Chapter 33
The moment I hugged Hawk, I felt Vince tense and his eyes on me as if he was physically touching me. I immediately realized I’d made a mistake.
His jealousy was no joke and radiated off him in waves.
I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of satisfaction at his reaction, followed by regret.
He said we’d make it work, but how could we when there was literally zero trust between us? Nobody could go from enemies to married in the matter of a weekend.
My feelings for him were probably just a result of the roller coaster ride of the past couple of days. Pure illusion, right?
Right.
“You two know each other?” he said, and I could practically hear how he was talking through clenched teeth.
I pulled back from Hawk’s embrace, turned, looked at Hawk, then met Vince’s intense gaze.
His dark eyes burned with a mixture of possessiveness and confusion.
I sighed, knowing he needed an explanation.
“Oh, for God’s sake,” I said, then put my hands on my hips and faced him fully. “We met in Italy,” I said, then sighed. The memories of that dark time threatened to flood back—the fear, the uncertainty, the helplessness.
I swallowed hard and pushed them back down. “Hawk helped Gabe to find us and bring us home.”
As the words left my mouth, Vince’s gaze snapped back to me, and understanding dawned in his eyes. His expression softened, and the hard lines of his face smoothed out. Without warning, he laid his hand on my neck, pulled me against his chest, and wrapped his strong arms around me protectively.
I allowed myself to lean into him, just for a moment. His warmth was comforting despite everything.
The scent of his cologne filled my nostrils—a heady mixture of sandalwood and something uniquely Vince. It was intoxicating, and I found myself relaxing into his embrace more than I intended. I quickly pulled away, not wanting to give Hawk and his men the wrong idea, but he tightened his arms.
And I couldn’t stop the whirlwind of emotions.
Somehow Vince’s possessiveness was both annoying and reassuring. Just like from the beginning, when his closeness should’ve been threatening, my body calmed down and felt safe when he was close.
He was such a complicated man with so many faces.
Did he really mean what he’d said earlier? Did he really want to make it work, or was his intention to marry me because we had unprotected sex and it was “the right thing to do?”
God. How much I hated that phrase.
And when exactly did I decide to agree to this marriage instead of assuming a new identity and running?
I struggled against Vince until he let me go, then turned back but avoided looking at the other men.
Hawk smiled at me, and I focused on him. I would forever be grateful to him and Birdie.
When they’d brought us home, he’d kept his distance. But in the weeks and months that followed, he’d frequently visited and checked in on us.
You would never believe it, just looking at him, but Hawk was one of the most caring men I’d ever met.
He was my very own Guardian Angel.
Somebody I could turn to, if I needed to.
Somebody who would help me, no questions asked.
It was like a revelation or more like a face-palm-duh moment.
Hawk was the one I should’ve turned to about my situation.
He would be able to handle it, to help me. So what if somebody out there had my name on a list?
My stomach churned, and I crossed my arms.
In the car—and with my annoyance about Vince pulling the strings to get our marriage license—I somehow forgot the underlying anxiety that had settled into my stomach with Iset’s revelation. But that didn’t mean the threat wasn’t real, and it meant I needed to handle it ASAP.
Asking Hawk for help was my solution.
Because even Vince had hired Raptor Security, right? And I could do the same.
The whirring sound of the elevator suddenly changed, and with a ding, the elevator came to a stop, and the door opened. Dante and Hero blocked the door and whoever had intended to get on, backed off immediately.
When the door finally closed again, an uncomfortable silence stretched around us. I turned and looked at Vince, who had his eyes locked with Hawk. There was some kind of non-verbal communication going on between the two men, which ended with Vince’s nod.
“Go ahead, I don’t keep secrets from Jemma.”
He turned around, looked at his brother, then sighed. “And it’s okay for these two dimwits to know, as well.”
The two guys next to Hawk nodded while Dante and Hero looked a little confused. So, Hawk’s guys knew the Salvini brothers, but not the other way around?
“Well,” one of the guys said, “as it turns out, we’re actually dealing with two separate incidents, and we don’t think they’re connected.”
Vince narrowed his eyes. “Not connected?”
“There was the initial hack, which was clearly an outside job.” The guy’s eyes flicked to me, and my body tensed.
This was it—the moment of truth. I straightened, ready to face whatever came next.
“As discussed, we followed the money, and surprisingly, most of it went to charity,” the guy continued.
Vince nodded, which took me by surprise. “We didn’t find any traces other than the one hint at the Mac address.” He gave me a look full of disdain, almost like a big brother who was thoroughly disappointed in me.
I sucked in air. That was how Vince found out about me? Through my Mac address? My head started spinning. Did I make a mistake? Probably. Very likely. Damn.
Vince’s gaze flicked to me, and he laid his hand on my neck and squeezed, then winked at me.
I almost choked on my tongue. How could something that had been such a big deal end in a wink?
I pressed my eyes closed, and when I opened them again, I met Hawk’s gaze. His eyebrow was raised, and he looked at me like a disappointed uncle.
Damn.
But to my surprise, nobody said anything. Apparently, they’d accepted my participation and had moved on already.
“The second ongoing hack is most likely an inside job. Someone must’ve realized what was going on and piggybacked on the first vulnerability.”
A second hack?
I focused back on Vince, who seemed lost in thought.
“It’s an inside job,” Hawk stated.
Vince nodded. “Can you find out who?”
The other guy, who had been silent until now, nodded. “We’ll need full access to personnel files.”
Vince pulled out his phone and made a call.
And I was standing there dumbfounded. It was almost anti-climactic, but the role I was playing in Vince’s world was so much more insignificant than I’d imagined.
He really was battling enemies much greater and apparently much closer.
I took a step closer to Vince and took his hand.
“They siphoned almost ten mil. We’re tracing it, but whoever is behind this knows what they’re doing,” the other guy said.
Vince sighed, and I squeezed his hand.
He side-eyed me and then gave me a little smile and squeezed my hand back.
Like a real team.
Holy shit.
How had I ended up here? Next to Vince, fucking Salvini—the Evil Prince himself—ready to throw all logic to the wind and fall head over heels for a uber-bossy man I barely knew. And why did I suddenly feel like I wanted to protect him, to stand by his side and face all the challenges and dangers together?
Like a couple.
I took a deep breath—which did absolutely nothing for my thundering heart. I wasn’t only drawn to Vince, to the intensity of his gaze, to the way he made me feel both accepted and challenged, protected and protective.
I thought back to the moment after Italy when I first decided to get deeper into hacking. When I joined the group, immersed myself into that virtual world.
It had been an escape at the time—a way to both hide and retaliate. To make a difference, to take from those who had too much and give to those who had nothing. No power, no agency, no way to deal.
Naively, I thought I would help to make the world a better place.
I never imagined where it would lead to.
To this.
To him.
“We’ll get to the bottom of this,” Hawk said and squeezed Vince’s shoulder.
He had more than enough on his plate, and now, here I was, with my personal information out in the open, an invisible, intangible threat.
I needed to tell him. Right now.
Damn. As if he didn’t have enough on his plate.
Guilt simmered in the pit of my stomach and threatened to overwhelm me. But it was silly of me to think I could handle this alone. I’d put not only myself at risk but, now, I would add to Vince’s worries.
How could I’ve been so reckless? “Ahem, I might need some help, as well.”
Everybody’s eyes zeroed in on me as the elevator dinged and the doors opened at the same time.
We stepped outside, through a door, and onto the roof.
The wind whipped around us, and I stared at the waiting—and already running—helicopter.
The New York skyline stretched out behind it, a backdrop of steel and glass. It was a beautiful sight in a cold, imposing sort of way, much like Vince himself.
At least when you didn’t know him.
Everybody moved toward the helicopter.
“Is it him you need help with?” Hawk said and nodded behind me.
I stared at Hawk, curiosity piqued, then turned and followed his eyes, looking at Vince. “Him?”
“Jemma,” Vince growled, stepped closer, and stood right behind me, close enough to block out the wind hitting us from behind.
His sexy, growly voice and his closeness pulled me immediately in, but I focused back on Hawk. “Why would it be him?”
Hawk shrugged. “Actually,” he stopped, and his gaze moved between Vince and me. “Gabe asked me to check in on what’s going on between the two of you. Apparently, Alex, Fee, and Matt are concerned.”
I felt my cheeks flush with embarrassment and eyed Vince. So everyone had been talking about us?
Great, just great. As if this situation wasn’t complicated enough already.
Vince’s jaw clenched, and a muscle ticked in his cheek. I could practically feel the irritation radiating off him. “Whatever’s going on between Jemma and myself is our business and nobody else’s,” he said firmly, wrapping an arm around me from behind and pulling me close.
I stiffened at first. Didn’t expect such a public display of affection. But as his warmth seeped into me, I found myself leaning into him.
“But if you need to know, we’re on our way to Boston, so I can ask Donnelly for her hand in marriage,” Vince stated and tightened his arm around me.
It felt…nice. Safe. Like home—which was ridiculous, given the short time we’d known each other, everything that had happened between us, and the limbo we still were in.
Hawk nodded. “Good.” Then he focused back on me.
“It’s not Vince, well, not directly,” I said, “but it’s related to the hack, and I’m in real trouble?—”
Before I could go on and explain, the air was suddenly filled with the deafening roar of helicopter blades. We all turned, and I squinted against the sudden gust of wind.
My heart leaped into my throat as I saw another helicopter, a black one, approach from behind a neighboring high-rise, masked men standing on both sides, holding ropes in their hands like straight out of a bad action movie.
Time seemed to slow down as my brain struggled to process what I was seeing.
This couldn’t be real, right?
Vince tightened his arm around me, whirled us around, and moved us back toward the door.
But then, a shot rang out and pinged off the metal door.
Vince tackled me to the ground and shielded me with his body while Dante and Hero went down right next to us.
“Fuck,” Hawk shouted from the other side. He attempted to get near the door but dropped down, as well.
I looked up at the helicopter, which was almost above us.
What the hell was happening?
“Everyone, to the helicopter!” Vince ordered, his voice cutting through the chaos. Then he grabbed me by my waist and hauled me to my feet as if I were a puppet.
He grabbed my hand and pulled me along as we ran toward our own helicopter.
I stumbled, and my legs felt like jelly, but Vince’s grip kept me upright.
As we neared the helicopter, I noticed there was no pilot. For a moment, I panicked.
How the hell would we get out of here if there wasn’t a pilot?
The other helicopter was practically on top of us, and the violent gusts of wind felt like a tornado.
Vince grabbed my waist and threw me inside.
I scrambled aboard.
Hawk and Dante jumped into the helicopter with much more grace than I did. They passed me by. Hawk took the controls, and one of his guys strapped himself in beside him.
I crawled into a seat.
“Strap in!” Hawk barked over the noise, and I fumbled with the straps, my hands shaking so badly I could barely manage to grab them.
Dante reached over and helped me secure myself before he strapped himself in next to me. “Clear.”
I turned my head and stared at Vince, Hero, and one of Hawk’s guys, who were the only ones still not onboard. I focused on the masked face of a man on the black helicopter hovering right next to us who had his rifle pointed straight at Vince.
“Go, go, go,” Vince shouted.
There was a screeching sound, unlike anything I’d ever heard.
A violent gust of wind hit us, and the whole helicopter exploded with noise.
I reached out.
And then stared at Vince, who, instead of jumping into our helicopter, attacked the gunman in the other.
Suddenly, the whole world tilted until I couldn’t see Vince anymore as we vaulted off the platform and were hurled toward the ground.
To be continued…