Chapter 32 #2
“What?” she whispered, feeling the blood drain from her face as she took in Chris’s haunted expression.
“Jessica found some images that had supposedly been deleted from cyberspace, but I guess nothing is ever really gone.” He opened the phone someone on the team must’ve given him, and he went to the text messages.
“She thinks Rebecca had an affair with Cutter, and then he blackmailed her. The man’s face is blurred in the photos, so we need to see if you can, um, tell if it’s him. ”
Rory cupped a hand to her mouth as she viewed photos of a man and woman in bed. He was naked and on top of her, and looking closer at the woman’s face, it was clear that it was Rebecca.
And now she knew why Chris looked like he’d been hit by a truck.
Having to ask this of her was killing him. Hoping she could identify a man with whom she’d had a relationship by showing her photos of that man having sex with another woman.
A quick swipe through five images had her hurriedly handing the phone back to him. “Yeah, that’s Andrew.”
Chris’s lips drew tight as he brought his eyes back to hers with what appeared to be much difficulty. Rory felt guilty for putting him through this.
He wanted to kill Andrew for ever having known her, didn’t he? For putting Rory in danger. For sleeping with her when he was deep into criminal activity.
“But why is everyone rushing here? I thought they were going to pick up Andrew and his team for questioning?” she sputtered at the memory. “If Andrew knows The Italian’s identity, we need to get back to Puerto Rico ASAP instead of them coming here.”
“Cutter wasn’t on the ship. Maybe he was in Puerto Rico at some point, but he left. He only wanted people to think he was aboard his vessel.”
“What?” No, that can’t be right.
“My team went to apprehend him and discovered some other guy who had an uncanny resemblance to Brad Pitt. Hell, for a second, Liam thought it was Brad.”
“If he tricked us, then . . . where is he?”
He pocketed the phone and motioned to the terrace door. “Jessica thinks Andrew is headed for—”
“Me,” she finished at the chilling realization. “He’s on his way here.”
“Or already here. We need to tell the others.” Chris stepped through the open terrace door, Rory following behind, but they both stilled at the sight of a man barging onto the terrace through the opposite door.
Dark-haired, tall, and muscular, the man was dressed in black slacks and a black dress shirt, the top two buttons undone.
Everything about him screamed dangerous and fierce.
Especially the brutal manner with which he held another guy by the scruff of the neck and forced him to move forward.
With one quick movement, he abruptly released the man with a shove.
“Tell them what you know.” His voice was deep and highlighted with an Irish brogue.
When there was no response, he crouched alongside the guy who was now on all fours looking like the loser in an MMA fight.
“Not going to talk?” With a swift yank, he grabbed the guy off the ground and forced him to his feet, then tossed a quick look toward Rory.
“One second,” he said casually while drawing a knife from his pocket.
“Meet Sebastian Renaud.” Emilia introduced the Irish League leader as she approached where Sebastian had backed the man up to the ledge of the terrace. That’d be a long drop over the edge.
Danny? Is that really you? Rory tried to get a better look at him, but Chris kept her clasped to his side and away from the action.
There were subtle differences in Danny’s facial features—he’d had a nose job for sure, and the angle of his chin was sharper. He was dressed in khaki pants and a polo shirt instead of his usual raggedy jeans and T-shirt, and his blond hair was now brown. He’d also shaved his beard.
But yeah, that was Danny. No doubt in her mind.
Rory pressed up on her toes and whispered in Chris’s ear, “We need to tell your team that Andrew might be on his way.” Or is already here.
He reached for Rory’s hand, and they hurried toward the table where his teammates stood, captivated by the scene playing out before them starring Sebastian and Danny.
Chris quickly spoke to Wyatt, who then motioned to Finn and the two men immediately made their way back into the estate.
Okay, bases covered. Good.
Now she could focus on the issue at hand—Danny, faced with the intimidating presence and intense wrath of Sebastian Renaud, who was clutching the front of his polo shirt and bending him backward over the terrace wall.
When Sebastian leaned in and pressed a knife to Danny’s throat, Rory was sure Danny must have been close to pissing his pants.
“Tell. Them. Now.” Sebastian’s tone was low.
Not a roar and definitely not a whisper.
It was the perfect amount of talk or die to scare someone to pieces.
Hell, I’m scared of you.
Chris hooked a protective arm around Rory’s side, but she had to wonder who he was protecting her from. The billionaire vigilante who clearly didn’t need a Bat-suit and a voice changer to make his point? Or Danny, who looked so incapacitated that Rory could probably take him down alone?
A.J. and Harper moved closer to where Rory and Chris stood, but Roman and Emilia now flanked Sebastian and Danny.
“Where’s Sean?” Emilia set a hand to Sebastian’s back, and based on her nonchalant manner, one would think this was an everyday occurrence for Emilia.
Still maintaining his grip on Danny, Sebastian peered back at Emilia before his gaze swiveled over to Rory and the others.
After giving them an unexpected but polite nod, he fixed his eyes back on his target, a man Rory had once trusted with her life.
“Talk. She’s here like you wanted. Don’t make me break my promise to my wife not to kill again. ”
Again? Rory shuddered at the intensity of the moment. She’d been in sticky situations before, but this felt different. There was an element of finality that she’d not felt until now.
“Let me up, and I’ll talk,” Danny shouted, finally breaking his silence.
Sebastian set Danny back to his feet. He rolled his shoulders and adjusted the cuffs of his black pressed shirt. Intimidating wasn’t even a strong enough word for that man.
“Rory?” Danny’s right eye was swollen from what looked like one too many elbows in the face, probably by Sebastian. “That really you?”
“More like are you really Danny?” she countered, doing her best not to let her emotions and the fact he’d betrayed her get to her.
Before Danny could answer, the terrace door flung open again, which had Roman pulling a gun out from beneath his shirt. Do they all have guns? Does Chris? She lifted her hand to Chris’s back and found the bulk there.
“Relax,” Emilia said, folding her arms over her chest. “That’s Sean McGregor.”
So, what were the qualifications for joining The League aside from having lots of money? Rory peered back and forth between Sean, Sebastian, and Emilia. Hot?
“I’ve seen billionaires on the news, and none of them look like this,” Harper commented to Rory, doing that ventriloquist thing with her lips again, and also, reading Rory’s thoughts. “And he has a twin who flies helos?”
“Right?” Rory whispered out of the corner of her mouth as Chris hugged Rory closer to him. Chris was her guy, though. And to her, no one could compare.
Sean, the tall, handsome blond counterpart to Sebastian’s dark good looks, stowed his phone in his pocket, then removed his black jacket and tossed it onto a chair arm at the dining table.
“Nice to meet you all. Sorry about the circumstances, but we’re happy to help.
” Sean’s Irish brogue lilted through the air as his eyes traveled around the terrace, landing on Emilia last with a slight tip of the head in hello. “He talk yet?” he asked Sebastian.
“No.” Sebastian clenched his hands into fists at his sides as though preparing to wage battle on Danny’s face again. “I despise smugglers. And I have no problem treating you the way you’ve been treating innocent people for years. Understood?”
“We found your guy in a hotel in Cosenza,” Sean said to Rory.
Cosenza? Rory almost fell to her knees, knowing in her heart what that meant. And in her head, this was confirmation that Andrew was guilty as sin. She didn’t even need the photos of him and Rebecca to prove it.
She’d been blind. So blind to everything.
“Cosenza,” she quietly murmured the name of the city. “That’s where we met on that dig with Andrew,” she managed to say next. Her words were for Danny, but she felt the others’ attention shift from Danny to her, searching for meaning. “He wanted us here in Italy, didn’t he?”
Danny opened his mouth, but instead of speaking, he wiped what appeared to be a trickle of blood from his lip. And wow, Sebastian hadn’t taken any shortcuts during his “talk” with Danny before coming there. Did Sebastian beat him up while his driver drove?
No, don’t feel guilty for Danny. He lied. Used you.
“Cutter knew it’d only be a matter of time before you and Carter put it all together. Before you discovered his greatest secret of all.” Danny touched his mouth again, blood smearing his fingers.
“That Andrew is The Italian.” The truth poured out hot and fast, and her stomach squeezed at the horrible ugliness that had been staring her in the face, and she had missed it before now.
Had some subconscious part of her always known that ugly truth?
“You’re bait. Cutter wanted us to find you, right?” Chris hissed at the realization they’d been set up.
Danny took one bold step that had both Sebastian and Emilia extending an arm to block his path. He focused on Rory and whispered, “I’d say I’m more like a Trojan horse.”