Chapter Fifty-One
CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE
SEBASTIAN
“ W hat happened to him?” I ask Leena, looking back to where Colton is sound asleep across the back seat.
“Well, you guys took a while and we sorta…” She smiles, that adorable blush spreading across her face.
I bark out a laugh. “Well that’s one way to shut him up. You should have thought of that earlier, sweetheart.” I smile wide at her, then look over to find Luke smiling at me.
I hold his gaze, because for some reason, I want to.
“Something happened,” Leena says, putting her arms on the console and leaning forward to look between us. Her hair is over one shoulder, and fuck she looks beautiful in the moonlight. So does Luke. “What?” she says again, noticing the way I’m staring at her. How Luke is staring at her.
“Nothing happened,” I say quickly. But I know I’m grinning like an idiot. What the fuck is wrong with me? I need to get this under control.
Leena crosses her arms, which only props up her perfect breasts, showing off her cleavage. I stare. Luke stares. She looks down and lets out a breath, uncrossing them.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” she says sincerely, then pulls back to return to her seat. I grab her hand before she can, because I want her to know.
I can’t keep shutting people out like this.
Only, I don’t know what to do now. I lace my fingers with Leena’s, then look to Luke for help. He smiles, sliding his hand over the back of hers, his fingers tangling with mine.
Without taking his eyes off me, he answers her question. “Sebastian told me that he loves me. And I said it back.” He smiles. And it’s strange, hearing it out loud.
But I guess I did do that.
I smile too, studying his face again just as he looks at me. Why can’t I stop looking at him?
Leena doesn’t say anything, and I start to get a little concerned. I turn to her.
She’s crying.
Fuck! Should we not have told her? My eyes shoot to Luke, but he’s still smiling. I furrow my brows. Our woman is crying.
Crying means something is wrong.
Why is he okay with this?
“She’s happy, Seb. These are happy tears,” he explains. My eyes find Leena’s again, and sure enough. The look she’s giving me can only be love, despite the water leaking down her face.
“Sweetheart, stop worrying me with this shit.” I cup her face so I can wipe them away.
“Stop doing really cute shit and I will.” She leans into my hand, then plants a kiss in my palm. “I love you,” she whispers, looking between both of us.
“We love you too, Leena,” Luke says. “Now try and get some sleep. It’s a long drive back.”
She nods, smiling wearily, then moves to curl up on the seat next to Colton. The sleeping man subconsciously wraps an arm around her, pulling her close. I smile at them, then over at Luke.
We look at each other for another long moment. And when he takes my hand in his, I feel like for the first time, I might have done something right.
—
Knowing where Jace is was a relief, it also opened up a whole slew of intensified research over the past two days since he checked in. Between pulling local building plans and information, running strategies and monitoring the cameras, the team’s been working their asses off night and day. Ryan hasn’t even had a second to get back to figuring out how they hacked our penthouse. But the intel we’ve gathered will prove invaluable if Jace can’t get himself out of there.
Leena and I are sitting side by side, a little too close, since I dragged her rolling chair up against mine earlier, each of us focused on the monitors in front of us. I’m busy pouring over another topographical map of the surrounding area when she speaks up.
“Seb?”
“Hm?” I glance over, then smile at the stream of code scrolling across her screen.
Fuck yes. Finally.
“Chen! Get in here!” I shout without taking my eyes off the screen.
“What is it?” she asks.
“That, sweetheart, is Jace pulling through.” I smile, tugging her onto my lap and pushing us away from the desk just as Ryan comes into the room, sitting in her chair to take over. He shoves up his glasses and begins tapping away, his eyes fixed on the screen.
“Alright. He did it. I’m in,” Ryan says and I hold Leena tighter. “Let’s see what The Queen of Diamonds has to hide.”
—
I watch the video for probably the tenth time. Because if this is what I think it is, it’s a huge fucking lead. It also means that the hours we’ve spent going through the paperwork and security footage Ryan pulled from the Queen of Diamonds’ server hasn’t been a waste of time.
That sending Jace in there wasn’t a waste of time.
I rewind it again.
It’s dark. The woman talking on the phone is not in view of the camera, but I can still mostly hear her side of the conversation, even though humming generators are garbling her voice. Which explains why our search for utilities came up short. They’re off the fucking grid.
“ No, I don’t care if it’s a fucking emergency… not using my docks. Tell that asshole if… step foot on this island… play nice with another Card. I’m fucking done… kidnapping bullshit… fuck around with The King, that’s…”
I rewind it and listen again.
Then I look over at Ryan. “When was this footage taken?”
“Last night.” I look at my watch. It’s still early, and we’re the only ones awake in the house.
“Get me a list of every single dock on this island that doesn’t have a fucking diamond painted on the side of it. It sounds like Kathryn Hart is on a boat.”
“On it,” Ryan says. I shove up from the table, shooting a text to Ava. By the time I’m passing the bottom of the stairs, she’s already taking them two at a time, wearing a pair of shorts and an oversized T-shirt sporting the picture of a superhero I don’t recognize on the front of it.
“We have a lead. Ry can explain.” She nods, heading toward the den while I continue on down the hall.
I throw open the master bedroom door, closing it behind me as I flick on the light. Then I go to the window, quickly drawing the curtains open too. The action is met with three sets of complaints, since Colton moved himself in here permanently.
I take a moment to admire the sight of Leena’s naked ass and back sprawled on the bed between the two men. That fucking adorable little heart decorating the part of her shoulder I like to kiss.
I can’t wait until it’s finished healing so I can kiss her there again.
Luke is already sitting up, rubbing his eyes and looking at me, whereas Leena has buried her face into Colton’s bare side and he’s pulled a pillow over his face, groaning his aversion to daylight.
“What is it?” Luke asks as I head straight for the large walk-in closet. Before I step inside, I turn to face him.
“Kat’s on a boat. Who’s up for a road trip to the marina?” I smile, feeling excited to finally have something.
The three of them stare up at me in shock: Luke from where he’s already standing, Colton out from under his pillow and Leena is suddenly sitting up with a hand over her mouth. I can see the relief in her eyes.
I fill them in as we all get dressed together and Leena helps change the bandage on Colton’s hip.
Within a few minutes, we’re all hovering over Ryan and Ava.
“What are we looking at?” Luke demands.
“There are only four marinas on the northern coast that aren’t owned by the Queen of Diamonds. So unless this guy has a death wish, he’ll be pulling into port at one of those,” Ryan explains.
“We were able to hack into two of the marina’s security systems no problem, so we can watch for anyone who disembarks on this monitor here.” Ava points to the camera feed showing people milling about everywhere.
“What about the two marinas?” I ask.
“I can’t seem to find their systems at all. Which could mean they’re really great at security, which I doubt, or it’s so old they’re still using a closed circuit. Either way, I wouldn’t bet on us getting a visual on them anytime soon,” Ryan adds.
I take a breath. “Alright. Two locations, we can do that. Hart, you’re with me on the eastern marina. Fisher, Campbell, you’re on the west. We need to figure out if anyone has docked already this morning. If they haven’t, we’re going to stake it out. If it’s really an emergency, I imagine it won’t take long. Send Chen and Jones the tags of any boat coming into port, they can search the registered owners for Deck affiliation. If you see anything, report back, but don’t engage until we know what we’re dealing with. Got it?”
“Got it,” Luke says.
I nod to him, then the rest of them. “Alright, let’s load up.”
—
“I look ridiculous,” Leena says as we walk toward the marina.
“You look like a tourist, darling.” I chuckle, studying the woman in the blonde wig, “ I Love Jamaica” sundress, sunglasses and giant hat that she and Colton found at a gift shop while Luke and I were picking up our second rental vehicle.
I’ll admit, the hair is a little ridiculous, but I don’t hate the dress. Though I’m more than a little pissed off that Colton is the one who helped her into it.
And I know for a fact he helped her into it, because that hickey just below her collar bone in plain fucking sight wasn’t there when we dropped the two of them off.
Fucking bastard.
I frown, looking down and fussing at the hideous floral patterned button-up shirt they found for me.
I’m definitely burning it when we get back to the house.
“So what’s the plan? Wander into the office and ask if anyone requested a slip this morning?” Leena asks.
“Nope. We’re just going to take a stroll down the dock. And you, dear, are going to take lots of selfies. Be sure to include the tags when you do.”
“Lots of selfies, got it.” She smiles up at me.
“Now you better pretend to like me, we need to really sell this whole couple on vacation thing.” I smirk down at her.
“Hm, yes, pretend.” She hums, turning and holding her hat to her head as she stands on tiptoes to give me a kiss.
Fuck . The kiss doesn’t even involve our tongues, but it’s Leena, so it makes my fucking heart stop all the same. I can’t seem to stop fucking smiling.
Why am I in such a goddamn good mood all of the sudden? I never used to be like this. But it’s so fucking different now being in love with this woman and Luke.
And after telling the team about us, not having to hide it anymore, plus having Colton around? It’s all so fucking much that I don’t even know what I’m feeling anymore.
But I’m fucking smiling.
So fucking much.
“Come on, let’s go stare at the water and pretend we find it interesting,” I say, resting my hand on Leena’s lower back as we walk down the ramp.
“It is interesting.” She chuckles.
“If you say so, darling.” I smirk.
Once we’re down on the dock, I put my hands in my pockets, wandering around as if I’m actually on vacation and enjoying the fresh air.
It smells like dead fish and I don’t like it.
But I think I’m doing a great job for anyone who might be watching.
Leena keeps herself busy taking selfies, dragging me into them now and then. She even hands me her phone at one point so she can pose at the very end of the dock with her cute little hat.
I smile.
I could get used to this.
We sit on one of the benches, pretending to look at her precious photos, when in reality, we’re sending them off for Ryan and Ava to cross-reference with the harbor patrol.
Once he confirms none of the vessels came in this morning, we decide that maybe we can kill time at a little café overlooking the marina. That should buy us at least two hours of inconspicuous loitering, especially if we order some of those drinks that come with the little umbrellas.
I wrap an arm around Leena, leading her back up the dock and toward shore. We walk past four men and I notice all the gear they have piled by an empty slip, clearly waiting on a boat to arrive.
They watch us carefully as we move past them, and I nod cordially. But I don’t miss the tattoo that is glaring up at us from the forearm of one of the men. A tattoo of a playing card.
The Ace of Clubs.
Fuck.
Luke may have convinced his uncle back in the States to back the fuck off, but we’re a long way from home. It’s been my experience that the Cards have a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later.
I force myself to continue my leisurely pace, even though what I really want to do is shoot three of them and take the fourth for questioning. I’ve never been this protective over someone I’ve never met, but this is Kathryn we’re talking about. This is Leena’s family. My family. I already lost my sister, I won’t watch the woman I’m in love with lose hers.
Not if I can help it.
When we are far enough away to be out of earshot, I tap Leena’s side with my thumb, getting her attention. She doesn’t look up at me, instead, she raises her phone again, snapping a picture of a nearby tree covered in flowers.
“What is it?” she asks in a low whisper.
“Those men on the dock were Ace of Clubs. They’re waiting for someone,” I say just as quietly.
I turn casually back to admire the horizon, finding one of the men looking our way. He’s got his phone to his ear, and I don’t like the look on his ugly face.
“Keep walking,” I tell her, wrapping my arm around her again as we head toward the parking lot.
“Have we been made?” she asks, her pace quickening.
I look over my shoulder again, finding all four men running up the dock. Fuck.
“Time to run, sugar.”