Chapter 28 Erin
Erin
A knock ripples down the corridor like a warning shot. I stare at Augusto whose reassuring expression could easily have me fooled that I’d dreamed the whole thing up to now.
“Tell me again,” he says, softly. “Where were you last night at four a.m.?”
My brow dips, just a touch. “I was in bed, asleep.”
“All night?”
“Yes, of course—all night.”
“Where was your husband?”
The word makes me swell. “He was right beside me,” I whisper.
He nods. “That’s all you have to say.”
I release a nervous breath. “You’re sure the security footage was wiped?”
“Yes. I’ve seen it with my own eyes.”
My gaze tracks him as he walks to the window. “How did the cameras not capture you?”
Looking back over his shoulder briefly, he replies, “Because I used a back exit, remember?”
My memory of last night is patchy, dominated largely by the overwhelming sensations of Augusto declaring his true feelings and fucking me like his life depended on it.
The sound of doors opening and closing down the corridor put my nerves on edge.
Voices carry on the air, low and controlled.
The retreat staff is different now. The people hired to deliver the best in everything have lost their softness.
Whatever spa-trained politeness they once had is gone, replaced by cold efficiency.
I’m glancing at my phone and kicking myself for forgetting to charge it when the knock reaches our door.
It sounds, to my ears, like a ticking bomb.
“Open, please.”
Augusto does as instructed and two men step inside without waiting for permission.
They’re not familiar—I would have recognized their braced jawlines and too-slick hair.
One stays by the door while the other scans the room.
He looks about methodically, his gloved hands lifting cushions, opening drawers, checking behind the headboard like he expects to find a confession taped there.
“Is there a problem?” I ask.
“Just a routine search,” the man says, not looking at me.
“Are the rumors true? Has someone really gone missing?”
“I’m afraid I can’t answer that, ma’am.”
“Oh. Okay.”
He straightens and looks between me and Augusto, then his eyes narrow.
“Where were you last night?” he asks Augusto directly.
Augusto shrugs. “I was right here, with my wife.”
The man turns to me.
“We left dinner and came straight back here. The horseback riding wiped me out,” I say with a timid laugh.
His eyes flit back and forth between us, each glance making my heartrate tick up a notch.
His gaze turns sharply to Augusto. “What is your role?”
Role? What role?
August answers smoothly. “Financial backing. Stateside.”
The man holds his gaze for a few long, anxiety-inducing moments, then nods curtly and lets himself out of the suite. The other man follows, eyeing us with an expression that says he doesn’t trust a single living thing.
I let out a breath. “That was intense.”
He rests his huge paws on my shoulders and pulls me into his hard chest. “That was just the beginning.”
I nestle against his beating heart. “Tell me about the deal, Augusto. It’s firearms for the middle east, right?”
He breathes in, considering my question.
“Erin… the more you know, the greater the risk I put you in.”
“I’m already at risk, Augusto. And I’m not stupid. Knowing more about it might help me. I might be able to help you.”
He nuzzles his head into my hair with a reluctant sigh. “They’re military grade weapons. So illegal the justice department doesn’t even know they exist.”
My spine stiffens.
“We were shown a sample yesterday. Just one of these weapons could detonate an entire village in seconds.”
I cough around the tightness in my chest. “You know what their plan is?”
“Yes. They want to destabilize the region, cause chaos in a different part of the world so their own activities go unnoticed.”
I try to swallow but I can’t. It’s hard to believe what I’m hearing.
“Who do they think you are?”
“They think I’m another financier using offshore investment funds and offering contacts in the embassies.”
“And… he said the Italians weren’t invited. Why don’t they want the Italians involved?”
He breathes steadily, the warmth caressing my ear.
“Believe it or not, we’re businessmen. We’re not short-termist like the Russians.
We believe in legacy and tradition, oaths and values.
The business we’ve built means something to us and we work with the authorities to ensure we can continue—quietly. ”
“I still can’t believe you work with the authorities?”
He squeezes me gently. “No one in this world is whiter than white, Erin. We all have to release our demons somehow. So long as we don’t make a public mockery of the system, we’re able to use it to our advantage, and you’d be surprised at how many law enforcement agents are on our payroll.”
I blink repeatedly as if it might wake me up from this surreal dream.
“So, what’s stopping you from finishing this now?” I ask.
“I need to prove the identity of the man who’s orchestrating this entire scheme.”
“And that wasn’t the Russian you—" Fear won’t let me finish that sentence.
“No—he was just a face, a middle man. A representative if you will.”
“So, now he’s gone, the real player is going to reveal himself?”
“That’s what I hope.”
I nod, finally understanding.
“You think he’s Russian too?”
Augusto braces slightly, like he’s confronting an uncomfortable truth. “I believe it’s Nikolai Morozov, the head of the Russian mafia.”
I jerk backward out of August’s arms with a frown. “Morozov?”
“Yeah.” Augusto watches me keenly.
“I’ve heard that name before.”
His face relaxes a little. “On the news probably.”
I shake my head, trying hard to place the name. “No, I don’t think so. I’m ashamed to say I rarely watched the news. I’ve heard it somewhere else.” I hammer the heel of my palm against my head. “God, where have I heard that name?”
Augusto yanks my hand away from where it’s pounding my temple and pulls me into him again.
“Don’t you worry about it, Erin. I know what I need to do.
There’s a room that’s been marked as off-limits through the whole retreat.
I’ve been watching it daily and getting tapes of the security footage from our guys in Boston.
I know the routines and when it will be safest for me to break in.
The identity of the person leading all this is hidden in there.
The second I get it, we can leave, okay? ”
I pull gently away and face the window, looking out at the torchlights fanning across the gardens.
A shiver runs through me at the thought of being discovered.
It was me out there just a couple of nights ago, with the missing man.
What if my fingerprints are on something?
What if I left a fragment of clothing from where I stomped through brambles?
Augusto warms my side. “They won’t find anything, Erin. Trust me.”
My shoulders loosen a touch, but then I start thinking about the end of the week. About packing my things. About going home. About how easily this could all vanish like a strange, vivid dream.
And how much I don’t want it to.
“What’s going to happen when we leave?” I whisper.
I sense him watching me carefully. “I’ve made it clear what I want, Erin. I want you. In whatever shape or form I can get. But I know things are complicated for you right now, so you don’t need to decide anything just yet.”
I don’t know why my heart flutters so wistfully at his words—I should be familiar with what he wants by now. And if I was in any doubt, the way he puts my pleasure first every single time should persuade me of it.
But I think of my daughter. Of her settling into a new life a million miles away from her friends. And of her fierce little heart.
I think of Gerard and how quickly he’d weaponize my innocent foray into the heart of an illegal arms trade if he ever found out. How he’d paint me as reckless and unstable. Unfit to be a mother.
He’d fight me for custody of Paige.
And he’d win.
Then there’s the other thing. The money. I feel like a gold digger for even bringing it up, but it is what brought me here. And I’m pretty sure Augusto would agree, I’ve put my life in danger by being here. I deserve the payment I was promised.
“What about the money?” I ask quietly. “The offer you made. I don’t feel comfortable taking it from you now, Augusto, but I do need it.”
Augusto doesn’t answer right away and, for a minute or two, all I can hear is my own heart beating.
“It’s yours Erin,” he says finally and quietly. “You’ve earned it fair and square. But if you decide to be mine, like I want you to, you won’t need it.”
My head turns like a magnet being pulled against its will. “What do you mean?”
With his gaze anchored out the window, he angles his body toward me, grounding his feet to the floor. When he turns to face me, his lids are heavy with promise, his lashes casting shadows across his cheekbones.
He grinds his back teeth, regarding me for a short, loaded moment.
I need to know what he means because money always has strings.
“If you’re my woman,” he rumbles, a note of unquestionable possession underlining those last two words, “you won’t want for anything.
You’ll have a place to live, either with me or just for you and Paige in the beginning.
You’ll have a bank account, a charge card, a driver, security.
Anything you want, Erin. It will all be yours. If you’ll be mine.”
I stare at him.
He isn’t blinking.
I think I’m going to die.
Oxygen deprivation.
My breath has done a total runner.
He narrows his eyes.
Then something whacks me in the back and I cough.
“You okay? You turned real pale.”
I finish spluttering and stare back at him. “Ya think?”
He pulls back slightly. “What is it?”
“None of what you just said could possibly be true,” I rush out. “And even if it was, I couldn’t possibly accept it. It’s ludicrous. I’m a strong, independent woman. I take care of myself and my daughter. I don’t need a handout from anyone. I earn my money, I—”
Augusto’s hands come down on my shoulders. “Erin, stop… You’re spinning.”
I gape at him. “Of course I’m spinning. Men should be locked up for saying shit like that. It’s… it’s…”
“It’s what?”
“Too… nice,” I say, wide-eyed and breathless. “Too gallant. And too… hard to believe.”
He juts out his jaw and looks a little pissed. “Erin, have I treated you like a commodity, or someone who’s less than?”
I stare back at him, the truth settling over my skin like a warm caress. “No.”
“You’re just on edge because of the situation we’re in right now. As soon as this is over you’ll be able to think straight. Like I said, you don’t have to give me your answer now, but I wanted you to know where my head’s at.”
My spine softens but my head is still battling to understand. “Augusto…”
“Erin…”
I shake my head. There really is only one way to ask this. “Why me?”
He goes still.
“Why you?” he repeats, like the question offends him.
He shifts into me, until his chest brushes against my breasts.
My pulse stutters.
“Because you’ve brought me back to life.”
His hand lifts slowly and deliberately, like he’s giving me a chance to move away. But I don’t. I’m mesmerized, even as his knuckles brush the side of my jaw, sending molten lava down my spine.
He shakes his head, his voice rough. “Because I just offered you the world, but you didn’t grab it and run—you questioned it.”
My lips part and his thumb traces the curve of my cheek, slow and reverent.
“And because, I’ve stood in rooms full of men who would kill for what I control. And none of them have made me feel half as exposed as you do.”
My breath catches and he presses his forehead to mine.
“You think this is gallant? It isn’t. It’s selfish. I want you where I can see you, where I can protect you. Where I can wake up and touch you and have you, whenever the fuck I want.”
His hand slides to the back of my neck, his fingertips setting electrical currents through my veins.
Then his voice drops to a devastating depth. “To be clear, if you walk away, I’ll let you.”
My heart skips several beats.
“But if you stay…” His thumb presses under my jaw, tilting my face up. “I will love you in a way that makes you forget the person you were before.”
The words land like a vow and a threat and a salvation all at once.
“I don’t need you to want my money,” he whispers. “I need you to want me.”
My hands are on his chest now, but I don’t remember putting them there.
His heartbeat is steady, but mine is a damn riot.
“Why you?” he murmurs against my lips.
My lids flutter closed, completely and utterly lost in the dark promises he’s making.
“Because, Erin, I would burn this place to smithereens before I let you think you’re just another transaction.”