Sainted

by Slade, Heather

  “Wouldn’t you?”

  “Absolutely. I’m just relieved that you let go of the notion of returning any money to him.”

  Harper’s brow furrowed.

  “You have given up on that, yes?”

  “I suppose.”

  “Glad to hear it.”

  “The thing that makes no sense to me is why he said he’d get even with me. All I did, or all Decker did, was retrieve my money. How can you get even with someone for reclaiming what you stole?”

  “It didn’t stop there, Harper.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “Certain arrangements put into place may have made his life somewhat difficult.”

  She got off my lap and sat on the bench. “What arrangements?”

  “Nothing he didn’t deserve, Harper. Your hands were tied in terms of pressing charges against him. You comingled your finances, so there were no means to determine what money in the account belonged to him or to you.”

  She folded her arms.

  “He was let go from his job when his employer discovered evidence that he was embezzling money.”

  “Was he?”

  “Perhaps not to the extent the evidence indicated.” I didn’t know for certain, but it wouldn’t be unlike Decker to pad the proof.

  “What else?”

  “More of the same.”

  “Saint.”

  “There are certain things about him you don’t need to know, Harper. Trust me on this. It will only serve to hurt you.”

  “What?”

  The last thing I wanted to do was cause her pain, but she deserved to know the full extent of her ex’s betrayal. I sighed. “You weren’t the only woman he was involved with.”

  “Was he going to marry her too?”

  “It appears so. Although not just one.”

  “Oh my God. I can’t believe this!”

  “I need to ask. Are you angry with me over your slimeball ex-fiancé getting what was his due?”

  “Why didn’t you tell me?” She studied me.

  “I can assure you I didn’t personally facilitate any of this. In fact, I would’ve preferred to stay ignorant of the details.”

  Harper looked out at the ocean and didn’t say anything for a time. Finally, she let out a heavy sigh. “I felt like something was off. I didn’t want to admit it to myself, but I noticed. It always seemed like he was holding something back. The fact that he reminded me of my dad should’ve been enough for me to end the relationship.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “I was about to graduate from college. The degree I’d worked so hard for seemed, at the time, a dead end in terms of the kind of work I wanted to do. I was disillusioned with the overall state of ministry, and the jobs I did see posted were for positions I’d never want to take. Dave was the picture-perfect boyfriend. He was attentive and sweet to me. I didn’t have a lot of friends, but he did, so they became mine too. And he didn’t pressure me into having sex, even after we were engaged.”

  I did my best to stifle a groan, hearing his name and sex mentioned so closely together.

  “I was going through the motions, Saint. I blame myself as much as him.”

  “Going through the motions and stealing someone’s money are two very different things, Harper. You have no blame in this.”

  She shook her head. “I’m sorry. You were telling me about your uncle, and I made the conversation all about me.”

  “What do you say we forget about everything besides enjoying each other and celebrating Rile and Kensington’s wedding tomorrow?”

  There would be plenty of time once we were back in London for me to deal with my mother’s brother.

  We saw more of the Invincibles’ team the next morning when we came downstairs for breakfast at the inn Rile had bought out for the wedding guests.

  “Good morning, Saint,” said Z Alexander.

  “Z. May I present Harper Godfrey?”

  “Ah, yes, I’ve heard a great deal about you.”

  “And I, you.” Her cheeks flushed pink, but since she didn’t drop her gaze, I was able to stave off tossing her over my shoulder and taking her back to our room.

  “I’ve also heard you made it official with IISG.”

  I smiled, preferring the acronym far more than the shortened version of the name of the organization.

  “Yes, I did.”

  “I’m happy for you, Saint. I do believe it’s a better fit for you. Although, I’m not looking forward to hearing from your uncle about you not rejoining MI6.”

  “Yes, well…”

  Z studied me.

  “If there’s something I need to know, spit it out.”

  “Given your close personal relationship with Decker, he may be better suited to pass on whatever information he’s unearthed.”

  The man himself entered the dining area moments later, accompanied by Mila and their baby.

  Z stood when they approached. “Come here and see your grandpa,” he said, holding out his hands to the boy, who went willingly. Z sat and bounced the baby on his lap. “I understand your dada has some information he’s been withholding from me,” he said in a singsong voice.

  Decker shot me a glare.

  “Don’t look at him, son. I was lamenting the wrath I would face once the foreign secretary learned I’d failed to get his nephew to return to his former position with MI6.”

  “You had no intention of rehiring him,” said Decker.

  Z nodded. “For his own good.” He turned to me. “I’m not quite as unaware as you may think.”

  I laughed. “I would never accuse you of being so. Baiting, yes. Unaware, no.”

  I looked over at Harper, who had been chatting with Mila. Now, though, she was studying something on her phone.

  “Everything okay?”

  “It isn’t. Reverend Primrose is in the hospital.”

  I stood, helped with her chair, and led her out to the inn’s foyer. “How serious is his condition?”

  “He’s scheduled for surgery tomorrow.”

  “We’ll catch the first flight out in the morning. Unless you’d rather leave this evening.”

  Harper raised her brow. “We will? And, no, I don’t want to miss the wedding.”

  “I’ve kept you away from your new role as his assistant too long as it is.”

  Harper put her phone in her handbag and her arms around my waist. “Thank you, Saint.”

  Decker joined us in the foyer.

  “I’ll let you two talk,” Harper said when she spotted him.

  “More on my uncle’s dastardly ways?”

  “News on Dr. Benjamin.”

  His tone worried me. “And?”

  “We think we’ve located him. Not just Adam, his son too.”

  This was big news. Jinyan Tai Man had disappeared nine years ago, and we weren’t the only ones looking for him. “Where?”

  “The Sundarbans.”

  “India or Bangladesh?” A little over half the national park was in the former, the rest in the latter.

  Decker raised a brow. It was a ridiculous question, given the relationship between India and China was rife with tension, particularly over their inability to come to a border agreement.

  Bangladesh, on the other hand, had been working overtime to develop a relationship with the superpower intent on making the twenty-first century the Asian century.

  As a place to hide, it was quite brilliant. Far in the jungle and hours from a single established village—and that was only by boat—it was home to the world’s largest mangrove forests as well as several hundred Bengal tigers. Most importantly, its actual distance from China might be relatively short, but it was worlds away politically.

  “Getting there is a challenge,” said Decker. “You’ll fly into Dumdum, Kolkata, and then arrange for a boat to take you into the tiger reserve.”

  “That’s where they are?”

  Decker smiled. “One mission I’m glad I won’t be on. At least not on the ground.” />
  “Arsehole,” I muttered under my breath. “Do we have any reason to believe Benjamin and Jinyan will be relocating in the next few days?”

  “Looks to me that Tai Man has been settled there for months if not years.”

  “In the tiger reserve? How is that even legal? You’re not shitting me?”

  This time he laughed. “You’re not firing with all cylinders if you’re suggesting Jinyan would care about legalities, and I’m sure as shit not shitting you.”

  “How quickly can we assemble a team?”

  “Rip is on his way to London now. We’ve got a few hours before the wedding to figure out who else to send in. Let’s get Z involved. He’ll want MI6 to get at least part of the credit for bringing in Jinyan. That also means funding.”

  “Thanks, Decker. I appreciate this.”

  “It’s what we do, Saint.”

  This was the most inopportune time to be on the island of Mallorca with everything I had to arrange both for Harper and myself.

  First up was making sure she could stay at Fox Run Cottage. I walked outside and placed a call to the one person I thought would be able to facilitate it most easily.

  27

  Harper

  I watched as Decker came back into the dining room and Saint walked outside. Mila looked up at her husband, who took the baby from her arms and sat at the table with us.

  What I found most surprising was that she didn’t ask a single question about what he and Saint had been discussing or if everything was okay. I had to bite the inside of my cheek to stop myself from doing so.

  “Saint, Z, and I will need some time to meet this morning,” Decker said, looking from me to his wife.

  “Okay,” she murmured. “I should grab something to eat now, then. Harper, you haven’t ordered yet, have you?”

  I hadn’t, although I was hungry, and said so.

  Since I had no idea when Saint would come back in, or if he’d have time to order and eat before their meeting, I ordered extra food when the waiter came to our table. Shortly after I’d done so, Saint motioned to me from the foyer; he must’ve come in when I wasn’t looking.

  “Hi,” I said, stopping myself from asking the questions Mila hadn’t asked her husband.

  I expected him to speak. Instead, he led me over to an alcove and put his arms around me, shattering my resolve not to ask questions I shouldn’t.

  “Is everything okay?”

  “It will be.” Saint rested his head on mine and sighed. “The next several days are going to be complicated.”

  “If it is a problem for me to go to Alfriston, it’s okay, Saint. I don’t want to make things harder on you.”

  “Not at all, actually. That part is quite easy.” He cleared his throat. “Apart from the vicar’s health, of course.”

  He brought his lips to mine in the sweetest, softest kiss. It almost brought me to tears. What was he trying to tell me? I felt something significant. “Saint?”

  “I’ve made arrangements for Eliza to meet us at Fox Run Cottage. She’ll stay there with you until I return.”

  “I’m not supposed to ask where you’re going, am I?”

  “You are not. And worse, I’m not allowed to confide anything in you.”

  “This will be how our life is.” It was a statement, not a question. I’d agreed to marry Saint, and with that came both his responsibilities and mine.

  “We’ll talk more later,” he said when we saw Decker and Z walk into the foyer from the dining room. He kissed me one more time before leading me out of the alcove.

  28

  Saint

  Eliza had promised me her father would not give her or Harper any grief while they were in Alfriston.

  “I’ll hold you to that vow,” I said before ringing off. While I had enough on Nigel to threaten him into good behavior myself, I doubted I’d have the time to do it.

  I knew Harper was worried, and tonight, after the wedding, I’d do what I could to assuage her.

  “Who do you want from SIS?” Z asked when I went upstairs to his suite to meet.

  “Who’s left?” I asked.

  “Not many, thanks to him.” Z pointed at Decker.

  Decker smirked and then softened the look on his face. “We have plenty we can pull in. Rip is on his way. There’s Ink. He’d come in handy with the tigers.”

  Breckin “Ink” Ryan was the biggest man I’d ever known. Not only in height, but also in bulk. The man had the largest, most defined muscles I’d ever seen outside of a movie. When other agents accused him of taking steroids to achieve his mass, he offered to take a drug test to prove them wrong. I’d asked him at the time why the accusation didn’t make him angry.

  “I hear it at least once a week. Getting in a snit about it would only serve to make the person asking more suspicious.”

  “Yes on Ink,” I said, studying the website and looking for availability. One name jumped out at me, and not because I wanted him on this mission.

  “Do you think Hammer could assist in figuring out the legality of the cottage’s title?” Sterling “Hammer” Anderson was the Invincibles’ attorney and was accustomed to flying around the globe when he was needed, even if only for his opinion in places where he wasn’t licensed to practice law.

  There was actually something else entirely I wanted to discuss with him and put into place before I left for India, but it wasn’t something I intended to talk to anyone but Hammer about.

  “Sure,” said Decker. “Let him earn his retainer for once. Who else?”

  We went through the list and came up with two additional names: Mick “Jagger” Reynolds and Ritter “Rock” Johnson. Both men had worked extensively with Rip, which would make the three of them a good team.

  “We’ll have Crash on transport. If he needs a copilot, we can pull Angel in,” said Decker.

  Smith “Crash” Lavery was an American; Teagon “Angel” Evans, a Brit. I knew both quite well. In fact, I’d heard there was an ongoing dalliance between them.

  “Now that we have that settled, let’s figure out how to get you in there.”

  “Here’s what I want to know,” said Z. “What do we do with Jinyan once we get him out?”

  “How badly do you want him?” Decker asked.

  “You would think out of loyalty alone, you’d just hand him over.”

  Quite honestly, I didn’t care what happened to Adam Benjamin’s son. No one, whether it was MI6 or the CIA, would want him for more than the level of intelligence he would bring with him, even if only in his head.

  Benjamin himself was a different story. If our mission was successful, I’d be giving him what he wanted, and the debt—that I’d imposed and carried—would be wiped out. I’d sternly warn him that if he chose to go back to Hong Kong or China in the future, I wouldn’t be going in after him.

  “You good with that, Saint?” asked Decker.

  “I’m sorry, what?”

  “I told you he wasn’t paying attention,” he said to Z.

  “I don’t give a rat’s arse what happens to Jinyan, if that’s what you’re referring to.”

  “What about Dr. Benjamin?” Z asked.

  “Strip him of his passport and ensure he never gets another.”

  Both men laughed, but I was deadly serious.

  “If we’re done here, I’d like some time with my wife and son before the wedding.”

  “I’ll convene with the team once they all arrive in London, and we’ll craft our plan,” I told both men, standing to leave when Decker did.

  “Saint, can you spare another minute?” Z asked.

  “Of course.” I sat back down and followed the man’s line of sight. Pride flowed from his eyes.

  “Did you ever think Decker would settle down and get married?” I asked.

  “I’m more surprised that he agreed to run the Invincibles.”

  “I didn’t realize he was running it. I thought there were several managing partners responsible for different parts of the world.”
>
  “If you think Deck doesn’t have his hands in every mission the team undertakes, you’re not as smart as I’ve always believed you to be.”

  “What do you wish to discuss?”

  “Your uncle.”

  I wasn’t surprised in the least. “What are your thoughts, Z?”

  “We can go one of two ways. Scandal or no scandal. Quite honestly, I think he deserves to have his name dragged through a bit of dirt, but that reflects on you, Saint. And the rest of your family.”

  Funny how the tables had turned. For years, Nigel had berated me for my “inappropriate lifestyle.” Now, his life was a sham, a house of cards that would soon crumble. As with many things of late, I found myself wondering what Harper would do.

  “If you don’t mind, I’ll get back to you on that, Z.”

  “We won’t be able to keep his financial mess a secret long, Saint.”

  “Understood.”

  I left the room in search of Harper. Our meeting hadn’t lasted terribly long, so I returned to the dining room. When she saw me, her face broke into a smile complete with the dimples I adored. I leaned down and kissed her cheek.

  “I ordered extra in case you were hungry,” she said, pointing to the plates in front of her. “They probably thought I was a glutton.”

  “Thank you for that. I am quite famished.” I sat beside her and pierced a piece of melon with my fork. “There are a few things I’d like to discuss with you. Back in the room.”

  “Okay.” Her cheeks flushed, and her gaze dropped.

  “Well, now that you’ve done that, I doubt I’ll be able to remember anything I planned to discuss.”

  The look on Harper’s face was full of heat and want, mirroring my own thoughts.

  “What about the wedding?” she asked when, a few hours later, she tried to get up, but I pulled her back in bed.

  “Right. I suppose we should make an appearance.”

  Harper laughed, wriggled out of my grasp, and went into the lavatory. I heard the shower go on and was about to join her when a feeling of melancholy came over me.

  Three days from now, maybe four, I would bid farewell to the woman who made my heart sing. Like with being unable to confide in her, I’d never experienced leaving someone I loved, without being able to say with absolute certainty that I’d be back.