The Final Hour (Dublin Nights Book 5)

by Brittney Sahin

  Sean’s poor parents were beside themselves with worry. Clueless as to what was going on, but they knew Christmas Eve dinner wasn’t going to happen. And forget Midnight Mass.

  “Emilia.” I looked up to see Sebastian entering with my tablet in his hand. I was behind Sean’s dad’s desk in the office where I’d remained parked for a good twenty minutes, staring at our most intimate moments on Sara’s mobile.

  Sean and I agreed she was telling the truth after Sebastian called security at his hotel. He also had his staff do a quick check of the hotel records and discovered a service order to an outside company had been placed to repair supposed faulty electrical wiring in the penthouses two weeks before I even arrived.

  Sebastian’s name must have been forged on the order, and knowing Sebastian, he’d be chewing out his staff for not double-checking with the on-site maintenance crew to confirm there was an actual issue in the penthouses first.

  But when he had his security man text him a clip of footage from the day the electrician had arrived—Sebastian was able to confirm the electrician was Luca in disguise. Yet another time he’d ditched his tracker and had been bold enough to walk through the front door of Sebastian’s hotel.

  Only a man like Luca, who’d been best friends with Sebastian and knew the ins and outs of the hotel, could have come up with such a devious idea. And he’d clearly known I always stayed at Sebastian’s hotel when in Dublin.

  The security guard found a wireless endoscope snake camera hidden inside the chandelier over not just my bed but the one in the other penthouse. Luca must not have known which suite I’d stay in.

  Those types of cameras could be bought online for cheap, but Luca must’ve modified and rigged it to bypass our counter security measures. I regretted the fact I never got around to setting up the devices Roman had sent me. Surely those would’ve picked up the signal.

  But I had to assume that due to Luca’s mods, he could only transmit the footage to a nearby device. So, he needed someone inside one of the two suites, which was where Sara came in. With a click of a button, she was able to send the footage to the app he’d had her download on her mobile.

  Sara was naïve for someone capable of managing three international stores. Then again, Luca had also fooled Sebastian for years, which was no easy feat. So, anyone was fair game to fall victim to that man. And once he’d ensnared her, she was stuck whether she wanted to be there or not. A mouse with her tail trapped and nowhere to go. Luca’s mistake was not killing Sara before she owned her shitty decisions and told Ethan the truth.

  Luca had sent me to London to discover Atlas’s affair, then worked Sara into our lives and into the bedroom next door, and now the video footage. What had been the purpose of that? Why would he need to prove Sean and I were sneaking around together?

  My stomach plummeted, and my skin grew clammy when realization dawned on me.

  “I know why Luca did it,” I murmured.

  Sean had his back to the wall, near where Ethan had punched a hole into it. Plaster particles lay on the floor next to spilled whiskey and an empty glass.

  Sean looked to Sebastian and back at me, waiting for the revelation to spill from my lips.

  “Rule one.” I stood, my legs shaky, and Sean’s face went ghost-white at my quick words. “He’s going to turn the other League leaders against us with the proof we were ignoring League rules. They won’t trust us. He wants to weaken me. Us. And The League by tearing us apart.”

  “Damn it,” Sebastian said under his breath, but Sean remained pale, most likely in shock. I was in denial, too. And yet, some strange part of me felt almost free. If they kicked me out of The League . . . “We’ll deal with that soon. First”—he set the tablet in front of me—“we need to listen in on this conversation. I got an alert there’s activity on Atlas’s listening device.”

  I set the mobile face down on the desk and eyed my iPad.

  Sebastian leaned forward and turned on the app. “And the good news, this device is something Luca doesn’t know about.”

  Sean circled the desk to stand beside me as we listened. Two people were talking, and they were speaking Greek. We’d need to translate since my Greek was sorely lacking.

  “I think that’s Penelope talking with Atlas.” I sat taller and clutched the chair arms.

  “Speak English,” Atlas hissed a moment later, clearly angry about something Penelope was saying. “I have men out in the hall, and I don’t need them overhearing you mother me.”

  “Atlas, I am your mother. What do you expect?” Penelope’s voice was softer. “You’re packing up and leaving on Christmas Eve. We’ve never spent a holiday away from each other. Where could you possibly be going? Why would you leave me alone?”

  Now it made sense as to why we were finally picking up conversation. He was traveling.

  “You’re not alone. You have ten guards here.” The sound of a zipper followed Atlas’s words.

  “Please, son. You’ve been acting so strange lately. I’m worried. And now this,” Penelope went on.

  Penelope was a beautiful woman, and I could see why my father had been physically attracted to her. Tall, curvaceous, with long black hair and striking brown eyes. She spoke five languages from what I’d learned. Brilliant and kind. And when Chanel died, I was certain a part of her died, too. She stopped seeing Papà after that, and it broke his heart.

  “You have been spending hours at the gym every day. Theo says you’ve been training. Fighting, I mean.”

  “Theo ought to mind his own business and not run to my mother to report my daily activities,” Atlas grumbled in response.

  Please give us something useful. I didn’t want to listen in on a mother and son argue on Christmas Eve.

  “You’re going to do it, aren’t you? The Final Hour. That’s why you’re fighting, is it not? You’re in love with a married woman. Bridgette Krause. Theo says—”

  “Are you sleeping with him?” Atlas barked out. “He’s my right-hand man, as he was Father’s, but the way you constantly go on and on about him, it has me wondering who I can trust in my circle if he’s going to be screwing you.”

  “Atlas, how dare you speak to me like that.” Penelope’s voice dropped to a whisper.

  “No, that’s right. You’re still mourning him, aren’t you?” Atlas bit out as if he were chewing on words that gave him a bad taste in his mouth.

  Sean and I quickly glanced at each other, then lowered our eyes back to the iPad as if we could see Penelope and Atlas displayed there as Atlas continued talking.

  “Father suspected the affair. I overheard him talking in his office to Theo. Years before he died. He figured there was only one reason why you were so adamant he didn’t have Calibrisi or his only daughter killed over the years—because you loved the man.”

  A tight fist-like pain formed in my stomach, and I closed my eyes. This was not the conversation I expected to overhear. It was too much. Too painful. The memories were choking the air from my lungs.

  “So, who do you love? Your new man, Theo? Your old lover, Calibrisi? Or Father? Did you ever even love Father?” A loud puff of air as if he’d expelled a deep breath came over the line. “Arranged marriage, I know. But was I a product of a loveless marriage? Were you forced to have me? Because I have no intention of marrying a woman I don’t love. I won’t wind up like my father. Or you.”

  “You, my son, were a product of love.” Her tone trembled when she spoke. I could visualize her hand going to his shoulder, her brown eyes glistening as she eyed her only son.

  He was quiet for a moment. “I love Bridgette, yes. And I will marry her.”

  “You want the power. The coveted German position that marrying her will bring you,” she said softly as if it broke her heart.

  “No, Mother, I’m not like Father. I just told you. I love her. I’d give up everything to be with her. The Alliance. All of it.”

  What? My pulse ratcheted higher at his words.

  “But she won’t, am I right?
And so, the only way you can have her is to fight. Go into the cage for an hour against the strongest fighters in The Alliance. You will risk death for this woman?” Penelope’s voice cracked.

  My eyes flew open. Atlas was truly in love, and he had no idea he was walking into a trap laid out by Luca and the woman who would soon break his heart when he found out the truth.

  “I never wanted this life,” Atlas roared. “Maybe Chanel was the lucky one. She got to escape.”

  Penelope’s gasp was audible. “She died! How could you say that?”

  Oh God, my stomach. I was going to be sick.

  “There’s something you should know now. It will give you time to prepare for what is inevitable,” Atlas said, his tone low. “To be with Bridgette, I’ll have to—”

  “Kill her husband,” Penelope finished for him. “I’m well aware of the ways of The Alliance. But, Atlas, my son, you’ve never taken a life. Your men have done it and made it look as though it was by your hand. I don’t believe you can commit murder. You’re right. You’re not Simon. Not cold-blooded and ruthless.” She was weeping, and I was, well, shocked.

  This Atlas was who Chanel described to me when we were younger. A lover, not a fighter. How much about Atlas were rumors to help him look strong? Undefeatable?

  “Krause is a bad man, Mother. He is a ruthless killer. The world will not miss him. And I can’t tolerate the woman I love being forced to be with that old man.”

  “The Alliance leaders will never let you get away with—”

  “I didn’t say I’d personally kill the man. But yes, he will die. Per my order.”

  Luca’s plan. Our theory so far was right.

  “But there’s more,” Penelope said a few moments later. “Oh, I can see the pain in your eyes. There’s someone else you have to hurt, isn’t there? Who? Why?” Penelope’s words were muffled as if holding a hand to her mouth.

  “A man I’m working with, he used to be League, but we trust him now, well, he believes there’s only one way Bridgette and I will ever be safe, and that’s to . . .” He let his words trail off, and I had to assume it was because of the audible crying we heard from Penelope.

  “Luca. He’s the trusted source,” Sebastian said in a low voice, his palms snapping into fists.

  “You-you can’t kill Emilia.” Penelope had stopped crying, but her voice was weak. “She was Chanel’s best friend. You never knew. They kept their friendship a secret. The two of them had a special bond. That’s one reason I never wanted Simon to hurt her.”

  “What?” Atlas was taking deep breaths between beats of silence. “Why? How?”

  “They met when I was—”

  “Sleeping with Emilia’s father?” he asked in a deep, angry voice.

  “You can’t harm her. You can’t. Please.” Desperation that stunned me to my very core bled through her words. “I’ve never asked anything of you, son, but I am asking you this.”

  “Emilia is a threat to Bridgette. Luca has proof she’s going after her. Emilia was at Bridgette’s fashion show in Scotland, wearing a disguise. She has a friend of Bridgette’s practically imprisoned in a hotel owned by the Irish leader, Sebastian Renaud. The League is looking to hurt Bridgette, and I won’t let anyone harm the woman I love. I’ll end Emilia’s life to protect Bridgette, to send a message no one messes with the woman I love.”

  Oh, that motherfucking Luca Moreau. The depths to which he planned and plotted behind our backs was almost impressive on a twisted, horrific level.

  Sean began cursing in what sounded like his own language because the anger had his words all mangled up. He tossed a hand in the air and turned his back to us.

  “You’ll also start a war,” Penelope whispered and then added in a sharper voice, “And I’m sorry, but I don’t care if Emilia were to target the Pope in Rome. She’s off-limits. Do you hear me?” Penelope’s words had Sean spinning around, a look of surprise on his face as he observed me.

  I knew she and Papà loved each other and would have lived their lives together had it been possible, but this felt . . . like more.

  My pulse continued to race. Breathing uneven. Eyes glued to the app once again.

  “You know, Father did try to kill her.” Atlas’s deep voice was weaker this time, less volatility there. “That’s what I overheard him discussing with Theo. He’d mentioned trying a few times. He said he had to make it look like someone outside of The Alliance killed her. He wanted to punish Calibrisi for loving you like he believed he did. And he didn’t want Grandfather to know about it, because for some reason, you managed to convince your father to leave the Calibrisis unharmed as well.”

  “When? Tell me what you know.” Penelope was rattled by this new information, and hell, so was I.

  When did Simon Laurent try to have me killed?

  And, oh God, if the bastard accidentally murdered his own daughter ten years ago . . . I’d bring him back from the dead to kill him again.

  “He said something about South America. I don’t know, but that obviously failed. And then he was going to try a wedding in Spain. But I think there was another time.”

  The assassins the night I met Roman.

  Paulo in Brazil.

  . . . But first, Vegas?

  “Another time.” The words snapped out of her mouth in heartbreak.

  Was Simon responsible? Did he frame the crime family in Naples for Chanel’s murder when he’d meant to have me killed instead? How could Simon have lived with himself knowing he’d killed his daughter?

  My head was spinning. Or was it the room? I needed to sit.

  I am sitting.

  I blinked rapidly, my body shivering.

  Sean came behind me and set both hands to my shoulders for support, but I barely felt him.

  “I think . . . I think Simon killed Chanel,” Penelope said, her meek, saddened tone cutting into me. “She was with Emilia that night, and oh God, I think he sent someone to murder Emilia but failed.”

  “No. Impossible,” Atlas yelled, then he began cursing in French and Greek. Freek.

  My stomach fluttered as nervous anticipation coiled tight inside my chest.

  “We can’t know that for certain since Father is dead. Theo is still too loyal to Father to share what happened. But I do know the woman I love will also die if I don’t protect her from Emilia. From The League. You can support your only living child, or you can choose to warn the daughter of a deceased lover. That’s your choice.” There was a distinct shake to the listening device as if he’d snatched the bag and was starting to move.

  “Please, wait,” Penelope called out to him. She switched back to Greek and began frantically pleading. I had no idea what she was saying, but she was most likely begging him to save me, which felt insane since she’d never seen my father again after Chanel died. And since Penelope knew the truth behind Chanel’s murder, Papà must have told her what really happened that night in Vegas. Oh God, she must have blamed him. Blamed herself even. For not finding a way to stop our friendship.

  “No, that can’t be true,” Atlas said a moment later. “I-I don’t believe you,” he hissed, and the door slammed. He began issuing commands to someone in the hall, most likely his guards, and then from the sounds of it, he passed the bag off to someone. A driver, maybe.

  “That’s it,” Sebastian said. “Well, for now. If he meets with Bridgette to discuss his plan, we’ll be listening.”

  “I want to know what she was saying to him in Greek. Can you run it through my translator app?” I slowly rose and turned to find Sean moving the chair out of the way to drag me into his embrace.

  I let him hold me, let my guard down in front of Sebastian because I needed Sean’s strength right now.

  I could barely speak or think.

  “Atlas is walking into a trap,” Sean said darkly. “How the hell does Luca think he’ll get Emilia alone and away from us for Atlas to try and kill her?”

  “The videos,” I said into his chest, finally pulling away. “Turn The L
eague against me for breaking rule one. That’s how.”

  A string of curses ripped free from Sean’s mouth again, and he left my side, went to the wall near where Ethan slammed his fist, and bowed his head. Both hands were knotted, pressed to the wall as he tried to calm himself down. To keep from going after Luca now and killing him like I wanted to do.

  But me? I was reeling after learning the truth about Atlas. Hearing Penelope plead to save me. Knowing The League may soon turn on me, and everything Papà ever wanted for me would be over. No more legacy left to carry on. It was overwhelming.

  “I think I have it,” Sebastian said. “One second, and I’ll read it.”

  Sean backed away from the already damaged wall to join us. Eyes dark, his expression intense.

  “Penelope said,” Sebastian started, “you already lost one sister. I won’t let you kill your other one.”

  “What?” Sean eyed the tablet in confusion. “Bad translation, I assume. Try it again.”

  “Yeah, it must be wrong.” Sebastian began working at the screen again, his fingers moving fast. A slight tremble in his large hand that I had to be imagining.

  A shiver rolled down my spine, and goose bumps scattered over my skin beneath my clothes. Every part of me was frozen with the truth I knew was to come. The truth he’d already spoken.

  I’d spent years ignoring the gnawing feeling in my gut Papà had lied to me about my mother. I’d even wondered about Penelope since I’d felt so drawn to Chanel. She used to joke we could pass for sisters with the same coloring, hair, and physique. But I’d blindly obeyed and trusted Papà because he was my family. He was everything to me and all I had. I never had any reason to think he would lie to me.

  To protect you, a voice whispered inside my head. Not Chanel’s this time but Papà’s.

  I snapped my eyes shut when a memory pulled to mind. Penelope and Papà talking in bed while we were in Bali. I’d been so shocked to discover Papà sleeping with the enemy that I’d barely clung to the words I heard them say to each other.