Chapter Seventeen
Phoenix
Sans Alpha, car key in hand, Maila walked toward me. “I see you haven’t left yet.”
I tipped my chin toward one of the many security cameras strategically placed all over the high-rise, including in the garage. “I’m sure you see a lot, working for Trefor.” Who the fuck was my little trespasser related to?
“With, not for,” she corrected.
“Apologies.”
“Are you? Sorry?”
“Did you really not know?” I knew who she’d worked for before Alpha.
Yes, intel had been kept from her. Yes, my faked death had been convincing, but I was surprised she hadn’t dug deeper.
There was a reason I’d kept my personal cell all these years.
Why I took annual trips to Cap d’Antibes.
Why I’d found and bought the exact estate our great aunt had owned.
All of it had been for my sister. For honor. For family.
The memory from when we were kids, from Maila’s fifth birthday, surfaced.
“Emmy, don’t cry. It’s just one day.”
Tears streamed down her face. “Daddy said he would be home.”
Mad at Dad for breaking another promise to her, but glad he wasn’t here to yell at her for crying, I put my arm around her shoulders.
“I know, and he’ll be home soon.” He better.
“Remember how we promised each other we’d make every day feel like a birthday so we wouldn’t have to worry about one day?
We can do that now. We’ll do whatever you want today. Promise.”
She swiped her hands across her face. “I want a five-layer house.”
Crap. “You mean cake.” I didn’t know how to make a cake. But I could ride my bike to the store.
“No.” Emmy shook her head. “I mean house. On top of five layers, with a pool on the bottom layer. And a special ocean you can swim in that’s dark blue and cold.
That’s where Daddy said he met Mommy. In the place with the baseball cap.
” She took a shaky breath. “In France.” The tears stopped. “I want to go there.”
“Dad told you that?” Now I was really mad, and I stupidly let the anger slip. “He’s not supposed to.” Saying stuff about Mom made her cry.
“I’m a big girl.”
“No, I know.” Double crap. I blew out a breath and tried to backtrack. “It’s just that Dad doesn’t talk about it.”
“Then how do you know?”
Because one time when he’d been drinking, Dad told me the whole thing.
Cap d’Antibes, he’d said. Some old, rich aunt of our mom’s.
She had a big house there. Dad met Mom there, or they went there.
Or something. I don’t know. I didn’t want to think about it.
Mom was dead. So were all her relatives.
I forced a smile. “It’s called Cap d’Antibes.
How about I take you there?” When we were adults, but I didn’t mention that part.
“And you won’t need to cry over one day a year. Birthdays won’t even matter.”
“Because it will be like a birthday cake with five layers every day?”
“Yep,” I promised.
My sister smiled. “Okay.”
“About what?” Maila asked, her question kicking me back to the present, her tone as calculatingly disinterested as mine had been with November.
“I don’t remember you being this obtuse.” Or this combative.
“I don’t remember you having to bury your only sibling,” she countered.
“You weren’t there.” She’d skipped my funeral. Not that I blamed her.
“Neither were you,” she accused.
“You’re right.” I’d been halfway across the world, already on a mission. And her managing to give Alpha the slip to come down here without him was purposeful. “Did you change your mind about dinner?”
“No.”
“Do you still like grilled cheese sandwiches?” They used to be her favorite.
“I’m not a child, and I’m not here to argue or be manipulated into whatever scheme or agenda you have going on.”
“No scheme.” I was upfront with both her and Alpha about wanting to combine resources and have AES be the front-facing arm of a joint venture.
“But I think you have an agenda right now.” I glanced toward the elevators.
“I give it another sixty seconds before Alpha shows.” If that. “Might want to get to the point.”
The anger on her face, in her tone, turned into the same resolve and fortitude our father had. “I want you to leave Miami.”
“No.”
Green eyes that matched mine stared back. “I don’t want you here.”
“I understand.” I’d never blame her for any of this.
The anger came back. “But you don’t care.”
“I do. Very much.” More than she could possibly know.
“And this is how you show it? By surfacing a decade later to jeopardize Adam and everything he’s built just because you want him to get in bed with you and every damn enemy you’ve made?
This is how you care? By risking the life of the one man who has never been anything but loyal to you? By risking my husband?”
Battle hardened, I took the hits, but I kept mission focused. “You know what AES does.”
“You’re putting a target on Adam’s back!”
“I’m offering myself as a shield.”
“No.” She shook her head. “I know you, William Nilsen.”
No, she didn’t. No one did. Not anymore. “It’s Nix Erikson now. Phoenix in the field.”
“Billy, Bravo, Will, William, Nix, Phoenix—I don’t give a damn what you call yourself.
I know who you are. I knew who you were at sixteen when you brought Adam home like he was some helpless stray.
You didn’t do that out of selflessness. You were using him to fill a void then, same as you want to use him now.
Adam may not have been thinking about your motives when he was a hungry, neglected teen and you dangled a certain kind of life in front of him, but he is now. We both are.”
“Apparently he filled a void for you too.”
My sister seethed. “How dare you.”
“How dare I what? Accuse you of having ulterior motives? Pretend you didn’t also have your life orchestrated by the Vice Admiral?
Insinuate Alpha isn’t one of the best strategists and warfighters the Teams ever had?
That he isn’t capable of not only protecting my sister, but also building a multibillion-dollar private defense contracting company?
Maybe you need to check your motives, because I’m not the one insulting your husband. ”
“I never said Adam wasn’t capable. You don’t get to twist my words.”
“I didn’t have to.”
“Congratulations.” The fight left her tone as she crossed her arms and condescension set in. “You’re as selfish as our father was.”
“Maybe I am. But in this, I’m not.”
“I don’t believe you.”
The elevator dinged, and the doors opened.
Alpha strode out with a fucking death glare aimed right at me.
Leaning down, I lowered my voice. “Four Seasons Hotel at The Surf Club. The Champagne Bar. Nineteen hundred hours.” I kissed my sister’s cheek. “I’ll tell you what you want to know.” Straightening, I met Alpha’s angry gaze. “Have a good flight.”
He cupped the back of my sister’s neck. “I didn’t say I was flying.”
Partial honesty getting me nowhere, I threw fuel onto the wreckage of my merger attempt and lied. “November mentioned it.” He hadn’t. But I never went into battle unprepared.
Alpha cut through my dissention tactics. “November didn’t tell you anything.”
“Listening to the audio feeds on your security cams?” I’m sure he did. I would.
Alpha leveled me with the same look he’d grown into as Team leader. “Do I need to?”
I purposely lit the fucking pile of shit this had turned into because, unlike my sister, I never discounted the crucial fact that Alpha was cunningly ruthless. “Only if you feel the need to spy on your hacker or your wife.” I tipped my chin at them. “We’ll talk soon.” Turning, I got in my vehicle.
Loyalty kept Alpha from coming at my six. Honor kept him from shooting me in the back. But his war-tested battle tactics kept him from launching a verbal assault.
Like we both knew firsthand—keep your friends close, but your enemies closer.