Leave Me Breathless: The Black Rose Collection

by Dakota Willink

  “That is one promise I can readily make you. Outside of being arranged, we have nothing in common with what Mama and Jonas had. There was never a day of love between them. He never felt an ounce for my mother what I feel for you.”

  “What do you feel for me?”

  There it was. She wanted the words.

  I stared into the blue pools of her eyes. “I love you, Isa. More than you could ever know.”

  “I know you do.” A smile broke across her face. “I just wanted you to say the words.”

  “You made me go through that, and you knew what you meant to me?”

  She leaned up on tiptoes and kissed me. “Don’t look so put out. A woman needs to hear these things.”

  She adjusted her clutch and tucked her arms around my waist, burying her face against my chest.

  I waited to hear her words again, but they never came. I couldn’t help but feel a sense of disappointment.

  She loved me. I knew she did but I’d hurt her by keeping things from her, and it was going to take some time to earn her trust back and get her to admit she loved me again.

  “Come on, baby. We still have a five-minute walk before we get to the spot with the best view.”

  Isa stepped out of my hold and tucked her arm into mine.

  We hadn’t taken two steps when Isa’s eyes grew big and she said, “What’s Kane doing here?”

  I shifted my gaze to where she looked and took in the man who managed a few of my businesses. He was supposed to be in the middle of a quarterly review of expenses, not a vacation. And it was too coincidental for him to be in Las Vegas at the same time Isa and I were here.

  The only way he would know our location was if Lilly had told him. Lilly wouldn’t betray Isa.

  “He has a gun!” I heard our bodyguards shout. “Move!”

  Before I could react, Isa reached into her purse, pulled out the pistol we’d bought earlier in the day, took aim, and shot.

  At the same moment, we were both tackled to the ground as more gunfire erupted around us.

  “Boss, stay down.”

  Shouts echoed all around us until it went silent. It seemed as if the never-ending noise of Vegas quieted.

  “We have him,” came an American voice. “The area is secure.”

  He had to be one of the Lykaios brothers’ men.

  The body on my back lifted and I shifted to move off Isa. “Baby. Are you all right?”

  “I’m okay. I’m okay,” she wheezed out. “Baz, I called Lilly today to check on a project.”

  She was thinking the same thing I was. Lilly, or someone, had tipped Kane off.

  “I know Lilly didn’t do this. She’s naive. She…” Isa trailed off as her eyes closed.

  That was when I saw blood on my hand where it rested on her side.

  Kane shot her. The motherfucker had shot her.

  Everything inside me died.

  There was one thing I was sure of, Kane Mancheski was a dead man. As were the people he worked for. If Isa wasn’t lying here, motionless, I’d be in the room getting every bit of information out of the fucker. I’d trusted the bastard for years. Hell, his father had been a trusted member of Opa’s inner circle.

  Instead of showing loyalty to the family, he’d betrayed us. And worst of all, he’d used Isa as a way to get to me.

  I clutched Isa’s hand as she lay in the makeshift clinic Ana and Adrian had created for us in one wing of their Vegas desert mansion.

  They, along with the Lykaios brothers, had given us the cover we needed to escape the chaos that ensued on the strip following the shooting. Police had swarmed the area as had the media. But thankfully Adrian had used his tech skills to wipe all video surveillance for the vicinity and had gone as far as to wash any evidence of Isa’s blood from the concrete where we’d fallen.

  “She’s going to be okay, Weber,” Adrian said as he entered the room. “The bullet went through clean. This is normal after major blood loss. Plus, she has a head injury from the impact of the fall.”

  I glared at him. “Did it make any difference to you when Ana was hurt? Tell me you didn’t want to resurrect the fucker even though Ana had already killed him so you could do it yourself.”

  I couldn’t hide the rage coursing through my blood.

  “I won’t say that. I’d end the bastard again for touching her. You have to understand Isa is strong, just like Ana.”

  “Did you get anything out of the asshole?” I clenched the fist of my other hand.

  After my soldiers had hustled Isa and me from the very visible walkway around Ida, my time was lost in making sure Isa would live. I knew Adrian would use any means necessary to get the information out of Mancheski.

  “You’re not going to like this.”

  “As if anything about this whole situation is something I’m going to like.”

  “Jonas and Malkovich are behind this.”

  “That’s not news to me.”

  “No, this was a setup from the beginning. Mancheski’s mother is Malkovich’s distant cousin. He targeted Isa’s friend Lilly before Jonas forced the marriage on you.”

  “Why would the fucker do that?”

  “I’m going to tell you the story Mancheski told us and you tell me if it makes sense.”

  Fine. I stared at Isa, who hadn’t budged an inch since I’d laid her on the bed yesterday.

  Over the next twenty minutes, Adrian relayed a history of my family I knew but not in detail.

  I was well aware my mother and Jonas’s marriage was forced upon them but I hadn’t realized Mama had done it out of desperation. Her wedding to Andrew was supposed to be the week he was killed, and then shortly afterward, she found out she was pregnant.

  With me.

  According to the story Adrian told, Jonas had assumed I was his child until my sister Hannah was born. She looked exactly like him, whereas I looked like the spitting image of my uncle Andrew.

  This bit of information should have felt like a blow to everything I knew, but seemed to only give weight to the reason I knew a man who was supposed to be my father hated me.

  Jonas had treated me like some unwanted burden. The only time he ever handled me as more than garbage had been when Opa was around. Opa, on the other hand, had treated me like his heir from my earliest childhood memory, even going as far as putting my training in the business before that of Jonas’s.

  “What does any of this have to do with the hit on Isa? I know Jonas had plans to hand her over to Malkovich.”

  Adrian shook his head. “The hit wasn’t on Isa. It was on you. In fact, as of an hour ago, we found at least ten contracts out in the market.”

  “Then what does Isa have to do with this?”

  “Isa was the reward for carrying out the hit. Malkovich wanted Isa from the time her family made her debut into society. She was just as stunning at sixteen as she is now. Apparently, Benz took offense to Malkovich wanting to negotiate a marriage for his teenage daughter, especially with the reputation Malkovich had for his treatment of his mistresses. Benz may be a ruthless bastard, but he would never sell his only child to a fucker like Malkovich, no matter the reward. Isa is the reason for the Benz-Malkovich rivalry.”

  The thought of Malkovich even touching a hair on Isa’s head was unfathomable.

  “What does that have to do with our current situation? This makes no sense.”

  “Man, you can’t be this dense. I get you’re fucked up with Isa getting shot, but come on. You are the best strategist I know.”

  “Don’t make me punch you, asshole. Just spit it out.”

  “Jonas gets shit as your uncle. You’ve been the Weber heir since your birth. Your grandfather knew it and your mother knew it. The marriage contract between you and Isa was to protect Isa from Malkovich and you from Jonas. Don’t for one minute believe Jonas wasn’t aware of the marriage contract until recently. This whole thing was too cleverly orchestrated.”

  I tried to process everything Adrian had said. Under the marriage
contract, Jonas inherited millions. Without it, he got nothing outside of the trust fund Opa had created for each of his sons. He would remain the spare son. And Jonas wasn’t the type of man to make way for himself without trading on the family name as Uncle Fredrik had done.

  As my father, even if it was on paper, he would get what was due to him as a retired family head. By putting a hit out on me, he would get the money free and clear and return to the helm of the family structure.

  Jonas wasn’t the type to do the dirty work himself. He knew any link to him and my death would cause him more harm than good and open him up to retaliation from inside the Weber organization.

  Money was the motivation for everything in Jonas’s life. There was no doubt in my mind the hit on Mama was the result of him knowing I wasn’t his child. He wanted to remove anyone who could prove the truth.

  The bastard needed to die.

  “My wife and Lilly were pawns in Jonas’s game.” I kept my voice calm, hoping it would stay the anger boiling inside me.

  It was time to be rid of Jonas Weber for good. And Malkovich. That bastard was going to suffer the fall of his organization before I took care of him.

  “Yes.” Adrian ran a hand through his hair. “Fuck, I know what you’re thinking.”

  “Don’t even think about interfering.”

  First, I was going to take care of Mancheski and then I’d deal with Jonas and Malkovich. There were enough people sprinkled throughout the world who owed me a favor or two. I planned to collect.

  “Dammit, Sebastian. You’re Interpol, a fucking cop.”

  “Who’s broken laws of nearly every country to make sure the assignment was completed.”

  Adrian released a resigned breath. “You know Ana’s going to kick my ass.”

  “I’m not asking you to help. Stay with your pregnant wife. She needs you here.”

  “You got it wrong. She’s going to kick my ass because she can’t be part of it.”

  I smiled and knew Isa would probably have the same reaction. Thinking of her, I looked in her direction.

  She still slept, the dark shadows under her eyes less visible. She needed her rest, and there was no way she could handle the journey home. The safest place for her was here, under the protection of a retired Solon agent. Pregnant or not, Ana was dangerous.

  Then there were her brothers—they would never let anything happen to Isa.

  “You know we’re going to have to do a lot of groveling when we return to our wives,” Adrian said, figuring out what I had planned and deciding to join in.

  “Groveling leads to phenomenal sex. I’ll take my chances.”

  20

  Isa

  “Come home, Schatz,” Mama pled over the phone as I tied the belt of my coat and leaned against the balcony of my room in Ana’s house.

  After everything that had happened, I now had a better understanding of the reasons she and Opa had arranged my marriage to Sebastian. It was her way of protecting me. Her baby. Her only child.

  I’d spent so much of the last eight months angry at her, and with one conversation with Sebastian, everything had disappeared. Our mothers and grandfathers had been trying to keep Sebastian and me alive.

  It would have been great if I was aware of all that was going on at the time. It would have also been better to learn this information from my husband before he left on his “mission” as he’d put it.

  But I couldn’t fault him for that bit. I wasn’t conscious at the time Adrian and Sebastian left to handle Jonas and Malkovich.

  I hadn’t woken until two days after Sebastian returned to Germany and then it had taken me another two weeks to recover from the gunshot wound and concussion.

  Now it had been two full months since I’d seen Sebastian and Ana had seen Adrian. The constant worry for our men was exhausting. It was worse for Ana—she was almost due and experiencing some of the milestones of pregnancy without Adrian. She had her crazy family around her, but it wasn’t the same as being with one’s own husband.

  “Soon, Mama.”

  “At least tell me where you are. Do you know how worried we are? Oma spends all her time at the chapel praying, and your father…” She paused as if trying to compose herself. “He isn’t himself.”

  Sebastian had told me during one of my first conversations with him after he’d arrived in Germany that Papa had been ready to wage war on Malkovich when he learned I’d been shot. He’d gone as far as calling a meeting of all the heads of the allied families to garner support for a takeover without retaliation.

  Thankfully Sebastian had talked Papa down from what could have been a very public and a very brutal fight with God knew how many casualties. Which meant the authorities would get involved and that would cause problems for everyone all around. Sebastian had convinced Papa to keep up the business-as-usual image, while Sebastian used their connections to topple Malkovich’s organization from the inside out.

  That was the extent of the information he’d given me. He wanted to keep me out of the loop.

  I’d essentially gone into hiding. Confined to Ana and Adrian’s property, with its state-of-the-art security and personnel. Truthfully, it wasn’t a hardship to be at the mansion.

  At least I was able to communicate with the staff of my clubs to discuss operations. I guess it helped that Sebastian made periodic visits to each venue to make sure everything was running smoothly.

  I missed Sebastian, so much. And the sporadic calls weren’t enough. I worried for him and what he was doing to make it safe for me again. He wouldn’t stop until he reached his goal.

  The time apart also made me realize I did trust him. With my life, my body, and my heart.

  Since the last time we were together and he’d told me he loved me, he’d ended every call with those words.

  I’d held back.

  There was no doubt I loved him, but it scared me to say it and be hurt again.

  “I’m sorry, Mama. I can’t.”

  “Have you spoken to him?”

  “Yes. He calls me nearly every night.”

  Though this time, he’d gone longer. Three days, in fact.

  “So, the rumors are true. He’s doing all of this for you.”

  “Doing all of what?”

  From the information I researched daily, territory wars were in full swing throughout the major cities in Germany. They weren’t wars as most people believed but strategically planned assaults on major players where the lowest number of casualties occurred. There was never any mess for the public to clean up, just an underlying knowledge that something happened.

  “He hasn’t told you?”

  “Told me what?”

  “Your father-in-law’s body was found last night.”

  My stomach dropped. No matter if Jonas wasn’t Sebastian’s father or that he’d been responsible for the death of Sebastian’s mother and sister, I wouldn’t want his death on Sebastian’s hands.

  “How?”

  “Malkovich. From what I heard, Malkovich blames Jonas for bringing war to his territory. Jonas’s body washed up on the shore of the Spree River.”

  I shouldn’t feel it was justice that his fate was the same as the one he let happen to his wife and daughter.

  “What about Malkovich? Is he alive?”

  “Yes, unfortunately, he’s alive.” The way Mama said that made me realize how much she hated the man.

  “So, he gets away with what he did to us. For sending Kane after us. For what Kane did to Lilly?”

  My heart ached for my best friend. She’d all but turned into a recluse. She blamed herself for bringing Kane into our lives. A sweep of Lilly’s apartment revealed multiple recording and transmitting devices. Without realizing it, Lilly had relayed key things about me and my relationship with Sebastian. It was something I wasn’t sure Lilly would ever forgive herself for doing.

  “No, he hasn’t gotten away with it,” a deep voice said behind me. “I made sure Malkovich won’t be a problem now or in the future. And
Kane, as you know, was handled by Lilly’s father.”

  I froze and my skin prickled. “Mama, I have to go.”

  “What’s going on? Are you safe?”

  “Yes, I’m as safe as I can be.” Without saying anything else, I hung up and turned.

  Sebastian leaned against the doorframe of the balcony doors. There was a healing bruise on his temple and cheek. He’d grown out the light dusting of stubble he always carried to a full-blown beard, almost giving him a piratical edge.

  “Baz.” My voice cracked.

  “You shot a man.”

  “Yes. I’d do it again.”

  His lips quirked at the edge. “As long as it’s not me, I have no objection.”

  I took a step toward him, when he lifted a hand to stay me.

  “I have one request.”

  “Okay.”

  “The next time I tell you I love you, you aren’t allowed to get shot. My heart can’t take it. And…”

  “And what?”

  “You have to tell me you love me back.”

  “I have no problem with that.” My lips trembled as the emotions of the last few weeks seemed to rush forth.

  I never wanted to be apart from him again. Not like this, anyway.

  Sebastian stalked toward me, engulfing me in his arms. “God, baby. I missed you.”

  My tears flowed free as I held on to Sebastian.

  “I love you, Isa.”

  I wouldn’t hold this from him again. He needed the words as much as I did.

  I pulled back to look into his dark eyes. “I love you. More than you could ever know. The good, the bad, and the Baz.”

  A smile touched his lips. “And the Baz?”

  He carried me to a chair overlooking the desert and sat down with me in his lap.

  I couldn’t help but return his smile. “Too much?”

  “Not in the least.” He cradled me against him, pressing my face into his chest.

  “Did Adrian come back with you?”

  “Yes. He’s with Ana.” He paused, smirked, and then said, “Groveling.”

  Ana had told me over the last few weeks that she was going to make Adrian work his way back into her good graces. Which meant sex in her book. Hopefully it wouldn’t induce labor.