Chapter 19 #2
“Ah. Bruised pride. You beat him and took his bride.” Logan nodded sagely.
“Probably one of the many reasons he wants you dead so badly. There is a major bounty on your head right now, FYI.” His pose was completely relaxed.
“The bounty makes the prize that the bride won downstairs look like small change.”
“Delaney. De-lane-ee. Why is it so difficult to use my name?”
Logan’s stare raked her. “A man can tell when a woman loves someone else.”
Delaney pressed closer to Nash.
“You think Kurt didn’t know? Trust me. He did.
Probably something that made you unattainable in the first place.
A challenge. He wanted to win you. Dumb bastard might have even believed that he had, and then you ran off with this guy.
” An incline of his head toward Nash. “Not just ran off with him, but you instantly went to Vegas to marry the dude who’d stolen you.
” A low whistle. “I’d say you have a death wish, my new friend—”
“We are not friends,” Nash assured him.
“—but, clearly, you’re just trying to drive Kurt absolutely insane. What’s the idea? That insane men make mistakes?”
Logan Sterling was an interesting individual, Nash would give him that. “You know where he is,” Nash charged.
Logan didn’t respond.
Nash took that as an affirmative.
“He’s planning to kill you first. Get you out of the way.” Logan motioned toward Delaney. “Then he’ll go after her.”
“Thank you for the obvious. We’re aware of his intent.” Nash shrugged. “I just don’t plan on dying.”
“Well, I’m sure her father didn’t plan on dying, either,” Logan said.
Wait. Fuck, no, stop!
“But shit happens. Her grandfather just bided his time, he hunted him down, and then he took her father out right in front of her mother’s eyes.”
“What?” Delaney’s absolute shock.
Logan frowned. “Come now. You’re married to the CIA operative who spent years trying to annihilate your grandfather’s empire. Of course, you know all of this.”
“Shut your fucking mouth,” Nash fired out.
Instead of shutting, Logan’s mouth dropped open. Shock flashed on his face. “You…she…” His stunned gaze zeroed in on Delaney. “You really didn’t know? Who did you think had executed your father?” Then his stare flew right back to Nash. “You married her. Why in the world wouldn’t you tell her?”
Logan had way too much intel. He was an unknown, and Nash hated dealing with unknowns. But…
Jezebel. She would not have put them in that particular location unless she thought it was secure, and that meant that Jezebel knew Logan Sterling. Was he a CIA plant? An operative? The web was too tangled.
“Nash?” Delaney grabbed his arm. Her grip was hard as she pulled him even closer toward her. “What is he talking about?”
“Delaney…”
“He’s lying.” Delaney’s desperate words. “Tell me that he is lying.”
Nash locked his jaw.
“He’s not lying?” Whispered. “And you knew?” Her stunned gaze searched his. “How long did you know?”
“Oh, your new husband knows a whole lot more than just that.” Logan wouldn’t shut up. “Don’t you, Agent Quinn?”
Nash put down the gun. Very deliberately. He pocketed the key. He turned toward Logan, and he drew back his fist so he could beat the hell out of the smug bastard.
Delaney stepped in front of Nash. “My grandfather killed my dad?”
His hand immediately dropped.
“How long have you known this?” Tears weren’t in her eyes. But plenty of rage was.
Years. “We need to leave this room, Delaney. Now.”
“What else do you know?” she cried.
He reached for her hand.
She jerked back. “You were trying to take down my grandfather’s empire?”
“Yes,” he gritted out the confession.
“That’s how Jezebel knew…when we talked at the cabin in Tennessee. She knew my grandfather was a criminal.”
“Oh, darling, everyone in the right circles knows that.” Logan leaned in to purr at her ear.
“Get the hell away from her,” Nash ordered. “Now.”
“Right circles. Wrong ones. Whatever, like I said before—”
“Get away from her.”
Logan took a step back. “No need for the rage at me. I’m trying to help. I’m not the one leaving a trail of bodies in Vegas. That would be her ex.”
She whipped around to face Logan. “What trail of bodies?”
“Has your new husband told you nothing? Seriously? How does he expect you to be prepared for the danger if he keeps holding back with you?” A sigh.
“I would have told you from the beginning. Lies are just so unnecessary. Here you go, let me help. Your ex Wellington? His limo driver was found not too long ago, covered in blood and with a knife sticking out of his throat.” He pointed to his own throat.
“Quite the horrific scene. I personally hate gore. Unnecessary.”
What. The. Hell?
“And the shooters at the chapel where you two said I do? Both dead, too.”
“How do you know all of this?” Delaney’s hands had fisted at her sides.
“Certain cops in this city understand how much I value intel, so I get news very quickly.” Logan raised his brows as he peered at Nash.
“Were you not aware of these developments? Was I truly informed faster than the CIA? That’s just sad.
” He tut-tutted. ‘Unless, of course, you are deliberately being kept in the dark.”
“Delaney, let’s go.” Nash extended his hand toward her.
She peered at his palm. She did not take it.
“Delaney.” Tossing her over his shoulder and running out with her was not a good plan. He had to mentally repeat that to himself three times. “Delaney, we need to leave.”
Tossing her over my shoulder and running out is not a good plan.
Fine. Four times.
“You are answering my questions,” she snapped at him.
“You are going to tell me everything. No more lies. No more secrets. I am suffocating because of them.” She stared at him with betrayal in her eyes, and the look gutted him.
“I always thought a robber killed my dad. Someone who broke into the garage. Took all of the money from the safe.”
Because that was how her grandfather had set the scene.
“You’re saying my own grandfather did that? In front of my mother?” Her lower lip trembled. “Why?”
“Not here,” he rasped. He could feel her pain, living and breathing around them, and he hated it.
“When did you learn this?” Delaney’s voice rose.
Logan curled his hands around her shoulders.
She flinched.
“Oh, I can help with that. Me, me. Pick me.” Logan Sterling was a complete asshole.
Nash glared at him. A shut-the-hell-up glare.
Logan did not heed the message. “He learned it when your grandfather paid him a visit. Carmello came to him in person. Years ago,” Logan purred. “Back when you were in college, I believe. Your groom might have been in med school, if I remember correctly.”
The prick had too much knowledge. That much intel—fuck, he can’t be trusted.
“Get your hands off her,” Nash commanded him flatly, “or every single finger will be broken.”
Logan snatched his hands back. “The possessive type, got it. Forgive me for not realizing it, but when you let her walk away for eight years, I just wasn’t sure how involved you really were. My mistake.”
Eight years. The smarmy sonofabitch had intel that he should not possess. Who the hell is Logan Sterling working for? How does he know so much? “Consider me highly involved.”
Delaney spun to face Logan. “Did you know my grandfather?”
A nod. “Not well. You don’t want to know men like Typhon well. You want to stay out of their way.”
Fucking hell. Nash’s teeth snapped together.
“What?” A hard, negative shake of Delaney’s head. “My grandfather was not Typhon. Kurt is Typhon. I heard Kurt get called that by a man he shot. A man he killed!”
Enough of this. Logan was too much of an unknown, and this scene was done.
It had already exploded in Nash’s face enough.
Nash grabbed Delaney. Tossed her over his shoulder.
She was sharing far too much with a man who Nash believed was their enemy, and as for Logan, Nash didn’t trust him for a second.
“What in the hell are you doing?” Delaney yelled at him.
“Carmello Ricci was Typhon,” Logan said with complete certainty.
He didn’t even quirk an eyebrow at seeing Nash toss Delaney over his shoulder.
“That’s why your husband here—and his boss—worked so hard to bring Carmello down all those years.
Why they stalked him. Carmello was very, very big game in the spy world. ”
Nash spun for the door. But it was too late. Logan had revealed too much.
Delaney kicked him, hard. “Don’t you dare.” She twisted and shoved in his hold. “Let me go. Now!”
He held her tighter.
“When Carmello died,” Logan just kept right on dropping classified intel that he had no business possessing, “Kurt wanted to inherit everything that your grandfather left behind. That meant the property, the criminal enterprises, and the title that went along with it. The title of Typhon. But in order to get all of that, Kurt really needed you, Delaney. You were the key.”
She stopped struggling against Nash. “Put me down, Nash.” So much pain and anger in her words. It was the pain that got him.
Fuck. He’d grabbed her purely out of desperate instinct. He’d wanted to run and carry her out of that office before Logan Sterling could shatter her world.
Our world.
“Congratulations,” Logan told Nash. “Guess you beat Kurt to the punch. You married her. Does that mean that you’re now the king of all fucking monsters? Are you the new Typhon?”
Nash slowly lowered Delaney until her feet touched the floor. He stared at her face, and he hated the agony and betrayal that he saw in her expression.
“Is it true?” she whispered.
Fuck.
But she nodded, as if she’d seen the answer. Then, “Did you break up with me because of who my grandfather was?”
Dammit—
She sucked in a breath, and he knew she’d seen too much yet again.
Rage and desperation twisted inside of Nash. “Delaney, I will explain.” But not there. Not with Logan watching everything.
Nash caught her wrist. The wrist that still bore a mark from the ropes that Kurt had put on her. He eased Delaney behind him even as he snatched up the gun he’d put down moments before. Once more, he aimed the weapon at a seemingly unconcerned Logan. “Who the hell are you working for?”
A roll of one shoulder. “Myself. I’m strictly freelance.”
“You have way too much intel for someone who is freelance.”
“I don’t work well with others. Can’t take orders for shit. Despise a chain of command.” Another partial shrug. “What you see is what you get.”
Nash didn’t buy that lie. Not with the intel this man possessed.
“You should have told me.” Delaney’s coldly furious voice.
Logan winced. He leaned forward, conspiratorially. “I hate to be the bearer of bad news…”
All the guy had done was share bad news.
“But it sounds like the bride is furious.”
“I’m going to punch him in the face,” Delaney declared. “De-lane-ee. Say it with me.”
“No one likes betrayal.” Logan sighed and shook his head as if in sympathy. “Secrets are the devil’s favorite weapon.”
Nash believed he might just be looking at the devil.
Delaney tried to surge past him and get close to Logan.
Nash locked one arm around her waist and hauled her back against him. “We’re leaving,” he told Logan. “Are you picking up the phone as soon as we exit to let Kurt know exactly where we are?”
“Why would I do that? We both understand that he already knows.” His gaze flickered to a struggling Delaney. “You’d better protect her,” he warned.
As if Nash needed to be told how to do that job.
“The best way to do that,” Logan’s eyes gleamed, “isn’t for Kurt Wellington to be locked in a jail cell. It’s for him to be buried in the ground.”
Nash hauled Delaney toward the door.
“Fun talk,” Logan called after them. “Pleasure meeting you both. Sometimes, reality does not live up to the hype, but you two are delightful.”
“Piss off,” Nash snarled at him.
“I’ll send champagne to your suite. My treat.”
“Stay the hell away from me and Delaney.” Nash yanked open the door. They stalked out. He kept the gun. Hell, yes, he was keeping it. Always good to have an extra weapon.
“Nash…” Delaney began.
His head whipped toward her. “Not until we are alone.” An elevator bank waited to the right. He double-timed it that way, not letting go of her for a second.
Her beautiful face was furious. Her body tight with her rage.
And he just kept thinking…
I’m going to lose her. I didn’t tell her the truth because I wanted to protect her. And I’m still going to lose her. There was never a way to win. The odds were always stacked against me.
“What happened in that office?” Jezebel leaned toward the screen. “Something bad,” she muttered beneath her breath. “Because they both looked pissed.”
They’d met with Logan Sterling. Logan, a man who should have been playing nicely with the CIA. Unfortunately, the guy didn’t like cooperating with anyone, and he tended to be far too much of a maverick for her liking.
But they’d needed his hotel and casino. They’d needed his cooperation. He’d said that she had it. Only now, Jezebel wondered if Logan had sold out her team.
Delaney and Nash were rushing to a nearby elevator bank.
Nash appeared to have a death grip on Delaney. The elevator doors opened. They jumped inside.
“Elevator footage, now,” she ordered Dom.
His fingers tapped on his keyboard.
She saw an image of the elevator’s interior appear on the screen to the right. A little grainy, but she could make out Nash and Delaney. Unfortunately, she could not hear them. “Sound,” she blasted. “Give me sound.”
More tapping.
The elevator doors closed.
“Delaney,” Nash began.
Yes! She had sound.
“I know it’s a lot to take in…” Nash was oddly halting. So unusual for him.
What’s a lot? What happened in there? Jezebel’s eyes were locked on the screen.
Delaney wrapped her arms around her stomach as the elevator began to descend. “My grandfather was Typhon? And you knew?”
Oh, no. Jezebel stopped breathing. She leaned closer, desperate to hear Nash’s response.
But the entire screen before her went black. “What’s happening?” She lifted her hand and tapped on the side of the screen, as if that would magically bring back the image. “Why did we lose them?”
Then she heard the scream. Delaney’s terrified scream. A scream that was abruptly cut off.