by Kells, India
Isabel blinked. “Guys, I’m standing right here.”
She could have been speaking to four walls. Gabrielle slid her a sorry look, but Isabel was having none of it. Rolling her eyes, she turned and walked away. Hungry, thirsty, and tired, being bullied at the end of a long day by a bunch of alpha males wasn’t on her to-do list. Wishing she could get rid of her heels, she smelled food and her stomach growled. If she wasn’t mistaken, it was the place with the amazing pitas nearby.
“Hey! Wait!” As if it couldn’t get worse, the mighty surfer was calling after her. “Where the fuck are you going?”
Carefully avoiding looking at him, Isabel turned the corner and saw the small Lebanese restaurant and her mouth watered. Maybe if she ate enough garlic sauce and onions, the smell of her foul breath would drive the man away.
The sound of a running horde told her that the rest of the bunch was on her tail when she entered the small restaurant. It was empty, and probably catered more to the lunch crowd. The single man behind the counter turned at the sound of the bell, a smile ready on his face, but his eyes budged a little as he saw their small army entering.
Isabel ignored the people behind her and ordered. She knew it was her stomach talking when she chose a heaping plate of shish taouk chicken with garlic potatoes and salad. She would probably not be able to finish it but didn’t care. Examining the small dining room, she grabbed her food and went to sit in the farthest corner, guessing the troop would want some privacy. Sitting down, Gabrielle chose a chair in front of her. Unsurprisingly, all the men were ordering something, apart from Kai, who stood beside them, his arms crossed and eyes nearly boring a hole into her skull.
“Care to tell me what all this is about?”
Isabel, her mouth full of food, only shrugged. “What?”
Her friend kept her voice low, but it was menacing “Don’t what me! I saw both your and Kai’s faces when you looked at each other. Kai Jones is one of the most laid-back guys I’ve ever met and now it’s as if he wants you to disappear from the face of the earth.”
She had no intention of answering Gabrielle right now. Everything felt too raw and tender inside her, and her first point of order was to get her emotions back under control. Too bad her friend wasn’t the type to back off.
“Izzy! Either you tell me now, or I bring this up when all the men arrive at the table.”
“You wouldn’t!” Isabel all but sputtered her half-chewed food.
“Watch me!”
One quick look told her that she had less than a minute. “I told you about my very first trip to Hawaii.”
“Yeah, you were going there in advance of your first contract. The ticket was paid for by the company and you just changed the date so you could have a vacation.”
Isabel nodded, finding it more difficult to swallow, she put her fork down. “Do you remember the man I met?”
“The sex god?” And immediately Gabrielle’s eyes became wide as saucers. “The one you gave your virginity to before…”
Nodding, Isabel took another bite ending the discussion as the men were coming with more food. Lazarus and Aleksei sat on each side of her as Kai sat beside Gabrielle.
Now forcing food in her starved body as her hunger had fled, Isabel found the situation somewhat amusing, especially Lazarus, who seemed to run the show. She imagined him balking and forcing her into a car to that safe location they talked about. He may have decided to have a meal, but it was clear it wasn’t his first choice. Controlling and destabilizing at all times seemed more like his tactic, one she ought to try in her own business.
The men all but wolfed down their meal as Gabrielle, who hadn’t ordered anything, helped clear Isabel’s plate. A cursory look at Kai told her that he was now looking everywhere but in her direction.
Her inner uneasiness was growing by the minute and she preferred to hit the situation head-on, rather than avoid it. “Mr. King. Now that I can think more clearly, can you explain what’s going on? Why do you need me, and particularly why my mere reference to Finch made you go into combat mode and ignore me?”
The man looked regal, even sitting in this tiny nondescript restaurant. The more she looked at him, the more she saw a resemblance to Kai, and even Aleksei, even if all three men appeared completely different at first glance. The most obvious common denominator was the specks of gray in their eyes, proof that they shared the same gene pool.
“We weren’t ignoring you.”
Yeah, right. But instead of pointing out he was wrong, she just leaned back as he continued.
“You have to understand that Finch is dangerous, cunning, and so far, has been a few steps ahead of us. We are trying to turn the situation around and that means being discreet and protecting our own.”
“I’m not your own. And I don’t understand what’s going on. Obviously, I’m the only one here who’s in the dark.”
Gabrielle must have sensed her growing annoyance when she intervened. “What do you know about Finch?”
Isabel summarized the information her team had gathered. “Sixty-nine-year-old man from Rhode Island. Married once, two legitimate children, widower, one known sister living in the UK. Became a billionaire through major investments and acquisitions, mostly in the US and in the Middle East, but has been branching all over the world ever since. Tried twice to become governor, once to become a senator. Some say he’s thinking of trying for the Oval Office. He has left some of his business empire in the hands of a consortium, but from what we discovered he still has a hand in the majority of things. He recently purchased the most expensive penthouse in Chicago, the decorators are still hard at work, and as per private conversations, he has clunky tastes and loves gold trim a bit too much. No definite lovers, although I’m waiting for news from another source. General reputation? Rich, cold, and ruthless. Goal-oriented and achieves them, whatever the price. That impression may shift depending on where you are in the country. I can give you more if you like. We haven’t finished the complete picture. My team should be done tonight.”
When silence was her only answer, Isabel blinked and looked at Lazarus. “Have I said something wrong?”
“No, on the contrary. Many details you mentioned aren’t common knowledge.”
Isabel shrugged. “I learned long ago that people who request my services to manage a crisis, PR, or their image are not necessarily forth-coming naturally, and that can make a difficult situation impossible. I prefer to know everything beforehand.”
Kai emitted a low growl. “Yeah, so there’s no surprise when the person shows you their true colors.”
Isabel turned to him, and the way he looked at her, as if in disgust, clogged her throat. And the man wasn’t totally wrong. For most of her life, she hadn’t been what she now appeared. Sometimes life played tricks on you, but it was mostly your decisions that led you down the road of concealment.
Unable to answer him, she saw anger on Gabrielle’s face but one contact with her leg under the table told her friend to ignore it. Isabel much preferred to have Kai hate her for the wrong reasons than know the truth and see something else on his handsome face.
“The information about his sister is not common knowledge. You say you are still digging?” Aleksei, although discreet and silent, had listened to everything and the energy coming from him confirmed that he was anything but calm and collected. It was like trapping a tiger in a rusty cage; the beast could break free at any moment. Was he really Kai’s brother? The men were so different, but what did she really know about Kai Jones? They had spent two weeks together a lifetime ago. Could people reveal their true selves in only two weeks? And if so, they had probably changed considerably in the meantime.
“Yes, as the meeting is tomorrow, my team is working overtime.” Checking her phone, Isabel pushed her plate aside. “And I need to get back to it soon. What do you need from me?”
Gabrielle smiled when the men looked at her as if she had sprouted another head.
“Simple as that? You will help
us without knowing exactly what Finch did?”
“I trust Gabrielle with my life. And I’m not a dumb blond. A man with so much power, money, and influence can turn sour in an instant. I guess you want to bring him down or at least have some sort of leverage on him? I can probably help, but know that I will only help you on the down-low. I’m not risking Finch finding out that I used private info against him. I, or rather my business, wouldn’t survive.”
By the looks on the faces of the people around the table, doing bodily harm was also an option. That wasn’t reassuring.
“We know that Finch is up to something here in Chicago, but we don’t know exactly what. We’ve tried our usual channels, both here in the US and in other parts of the world, but they aren’t saying a word. That’s why we want to try something different to get information. Plus, you have the pulse of the city, and have connections here, something we don’t.”
“So you need to know what he’s up to? That’s it?”
Kai leaned forward and she couldn’t help but turn to him. He was drawing her out like a moth to the flame and she hated her body for responding this way. “We want to bring the fucker down. Once and for all.”
Isabel was surprised by his outburst. The same hatred was obvious on the faces of all three men in fact. When she peeked at Gabrielle from the corner of her eye, her friend nodded subtly, a promise to bring her up to date.
“Guys, there’s a difference between getting information and bringing someone down. Nothing is impossible, but it requires a different approach.”
For a long moment, Lazarus looked at her before skimming the people present. “What would it require to dig deeper? Do you think we can find something to stop Finch?”
“You mean stopping him by exposing his true self to the world? Everything is possible. It all depends on the information. But as I said, nobody this powerful hasn’t got juicy skeletons hidden somewhere.”
Lazarus seemed to consider her words very carefully. “How do you plan to do that? To get that information, if there is any?”
Was the guy for real? “There aren’t many ways. I could dig around, and there will be some investigating for sure. And I have to get close to him.”
“Fuck that!” Kai pushed himself from the table with such force his chair fell over. “We know what happens when a civilian without any experience in undercover work gets too close to that fucker. Zoe almost lost her life and that would have destroyed Archer.”
“Calm down. Nobody’s gonna let anything happen to your pretty blond.”
Kai snarled at Aleksei who only gave him a sarcastic smirk that did nothing to calm him down. “She’s not mine! I just think it’s stupid to have her take risks that are unnecessary.”
Isabel opened her mouth but this time a quick kick from Gabrielle shut her down. What was going on? Aleksei shook his head, probably about to tease Kai more, but Lazarus cut them off. “Alek, stop it! Kai, sit down. I value your opinion, with your background, I need it, but we have to be sensible. What other choice do we have? Look me in the eye and tell me you’re not as determined as me, as all of us, to stop him. We know what he’s capable of, and this is a possible way to bring him to his knees. We need to expose him to the world in such a way that there’s no other way for him to hide. We dug as much as possible with Gabrielle and her team’s help and we have reached a dead end. Knowing Finch, he’s planning something, and I don’t want to wait to discover what it is.”
Kai closed his eyes for a second and for the first time Isabel felt worry gripping her throat and was dying to know what was going on.
Chapter Three
Kai was increasingly angry with his inability to look away from the woman who crashed back into his life than he was with Lazarus’ logic. His brother had always understood Jamieson Finch better than he did. After all they’d gone through and the risks they had taken to close in on the man who had fathered him, no way was he backing down now, even if he had to deal with Isabel Osborne.
A whole lifetime had happened since the last time he’d laid his eyes on her, and he’d never expected to meet her again. It was a real kick in the gut.
Once the surprise had passed, it was the gut-gnawing resentment that took over. In a flash, he remembered the first and last time he had seen her, as well as every moment in between.
It happened at the beach following a call from his friend Rob who told him about the amazing waves at their favorite spot. He’d never gotten ready so fast in his life, before jumping in his beat-up pickup and driving like a madman.
And indeed, it had been the best waves of his life! On his last ride, he’d every intention of beating his own record when a cross wave caught him off guard and he’d tumbled into the water with a half-yelp. When he pulled himself out, Kai had heard the most wonderful laughter of his life. He’d immediately seen a blond siren sitting at the water’s edge, her toes in the wet sand, her white cotton dress billowing in the breeze. If he hadn’t believed in love at first sight before, he did at that exact moment. His heart expanded in his chest, and she became his entire world. A girl he didn’t know and who’d appeared out of nowhere.
That laughter… He had to hear it again, even if he had to make a fool of himself.
And he did, over and over again, and she laughed. The beautiful Isabel laughed. They walked on the beach and talked. In fact, he talked more than she did. She was a good listener as he poured his story at her feet. He never saw judgment on her face when he told her about his mother having him out of wedlock, dying in childbirth, being taken care of by his grandmother, his life in Hawaii, and his hopes of being accepted into the Army.
“Why the Army? You swim like a dolphin, you should join the Navy. Why go away from the water?”
“Because if I stay in the water, I’ll never know if I can get out of it and find out what I’m capable of. Who I really am.”
Then she’d kissed him for the first time. Right there, as they were both sitting on a rock, watching the sun turn the sea into a gleaming ruby red. The touch was so tentative, he shivered despite the heat, and it was a real inner battle to rein in his ardor. He had been with many women—for fun, for distraction, or for pleasure. Isabel was not that. That’s what he’d believed back then.
He knew so little about who she was. So little personal information had crossed her lips, but he didn’t care. Who she was before was inconsequential to him if who she was with him was the truth. And Kai knew that the girl he had in his arms, that he’d made love to that same night was telling the truth. And that’s all he would ever ask for.
They spent two weeks together, heart, body and soul. So caught up in each other that time seemed suspended. Without realizing it, he had fallen in love with that fiery, sweet, passionate and patient woman.
Until one morning, Isabel, his sweet Isabel, was gone.
Never before had he felt that kind of panic gripping his lungs, preventing him from breathing. He searched his little cabin, and the beach. The entire island but she was gone.
Something in him died that day. A piece of him that withered and detached itself from his body and went into the sea, never to be found again. Or so he’d thought. Until she stood before him once more, miles and miles away from where they first met.
At that moment, he hated his degenerate father for breathing, as well as Lazarus and Gabrielle for bringing back suffering to his life.
However, first and foremost, he was a soldier. Former Delta Force. He hadn’t achieved that, or everything else he had set his mind to, without pushing through a fair amount of suffering and bloodshed.
If he had to choose between Finch spreading his malevolence over innocent people or facing the woman who’d breached his soul a lifetime ago, the choice was simple.
So he stood at watch while Isabel went back to her agency. They all had to act carefully, and not be seen with her. Gabrielle had arranged for people to be inside the building with her, people who were discreet and efficient. Gabrielle had also installed closed-circuit cameras
. With that tight surveillance in place, and the others nearby, everything should be seamless for now. They had been careful not to make any overt moves to link them with Isabel, which should keep her safe until they knew what Finch was planning.
“So much despair, brother.”
Located in the building facing Isabel’s agency, Lazarus sat at a desk inside the furnished office. Kai wasn’t in the mood to talk and preferred to plan and prepare. That he knew how to do.
It was night now, and as she’d told them, Isabel would be busy with her team for the next couple of hours. Aleksei was checking the back doors with some of his friends and kept in contact. Now, they needed to wait.
“Do you think it’s the right decision?”
Lazarus sighed. “It’s the only one we have. You know it, Kai. I’m not keen on using people who could be put in danger, but Gabrielle has taken care of Isabel’s security personally. She’s a long-time friend, nothing will happen to her.”
Kai sighed. It was a bold statement. “Since when can you see the future?”
“What would you have me do? I hate him as much as you do, brother. Even more. I know what he can do, and I dream of him being dead by my hand, be sure of it.”
It was the harshness in Lazarus’s voice that made him look at him. Of all the brothers, Kai knew that Oz had suffered the most at Jamieson Finch’s hand, as the man who has sired them all expected great things from the Englishman. He had tried to groom him to take his place one day, but at a great cost, Lazarus had decided to live life on his own terms.
“Give me a gun and a target and I’ll accomplish the mission. Give me a chair to wait in and I’m useless.”
Lazarus nodded and came by his side as both men now stared outside. “Deny it all you want, Kai, but it was all over your face when you saw her. You care about her.”
He hated how Lazarus could see what he didn’t want anyone to know. “Old story. So old I had forgotten everything about it. You saw surprise on my face. Don’t read more into it than that.”
