“Sebastian, don’t!”
I stilled at the sound of Holly’s voice, but I couldn’t let go. What Luca did, how could I?
“Don’t do this.” She touched my back. “Alessia wouldn’t want this.”
“I don’t know,” I replied and finally let Luca go. He fell back onto the ground, gasping for breath.
I turned to face Holly, and she wrapped her arms around me. I stole a glimpse of The League guard who’d escorted her into the club, which he shouldn’t have done.
“Alessia’s alive,” I whispered into her ear, hoping if I said the words aloud, it’d ensure they were true. “She’s alive,” I repeated, then sank to my knees and fecking sobbed.
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Sebastian
“What are you doing here?” I handed off my luggage and looked back at Cole.
“You’re taking the McGregor jet to Russia to find your sister. You actually expected I’d stay behind?” He brushed past me and climbed the stairs to board the plane.
Getting Holly to stay behind had been a challenge, but the idea of her going into a League prison housing criminals had made me insane. And the idea my sister had spent years there . . .
I strapped in across from him. “You’re pretty banged up.”
One eye swollen. A gash through his brow. And I was pretty sure the rest of his body looked like someone had taken a bow staff to him like he was a piñata.
“It’s been three hours since you got your arse handed to you.” Luca’s Alliance buddies had done a number on him and Sean, as well as my guards. Thankfully, everyone survived. “You should be in a hospital.”
“What I need is to be there for Alessia.”
“I’m her brother.”
“I know.” His gaze flipped from his lap to my face, and his jaw clenched.
I leaned back in my seat, trying to get a read on him. “Alessia’s alive. I don’t know what kind of hell she’s been through, but she doesn’t need us fighting when we arrive. So, if you really want to come with me—”
“For years, I thought she was out there somewhere partying, doing God knows what. I convinced myself she was happy because she would’ve come back home if she wasn’t. I tried finding her, and then again after she sent me some cagey apologetic goodbye email—and to find out she was hiding in plain fecking sight in Dublin . . .” He gripped the arms of his chair as we started to move down the runway once we were cleared for takeoff. “But for the last several years, she was in a prison in Russia, for Christ’s sake. I was living my life, trying to forget her, and she was locked away.” He bowed his head.
“Imagine your guilt and multiply it by a thousand.” I looked out the small window off to my left. “She was under my nose this entire time. Hidden away by my best friend. I don’t even know how to process that, but I’m focusing on the fact she’s alive.” I dipped a hand into my pocket and reached for the Celtic cross Holly had given me back.
“That’s hers,” Cole said. “I gave it to her for her eighteenth birthday.”
I fought back the emotion trying to break to the surface and extended my palm. “Then you be the one to put it back on her.”
He closed his hand around the cross.
“She was in love with Ireland long before she met me,” I admitted. “Now I know why.”
His eyes shot to my face.
“Why’d she leave you?”
His forehead tightened, a touch of self-loathing in his eyes at whatever memory he may have latched on to. “She wanted a brother, but she didn’t want it to be me.”
“She had feelings for you.” Clearly beyond friendship.
“She was only twenty and in a fragile state, but I can’t help but wonder what would’ve happened had I just said Screw age.”
“You did the right thing.” Maybe he could be leader after all.
He relaxed back into his seat once the jet had reached cruising altitude. “She was so mad at her father when she found out about you. I guess when her mother died, he tried to track down your ma, only to discover she’d passed as well. He decided you wouldn’t want to know him after what he did, so he didn’t try to find you.”
“Alessia never told me.” We both grew quiet after that. I had no clue what to say, and I was certain he didn’t know either. Our guilt could fill the plane and then some. It weighed us both down.
But Alessia was alive, and Holly was now safe, so I had to focus on that.
“You still want to be leader?” I asked a few hours later.
“Now more than ever.” His eyes tightened. “It’s the best way to keep her safe.” His gaze cut to the window. “I lost her once, I’m not losing her again.”
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Off-the-grid, Russia
Sebastian
The highest peak of the Ural Mountains, Mount Narodnaya, was the only thing of view from The League prison. The slope of the mountain was covered in highland tundra.
The tires, covered in chains, crunched over the snow. The wind whistled outside and our windows rattled.
The prison, more like a much smaller version of the Palace of Versailles, wasn’t what I’d been expecting at all. I knew some League prisons were more like mansions than jails, but this had to double as Luca’s hideout, his place to escape.
“She’s in there?” Cole tapped at the window in surprise. “You’ve never been here, right?”
“No.” I blinked a few times. “The location of each prison is known only to the fixer. I tracked down the prison using Luca’s phone, and someone new is being placed in charge of the site as we speak.”
“And the guards know we’re coming?” he asked as we rolled up to the first security checkpoint.
“I spoke with them, as well as another League leader. They’re prepared for our arrival.”
“Tell me the prison Luca’s going to won’t look like this?” he asked once we’d passed through security.
I bit down on my back teeth. “No, the place he’s going to will make Guantanamo Bay look like a day spa.” We had two locations we reserved for the worst offenders, and one of them had been mine when I’d been a fixer.
I’d called Moreau after Holly had stopped me from killing Luca and made a new deal. Once I’d recounted what Luca had done to my sister, I stipulated the only way I would allow Luca to live was if he rotted in my old facility.
Our driver parked in the circular driveway, which had been cleared of snow. Two armed guards in heavy coats with automatic weapons slung over their shoulders opened our doors.
I tightened my jacket and grabbed the winter coat I’d brought with me for Alessia off the seat and stepped out of the vehicle, a cold snap of air whipped me in the face and cut to my bones.
“Mr. Renaud,” the guard by my door began with a bow of the head, “we had no idea prisoner seven-nine-eight was your—” The Russian guard let go of his words and muttered an apology for referring to my sister by her number.
“Where is she?” My breath was visible as I spoke, the frigid air grabbing on to my words and turning them into a cloud. I peered at the ivory structure with threads of gold crisscrossing the windows like bars.
“We brought her down to the guards’ living quarters,” he answered, terror in his eyes as if worried I’d punish him.
I wanted to pump him for intel to learn how she’d been treated, but I didn’t want to waste time. I had to get to her.
I motioned for Cole to follow me to the main doors.
“Take us to her now.” Without a word, the guard led us into the mansion.
The place was elegant, draped in red and gold linens, and other finery, but I highly doubted the prison rooms were quite as nice. And so help me, I didn’t care whose orders these men were under, if anyone ever touched Alessia, I’d end them.
Cole’s breathing was a bit labored as he tried to keep up with my pace, clutching his side as we moved down the hall.
The guard stopped outside a dark door that looked old enough to have belonged during th
e reign of Louis the Fourteenth. Clearly, Luca had spent his uncle’s money to build his own personal palace and sanctuary under the guise of a League facility.
“You ready?” the guard asked, and I nodded, my lips sealed the feck shut. I was too damn nervous. Afraid we’d come all this way, gotten our hopes up, only to discover it was some other woman and not my sister.
He pushed the door in to reveal a living room. Unexpectedly modern compared to what I’d seen so far. Two large flat-screen TVs side by side on the far side wall with leather couches and armchairs for viewing. But where was—
I let go of my thoughts when I moved farther into the space to find a nook off to the left and a fireplace. A dark-haired woman was on a blanket in front of a lit fire, her knees to her chest.
Please, be her.
“Alessia, is that you?” Cole spoke first. I’d been too entranced by the sight, nearly paralyzed by fear, worried this was another one of Luca’s games.
The woman slowly rose and turned to face us. “Sebastian.”
It was her.
Oh, God.
Alessia and I were both frozen in the moment.
Her hair was nearly to her hips, her body fitter, more muscle tone as if she’d been working out. She hadn’t aged much in her face, but she had in her eyes. Hell, her eyes were decades older.
Her gaze slowly moved off to my side where Cole stood as shocked as me. “Cole?”
I dropped the coat I’d been clutching to the ground and sidestepped it to get to her, still in a daze, but I needed to get closer, to ensure she wasn’t a mirage.
“It’s really you?” I asked as she met me halfway.
“Yes,” she cried, and I pulled her into my arms. She buried her face in my chest, and I expected a sob, but it didn’t come. Had being locked up hardened her?
“I’m so sorry.” I repeated those words over and over again until I finally let go of her.
Cole was next to us now, his eyes shadowed by years of guilt and longing. “Aless-Alessia.” Her name was like a broken whisper of regret.
“How? Why?” She blinked a few times before flinging her arms around his neck. He closed his eyes and held on to her tight. “Are you okay?” she asked. “You look hurt?”
“I’m fine,” he responded, his voice cutting out again from emotion.
“Cole and I . . . we’re working together now,” I explained.
One thing was for damn certain—he loved my sister even if he’d never told her. We had that in common, too. “Luca’s gone. You’re okay now.”
“I’m so sorry you thought I was dead. I wrote you hundreds of letters over the years, wishing I could send them to you.” Alessia pulled back from Cole and turned to me. “The both of you.”
Cole looked down at the burgundy carpet, the only clue we were still inside the Versailles rip-off of a mansion slash prison, and his shoulders sloped with guilt.
“I should’ve told you the truth about everything,” I responded, my tone an echo of my grief. “What happened to you, it’s on me.”
“It’s on Luca.” Cole’s words held venom as he lifted his gaze.
“Let’s get you out of here.” I looked to Cole, who nodded as if saying We have her back.
He snatched the coat from the floor and helped her put it on, then we went into the hall. Part of me wanted to burn the place to the ground before I left. But there were real criminals inside, and hopefully, under new leadership, the site would be run properly. As part of my last business as a League leader, I’d be ordering an audit of the prison to ensure everyone inside actually belonged there.
Cole halted in the foyer and turned toward one of the guards. “Surely she told you who she really was, why didn’t you look into it?” It was a valid point. Had these men been more loyal to Luca than to the laws of The League?
“I didn’t know,” the Russian answered, his red mustache, perched over thin lips, moved as his face tightened.
“I don’t believe you.” I let go of Alessia to confront him.
“He’s not lying,” Alessia came to his defense. “And the guards treated me exceptionally well, too.”
I looked between the guard and Alessia, and his shoulders relaxed.
“My first month here, I convinced a guard I was your sister, and he believed me. Luca had him killed.” She squeezed her eyes tight. “I convinced another guard, and he died, too. Luca told me their deaths were on my hands, and if I told anyone else, he’d keep killing them to protect the truth. And then-then he said he’d also have you killed.” Her lip trembled. “The guards were nice. They treated me really well. Those men didn’t deserve to die, and I couldn’t risk anything happening to you.”
Fuck. I pulled her back into my arms.
“Let’s go,” Cole said after a moment. “Let’s get you the hell out of here.”
We helped her into the back of the car and started for the airport. Cole slipped his hand into his jacket pocket, then took Alessia’s and gently placed her necklace in her palm. “You should have this back.”
“Will you put it on me?” she asked, her voice fragile, the vibrancy I remembered gone, but hopefully she’d find her way back to who she was before Luca stole her away.
She pivoted to the side on the backseat in the limo, and Cole shifted her hair, longer than ever, over her shoulder to her chest, then clasped the necklace. That cross was tattooed on my back, a cross given to her by a McGregor.
It was strange how we were connected.
I’d never been a big believer in fate, but I guess if I could change, anything was possible.
Chapter Thirty-Nine
Holly
Five days had gone by since Sebastian and Cole had returned from Russia, bringing Alessia back with them.
Five very intense days.
Alessia hadn’t wanted to talk much about her time in Russia. She’d provided enough details to prevent Sebastian from being totally beside himself with guilt, though.
Her living quarters had been rather nice. The guards had taken to her right away and given her free rein of the house whenever Luca wasn’t around. But she’d never risked telling them the truth again after Luca had killed two guards and threatened Sebastian’s life.
I couldn’t begin to imagine what she’d been through. Of course, she was Sebastian’s sister, which meant she was probably tough like him. Resilient. And I believed she would get through this; she would persevere same as he had. But she didn’t have to do it alone this time. She had him and the entire McGregor clan as well.
“Here’s some tea.” I held out the cup for Alessia, but her gaze was fixed on the window.
She looked so much like her brother. Naturally golden skin from her Italian ancestry, brown eyes, prominent cheekbones, dark hair, and full lips. About my height. Above average but not runway tall like Bella. Simply stunning.
She pulled her focus my way when I sat on the couch next to her inside Sebastian’s suite. “Oh, um, thanks.” She took the cup between her palms, and she stared down at the earl grey.
She grew up in America, so maybe she didn’t like tea? “Not a tea person?”
She smiled, and it was the first one I’d seen. “What gave it away?”
“That slight crinkling of your nose as if you were convincing yourself to be nice and drink it.” I took the cup from her and set it on the table.
“Will Sebastian be back soon?” She wrapped a throw blanket around her shoulders and tightened it to her chest.
“Yeah, he’s just going over some stuff with Cole.”
“About taking over?”
I nodded, not sure what to say. Sebastian had explained everything to her, but I was still trying to understand it all. “Yeah,” I finally answered. “The League voted yes last night at the meeting, so there’s a lot for Cole to learn, I suppose.”
“I hate that he’s going to leave his sister.” She shot a shy smile my way. “Your cousin, I mean.”
“I’m surprised we never met when I visited New York.”
“And if we had, and you recognized me in Dublin before Luca . . .” Her attention whipped back to the windows.
“I would’ve told Cole,” I finished for her. “Because he’d spent a long time looking for you.”
“The first nine or so months after I found Sebastian, I’d been traveling with him sort of off-the-grid as I tried to convince him letting me into his life wasn’t a mistake. I’m not surprised Cole didn’t find me.”
“And yet, you somehow found Sebastian.”
She looked back at me. “My dad sort of helped me, I guess. He clued me in that a family friend was in the CIA. High-ranking, too. He asked him to help me before he died.” She closed her eyes, a familiar pull of guilt on her face. Like brother like sister. “I kept the details from Cole.”
I wanted to ask why, but the woman was held captive for years, and I hoped she’d open up when she was ready. I cared about my cousin, too, and I knew how distraught he’d been when he’d lost her. I only hoped they’d get a fresh start if that’s what they wanted, at least.
I reached for two chocolate truffles from the bowl on the table and offered her one.
She toyed with the candy between her fingers but didn’t open it.
Me? I needed the chocolate to cope with this all. I was probably in need of a size up in jeans from all the “coping” I’d been doing in the last five days, too.
Her dark brown eyes shifted to my face as I popped the chocolate ball into my mouth, and the smooth milky center touched my tongue. “I don’t know if Cole can be the person he needs to be, the man my brother was or still is.”
“And what kind of person is that?”
She set the candy back down and pulled the blanket tight to her body again. “A justice seeker. A vigilante. Whatever you want to call it. That’s not Cole.”
Now wouldn’t be the best time to tell her Cole had attacked Sebastian when he’d discovered the truth, and how he’d been out for blood. “People can surprise you. Your brother surprised me.”
The Real Deal: A Dublin Nights Novel Page 26
