“You talk to Luca’s uncle? You know Luca better than anyone. What is Luca up to?” I asked Sebastian, hoping to get back on the right track and pull my head out from between Emilia’s legs where my mind had taken it.
Sebastian set his back to the window and deposited his hands into his pockets. “Luca has always wanted the power he feels he was denied. He also knows if he doesn’t provide us with credible and valuable intel, he’s done. I think he’s feeding us enough information to keep himself alive while he plots a way to take a leadership position to try and safeguard himself from death.”
“No way does The League let him back in,” Cole hissed.
Sebastian’s jaw clenched. “I’m not talking about The League.”
My dick was officially down. “He’s making a play for an Alliance position, and he’s going to deliver us to get it?” I spoke my theory aloud as it came to me.
“They don’t operate that way.” Sebastian’s gaze took a slow tour around the room before landing on Emilia last.
“Oh my God.” Emilia abruptly rose to her feet. A hand banding over her abdomen. “That’s it.” Emilia circled the table and stood before us, her gaze moving back and forth. “Luca knows us, knows how we operate. He calculatingly pointed our focus onto Atlas. We discovered Bridgette’s affair, and he fed us Atlas’s travel dates to confirm the affair without actually telling us about it. He knew exactly what we’d do. If Luca’s working with Peter, it’s possible he promised Peter a way to deal with both Atlas and The League. Help Peter become the most powerful Alliance leader.”
“And in return, Luca earns himself a high-level position, possibly assuming control of France. And France has always been the country Luca wanted when in The League,” Sebastian added on.
I balled my hands into fists and slammed them into the window, which had it vibrating. I ignored the pain since my hand was already achy from the fight with Adam yesterday morning.
“Somehow, Sara is Luca’s avenue to try and take us down. He’s even got her under League protection. That attack was most likely fake. He expected Ethan to show that night and then call me for help.” How could I let Sara share a bed with my brother knowing this? Well, it was still a theory but a damn good one. I needed facts first. Proof, I reminded myself. Ethan was blinded by his feelings for her, and he’d only hate me if I suggested a hint of the truth without anything to back it up.
How the hell were we supposed to resume our holiday fun knowing this?
My spine straightened at the realization that we actually could, and quite easily.
We knew the bastard’s plan. And he didn’t know we knew, which meant we could finally have the upper hand.
A slow smirk touched my lips. “The plan needs to be changed, but I say we take this son of a bitch down in Monaco,” I said in a low, deep voice. “It ends there.” I looked to my cousin and then on to everyone before meeting Emilia’s eyes. This holiday might be the only time I had with Emilia. I refused to let Luca take that from me. “Luca may have thrown us a curveball or two”—I stared deep into Emilia’s brown eyes—“but this fecker is not going to ruin our Christmas.”
Chapter Eighteen
Emilia
“Damn him.” I switched the mobile to FaceTime and leaned it against the glass mirror above the vanity in the bathroom so Roman could see why I was cursing. “Look what he sent me to wear tonight.”
Roman cupped a hand over his mouth. “It’s, uh, not that bad.” His mumbled words had me rolling my eyes.
“Hiding the quiver of your lip won’t erase the smile I can hear in your voice.” I shook my head and glared at the hideous green V-neck jumper staring back at me from the mirror’s reflection. “I look like a gaudy Christmas tree.” I flicked one of the little red balls hanging beneath a swag of glittery gold garland. One row of garland would have been bad enough, but there were four of the dreadful things cutting across the front, each one embellished with little red and green balls that swung when I moved. Let’s just see how a certain someone likes blue balls instead of red and green. But the pièce de résistance were the five gold jingle bells representing buttons that ran down the middle. Great. Everyone within a kilometer would hear me approaching like I was a damn cow. “Guess he chose this one because he knew he’d get an eyeful of my boobs.”
I momentarily shifted the camera so Roman wouldn’t see me shoving and adjusting my bra from the outside of my jumper, trying to keep my breasts from escaping the deep V-neck of the ridiculous thing.
“There’s some statistic out there about Christmas sweaters being the key to happiness. Look it up.”
“You may be the smartest guy I know, but you’re full of shit on that one.” And Roman really did have a genius-level IQ. In fact, he was almost too smart. His superior reasoning ability was most likely the culprit in preventing him from pursuing the woman I knew he was in love with. The dangers of overthinking. I knew all about that.
Roman was one of the few people I let my guard down around, and it was nice having him in my corner. He wasn’t quite as broody as Sebastian, but he had his moments.
I snatched the phone and went into my bedroom, holding it at arm’s length to peer at him. Sean would be here soon to pick me up, and then I’d have my chance to flip him to his back as punishment for this jumper. Of course, the idea of straddling him and taking him on the floor, riding the hell out of him before we went out tonight sounded rather appealing.
It was hard to believe tomorrow was Christmas Eve. The week had flown by. We’d been wrapped up in holiday activities with his family, and we’d spent every free moment having sex.
Sean convinced everyone at the club Tuesday night to carry on with our lives this week despite what we guessed was Luca’s plan. We had League members doing the legwork and the preparations for Monaco. And we had eyes on Luca every second of the day.
So, Sean won. We chose not to let Luca ruin Christmas. Plus, Sean took every opportunity to distract me by using his tongue and his impressive cock to get me off, which had done wonders for my psyche as well.
He was right, though. This week was our chance to experience a little semblance of normalcy, a normal I was chasing like an elusive dream because I knew what Sean and I had would come to an end soon. This relationship had an expiration date that was fast approaching.
He was a strong man, but he wasn’t raised to be a warrior like me. He didn’t have a steel cage around his heart to keep it from breaking. So, it was important I still tried to maintain some sort of distance between us, which I’d done by slipping out of his bed every night and even slipping out of my own bed when he fell asleep at the hotel this week. The only time I’d allowed myself to sleep in his arms was in Scotland. I couldn’t bring myself to do it again.
But no matter how much sex we had, how many times he brought me to climax, I couldn’t get enough of him. I only wanted more. More of everything he had to give to me in our short time together.
I frowned, my stomach hurting at the idea things would truly end between us. Luca aside, this week had been magical with him.
The only hard part was plastering on a fake smile whenever Sara was around. We’d decided to hold off on interrogating her for information like I wanted to do. For one, her disappearance would tip off Luca we were onto him, and also, Sean had a soft spot for his kid brother. He didn’t want to devastate him before Christmas, especially without proof. But Sean had to know Ethan would be out for blood, all of ours, when he learned we’d kept the truth from him.
I gulped at the realization Sean might feel the same toward me, Cole, and Sebastian when he learned we’d lied about the German thug. I needed to be straight with Sean soon, didn’t I? We agreed not to tell him that the German had died until after the holidays. But we hadn’t defined which holiday—Christmas or New Year’s. I was hoping for the latter.
“Emilia? Where are you?” Roman snapped his fingers in front of the screen and set his back to the dark green wall. “I lost you for a second. But hey, I thought
you called for an update, not to complain about your holiday getup.”
“Ah, snarky on me tonight, aren’t you? That’s new,” I teased. “Well, we’ve talked every day this week, and you’ve yet to discover Luca’s evil plan, so I’m assuming you’re about to let me down again?”
“Well, damn,” he said around a chuckle. “Tell me how you really feel.”
“I trust Harper’s computer program is working overtime to figure out this problem. Which is mine, by the way, and not yours, but—”
“Bad guys are bad guys, Emilia. You don’t own them. They’re our problem as much as yours.” Roman was pretty straightforward, which I respected.
“You on your childhood bed?” I asked, deflecting his question once again.
“The only room where I can escape my sisters.” He smirked, his white teeth showing.
“Not spending Christmas with your friends this year? Harper?” I shouldn’t push him because what if he pressed about Sean? But this jumper had me acting a fool already.
His shoulders lifted and fell with a deep, drawn-out sigh. That wasn’t a good sign.
“Did you make it clear to Harper that you and I are only friends?” And there I went again. Two for two. “I saw the way she looked at me at my place in October. We’ve known each other since—”
“I saved you from some creepy assassins who dropped down out of the sky at that wedding years ago,” he cut me off because, of course, he’d rather talk about that than Harper.
“By the way, you got Sebastian in a lot of trouble with his wife,” I scolded, but in this jumper, I probably didn’t come across all that serious.
“Bad guys don’t count.” He lifted his shoulders as if that were answer enough.
“Not everyone feels that way. Besides, what you do is nowhere near what we do. You’re military.”
He worked his jaw a little as if he wanted to say more but wasn’t capable of getting “more” out. I could relate.
“Roman.”
“Emilia,” he countered in a dramatic voice like a big brother would respond if I’d been lucky enough to have one. He could be my adopted brother, like Sebastian, I supposed.
“How’s Sean? Break his heart yet?” And I had that coming.
Roman’s brows rose, warning me to quit while I was ahead and not poke the bear.
“Wait, aren’t we supposed to be talking about what you didn’t find out yet?”
“You’re making the assumption today was another unsuccessful day.”
“Yeah, because you wouldn’t have been sitting on your thumbs waiting for me to call if you had some intel.”
He laughed. “Touché, but I should have something for you soon. Luca isn’t stupid enough to use the same disguise every time he removed his tracker and traveled without wanting you to know about it.”
“I know, but you also promised me you have the best cyber minds in the world working with you,” I jested, reminding him of our last call, and the one before that, and so on. In all fairness, I’d asked my contacts at MI6 to help, and they were coming up empty, too. “I really appreciate all your help. You know that, right?”
“Hey, we pretty much got your castle in Sicily blown to hell in October, so we owe you. Plus—”
“Bad guys are bad guys,” I repeated his earlier words. “And it’s not a castle.”
“Harper’s tinkering with her program as we speak. Adding more data to the algorithm to give the software an assist in recognizing Luca and seeing beyond his disguises so we can find where he went when he was without his tracker.”
My shoulders sagged with guilt. “You know what, enjoy your holiday.” That’s what we were all trying to do here, so why shouldn’t he? “Tell Harper to do the same. We can regroup after Christmas.”
“Harper’s program will still be working even if we’re not behind a laptop.” He tipped his chin. “And maybe take your own advice and relax for the holidays.”
“Have you seen me?” I pointed to my jumper. “I’m wearing a Christmas tree. You can’t get more holiday spirit than that.” I gave him a nod and said, “Okay, so we’re agreed. Don’t call me until after Christmas. You still think your team can make it over for an assist during the final takedown? I originally thought you could help virtually, but I think I need extra boots on the ground. People I can trust without question. Our plan also requires the assistance of someone with better cyber skills than mine.”
“You sure you still want our help? I mean, it’s taking us soooo long,” he joked.
I shook my head and laughed. “Of course. We need all the help we can get. We have people set up all over the world, but I’d like you by my side if possible.”
“You know I’ll be there,” he said with a tight nod. “Well, as long as I’m not jumping out of a plane or hiking through a jungle hunting down some other bad guy,” he added in a serious tone.
“In that case, can you pencil me in for New Year’s Eve? Maybe New Year’s Day, too?”
“See, I can’t tell if you’re kidding or not.” He smiled.
“Regardless of any intel you find, we’re going to make a play in Monaco.” I paused. “Just think about it. Talk to your people. Sean is going to be here any second, though. I should get going.” I left the bedroom, walking with the mobile held out in front of me.
“Have fun. Oh, and before I forget, did you get the care package I overnighted you?”
I went into the kitchen and eyed the open box on the counter. “Your definition of care package could use some work.” I poked around the bubble wrap to look at the electronics.
“You rather I send you chocolate and fuzzy socks?”
I picked up one of the small black electronic boxes and examined it with my free hand. “No, these spy gadgets are more my speed. But I do have my own. We just had the place swept for bugs, so you didn’t need to go to the trouble. I have contacts at MI6 who provide me with the latest and greatest.”
He guffawed. “Yeah, our stuff will make theirs look like it’s from the Stone Age. Those black boxes I sent you can pick up any and all signals. If it’s streaming a signal or connected to Wi-Fi, no matter how great their tech is, you’ll pick up on it.”
I frowned and set one of the small squares back inside the box. I’d position them around my hotel room later. Maybe Sean’s flat, too. Then we wouldn’t need to have my place checked for spyware and listening devices as frequently as we were.
We couldn’t be too careful, I supposed. I had my own countermeasures to prevent anyone from monitoring my conversations, but Roman was right. Their tech was probably superior to what MI6 gave me. “Thank you. And, Roman, have a merry Christmas. I hope you get everything you wished for.”
“Not possible,” he replied in a low voice, his light mood quickly changing, “but you too.” He ended the call, and I tucked the burner into my purse and went to the door.
I mentally prepared myself for the smirk on Sean’s face when he saw me in this jumper, then swung open the door.
But it was me that nearly died laughing instead.
Sean opened his palms. “What?”
He had on a red jumper with an upside-down snowman on the front. But the icing on the cake was the orange carrot nose poking straight out from the jumper and strategically located close to the bottom, with two green balls hanging beneath it. “Not blue balls, huh?”
He stepped forward and pulled me into an embrace like I was his. Like I’d always belonged to him and always would. “You took care of that for me this week,” he said in a teasing tone before sweeping an index finger from my collarbone down to my cleavage.
“They might go back to that color since you’re making me wear this hideous thing,” I teased.
“Are you kidding? You look phenomenal.” His husky tone was hypnotizing as he dragged his palm back up until I lost sight of his hand. He tugged at my hair, fisting it into a ponytail to pull me in for a heated kiss as he walked me backward and into the hotel room.
The door swiftly shut, and h
e gently took hold of either side of the V at the neck of the jumper and pulled the sides down my arms. “Maybe I’ll be turning blue after all. Thinking about you in this white lacy bra while we’re out all night,” he said after exposing my bra and seeing the surprise I’d picked out earlier at a store. Not Sara’s place, of course.
His thumb dipped beneath the cup of my bra and teased my nipple, which had my sex thrumming with excitement.
When I stepped out of his reach and cupped both my breasts, he brought a hand over his trousers, along the hard ridge of his erection as he observed me.
Starting at the tall, black boots I was wearing with my black skinny jeans, his eyes slowly climbed up my body to my hands covering my breasts.
“All good things come to those who wait.” I seductively wet my lips. “Also, payback for this jumper.” I winked and fixed my jumper back in place. Sean groaned and kept a hand to his crotch.
“And . . . blue.” He quickly captured my waist and brought me flush with his chest. Hands on my body. Lips tight to my mouth. Desire pouring out of the both of us and mingling in the air. “You’re mine later.” He slapped my ass while still holding on to me, and it took all my strength not to rip his jumper over his head and go down on him. Alleviate the pain between his legs so then he’d help me release the tension between mine.
“I talked to Roman. Still no updates. And silence continues to be the theme on the listening devices.” And oh, by the way, the German died. Internal bleeding. But I kept that update to myself.
Sean loosened his grip on me. His lust dialing down at the mention of work but not enough to send the message to his hard length still pressed to my body.
“That means we can keep enjoying the holidays, I suppose. Reality can wait.” He brought his mouth to my ear. “So, you think you’re ready for this night?”
His warm breath tickled my ear and sent shivers over my skin—every part of me pebbling, including my nipples. I looked into his eyes and hooked my arms behind his neck. “I can handle almost anything you throw at me.” Just not love. I couldn’t handle that.
The Final Hour (Dublin Nights Book 5) Page 21
