Chapter 10
ETHAN
Trepidation washed through me. Why the fuck had Vitale sent Renzo Librizzi down to South Africa?
“What are you doing here?” Gio demanded while he bent and retrieved the bottle of vodka from the grass where I’d thrown it when pulling my SIG Sauer.
“I came to collect you.” Renzo’s gaze swept over me with suspicion before settling on Gio. “Where is your room?”
My employer cast a disappointed look at Olivia’s door, then gestured to the path. “This way.”
I followed them as they moved. I tried to stay focused on their conversation, and not the disaster that had been narrowly avoided on her doorstep, or the anger still rippling through me at Gio’s aggressive tactics with Olivia.
This possessiveness over her was unprecedented and unsettling.
“Your father needs you back immediately,” Renzo said.
“He could have called and saved you the trip.” Gio uncapped the vodka and drank straight from the bottle.
“I believe he did.” His tone was pointed. “Yesterday, and the day before.”
“I told him I’d be back in a few days—”
“He needs you home now,” Renzo said. “It’s urgent.”
Renzo Librizzi was a lapdog. He took orders from Vitale like they were directions from God himself, and it was no secret he hated Vitale’s disobedient son. I had that in common with him.
But it was a bad sign he was here.
“Will you be in for the rest of the evening?” I asked when Gio unlocked his door.
The son-of-a-bitch’s gaze went out across the lawn, down the path toward Olivia’s cabin, and that simple glance made my hand tighten on the doorframe.
“Yes,” Renzo replied for him. “Giovanni and I have a lot to talk about. You’re dismissed.”
I nodded and waited for the door to close before taking off for my cabin. Even in a hurry, I was sure to move carefully. My fingertip slid over the screen of my phone, tapping out the correct sequence to prepare the listening devices to broadcast.
“Catch the feed,” I said when I phoned Daniel, not bothering with a greeting. “Renzo Librizzi just showed up.”
I slipped in earbuds and paced the length of my room while listening to the Italians’ heated discussion. In a dreary conference room somewhere in Germany, there was a team of analysts listening as well. I’d been there once. Listening to field ops and itching to get out there myself.
Now, what I’d fucking give to trade places.
“I’ll head back to Rome,” Gio said, “in another day or—”
“Constantine’s dead,” Renzo spat out. “I’m sorry. Your father wanted to tell you himself, but you won’t come home.”
“Shit,” I said in my empty room.
There was a long pause before Gio spoke, probably digesting the information that his little brother was gone. “How?”
“Looks like a gunshot. It’s hard to know. The autopsy proves this happened months ago.”
The Abramos had the body? Who the fuck dropped the ball on that?
It had been nearly five months since Constantine had gone quiet, so Gio didn’t find this confirmation that surprising. His voice was flat and unemotional. “Who does my father suspect?”
I held my breath. Every cell in my body awaited the answer to this question, to know how deep the trouble was.
“He’s not sure, but it has to be connected with Juric. Are you going to come home and help your father, or stay here in Africa like a spoiled child?”
I was less concerned with the next bit as it devolved into shouting and what sounded like shoving between the Italians. Renzo and Gio were impulsive and a lot alike, which was part of the reason they didn’t get along.
When the scuffle ended and tempers finally calmed, Gio reluctantly agreed to leave in the morning. As Renzo was sent off to one of the vacant cabins, he wondered out loud if the other man would keep his promise. He didn’t trust Gio any more than I did.
The audio went quiet after that.
I discussed my position with Daniel and elected to hang tight unless things spiraled further out of control.
As soon as I hung up, reality slammed into me. Tomorrow, I’d fly back to Rome, and Olivia would be gone. She was smart and would abandon the Abramos the first chance she got, and I’d never see her again.
I should have stayed and listened to the recording devices for any further activity, but instead my feet carried me swiftly down the path toward her cabin.
Your mission is not to protect her.
I’d put everything in jeopardy passing her that drug, which I was going to have to get back, and that was the justification I needed. I’d get the drug and nothing else from her.
I was so full of shit.
I should have been focused on the environment and not her. There were snakes. There could be lions or leopards, or I could come around the bend, startle a troop of baboons, and find myself outnumbered.
But I could move as silently as the other predators in the bush.
I tapped my knuckles on the glass of her door, and when there was no instant answer, I peered in through the break in the curtain. Where was she? My impatience drew the custom Swiss-Army knife from my back pocket, and fifteen seconds later, I pushed open the newly unlocked door.
The faucet in the bathroom was running, and it sounded like she was brushing her teeth, probably having a hard time getting the taste of creep out of her mouth.
The logical side of my brain sounded an alarm.
This is not your purpose. I should not be standing in the room I’d just broken into, waiting for her.
I’d already spotted the vial on the table, so I could grab it and slip out undetected.
When she rounded the corner, she let out a startled cry. “What are you doing in here?”
“You have something of mine.”
Her beautiful eyes were filled with caution, but she gestured to it. “It’s there.”
My stupid feet carried me to the table, and I pocketed the vial. Time to go.
Yet I couldn’t make myself move. I stood there, staring at her. The rapid rise and fall of her chest was hypnotic, and I needed to stop looking at her that way.
“Okay.” Her voice was peppered with annoyance. “You got what you came for. What are you still doing here?”
Yes, Ethan, what the fuck are you doing here?
“I have no idea.” I wanted to stop talking, but her green eyes were the perfect shade of kryptonite. “I shouldn’t be. You should tell me to go.”
She lifted an eyebrow and looked at me like she thought I might be losing my mind. Which, I obviously was. “Why’s that?”
“You saw me kill a man yesterday.”
She considered the statement. “I didn’t see that. I had my head in your lap.”
“You know what I mean.”
She took an even, slow breath. “What I saw were people doing what they have to, to survive. I’m sure that guy needed the money the poaching was going to bring in, and I’m sure he knew the risks. What would have happened if you hadn’t done what Gio asked?”
“That man would have suffered. Gio would have thought I was soft.”
She tucked a lock of her rich chocolate-colored hair behind an ear, her face determined. “You did what you had to. Believe me, I understand that.”
When she fell silent, foreign anxiety needled up my spine. I didn’t want her to understand anything about me. I needed to keep my distance. That surely would have been easier to do if I hadn’t broken into her fucking room.
“What was it the other night when I invited you in?” she asked. “What changed your mind so suddenly?”
My gaze drifted down to the floor. Lies usually rolled off my tongue easily, but they wouldn’t come now. I liked being prepared, but I never thought this situation would present itself. My silence seemed to keep her talking.
“Because,” she continued, “if you’re worried I was looking for something more than that, I wasn’t. I’m not the relationship type.”
“No, it wasn’t that.” The person inside me was tired of never getting what he wanted. So tired of losing. “I told you, you’re a distraction. I spent the entire sixteen-hour flight here trying not to think about you . . . and failing.”
I needed to stop talking before anything worse came out.
She jolted with surprise. “What?”
“Getting involved with you, even just sex, puts a lot of lives in danger.”
She didn’t retreat when I made my approach. I was only a foot away, and she strained her long neck to look up at me, a confused expression creasing her face. “If that’s true, again, why are you here?”
“Because it doesn’t matter now. Your life is already in danger, and I’m . . .” Always in danger? Worthless? “. . . used to it. And tomorrow we’re going back to Rome.”
I’d gotten too close to her, too close to resist what I wanted any longer.
“You’re going to have to forgive me for the other night.”
Olivia’s eyes narrowed. “Why’s that?”
“Because you and I have unfinished business.” I threaded my hands through her hair, pulling her up into my kiss.