by Addison Fox
She’d take all the fortification she could get.
Jack had left after their heated exchange and an hour later she was still pacing her room when Campbell had called with the results of further digging into Holden Keene’s background. Unable to hide the tears once her perceptive brother started asking questions, she’d had to sit and explain all over again what she’d done.
Although Campbell had kept his censure to a minimum, in true Steele fashion he didn’t let her off the hook, either.
The man’s right, Kenzi. You had no right to look into his background.
Damn it to hell, she knew that. She knew she’d done wrong. Had known it the moment she’d hit Enter on the search query. And still, somewhere inside of her she was glad she knew. Glad she had some clue into what made Jack Andrews the man he was.
And what demons he fought on a daily basis to keep to the strict code he chose to live by.
“Morning.” His large, oversize cup matched her own as he came up beside her.
“Car’s waiting for us.”
“We’re not going that far.”
“Dante thought it was best.”
“Fine.”
She wasn’t interested in arguing with Jack and the inspector was adamant they take transportation provided by his team. With a swift turn on her heel, she crossed the remaining length of the lobby and saw the car waiting at the edge of the hotel’s parking area.
She gave a small wave to let the man know they were coming and took a step across the lot before a heavy weight tossed her to the ground, cushioning her as they fell.
Before she could orient herself, the air came alive with gunfire and the heavy press on her back didn’t lessen. Screams lit up the morning breeze in counterpoint to the gunshots and she heard the heavy roar of an engine whiz past them on the asphalt.
“Kensington! Are you all right?”
She rolled to her side, Jack’s weight making it difficult to move until she pushed at his shoulder. “What happened?”
“I saw the flash of the gun in the morning sun just in time to knock you down.” He kept a hand on her shoulder, heavy with pressure. “Stay here.”
“Like hell.”
He dragged the gun from his waistband. “Stay down. Dante’s men are providing cover.”
She glanced in the direction of the driver and saw two other men at his side. A third was on the ground clutching his shoulder, blood pouring onto the sidewalk. “Someone’s hurt.”
“Not fatally. Dante’s men can take care of themselves.”
“Would you stay here and wa—” The words floated onto the air as he was already racing toward the officers with his gun drawn.
Heart in her throat, she nearly ignored the order not to follow, but another car pulled out from across the street, racing away down the Via Veneto. Insistent shouts had several of the officers scrambling into their cars to give chase now that the immediate threat had passed.
Jack returned to her side along with one of Dante’s men. Someone she vaguely recalled being introduced to on their first day crouched down next to her. “Are you okay?”
Her blood throbbed in her ears and she barely heard the question, but she didn’t miss the concern in the man’s eyes. With a nod, she took his hand as he helped her to her feet. “Fine. I’m fine.”
Dante marched over, his phone pressed to his ear, a string of what she assumed were Italian curses dripping from his lips in a steady stream. “They escaped. Changed cars along the way.”
“Did your men get any sense of who they were?” Jack’s gaze drifted back toward the street before facing their small circle.
Dante shook his head, another stream of raw language peppering the silence before he answered the question. “No, the car was already abandoned and burning when they reached it.”
“These guys move fast.” Kensington thought about the speed with which everything happened. “Which means we’re dealing with more than garden-variety thugs.”
Dante pointed toward his car. “Let’s go to my office. I’m going to rescind our working arrangement. You’re both free to leave Italy.”
* * *
Jack hadn’t gotten past the raw, acidic anger that had accompanied him since discovering Kensington’s snooping efforts, but he had calmed several degrees by the time they were seated in Dante’s office. A steady stream of officials had come in to visit with him and Kensington, each offering apologies for the extreme danger this job had put them in, before departing to make way for another bureaucrat.
“Are they afraid of lawsuits?”
“Among other things,” Jack answered. “Your family’s well respected in Europe and it wouldn’t do well for the granddaughter of a prominent Englishman to die in their country.”
“So glad to know my family tree’s the only thing keeping me alive.”
“I’ll keep you alive.” He might be mad—madder than he’d ever been in his life—but he’d die to protect Kensington Steele. He didn’t need the damn Italians to do it for him.
“Looks like neither of us has a choice. If Dante’s bosses have their way, you and I are on the next plane back to New York.”
“You’re going home. This has been my job from the beginning and I’m seeing it through.”
If he’d waved a red flag in a bull’s face he’d have had a milder reaction than the virago before him. “You can’t honestly think I’d walk away from this job.”
“Why wouldn’t you? There’s nothing but danger.”
“For both of us.”
“Yes, but I took on the contract. I’ll see it through.”
Sparks practically leaped off her as she stood to pace the office. “You know, if I thought this was about last night I might have more sympathy for your point of view, but I don’t think that’s it at all. I think you’re scared to death of what’s between us and this is the convenient excuse you’ve been waiting for to get rid of me.”
“I’ll be back in New York within a few days. We’ll pick back up then and figure out what’s going on between us.”
“We won’t pick back up because I’m not leaving. This job has required both of us from the start and now that it’s gotten to its most crucial point I’m not bailing.”
“You’re my subcontractor. I can call you off the job at any point.”
She threw her arms in the air. “And we’re back to that. Right where we started several days ago, practically in this very office.”
“We’re back to that place because I never should have listened in the first place. This job is dangerous and every step closer to finding out who’s responsible has increased that danger. I couldn’t forgive myself if something happened to you.”
She stopped pacing, her gaze searching as she stood before him. “Trying to control the situation again?”
“Trying to keep you alive.”
“Jack. He’s escalating. The other night at Pryce’s. The thug last night in Piazza Navona. And now this. It’s coming to a head and we’re the only ones with enough knowledge to stop it.”
“What knowledge? That Keene is Pryce’s son. That’s interesting but hardly incriminating.”
“So the fact that Holden Keene’s made several large deposits in an offshore bank account doesn’t interest you?”
“What?” He stammered at the sudden change in subject.
“Or the fact that he’s traveled to the region where some of the richest veins of diamonds sit in Tierra Kimber four times in the past year?”
When the hell did she find all this out?
“Or that the rumor in Tierra Kimber’s capital city is that a large shipment is going to drop in the next week?”
“When did you get all this?”
“Last night. Campbell found some of it and I found the rest. I didn’t sleep last night.”
> He saw the evidence in the fine lines and dark smudges that rimmed her eyes and fought down the sharp stab of guilt that he was responsible for her lack of sleep. She might have spent the past fifteen years unable to sleep through the night but the prior evening’s lack of rest was entirely his fault.
“Don’t you see? It’s Keene. And either Pryce is in cahoots with him or is about to be the victim in whatever his son has planned. Either way, we need to see this through.”
“Dante and his superiors want to send us home.”
“We both signed all the usual waivers. They can remove us from their payroll, but nothing says we have to leave. This job is ours, Jack. We have to see it through.”
The events of the night before faded in the face of her urgency. “We’re already late for Pryce’s event today, Jack.”
“Which works to our benefit. We’ve got our clearances and no one’s expecting us. We’ll sneak in and get the lay of the land.”
Excitement filled her cheeks with a pink glow. “Are you actually excited about this?”
“I am excited about putting this bastard away.”
“Let’s go.” She settled a hand on his arm, the subtle pressure effectively holding him still. “I need to say something.”
That same shaky panic that had filled him when he saw the screen on his mother reared back up at her words. He knew he’d overreacted. And on some level he understood why she’d pried.
But it was so ugly. So degrading. And no matter how many times he told himself he’d grown old enough to get past it, nothing could change that his mother walked out on him when he’d still needed her, leaving his older sisters to take care of him and forcing responsibilities on them when they should have been off enjoying college and the start of their lives.
“Okay.”
The lines around her eyes deepened as she stared down at the ground before glancing back up to hold his gaze. “I’m sorry for what I did last night. I had no right to pry and I know that. I even knew it when I did it, but I ignored the very loud voice in my head telling me to leave well enough alone. I don’t expect you to forgive me, but I need you to put it aside until we see this through. Can you promise me you’ll do that?”
“I’ve got your back.”
“I’ve got yours, too, Jack. Even if you don’t believe that.”
He stilled at her words. He trusted her with his life—and likely a hell of a lot more—but they both needed to focus. “We need to tell Dante we’re not leaving.”
“He’s not going to be happy with either of us.”
“So he won’t be happy. He hired us for our skills. It shouldn’t surprise him we want to see this through.”
When she only nodded, he followed her from Dante’s office and hoped completing the mission was the right decision.
* * *
The Palazzo Altemps was one of the buildings that made up the National Roman Museum and as they passed through its doors, Kensington could only wish they had more time to spend amid the splendor. Despite several visits to Rome she’d never been to the museum. The physical architecture of the site was breathtaking.
Jack let out a low whistle as they sneaked in a back entrance, moving in and among the serving staff. “Pryce must have pulled a few strings to hold his event here.”
“He has arranged for the exhibition of several pieces of Tierra Kimber art along with a very generous gift to the museum of five flawlessly matched diamonds.”
“Seems like a big outlay of cash just to hold a party.”
“The party’s window dressing. The real point is that he’s making Tierra Kimber a major player in the local economy. The diamonds alone will up the visitor count to the museum from both tourists and locals.”
“It doesn’t provide a half-bad cover, either.”
She hadn’t factored in that piece, but now that he mentioned it she was again reminded of how well she and Jack worked together. They each saw different pieces of the puzzle, and because of that, they worked through the answer so much quicker together than alone.
Her parents had been that way. As individuals they were very different, yet together, they seemed to become more than the sum of their parts. They brought out the best in each other. They worked with each other and they had a true partnership.
She’d spent her adult life comparing men to the ideal she held in her head, yet when someone who fit the ideal came along, she’d fought the slide into love.
Even the night before with the background check on his mother. She knew better. And she also knew how she’d feel if the situation were reversed, yet she’d done it, anyway.
Was it a subtle sabotage? Some deeper unwillingness to keep herself from being happy?
The sounds of the luncheon event pulled her from her maudlin—and half-formed—thoughts and she threaded through the active rush of serving staff in Jack’s wake. He’d pointed toward the door to a large ballroom where the noise originated, positioning himself at the servers’ entrance to scan the room.
“Is Pryce in there? And Keene?”
“Both at the head table.”
“Any signs of any of our friends from this morning?”
He shook his head, his voice grim. “No, but watch your back. I’d wager they’re more likely to end up out here than in there.”
Her hand went instinctively to the gun settled in the holster wrapped around her upper body and she also felt the reassuring weight of the clutch piece in her boot. The wicked sticker could do some damage if all hell broke loose, and it was easier to disguise in the fake lining of her boots than another gun.
The lightest shadow of movement hit her peripheral vision and she turned to see two large men sneaking through the doors of the kitchen. She tugged on Jack’s suit jacket. “Behind us.”
He turned just as another guy barreled through a door farther down the hallway. “Let’s move. We need to follow the two you just saw.”
“What about the other guy?”
“One problem at a time.”
“So we split up. Go after both of them.”
She didn’t miss the mulish set of his jaw. “I’m not leaving you, Kensington. How many different ways do I need to explain that?”
“We need to neutralize the problem. Only going after one set of men leaves the other to finish up whatever they’re after. Come on, Jack. We’re either in this or we’re not, but if we’re not then we might as well go the hell home. We’d have the same results.”
“This is why I work alone.”
She saw the chink in his armor—it was slight, but there all the same—and dived in. Going on nothing but instinct, she wrapped her arms around him and pressed a hard kiss to his lips.
His arms wrapped around her and in that moment, Kensington knew the sweetest victory.
They’d come out on the other side of this.
They had to.
* * *
Every instinct he possessed protested pulling away from Kensington and sending her after the retreating thug. Before he could do anything about it, he took off after the two others, the taste of her still on his lips.
Damn fool woman.
Even though he knew she was right.
They were operatives and they needed to see this through. He had faith in her skills—as much as he did his own—and it was time to start trusting that simple fact.
The hallway snaked several times, as if the ancient building held secrets it was unwilling to share. Following along the wall, he kept out of the way of servers and other museum workers bustling about, his strides long and purposeful.
No one questioned him and no one would, he knew, so long as he kept moving forward.
Kept watch ahead.
The sounds of the event faded along with the smells of lunch as he took what had to be his eighth co
rner.
The force of two bodies had him slamming against the wall, the impact knocking his head back into the thick plaster. Adrenaline kicked in to neutralize the pain and he fought the stars in his eyes to plow into one of his attackers. His movements were fast enough to catch the guy off guard, but there was no way the second guy didn’t have the advantage.
He doubled over as the thug number two’s fist connected with his solar plexus, the abrupt lack of air dropping him to his knees.
Before he could stand again, pain shattered through his skull and everything faded to black.
Chapter 19
Kensington kept to the wall, snatching a chef’s coat off a rack as she passed a small changing room near the kitchen. As disguises went it wasn’t much, but she didn’t need much. All she needed was enough of a distraction that her quarry didn’t immediately identify her as the nosy bodyguard assigned to watch Pryce.
She had no doubt every goon in the place knew exactly what she looked like.
She stuffed her hair in the neck of the jacket as she walked but left the white canvas open at the front for easy access to her gun.
The man slid out an exterior door and she followed, not surprised when he ran toward a sedan, similar in make and style to the car that had sped off this morning.
Although that car had ultimately burned to a crisp, their fleet of getaway vehicles was obviously an homage to uniformity. Dragging at her coat, she pulled out her gun and aimed for the wheels as the car maneuvered through the narrow alley. Gun up, she sighted her gaze and it was only at the last moment, when the goon opened the back door to climb into the car, that her gun fell, clattering to the old cobblestones beneath her feet.
Jack was slumped over in the backseat, his eyes closed as if asleep.
Before she could retrieve her gun, or race after the car or even scream, the sedan was gone.
And so was Jack.
* * *
Jack fought to surface against the pain in his skull, but all he could muster was a heavy moan. A hard kick to his shins was the only answer he got for his trouble and he couldn’t hold back another dark cry as pain radiated up his leg.
