Chapter Twenty-Six
Cooper
The annoying buzzing of my phone jolted me awake. I’d recently taken to falling asleep at my desk in the warehouse. I now spent most evenings with Allegra, but then grudgingly left her asleep in bed in the early hours of the morning. Every second I wasn’t with her, I was here at the warehouse. I shook myself awake, trying to orient myself.
An unknown number. In my line of work, unexpected calls never brought good news. My blood ran cold as I answered. “Who is this?”
“Mr. Moreau,” a familiar voice purred through the speaker. “I trust I haven’t caught you at an inconvenient time?”
I sat up straighter, instantly alert. Laurent Rousseau. At the Saint-Antoine Hospital Gala, he’d warned me that he was watching me, but my own arrogance made me think that I could handle whatever he threw at me.
“Rousseau,” I said carefully. “To what do I owe the pleasure?”
“I believe I have something of interest to you.” A pause, then: “Or rather, someone.”
My heart stopped as another voice came through the speaker: “Cooper?”
Allegra. The woman who’d walked into my life and changed everything with her gentle hands and quiet laugh. Who’d pieced me back together after I’d been shot. Who’d looked at me last night, the moonlight in her hair, and whispered that she loved me.
“If you’ve hurt her—”
“She’s perfectly safe, Mr. Moreau. For now.” Rousseau’s voice was smooth as aged whiskey, but the threat underneath was clear. “Though her continued well-being depends entirely on you.”
My mind raced. How had they gotten to her? My security detail should have been watching her work and apartment. But Allegra had insisted she didn’t want them directly at the clinic, so I moved them two blocks out.
God, I should have fought her on it.
“What do you want?”
“It’s quite simple. You’ve been expanding your operations lately. The weapons deal with Viktor Petrov, for instance? Most ambitious.” His tone hardened. “Cancel it. Immediately. Stick to your usual ventures—art, perhaps some light drug running. But weapons? That’s not your territory.”
My knuckles whitened around the phone. I remembered Rousseau at the gala, watching me with those calculating eyes as I danced with Allegra. Had he been planning this even then?
“If I agree?”
“Then the lovely Miss…Prescott returns to you, unharmed. If not...” He let the threat hang in the air before the line went dead.
I dialed Viktor’s number as quickly as I could .
“Cooper?” Viktor answered on the first ring. “I wasn’t expecting to hear from you until Friday—”
“The deal’s off,” I said flatly.
A long pause. “You understand what this means?”
“I do.” It meant millions in lost revenue. Potentially damaged relationships with other suppliers. Maybe even war with Viktor’s organization. Retaliation from the group in Sudan.
None of it mattered.
As soon as I disconnected from Viktor, I redialed the unknown number.
“It’s done,” I told Rousseau. “Now where is she? Tell me, now!”
“The abandoned warehouse on Rue de la Croix . 5:00 p.m. Come alone.”
The line went dead. I checked the time: 4:30 p.m.
I spent the next thirty minutes making preparations, my mind replaying every moment with Allegra. Her surprise when I’d asked her to attend Steele’s and Ashlynn’s wedding. The way she’d blushed when I caught her staring at me during exercises. Her genuine concern when she patched me up and pulled the bullet out of my shoulder. The way she loved her cat so completely.
She was the one pure thing in my life. The one person who saw past my reputation, my business, my walls. And now she was in danger because of me.
I don’t think I had ever been so scared. I drove to the warehouse, unseeing. The sights of Paris, the sound of the city…it was dead to me. Nothing was right without her.
The abandoned building’s broken windows gaped like empty eye sockets, and the rusted metal door hung askew on its hinges. The smell of stale air mixed with damp air. My leg ached but I pushed the pain aside. The weight of my gun pressed reassuringly against my back, though I knew it might be useless. If this was a setup, I was walking into it willingly.
For her. Anything for her.
Rousseau emerged from the shadows, exactly as I remembered him from the gala. Tall, elegant, with silver hair that caught the dim light. He moved with the same lethal grace I’d noticed before, like a cobra waiting to strike.
“Mr. Moreau,” he said, smiling that same cold smile. “Right on time. I do appreciate punctuality.”
“How did you get to her?” I demanded, my voice raw with fury. “I had security—”
A cold smile played across Laurent’s lips. “Your security was impressive, I’ll give you that. But I’ve been doing this for decades.” He adjusted his cuff links with practiced ease. “A few bribes to the right people, a staged incident across town to draw your men’s attention...Did you really think your hastily assembled team could outmaneuver me? I taught half the security specialists in Europe their trade.”
I clenched my hands into fists, dying to take a swing at him. Every word was like salt in a deep cut, reminding me how stupid I’d been to think I could protect Allegra from this world. “Where is she?”
“Patience, young man. First, let’s discuss terms.”
“I’m not discussing anything until I see she’s safe.”
“Very well.” He gestured toward the warehouse door. “After you. ”
Every instinct screamed at me not to turn my back on him, but I had no choice. As we entered the warehouse, the space opened up before us, cavernous and dimly lit. In the center, illuminated by a single spotlight, sat Allegra.
My heart clenched. She was pale but unharmed, her dark hair falling loose around her face. Her eyes met mine, wide with fear and something else—desperation?
“Cooper,” she called out, struggling against her bonds. “Please, you have to leave. Don’t do this. He’s my—”
“Quiet,” Rousseau snapped, and she flinched in a way that seemed oddly familiar.
That’s when I saw it. Really saw it. The same sharp cheekbones. The same green eyes. The way she flinched at his voice—not the fear of a stranger, but the fear of someone who’d known this man’s rage before.
“She’s your daughter,” I breathed, the words hitting me like a physical blow.
The proud tilt of his head—so like Allegra’s—confirmed it before he spoke.
My mind raced back through every moment with her. How she never talked about her father. All those questions about my business, wrapped in seeming innocent concern. Refusing my security…her father at the same goddamn gala where we’d danced.
Fuck, I’d been such a fool.
“Cooper,” she whispered, tears streaming down her face. “Please, I can explain—”
“Don’t.” I looked at Allegra, seeing the guilt cross her face. Every touch, every kiss, every whispered confession of love—had it all been orchestrated? Had she laughed with her father about how easily I’d fallen for it?
But even as betrayal burned through me, I couldn’t bear to see her hurt. That realization made it worse—even knowing she’d fooled me, I still loved her.
At least I still had some cards to play.
“You know what’s funny, Rousseau?” I said, keeping my voice steady despite the ache in my chest. “You’re so desperate to look powerful, you didn’t notice what was happening right in front of you.”
He frowned. “What are you talking about?”
“The Shanghai deal last month? You took a loss. Brussels too. And that operation in Dubai?” I watched his face carefully. “You’re hemorrhaging money. Have been for months.”
The slight twitch in his jaw told me I’d hit home. For once, I was glad that I’d shown mercy to Henri and his men. This knowledge was worth the price, and was the only bargaining chip I had against Rousseau.
“Your men are loyal because they think you’re invincible. Because every time you lose a shipment or take a hit, you cover it up with a bigger show of force.” I took a step closer. “But it’s all smoke and mirrors, isn’t it? You’re playing a shell game, moving money around to hide the bleeding. One good push, and it all comes crashing down.”
“You have no proof—”
Behind him, my men emerged from the shadows, red laser sights dotting his chest. I pulled out my phone, showed him the screen. “Bank records don’t lie. Three of your major accounts are nearly empty. You’ve mortgaged properties you’ve owned for decades. And that new weapons deal you’re so desperate to stop me from making? You need it because you can’t afford to let anyone else control the market right now.”
The color drained from his face. In our world, the appearance of power was everything. If his rivals knew how vulnerable he really was...
“My men—”
“Will scatter the moment they realize you can’t pay them. How many missed paychecks before they start looking for new employers? How many of your rivals would love to pick them off, piece by piece?” I let that sink in. “And all it would take is one email. One leak showing the great Laurent Rousseau is running on fumes.”
For a long moment, the warehouse was silent except for Allegra’s quiet breathing. Then Rousseau lowered his weapon.
“What do you want?”
“First, let her go. Get your lying daughter out of my sight. Then we’ll talk terms.”
“And if I refuse?”
“Then by morning, every major player in Europe knows you’re weak. And we both know what happens to weak men in our business.”
Rousseau looked at his daughter one last time, something almost like regret crossing his features. Then he nodded to his men, who cut her bonds.
As she stumbled to her feet, I kept my eyes on Rousseau but spoke to her. “Go.” My voice was cold now, all tenderness gone. “Live your life, Allegra. Just...live it far away from me.”
“Cooper, no, you don’t understand. I never told him anything about you. I ran away from him years ago. Please—”
That’s when I heard it—the soft thud of bodies hitting concrete behind me. I spun around to see my security team crumpling to the ground one by one, red dots appearing on their chests. Snipers. We’d been so focused on the men in front of us, we’d missed Rousseau’s backup in the rafters.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t have contingencies of my own, Mr. Moreau?” Rousseau’s voice was almost gentle. “One last thing.”
The flash illuminated his face for a split second, casting demonic shadows across his features. The bullet slammed into my chest with the force of a sledgehammer, the impact spinning me halfway around. My legs buckled as white-hot pain blazed through my torso. Blood filled my mouth, and each breath became a desperate struggle. Between the bullet wound in my chest and my newly aggravated leg injury, every movement was agony. I forced myself forward, each step a battle of will over body.
Through the encroaching darkness, I heard the sharp click of Rousseau’s shoes on concrete, saw his polished wingtips step into my narrowing field of vision. Beyond them lay the still forms of my men—good men who’d trusted me, died for me. Above it all, Allegra’s scream echoed off the warehouse walls, the sound full of genuine anguish—or maybe that was just what I wanted to believe as consciousness slipped away.
My last thought before the darkness took me wasn’t of the empire I’d built, or the deals I’d made. It wasn’t even of the loyal men I’d led to their deaths. It was of Allegra’s sweet smile, and the bitter truth that I’d never know if it had been real between us or just an act.