I think I’ll try to find the bathroom and fix my hair. I got a little windblown,” Avery said.
And naturally she would take her purse and check her phone. She was a creature of habit. She routinely checked her phone for messages. He had to break that routine.
He turned slightly in his seat, his arm curling around her shoulders. “Stay with me for a minute. I haven’t gotten you alone all day. I’m glad you came to find me today, Avery.”
Her eyes went wide as she looked up at him, but he watched her make a decision. She forced herself to relax, letting her body cuddle close to his. “I almost didn’t. I was afraid you wouldn’t talk to me.”
“Somehow I think I would have been back at your doorstep in a day or two. I was a little miffed that you thought I was a hustler, but when I calmed down, I realized I hadn’t told you the whole truth about myself. I came on strong. It’s kind of a part of my personality. I thought about it all last night. Maybe you were picking up some clues I was giving you, but you came to the wrong conclusion.” Honesty worked at times. Honesty would keep her sitting right where she was until Ian had found Alex and they’d gotten the job done. Alex had been shadowing them all day, waiting for a chance. “I’m certainly not a hustler, but I do have some…proclivities you might want to know about before you make the decision to become involved with me.”
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