Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
Nikolett was going for a walk and Eric was going to kill someone. Probably one of the people in this room.
Eric leaned back in the sleek chair, staring at the map of Paris.
The living area of the larger suite was crowded with people from Hungary, France, and now his Spartan Guard.
The task force trying to lure the Spaniard to Paris had grown.
This room was only the on-the-ground group and didn’t account for all the people working on the digital fork of the plan, trying to make the job Colum’s new friend had attempted to hire the Spaniard for look more attractive.
Something was working because several hours ago, the Spaniard replied to the job inquiry with a request for more details.
Grigoris had knocked on their bedroom door just as they were falling asleep after the emotionally charged confessions about their childhoods, both of them still in their clothes and on top of rather than under the duvet.
Grigoris told them the Spaniard was interested, and there was a plan to make sure he came to Paris. Grigoris had needed Nikolett for ten minutes to explain her part. Ten minutes had turned into this hour-long meeting.
It was nearing midnight, and according to the worst plan in the world, in six hours, Nikolett would be going for a fifteen-minute precisely planned walk.
There was no way to know what had swayed the Spaniard—Nikolett’s presence, or the adjustments they’d made to the espionage job, so they were working both angles. They wanted their bait strolling through Paris in the bright light of morning.
Grigoris and Raphael, the French security minister, had gone over the plan for Nikolett’s morning walk in excruciating detail.
Nikolett’s doctor weighed in via conference call, and a French doctor checked her bandages—which he’d hastily, and apparently badly, helped her reapply after they got wet in the shower.
Nikolett was on the other side of the room, trying out canes. Part of the plan was to make it look like she was doing physical therapy as she transitioned out of the cast. She’d be walking with a cane and nothing on her leg.
He waited for the meeting to near its end, as the world’s worst plan was fully fleshed out.
“I have a question.” Eric didn’t realize how much anger had seeped into his tone until the room collectively winced as he spoke. “Are you all morons, or just those two?” He pointed at Grigoris and Raphael.
Everyone went still.
Except, of course, Nikolett, whose head snapped up. “Fleet Admiral, this doesn’t—”
“Nope.”
She stalked over, cane in one hand. He was pretty sure she was supposed to use the cane to walk, not hold it like it was a stick she was going to whack him with.
“‘Nope?’” she parroted.
“Nope to me being the fleet admiral right now. It’s not the fleet admiral objecting to this bullshit plan.”
Around the room, people looked either confused, surprised, or in a few cases, knowing. Nikolett stopped beside his chair, irritation radiating off her. “Which of your divine aspects is objecting?”
“Your…” What should he call her? What should he call himself? Lover was too intimate, spouse not accurate though it was aspirational.
“Your future husband,” he finally said. “I’m objecting as your fiancé.”
Around the room, eyes widened and several people pulled their phones from their pockets. Gossipy fucks.
Nikolett’s gaze softened, but her tone remained firm. “My fiancé has no right to object to this plan. It’s my choice.”
“In that case, I’m objecting to how stupid you’re being.”
“Did you just call me stupid?”
“I said what you’re doing is stupid.”
“I’m helping find and hopefully eliminate a very real threat.” She smiled coldly. “What are you doing?”
God, he loved this. Even as he wanted to shake her and anxiety churned in his gut, he enjoyed the battle.
“I’m here to be the voice of reason. And if I’m the voice of reason, your plan is shit.”
“He has a point there,” Regina said.
“I won’t be walking alone. Maxim and Iacob will be with me—visibly with me, as bodyguards. If the Spaniard is watching, it would be more suspicious if I was out on my own.”
“I know they’re good at doing the kidnapping, but can they prevent a kidnapping? Stop you from getting snatched off the street?”
Before anyone could answer, he pointed a finger gun at each man. “Pop. Pop. Head shots, they’re dead. And now you’re in an unmarked panel van.”
“We’ll have guards and cameras watching every possible sniper position, and people on the ground monitoring traffic.” Grigoris was as unruffled as ever. “As you saw when you arrived, we have an effective plan in place should we identify a potential threat.”
“We’ll be monitoring her location and are prepared to shut down roads if needed. Even if she were to be pulled into a car, that car couldn’t go anywhere. We would get to the admiral before they could get even a kilometer away,” Raphael added.
“A lot can happen in a kilometer.” Eric looked at Nikolett.
Her expression softened further. She knew what he feared when it came to her and everything about this plan was playing into his fear. She sank into the empty chair beside him.
“I’m sorry,” she said softly, “that this is making you worry.”
“Worry? I’m fucking terrified.” He knew everyone else could hear him—and that they were listening raptly—but he didn’t care. “It would be poetic for us to get together after all these years only for you to be murdered a day later.”
“Oh, Eric…” Nikolett grabbed his hand, holding it tight.
Eric looked at Grigoris. “I’ll walk with her.”
He shook his head. “You’re an unknown variable. We don’t know how your presence would be perceived by the Spaniard.”
“I’ll dress like one of them.” He pointed at Maxim and Iacob.
“You’re…rather distinctive.”
“I’m going for a walk with my fiancée tomorrow morning,” Eric declared. “Figure it out.”
Grigoris glanced at Nikolett.
She cleared her throat. “Is that an order from the fleet admiral?”
“No, it’s a threat from your fiancé who will start tossing every asshole in this room off that balcony if they don’t find a way for me to be with the woman I love while they use her as bait.”
“Eric, that’s not fair, they’re not using me. I volunteered—”
He bared his teeth. “That’s not better.”
There was a pregnant silence. Eric knew that even if he claimed he wasn’t acting as the fleet admiral right now, he was the fleet admiral and most members of the society were loath to defy him.
“Counter circuit,” Raphael said after a long, awkward silence. “We discussed adding another person to the circuit moving in the opposite direction.” Raphael traced Nikolett’s planned path, but in reverse.
“A morning jog,” Regina added. “Paced fast enough we’ll loop past Nikolett and her people twice, maybe three times.”
Everyone looked at Eric. He felt it, but he was looking at Nikolett.
She studied him, then turned to Raphael. “Thank you, that’s an excellent idea. If you could please coordinate the route and other logistics with Regina?”
Nikolett rose, not letting go of Eric’s hand. He stood too, lacing his fingers with hers. “If you don’t need me anymore?” she said.
“No, Admiral.” Grigoris inclined his head. “We’ll see you at five.”
Eric felt everyone watching them, adjusting to this new reality where he and Nikolett still went head-to-head but were also openly in a relationship and planning to marry.
It was probably a mistake to be so open about it when they had no idea how they were going to make it work, but he couldn’t muster the energy to care.
If someone wanted to get pissed off or freak out—and he was sure someone was going to freak out—they were future Eric’s problem.
Current Eric was barely holding it together, convinced they might not have a future because she was going to die in six hours.
He held it together until they were in the bedroom of her—no, their—suite.
Nikolett turned to face him, soft concern marking her features. “Eric, it’s—”
He couldn’t bear to hear her say it was going to be okay. Not when life had shown him over and over again that it wouldn’t be okay.
“Go into the bathroom, Nikki.”
Her teeth clicked together as she closed her mouth before she could finish her platitude.
“Take your pajamas. If you come out wearing them, we’ll get into bed and try to sleep.”
She was breathing slow and deep now. “What’s the other option?”
“You walk out of there naked and we have sex.”
“You’ll fuck me?” Her expression gave nothing away.
“Touch you. Fuck you. Pick a verb. I need to pretend that tomorrow doesn’t exist and we’ll both live forever.”
Nikolett looked at the bathroom door then back to him. She crossed her arms. “No.”
“No?”
“No. There’s a third option.”
“I don’t remember giving you a third option.”
“I’m creating a third option.” She eyed him with cold assessment, once more the empress she’d been when she had him on his knees. Had that been only this morning? They’d lived lifetimes since then.
“You gave me a rule earlier. Was that all just talk?”
Eric shook his head. “Nikki, you don’t want to play this game with me right now.”
“Yes, I do.”
He shoved away from the door, stalking toward her. “You remember the way I made you choke on my cock? Right now, I’ll be rougher than that.”
They were toe to toe, her head tipped back so she could hold his gaze.
“Get in the bathroom,” he commanded again. “Give me five minutes to get myself under control, and then whatever you decide, sex or sleep, I’ll be ready to be civil.” He shrugged. “Mostly civil.”
“What if I don’t want civil? What if I want to be taken, fucked, used by the man who rips people’s heads off.”
“If you come out naked, I will fuck you.”
“I don’t doubt it, but I just told you I want more. I want to be used.”
Eric’s blood was molten hot. “No, Nikki, I could hurt—”
“You won’t.”
“Objectively, I will.”
“Would you deliberately, truly hurt me? Slap me until my eyes swell shut? Beat me with a belt? Do things that will harm not just my body but my soul?”