Chapter Twenty-One
MARIUS
“Hell of a way to focus on a mission,” Roux grumbled over breakfast the next morning.
I bared my teeth at him. Yes, I’d spent the night with Mina, doing more than just resting. Surprisingly, though, we’d both managed to get some sleep. A deeper, sounder sleep than I’d found in years.
Doesn’t take a genius to know what that means, my dragon side muttered. She’s our destiny.
Bene wandered into the dining room, mumbling, “Good morning.” Then his eyes went wide, and he leaned over to sniff me. “Glad someone had a good night.”
“Someone other than me,” Roux muttered.
Bene shrugged and yawned so wide, his lion fangs showed. “Maybe it will mellow him.”
I glowered. Dragons did not mellow, dammit.
“Just what we need going into a mission.” Roux hacked at a breakfast sausage with his fork and knife. “And here I was thinking Henrik was going to be our goddamn liability…”
Bene stuck out an arm, blocking me from the coffeepot, as if he expected me to hurl it at Roux. A damn good idea. But maybe great sex had mellowed me, because that hadn’t even entered my mind.
I pointed at the clock.
“You said, meet at eight. It’s ten to. How’s that for focus, asshole?”
Roux didn’t look impressed, but Bene nodded cheerily. “Top marks, baby. Especially since you had to leave a warm bed. Or did Mina kick you out?” When I glared, he stuck up his hands, grinning. “Hey, I wouldn’t leave her.”
A low, dangerous snarl built in my throat. He wouldn’t be with Mina in the first place.
Light footsteps sounded behind us, and we whirled.
Mina stepped up, braiding her hair on the go. “Leave who?”
“Uh, I was just saying, it will be hard to leave here.” Bene motioned at our surroundings and the sumptuous breakfast spread. “Beautiful, huh?”
Mina shot him a dubious look but went on braiding.
It had taken every ounce of resolve I had to leave her in the shower a short time earlier, and now…
My cock ached as I soaked in the sight of her.
Five foot nine inches of sass, intellect, and determination.
Five foot nine inches that had been wrapped around me, moaning in ecstasy, not too long ago.
Not to mention when she’d gone down on me and—
Mina’s cheeks flushed, and her gaze bounced off mine.
We’d both sworn to focus on business once we stepped outside the cottage, but apparently, her mind was just as stuck back there as mine.
“Sugar with your coffee?” Bene asked Mina.
I nearly huffed. She drank her coffee black. Hadn’t he noticed?
“No, thanks. I prefer it black,” she said at exactly the same moment.
So, there. I strode over and shouldered between them, loading my plate.
Bene moved aside, chuckling. All yours, man. All yours. Then he took his plate over to sit beside Roux and announced, “So, we’re all here. Well, everyone except a certain blood-sucking—” Footsteps sounded, and Bene looked up. “Speak of the devil.”
Literally, I thought as Henrik appeared at the edge of the patio.
“Good morning,” the vampire said in a tone that was merely icy, rather than his usual glacial, Fuck with me and I’ll kill you/Don’t fuck with me and I still might kill you undertone.
“Now don’t you look positively ruddy,” Roux observed dryly.
Mina stopped midway through filling her plate, then scraped the Spanish omelet back into the platter. I couldn’t blame her for losing her appetite.
I glanced at the upstairs window, hoping Henrik hadn’t completely drained poor Delphine. But vampires only looked that flushed after a heavy feeding, so the chances were fifty-fifty.
I started to stand, intent on checking on her, but Roux grabbed my arm. “Where the hell are you going?”
I opened my mouth to reply, but Henrik beat me to it.
“It’s eight. Are we meeting, or shall I find another form of entertainment?
” He glared, moving quickly to the deepest shade of the patio, right up against the cold stone walls of the building.
Like all mature vampires (if mature was the right word), he could tolerate, but preferred to avoid, direct sunlight.
Roux sighed and kicked out the chair opposite him — the one in the shade. “We’re meeting. We need to work out the details for today.”
Henrik sat without so much as a glance at the breakfast bar. So, he was definitely sated. Bad for Delphine, good for the population of Mallorca. Still, I wasn’t about to leave Mina alone around him, so I stayed put.
“Don’t worry. I got it all figured out,” Bene said through a mouthful of food.
Henrik turned away with a disgusted expression. Which was pretty rich, considering his dining preferences.
“You do, do you?” Roux muttered.
“Yep. Ronald Baumann’s party starts at seven, right? I figure we spend the day reconnoitering. At seven-thirty, I march through the front door with Mina and—”
I cut him off with a growl. “I march through the front door with Mina.”
Roux pointed firmly at Henrik. “No, he marches through the front door with Mina.”
The vampire looked just as surprised as I was — and a hell of a lot more pleased. Mina, on the other hand…
“Do I get a say in any of this?”
“No,” Roux said, steamrolling along. “We need someone who looks rich and snobby enough to collect art. That’s Henrik.”
“Thank you?” the vampire grumbled.
Mina gnashed her teeth, but even I had to agree the tiger had a point. Still, I wasn’t ready to give up.
“Why not me?”
“Because you’ll give us away. Seething fury just won’t fit in.” Bene patted my shoulder. “But next time we have to infiltrate a fight club, you’re in, man.”
I balled my hands into fists.
“Delphine and I will arrive at the party first, posing as a couple,” Roux said, then looked at Henrik, choosing his words carefully. “That’s assuming Delphine will be…er, up to it this evening?”
Henrik flashed his fangs. “Of course she’ll be up to it.”
Mina looked between Roux and Henrik, aghast. “Does Delphine get any say in this?”
“No,” they both said coolly.
Henrik shrugged. “Don’t trouble yourself. Delphine knows her role, and she’ll be paid handsomely.”
His tone sickened me. This wasn’t my first time witnessing Henrik’s “arrangement” with Delphine, but it was the first time I’d considered the imbalance there. What kind of bastard did that make me?
“You’re with the caterers,” Roux told Bene, then turned to me. “And you’re with the local security staff, if Gordon can pull some strings and get you in with them.”
“If?” I asked.
Roux tapped his phone. “He’s already on it. Worst-case, we’ll get you in as a parking valet.”
I bared my teeth. Parking valet?
Bene laughed. “Look at it this way. You’ll get to drive some really cool cars for a few seconds each.”
I growled at Roux. “I’m with security — or else.”
Roux rolled his eyes and went on. “Gordon got his hands on the plans of Baumann’s estate.” He tapped a few keys on his phone, and our devices pinged with the message. “We need to work out how to secure the target, what extraction route to take, contingency plans…”
He went on for a while, and we listened attentively — a sign that everyone appreciated the risks. If things went south, Gordon wouldn’t rush to our rescue, and Baumann had a reputation for shooting to kill.
I looked at Mina, desperate to keep her out of this. But something about that painting had lit a spark in her — a spark bright enough for her to ignore all the warning signs flashing Danger! Danger!
It was just a painting, dammit.
Or was it? I hadn’t put it all together yet, but there was definitely more there, considering her love of art, the notes in the art book she’d shown us, the references to her father…
Roux fielded a few questions, then assigned tasks.
“Bene and Marius — time to reconnoiter. I want everything you can get on Baumann’s estate and on Dobrov, the art dealer.
Henrik, do whatever it takes to flesh out your cover story.
You’ll need IDs, credit cards, cash, accounts that look real… the usual.”
Mina’s jaw dropped, and my gut did too. It wasn’t just her rosy view of her godfather that was being pulverized. It was her view of us, what we did, and how we did it.
Even worse, her view of me.
But that was for the best, right? The sooner she realized she was better off without me… Well, the better off she would be.
“I’ll stay here to iron out loose ends and coordinate,” Roux finished.
Mina frowned. “What about me?”
What about you? Roux’s furrowed brow asked.
Mina’s eyes glowed in anger. And not just a little glimmer — a full-on blaze. Her supernatural ancestry was much closer to the surface than I’d realized. Maybe closer than she realized too.
Roux flapped a hand. “You’re going shopping with Delphine.”
“Shopping?”
Everyone winced at her shrill tone.
“Shopping.” Roux handed over a credit card — as if he hadn’t already offended her. “You need to look the part for tonight.”
Some women might jump at their chance for a Pretty Woman-style shopping spree. But Roux would have been better off handing Mina a discount card to a home improvement center.
Bene patted her hand. “Hey, I’m on catering. We all have to make our sacrifices.”
Mina pinned him with a cold, hard glare, then snatched the credit card out of Roux’s hand.
“Fine. But I’m doing it for the art, not for the client.”
Don’t blame us. Blame Gordon, I burned to say. But Mina must have been making me into a better man, because it occurred to me that whatever Gordon was guilty of, I was guilty too, simply for getting myself into this mess.
So, get yourself out, my dragon grumbled.
Easier said than done, especially if the goal was to win over Mina.
A challenge I considered all day while carrying out my assignment. That meant scoping out Baumann’s estate from aloft, then joining Bene at the airport to tail the art dealer after his jet touched down on Mallorca.