Chapter 16
SIXTEEN
Levi
“So, do we have a plan?” Grant asks, leaning back in his seat at the head of the table.
“Yes, how is our vicious little nun? Hopefully, no more accidents.” Rowan’s eyes search the meeting table and land on me with a wicked smile. He’s worse than my brother is about this situation.
“No more accidents. I’ve been transparent with her. She wants the same things as we do, more or less.”
“No love lost with her father?” Grant raises a brow in surprise.
“No. She’s got a list of reasons she can’t stand him, not least of which is that he forced her into a bad marriage and stole her inheritance.”
“Inheritance? That didn’t run through him?”
“She’s the mistress’s daughter. The inheritance was from the maternal grandfather. A large sum, it sounds like, and he was an antique dealer.”
“A dealer? Do you have a name? Charlotte can start looking into it, and I can see if anyone I know worked with him when he was alive,” Rowan chimes in.
“I’ll have to ask her.” I clear my throat, realizing how simple a detail that is. It’s the kind of thing I’d never miss, and Rowan and Grant exchange glances. I've been too caught up in her story, feeling sympathy for the way she was treated rather than focusing on the job. It gnaws at me.
“As soon as you can, please.” Grant gives me a look that forgoes the lecture I should be getting, but it hits just the same.
“Of course.”
“And the husband?” Grant puts us back on track.
“The bait’s here, and the trap is set. We’re just waiting for him to make his move. All the extra security should help.”
“You don’t think he’ll reach out and try to set up a meeting? Ask if he can offer a ransom?” Rowan asks.
“I doubt it. I thought we were past the ransom idea.” I’m terser than I should be.
“Hudson wants it on the table. He thinks it could still be an avenue to returning the relics to us, slowing the governor down.”
“She says he won’t pay up.”
“You talked to her about it?” Rowan sits up straighter.
“I want to remind you all that you put me in charge of her and told me to run it my way. That’s what I’ve done.”
“But if you’re wrong about her, we’re fucked. She’ll feed all this to them.”
“She has no one to feed it to and no way to communicate it. She was at the convent as a runaway to escape his abuse. Their abuse. She’s not going to help them.”
“So you say.” Rowan is always the skeptic. “Unless she’s faking it.”
“I know her well enough. This isn’t just from spending time with her. This is from all the legwork and all the time I spent watching her when she didn’t know I was.”
“I don’t like it. We should be treating her like a prisoner, and you have her running around with his fiancée, getting clothes. You’re having heart-to-hearts about her past. It’s distracting and useless.” Rowan’s lip arches like it’s poised for a sneer, his eyes darting between us.
“I don’t think it’s useless,” Grant interjects on my behalf. “We asked him to make a connection with her, and that’s what he’s done. Dakota might be able to get information he can’t.”
“Charlotte told him to seduce her and get what we needed out of her. Not play house with her up in the woods. His head is clouded, and you can’t see it because you’re too close to him,” Rowan warns.
“We’re not playing house.”
“She shouldn’t be walking free. She could walk straight out the door. Fuck, there’s no could about it. She did.”
“I had her tagged like fucking cattle. She didn’t get far, and I’ll remind you we’ve got the sheriff in our pocket.
” I point out the obvious because we discovered my uncle, the sheriff, was a former coconspirator of her father’s.
He’s since come around to seeing things our way after we applied a little well-meaning pressure.
“Who does the governor have in his pocket? I’d imagine if he were a smart man, more than just the sheriff. All it takes is one spy on your team, and it all falls apart,” Rowan argues.
“All of our guys are thoroughly vetted.” Grant holds the floor. “I don’t like the insinuation they’re not.
“Until they lose too much money in your casino or get their dick wet with the wrong girl, and then they’re compromised.” Rowan shakes his head.
“Let us handle security here.” Grant shoots me a look when I go to argue again. The mood’s deteriorating quickly, and it won’t help us make progress.
“If you lose that girl, and she runs home to Daddy, he’ll welcome her with open arms just to get information about us. I hope you remember that during your pillow chats.” Rowan gives me a pointed look.
“Noted.” I bite my tongue.
“Let’s not let our concerns about this operation going well get the better of us. All right?” Grant looks between us.
I don’t actually dislike Rowan. He’s smart, cunning, and I have a fuckton of respect for his ability to get a job done. But we have our own approaches to situations like this, and the more that’s at stake, the more tensions rise. Grant and Hudson provide the cooler voices.
“I just want this finished. Quickly. Efficiently.” Rowan shakes his head.
“That’s what we all want.” I give Rowan a look, and he rolls his eyes, but I know he sees reason when he’s forced to.
“Get me the grandfather’s name. Let’s hope the husband takes the bait or reaches out sooner rather than later. If not, we need to come up with our own plan of attack.” Rowan summarizes our next steps, and we nod along.
We wrap up the rest of our meeting, and then I go in search of Zephyrine.
Grant suggested leaving her with Dakota while we discussed details and they figured out clothes and shoes for her.
I’m hoping that an afternoon alone with my brother’s fiancée hasn't left me with a completely corrupted former nun, but there’s always a chance when Dakota’s involved.
“Levi? Can I talk to you before you leave?” Dakota calls after me.
“Sure.” I walk back toward the door.
“I got her a little drunk. Sorry about that.” She gives me a sheepish grin. My future sister-in-law and I didn’t always see eye to eye, but she means well.
“She probably needs a little fun after being stuck with me for so long, but if she retches and I have to clean it up…” I look at Dakota sideways.
“Just make sure she gets plenty of water and something to eat. I don't want her getting a hangover.”
“Got it.” I start to turn away, thinking that’s the warning she wanted to give me, but she grabs the edge of my shirt to stop me.
“It got her to talk a little more.” She lowers her voice to just above a whisper. “Open up to me and tell me a little about where her head’s at.”
“What did she say?” I fold my arms over my chest, worried Dakota might have turned their fun little girls’ night into an interrogation.
“Not a lot, or at least not nearly as much as I hoped she would. Just girl talk mostly, you know? She’s very reserved.”
“She’s a nun.”
“Or maybe she was worried I’d tell you things.
And you know I hate being a spy. I’m not cut out for this.
She seems so sweet. I can’t believe she’s related to that piece of shit.
I hope you’re not ruining her with all this captivity stuff.
I’d be a wreck if I were in her shoes, but she seems so stoic about it all.
” Dakota rambles on, tipsy herself from entertaining Zephyrine.
“She’s fine, Dakota. She has it as good as anyone can have it in this situation. Her own bed. Home-cooked food. You to get her clothes. Air-conditioning in the cabin.”
“But she’s had a rough life, no?” Dakota frowns.
Dakota’s life wasn’t easy either, and her sympathy for others in a tough spot runs deep.
She lost her whole family by the time she was seventeen.
Her bar and apartment were the only things she had left of her past. Then the governor’s plans made sure those were destroyed too.
So if anyone can relate to the pain of being on your own the way Zephyrine is, it’s Dakota.
“She has.”
“Aren’t we assholes for this then? To use her? Grant would have murdered someone for doing this to me.”
“Someone might murder us for it too. We nearly all died for this. For her father’s whims. I don’t feel like an asshole for wanting to get to the bottom of it and free us from her father’s focus for good. I’m not doing anything to hurt her.”
“I guess,” she reluctantly agrees.
“You wanted me to go after her, remember?”
“That was before I knew her, and when I was fresh off being angry about the bar. I don’t want to hurt more people just because I’m hurting. We have to be better than that.”
“We are better than that. If this goes the way I intend for it to, we’ll be giving her hope she hasn’t had before.” It’s what I keep telling myself.
“If you say so.” Dakota gives me a slightly skeptical look, but it fades as she sees the reality for what it is. We don’t have a choice, and this is the best chance we have.
“All right. I’m off then.” I turn again, and she stops me. I sigh and glance up at her under my glasses. She frowns at my impatience.
“One last thing.” She looks out at the truck where Zephyrine’s waiting for me.
“What’s that?” I glance back at her, lowering my cowboy hat over my eyes as the sun starts to peek out from behind the clouds.
“She’s soft on you. In a not-very-nunly sort of way. Are you aware of that?” Dakota gives me a stern once-over.
“Wasn’t that what you and Charlotte wanted? I seem to distinctly remember you encouraging me to seduce her.”
“Yes, but you’ll be good to her, right? You’re not going to rip her poor heart out, are you? She doesn’t deserve that. She’s been through enough.”
“Her heart isn’t involved. She doesn’t trust me enough for that. She’s just lonely, and her dependence on me right now is probably confusing her feelings. But no, I don’t intend to hurt her. I’m not an asshole all the time, you know? Just when it’s necessary,” I grumble.
I’m not about to admit to Dakota that I have some semblance of feelings myself.
I haven’t even figured out what they are yet, or if they’re even real, or some of my own confusion over being so close to her for so long.
But Dakota would run to tell Grant, and he’d be sounding the alarm bells and wanting someone else to stay with her at the cabin.
In their view, wanting to fuck her is one thing. He and everyone else could get behind that. It was part of the plan. Actually wanting to see her smile is another thing entirely. The kind of thing that will make them question whether my head is in the right place.
I already know it is, and more importantly, I know Zephyrine needs someone who will look out for her in all of this. I’m the right person for that job, regardless of what the consequences might be for my sanity.
“Well, in that case, maybe do the girl a solid and make her feel a little wanted back? It won’t kill you. She’s beautiful and so sweet. I’m sure you could endure the hardship,” Dakota lectures me. Days like today I see why she and Grant are so well matched.
She’s right. It wouldn’t be a hardship at all. It would be letting my interest turn into an obsession, though, and that’s an entirely different set of challenges. Especially in these circumstances.
“You sound like my brother now.” I turn and head down the steps, determined to end this conversation before she starts giving me tips on how I might make her feel wanted.
“Might do you some good too, considering how uptight you are!” she calls after me as I head for my truck.
I’m sure it would. Too much good. I look up as I approach the car, seeing Zephyrine sitting there in a pretty little sundress Dakota must have gotten for her.
We need to figure out where to get her more nun clothes.
Wool skirts and high-collared blouses with those oversized cardigans she likes to wear.
Not fucking sundresses that make me wonder how things might have gone if we’d met under different circumstances.