Into Temptation

by Jeanie London

  Obviously, he wasn’t pure of heart, which meant the amulet’s curse made him glimpse a future that might have been his if he’d kept his heart pure instead of selling his soul.

  Joshua handed over the piece.

  There was a certain cringe factor to watching Henri handle the amulet, his expression growing glazed, obsessed. Here was a man who didn’t let emotion leak through—because he didn’t have much to leak, Joshua had always thought—but Henri touched the White Star reverently, as if the ivory radiated with energy.

  Then he laughed. Joshua felt a shiver trail down his spine as the sound reverberated between them, wildly out of balance with the moment, a sound of the most perverse pleasure that Joshua thought of the curse again and considered that this amulet might have some sort of otherworldly hold on Henri.

  Slipping the amulet back inside the box, Henri pocketed it. “Unfortunately, sometimes I make mistakes.”

  Joshua supposed he should feel some consolation that Henri sounded genuinely regretful, but when he found himself the target of a nine-millimeter, he couldn’t rally anything but a vague feeling of inevitability.

  “Doing your own dirty work, Henri? This isn’t like you.”

  “This is personal.”

  Yes, it was. Joshua also thought it ironic that he’d spent his life fixing situations for men like this one only to be unable to fix his own, to atone for past mistakes and make different choices. “I’ll take that as a compliment.”

  “It is. You lent a great deal to my organization, and I genuinely enjoyed your company.” Henri’s gaze held Joshua’s above the gun barrel. “But I will admit to being surprised that you’re not trying to outmaneuver me.”

  “Back to choices again. I chose to honor my commitment and hope for the best. You and I both know you’ve got men all over this hotel. I’m going nowhere without your consent.”

  “Which I’m afraid I can’t give. You’re a liability now. Quick and clean is the best I can offer you.”

  Joshua had taunted death often, had always believed he’d win the contest. Now, he didn’t feel challenged, or even frightened. Just tired and moved to realize the things he’d always considered important weren’t.

  A realization coming too little too late.

  The barrel steadied at his heart. The chamber clicked. The shot rang out, barely a muffled hiss from the silencer.

  Joshua waited for the impact, held his breath expecting to feel the slam of cold steel pound through his chest.

  But he didn’t reel with the blow… Henri’s arm jerked at an awkward angle. He cried out. The gun spun out of his hand and thumped onto the thick oriental carpet.

  Then everything happened at once. Joshua was on the gun, kicking it out of reach as Henri exploded from the chair. When Joshua spun around to see who’d fired the shot, he found Lindy, arms outstretched and gun in hand.

  “Lindy!” He took aim as a guard emerged from the stairs behind her.

  Joshua never got to squeeze off the shot because Henri barreled into him in a bid for the door.

  Catching himself on the coffee table, he didn’t glance back at Henri, but launched himself over the sofa to join Lindy, who was subduing the guard hand-to-hand. He got to use Henri’s gun, coldcocking the man so he collapsed in a heap.

  Lindy sank to her knees and cuffed the dazed guard before Joshua thrust open the foyer door looking for the others, and he couldn’t help but smile. She had a knack with those restraints.

  “I’m impressed,” he told her. “Another old window?”

  “Climbed to the terrace and hid in the shrubs.” She stood and shot him a fast grin. “Can’t you see the twigs in my hair?”

  Raking his gaze over her, he drank her in, captured every detail in memory. “You did realize the point was to catch Henri in possession.”

  “When it came right down to it, I’d rather have you alive. Imagine.”

  Her matter-of-fact admission hit him in so many places that he hadn’t let himself feel in so long…. The relief in her beautiful face humbled him.

  And in that instant Joshua knew that no matter where he went from here—prison most likely—he would take away the knowledge that he’d earned this woman’s respect.

  An accomplishment that felt like so much more than anything he’d pulled off in his life.

  “Something’s not right. My people should have Renouf.” She cocked her head to the side and said, “Talk to me, Blythe. What’s happening out there?”

  Joshua watched Lindy’s expression harden as she received information over an audio device wedged in her ear.

  “Damn it,” she said, heading for the door. “What about Sanders and Hargrove in the lobby?”

  Joshua didn’t have to wait for an explanation to know what had happened. Renouf’s army was taking out Lindy’s backup.

  Henri didn’t enjoy his reputation without good reason. That meticulous attention for detail that had so impressed Joshua long ago still served Henri well. He never left the safety of his stronghold without layers of protection in place.

  Without a word, they flanked the door. Lindy took point and swung it wide. Two men sat in a heap on the floor, apparently unconscious. Renouf’s bodyguards were nowhere to be seen, but a metallic hiss sounded down the hallway….

  The service elevator.

  “The stairs,” Lindy said.

  “Henri will have people waiting outside for him,” Joshua told her. His first official act as a snitch, and he wasn’t even on the payroll. But one good deed might count for something. A chance he wouldn’t pass up. “He’ll have all the exits covered.”

  Lindy relayed the information to her audio contact as she took the stairs two at a time. “Pull in the outer perimeter. Tell them I injured Renouf’s right arm.”

  Circling the last of the stairs, they headed toward the door that led to the lobby. Lindy took point again, only this time she tucked her hand inside her jacket to conceal her gun.

  They burst out, heading away from the main lobby where the sudden noise of activity alerted them to a problem. A quick glance over his shoulder and Joshua groaned.

  Hotel security.

  “I can’t catch a break,” Lindy exclaimed when she caught sight of the three goons in dark suits barreling toward them.

  “Mademoiselle!”

  She didn’t slow down, but flashed her badge over her shoulder and continued to the service elevator. Each second dragged by, security on their heels…they made it to the elevator as it thumped to a halt behind closed doors and a buzz signaled its arrival.

  “Mademoiselle—”

  “In pursuit of a suspect,” she fired off in French, stalling for time by handing the man, whose nameplate labeled him the security chief, her badge.

  Then the elevator doors shot open.

  A uniformed maid glanced up, surprise frozen on her face, white knuckles clutching the service cart she’d been about to steer through the doors.

  “Was there a man in here?” Lindy demanded. “A guest?”

  The maid fixed them with a startled look then nodded. “Le plancher au-dessus.”

  Second floor.

  Joshua exhaled a sharp breath.

  The second floor would leave Henri his choice of elevators to obtain the main lobby or any of the guest rooms to hole up in. Joshua was betting on the elevators. Knowing Henri, he’d stroll right out the front door the way he’d arrived. By the time Lindy convinced security to let her conduct a search—if they let her conduct one, which looked doubtful—Henri would be long gone.

  His injury might have made his arm a bloody mess but he still had two working legs.

  “I’m in pursuit—”

  “Non, mademoiselle. Not inside this hotel. You have no jurisdiction over my guests,” the security chief insisted. “You will come to the monitoring station and we will discuss—”

  “Not until I have my suspect.” Lindy sidestepped him, but the man grabbed her arm to halt her passage.

  Joshua stepped in as Lindy exploded
away from the chief.

  “Tell them to pursue,” she hissed into her audio device, startling the security goons who crowded around her.

  The security chief growled. “If you were in pursuit of a suspect inside this hotel, you were obliged to inform us. We cater to our guests, Mademoiselle Gardner, not apprehend them.”

  Parisian hospitality was just that zealous. And Henri was getting farther away with each precious second wasted.

  Static crackled, ending the power play. The security chief reached for his radio.

  “Report,” he spoke into the receiver.

  “Captain, we’ve apprehended three more suspects outside the service entrance,” a voice shot back.

  Lindy cocked her head, clearly receiving a report of her own over the audio device. Her expression grew thunderous. “Those were my men. You’re interfering to give my suspect time to escape.”

  The security chief obviously didn’t like accusations hurled by a sexy British agent. With a scowl, he grabbed Lindy by her upper arm. “To my office, mademoiselle. Our manager will meet us. We will straighten the situation out, away from our guests.”

  Joshua stepped in close enough to Lindy to crowd out the security chief, forcing the man to release his grip on her.

  “Monsieur—” another security goon said.

  Joshua motioned him off with a scowl. “If you want to move the party out of range of your front desk then keep your hands to yourself.”

  Lindy stepped out of the security chief’s reach and said, “All right. Let’s go.”

  Joshua knew by her expression that all was not going well with whoever was on the other end of her audio device.

  “Let me guess,” he whispered as they were escorted to the monitoring station. “Cars posted at all exits?”

  She nodded.

  Bait and switch.

  Maybe MI6 would luck out and track Henri, who would have several avenues of escape available. Joshua wasn’t optimistic. Unless Lindy had a small army of agents in pursuit…

  So, once inside the monitoring station, he stood to the side while Lindy secured medical help for her injured agents and explained the situation. He was treated to a firsthand glimpse of international jurisdiction at work.

  If his future hadn’t been caught in the balance, Joshua might have enjoyed the ensuing pissing contest.

  Security withheld their assistance as they claimed their British neighbors should have had the courtesy to contact the French police before conducting a sting within city limits. Inside the George V.

  The hotel’s general manager knew who buttered his bread, too, and pompously spouted rhetoric about how his job was to ensure his guest’s safety while within these hallowed walls, and no one would be apprehended inside his hotel, especially such a special guest as Henri Renouf.

  Lindy’s only recourse was to contact the French police, but Joshua guessed she hadn’t contacted them initially because MI6 hadn’t wanted this investigation to go public. Lindy wasn’t likely to find many allies there, either. The French police wouldn’t like MI6 operating on their turf without greasing the requisite palms and weren’t likely to cooperate. At least until Henri, who also held French citizenship, was long gone.

  By the time Lindy had wrapped things up and security escorted them to the back entrance, she looked livid.

  “Bloody arseholes.” She didn’t seem to care if her voice carried to the security goons a few steps behind them. “At least you didn’t take off. I suppose that’s something.”

  “Would your people have let me?”

  “My people are all over Paris right now chasing a shadow.” She cast another meaningful glance back at their armed escort. “We need to talk. But I can’t right now.”

  “I’m not going anywhere.”

  She finally lifted her gaze to him, and he recognized the worry he saw in those beautiful gold-flecked depths, was amazed at how much he wanted to smooth away the crease between her eyebrows, to reassure her.

  “Henri might know you’re on to him, but he’s out in the open. If you move fast, you might still catch him.”

  She exhaled in exasperation and moved in close to whisper, “That’s not it. I’m balls-up now. I don’t know what’s going to happen. To either of us. You know how the chain of command works, and I’m going to be in a bit of hot water myself.”

  Joshua recognized the understatement. A team they were, in so many ways. He nodded to the hall leading to the service entrance. “Are you telling me to slip out the back?”

  “I lied about the deal, Joshua. There never was—”

  “You thought I believed you?” He laughed and sidestepped a security goon to push open the door. “Should I be insulted?”

  Lindy paused. “You didn’t believe me?”

  “I already told you, I know how governments work.” He reached out to thumb the frown from her mouth, wished he could kiss her. “It would have been rude to call you a liar. Why don’t we leave it at this—I knew that if there was a deal, the best you could possibly offer me was to become a snitch.”

  “Then why are you still here?”

  Dragging his thumb across her lower lip, a slow, suggestive stroke, he willed her to understand everything he had no time to explain, to feel what he felt in one touch. “Because it’s the right thing to do.”

  Then one of her agents called out and the moment was broken. Glancing at the street where a limo awaited, Lindy stepped through the open door, and when she did, Joshua thought he heard her sigh.

  The chauffeur opened the door, and he followed Lindy inside the vehicle to find a dark-haired man waiting.

  “Malcolm,” she said dryly. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised you came out to play.”

  “I don’t suppose you should. Not only do I have to clean up your mess with the French and Italian authorities, but I wanted to personally meet the man who made me come into the field to collect my best agent.” Extending his hand, he summed Joshua up in a glance. “Malcolm Trent, director of Secret Intelligence.”

  Joshua shook. He wasn’t in cuffs yet and considered that a decent first step.

  He sank into the plush seat beside Lindy, who’d already begun grilling her boss for details of the pursuit.

  Malcolm folded his arms across his chest and shifted a narrowed gaze between them. “Renouf’s somewhere in France but out of our reach. We tracked him to a private airfield where he escaped via helicopter.”

  “Damn.” Lindy rubbed her temples as if trying to soothe an ache.

  “Quite. You brought me this man when I might have had Renouf in possession.”

  “I didn’t have a choice.”

  “Oh, you had a choice. I’m just surprised by the one you made.” The director’s dark gaze shot to Joshua.

  Lindy winced, and Joshua understood that when she’d made the call to place his safety above apprehending Henri, she’d knowingly opened herself up to the consequences.

  He still couldn’t believe she’d made that choice.

  He also wanted to know how she’d tracked him down, but all he could do was curb his impatience. The future loomed dead ahead. He wasn’t in any hurry to rush it.

  Not when he could sit here and admire Lindy as she handled her boss, gorgeous and brilliant as she smoothed the man’s ruffled feathers with fast smiles and calm-voiced logic.

  Not when she caught Joshua’s gaze, her own bright eyes mirroring what he felt—resignation, uncertainty, relief.

  It was enough.

  14

  London, where a maze of secure surveillance sectors form the Secret Intelligence Service, where reversals can and do spin situations off in unexpected new directions.

  LINDY HADN’T GOTTEN a chance to speak to Joshua alone before being whisked away for a week-long debriefing by SIS brass. She had no clue what was happening with him since she hadn’t been allowed to speak with Malcolm since her return.

  She had, however, gotten to share every gory detail of this mission from hell, from being busted on the New Yo
rk City pavement to declining to identify herself to the Italian authorities. If this hadn’t been agonizing enough, she’d also learned the reason she’d been treated to lateral move after lateral move rather than running her own ops.

  Be careful what you wish for…

  Words to live by.

  She was admittedly the best damn field agent Secret Intelligence had—the field director’s words. She was also a great trainer and team player, when she chose to play on the team—the training coordinator’s words. But she liked challenges a bit too much for her superiors’ comfort. She could be reckless, evasive in her reports and so devoted to her work that she didn’t draw a proper balance with her personal life.

  Of course, defending herself against this list of faults was impossible after having confessed to being reckless and evasive in her reports about Joshua Benedict. She did not, however, admit to a lack of a proper personal life.

  And she argued that challenges weren’t a bad thing. Complacency was the kiss of death to a field agent. How else was she supposed to keep her skills sharp?

  The brass hadn’t wanted to hear it, which left her wondering why she’d ever wanted to run her own ops in the first place. At least in the field, she was far from headquarters.

  When the brass finally cut her loose, she wound her way around the corridors of Headquarters, slicing her access card through security devices, ignoring agents who X-rayed her. She actually growled at a young retinal-scan technician who tried to get chatty.

  As long as she had clearance to be inside Headquarters, she was going to Malcolm for answers. Two answers in particular.

  One…did she still have a job?

  And two…what had he done with Joshua?

  By the time she made it to Communications, Lindy knew without question that she should have first detoured for home and a decent night’s sleep to replenish her supply of self-control. But making that decision would have required some. Self-control seemed to be in very short supply today.

  Stalking inside, she looked for Malcolm, but didn’t see him anywhere among the agents who buzzed around the various comm centers. Zeroing in on Blythe, Lindy asked, “Where is he?”