Chapter 13
ZINAIDA
By the time I’ve cleared the work on my desk, it’s late, and the vibe on the floor is picking up to the low-level debauchery for which the Quartier is famous.
I head down to the back office, where I’m mildly annoyed, though not at all surprised, to find Nadja in fits of laughter as she explains the finer details of burlesque performance to Luke, while Anatoly looks on with what is almost a fucking smile.
Anatoly? Seriously?
He’s notoriously grim enough to make a mortician look cheerful. And yet here he is, halfway charmed after only a few hours.
Luke’s effortless ability to seduce even the toughest of my staff is beginning to make me feel severely jolted.
“No,” Nadja is saying, slapping him flirtatiously on the arm, “burlesque is nothing like stripping at all. It’s an art form, you philistine.”
“Basically, we tease but don’t flash the pink,” interjects Shelby, who has clearly come in early for her shift just to get a look at Luke.
She casts him a sultry look from under her lashes.
“It’s the art of seduction, and I’m the best in the business.
You should definitely come and watch my act one night. ”
Not you, too.
Shelby is not only gay as Christmas, she’s normally as haughty and arrogant as a supermodel. Given that I trained her myself, and she’s one of the best dancers in the business, she’s got every right to be.
Only here she is, positively fawning over Luke like the rest of them.
“Or you could just wait until the Winter Ball.” Nadja gives Luke a sly wink. “Shelby here is the star act. It’s the hottest ticket in town, and one hell of a party.”
One hell of a party is the understatement of the year.
Our Winter Ball is London’s most extravagant, not to mention most exclusive, orgy.
One to which Simon Lowbridge is most definitely not getting an invitation.
I make a mental note to find out how Enzo got on.
“I’m the Winter Queen.” Shelby is all but arching against Luke like a cat. “I get to order my court around. They have to do anything I command.” She flutters her eyelashes at him. “And I do mean anything, Captain McTasty.”
Captain McTasty? Oh, for goodness’ sake.
“Sorry to interrupt,” I say, smiling tightly at the little gathering. “But Luke and I need to get going.”
Luke pushes off the wall and nods at me with a glimmer of amusement in his eyes that sends heat straight down my spine.
Nadja looks between us curiously, then exchanges a knowing look with Shelby that has me itching to fire them both.
“Tomorrow, den,” Anatoly says, putting his hand out and gripping Luke’s with a bearlike warmth that pisses me off even more.
I walk outside, almost welcoming the damp chill on my face after the cozy intimacy of the office.
Luke, the smug bastard, still has that half smile curving his lips. It’s fucking disturbing.
“Where’s Charlie?”
“Since it will probably take some time to go over your apartment, I gave her the night off.” He delivers the information in a way that lets me know he isn’t asking permission.
Fuck.
“Well,” I say tartly as he holds the limo door open for me. “Aren’t you the master of making friends?”
One of his eyebrows lifts slightly, his amusement visible enough to make me aware I’ve just lost another round.
But he doesn’t say a word, just tucks the bottom of my coat inside the door and closes it with a firm click.
When he gets in the front, I realize the barrier between my part of the limo and his is up.
I want to ask him to put it down, but another part of me is grateful for the separation.
I’m well aware he’s won over my entire staff in less than a day.
Worse, I understand it.
He just lures them in with that damned magnetic silence.
There’s something strangely reassuring about Luke’s presence.
It’s not just his mountainous size, although that helps, particularly with men like Anatoly.
But it’s more than his physical assets or clearly superb skill set that sets people at ease.
Luke has a watchful stillness, an ability to both meld into the background and somehow contain it, that seems to create a layer of protection around everyone in his immediate presence.
And according to Enzo’s gossipy texts, it’s not just the staff who fell for it.
Apparently several of the Mayfair club members who caught sight of Luke stared at him with open-mouthed awe.
Going by their less-than-discreet offers, Luke could have named his price.
Fortunately, Enzo tells me, he also has the very rare ability to reject a woman while still leaving her feeling like she’s the most cherished person in the room.
Which somehow makes it worse.
I can smell him in here.
How is it that I’ve driven with Charlie every day for years, and yet it’s Luke’s scent that lingers in the leather upholstery, like a tantalizing hint of what I’m not allowed to have?
Correction: what Luke has flatly stated I will never have.
I force myself to focus on the personnel assessment Luke emailed me earlier, wincing at his brutal remarks on the condition of my staff.
How did I not notice how exhausted they all are? How overworked?
I stare at the notes Luke has sent me on his proposed changes. It’s all there in black and white.
The overtime that somewhere over the years became the new normal.
The complete absence of leave being taken.
The seven-day weeks, the gaps there is nobody trained to fill.
It all seems so obvious. And yet, somehow I missed it.
I ride in the back seat of the limo, staring out the window, fighting the urge to lower the barrier between me and Luke in the front.
Don’t do it, Zin.
Once I do that, it’s all over. That’s how it all starts. One barrier goes down, and before you can say pick-me girl, I’ll be laughing along with Luke like the rest of my staff.
Except that laughing is the last thing I want to do, and I know it.
In the end, Luke puts it down anyway.
“Building out the team is easy enough,” he says, glancing at me in the rearview mirror.
“But it would help take the load off Anatoly if we brought in another senior operative. The man I’ve suggested was in Myanmar with Dimitry and me, and we fought together in the army before that.
Paddy’s a little rough around the edges, but he knows what he’s doing.
He was also virtually raised in gambling rooms, so he can spot game from a long mile.
I can get a clearance from Mak, if you’d like. ”
“No need.” My eyes touch his briefly in the mirror. “But he needs to get along with Anatoly, or he’s gone.”
“Copy that. And there’s one other thing before we get to your apartment.
” His tone is carefully neutral, his eyes on the road ahead.
“I understand you asked Enzo to set up a date with Simon Lowbridge’s private secretary.
Was that request anything to do with this morning’s article in the Daily Truth? ”
“That’s business.” I fold my arms, my eyes narrowing in the mirror. “Not security.”
“When it comes to a gutter rat like Simon Lowbridge, there’s not a lot of difference.” His eyes meet mine briefly, his mouth twisting in that half smile that does complicated things to my insides.
“True.” I bite my lip to stop myself smiling back. “The home secretary said it was Lowbridge who leaked the article,” I admit. “She thinks if I invite him to the Winter Ball, he’ll back off.”
“But you disagree,” Luke says, glancing at me again.
I tilt my head to the side. “Yep.”
He nods. “Feed a rat like Lowbridge, and he’ll just try to steal the whole cheese.”
“Exactly.” I’m surprised he isn’t trying to argue. “Did Enzo tell you about him?”
“I did a deep dive after I saw that article.”
In what spare time, exactly?
From what I can tell, Luke’s been going harder than me all day.
“I’ll talk to Enzo about his date, see what he found out,” he says. “But let’s be careful how we go about digging up dirt on Lowbridge, agreed? I’ll keep you up to speed on what Enzo finds out, and I’d appreciate the same courtesy.”
I have a childish urge to argue the point, but unfortunately, his request is perfectly reasonable.
“Fine,” I mutter.
Luke doesn’t answer, but that annoying half smile doesn’t go anywhere either.
I become increasingly tense with every mile closer to my apartment. By the time he pulls into the basement I’m a quivering mass of nerves.
What happens now?
“Christ.” Any trace of Luke’s smile has disappeared as he looks around the dimly lit garage. “Tell me you don’t normally get dropped off in this basement,” he says as he draws the car to a halt.
I shake my head, a little taken aback. “Not usually. Charlie pulls up out front.”
The truth is that I’ve never liked the basement garage, even during the day. I keep my own car at Mayfair Pigalle, not that I use it often.
There’s a faint clatter somewhere close by, and I flinch involuntarily.
“Don’t move.” Luke is out of the car before I can answer. I twist in my seat, trying to see where he is, but he seems to have disappeared into thin air. I sit in frozen silence for several minutes before his face suddenly appears at my window, startling me so much I visibly jump.
“Sorry,” he says, not sounding it at all. Pulling my door open, he virtually lifts me out of the car. His grim expression does nothing to alleviate my already stratospheric level of tension.
“Do exactly as I say.” Luke tucks me beneath one mammoth arm and almost carries me into the elevator. He hits the button, standing in front of me as the doors close.
“Is there somebody here?” I ask tentatively when he doesn’t speak.
“I don’t know yet.” His voice is curt. “Stay quiet. And behind me.” The elevator glides to a halt.
The doors open, and Luke gets in between them, peering into the dim corridor.
He hits a switch and floods the entrance with light.
Putting a finger to his lips, he pushes me into the bathroom to the left.
He puts his mouth against my ear. “Lock the door.”