Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
The Burj Al Arab luxury hotel, famously shaped like a sailboat, served as the background on the silky beach as Finn and Julia waited in their swimwear for Michael to show up that afternoon at the hotel where he’d chosen to stay.
Julia had on a sexy but simple black bikini and seeing her in that had managed to ease his thoughts about the heavy conversation he’d hit her with that morning before A.J. had dropped the hammer on him about the stolen Captagon.
But if Tariq needed more pills in a pinch, it made sense he’d hit the two sites where the largest drug seizures had occurred in recent years. The team needed answers as to what he was planning, and Jessica and Harper were working round the clock to try and get them.
Tariq may have still been off-limits. Same with Kaira. But they’d be cornering the Americans tonight and pumping them for intel. Hopefully.
As he and Julia waited inside a private cabana on the beach for her brother to arrive, Finn checked out her legs, golden and oiled up with tanning lotion, before drawing his focus higher.
Memories of their time together making love filled his mind when he should’ve been thinking about the mission.
Those long legs had straddled him while she rode him and he pumped inside of her.
He was growing hard thinking about it now, so he stealthily adjusted himself.
He didn’t need a raging hard-on when Michael showed up, or he’d be getting more than just decked in the face.
He also preferred to focus on the physical moments they’d shared rather than the emotional ones because he had no clue if Julia was ready, or willing, to take any next steps, whatever they might be with him, given what he’d told her.
She’d made it clear that she wasn’t disappointed in him but hadn’t mentioned a word one way or the other when he confessed that he still served in the military. What did that mean? Why was his gut warning him he was screwed on so many levels?
“I’m beginning to hate one of my favorite movie series.” Julia brought her fruity mocktail to her mouth and sucked through the pink straw.
“Why?” He sort of knew, but he was curious where she was going with this.
“Sounds like Tariq is making an army of the dead. You know, turning soldiers into a zombie-like state for whatever hellish reason.” Harper had explained the effects of Captagon to Julia back in Egypt when he’d been unable to get himself to talk about the drug.
“Reminds me of Anubis and his army of the dead from one of the movies. And . . .” She lowered her drink a moment later and closed her eyes.
“The woman in Aswan, what if she was right, but her message was lost in translation?”
“What?” He thought back to the moment when Julia had purchased the Osiris statue, which felt like forever ago.
“What if her warning was about Tariq? He’s Osiris in this scenario. Guardian of the dead, or well, undead soldiers.” She revealed her eyes a moment later and set her drink on the little table between them.
Why couldn’t they just be on a beach relaxing and enjoying each other’s company?
Why did they have to be stuck in such a shit reality where the world kept sucking at every turn because of bad guys?
Why did she have to be so afraid to date men who served in the military?
Why didn’t I tell someone about Jaden? Why’d I leave him alone that night at the party?
“You’re not going to die, so that woman’s words are meaningless to me.” And that was as much solace as he could offer, as much truth as he was able to deliver at that moment.
“I wasn’t honest with you at the time I bought that statue. So, I’m not worried about that part of her message, now that you know everything and I have you on my side.”
“I definitely won’t let that happen.” He reached for her hand and linked their palms, and as he held her eyes, his stomach wrenched at the idea of losing her after the op was completed. Would they forever only have Dubai?
“Ahem.”
Finn immediately released Julia’s hand at the sound of a throat clear. Of course, her brother had to show up now.
“We’re pretending to be married,” Julia explained, obviously feeling the need to justify the hand holding to her brother. She stood and Michael hugged her before turning his attention to his main target.
“Hi.” Finn rose from the daybed, but he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to offer his hand or turn his cheek for the punch he most likely deserved. “I’m sorry,” he offered, which felt weak and not all that heartfelt.
“Don’t be angry.” Julia quickly stepped in front of Finn, as she’d promised to do on the flight from Aswan to Dubai. She stood facing her brother, but Michael still had a clear view of Finn since he was much taller than her. “I would have come for Oliver no matter what.”
“I know.” Michael stepped away from Julia and stared down Finn. “Thank you for rescuing her when she was abducted.”
Finn wasn’t expecting a thank-you, especially since he was still beating himself up for almost losing Julia because of his two-second delay. “I’m sorry it happened in the first place.”
Julia turned to the side and glanced back and forth between the two of them, a look of relief on her face since it appeared her brother wasn’t planning to punch Finn.
Michael was in a white tee and green swim trunks, but with his tight jawline and eyes unhidden by shades, he looked more like a Marine on a mission than a relaxed beachgoer.
“Now that you’ve seen me, verified I’m alive and in good hands, I say you head back home where you belong.
You just moved and Kate needs you,” Julia said with a soft plea, and although Finn only had her profile, he sensed that when she fully faced her brother, she was pulling out some puppy dog eyes for extra impact.
“I’m not leaving you in the middle of some storm.”
Storm. Why did that word keep coming up?
“You’re going to help us get Oliver out of prison, then?”
Michael folded his arms, his biceps popping under the sleeves of the white tee. “I’ve been trying to do that for months.”
Julia set a hand on her brother’s chest. “Legally, and I’m worried you’re starting to believe he’s guilty.”
“Not anymore, not after Wyatt filled me in at his hotel on what you all have discovered.” He paused. “I’m sorry for doubting you. But I’m still . . . just in shock you did all of this.”
“How could I not? Oliver is like a brother. You think I wouldn’t move mountains for you if you were in trouble?”
Would she move mountains to be with me?
Michael’s shoulders fell. “Of course, but you should have told me what you were up to. Mya’s a journalist, not CIA.
Thank God she had the sense to fake the death threats.
You would have gone to Egypt alone, and those men who threw you in the trunk would have .
. .” Michael let go of his words, and Finn didn’t blame him.
How did one finish that line of thought when it ended with Julia being trafficked for sex or killed?
“We have this handled,” she went on, ignoring Michael’s concerns. “Go home to your wife and kids.”
“Julia, please,” Michael said, and he was the one with a plea in his voice now.
“You’ll get in the way or get killed. These guys have it handled.
I want you to come home with me until this is over.
You’ll stay with us. And Mom and Dad pulled the house in the Outer Banks from the market if you want it. You can go there.”
And work in the darkroom again? Maybe it’d bring about a rebirth of sorts, like the blue water lily on the pendant he’d bought her, and she could start over. Hell, can I do that?
Finn didn’t want to see Julia leave, but her brother was right. It was the safest option. They already had the invite to the party, so he could go alone. Or worst case, his people would break into Joan and Jack’s villa after the party to question them.
“I’m not leaving until Tariq has been taken down and Oliver is out of jail. They go hand in hand from the looks of it.” Julia folded her arms, standing up to her brother, and Finn stepped alongside her.
“Julia, you know my team can handle this.” You know who I really am. “Maybe you should listen to Michael.”
Relief filled Michael’s blue eyes, but when Julia turned to set her attention on Finn—there was that feisty, angry woman he’d encountered back in New York.
Tornado Julia was upon him, and she was about to leave some major damage in her wake if he sided with her brother. But her safety was more important.
“I’m not leaving, and if you think for one minute I’d turn my back and walk away, then you don’t know me at all.”
Was that directed to me or Michael? Probably both of us.
Julia maneuvered around her brother’s firm statue-like stance and started toward the water gently lapping onto the sand.
Finn held his hand up to urge Michael to give her a minute to cool off. He kept his eyes locked on to her as she stepped into the water. He wouldn’t let her get taken a second time, that was for damn sure.
“She’s stubborn,” Michael hissed. “Like me.”
That almost made Finn laugh. He pocketed his hands and moved out from under the cabana to maintain his line of sight on the woman who drove him nuts.
“If you give up on something you believe in, did you ever believe in it in the first place, then?” He cast a quick look at Michael to see him frowning.
“I can’t stay here. The President doesn’t want me mixed up in what’s going on.
He thinks I poked around enough with the case, and he doesn’t want my presence here raising any red flags.
” Michael was also responsible for designing many of the U.S.
government’s intelligence software programs and still assisted with the technological application from time to time, and the last thing POTUS would want is for a man like him to make the news.
Finn returned his focus to Julia, who was now waist-deep in the ocean.
There weren’t sharks here, right? He hated freaking sharks just about as much as A.J.
did. “I won’t let anything happen to her.
You have my word. It’s not like we’re going to take her with us when we take down Tariq’s operation.
” If we get the green light to do that. God, what if we don’t because of the prick’s royal connections?
Michael’s chest lifted and fell from a deep breath. It was clear he didn’t want to give up control, and this was killing him. But Finn had a feeling Michael knew he didn’t have a choice. Julia was Julia. “You know I’ll go to hell and back to unleash on anyone who hurts my sister, right?”
Hell.
The Underworld.
Army of the dead.
Mummy coffins and curses.
It was all so strange.
Finn nodded. “I’d expect nothing less of her brother,” he finally said. “Now, I’m going to go get her out of the water before she goes in too deep.” He started to walk past him, but Michael grabbed his arm, and Finn cut his focus back his way.
“She likes you.”
Finn’s brows snapped together at his unexpected words.
“So don’t die,” he rasped. “She can’t handle more heartbreak.”
Shit, man, neither can I.