20. Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty
Carys
J ay and Finn pass each other in the doorway, and the expression on Finn’s face is puzzled. I can count on one hand the total times he’s been baffled by a situation. Jay told me about Pierre-Jacques threatening the kids, and Finn’s uncertainty doesn’t ease my anxiety.
“Please tell me you have a plan.”
He sighs, and his gaze darts around. “Did he search the room?”
“No.” I’m tempted to mention Kim, but she went to such great lengths earlier to turn on the water and close the bathroom door before talking to me I don’t suppose she’d want me saying that out loud.
He lets out a frustrated noise and doesn’t talk to me while he tears the room apart. When he finds a listening device the size of his fingertip, he holds it up before replacing it. He takes his time putting everything back in its place.
“I’ve been considering our options.” He winks at me, but his voice remains concerned. “I’ve got no plan. No clear way out. He’s got us by the balls. The bastard is clever.”
Since he showed me the bug and winked, none of this is what he believes. The compliments are for whoever is listening in. Are we going to leave the device in place? I frown. “Should we go for a walk? Fresh air might help.”
“Yeah,” Finn says slowly.
I change into my flats again, and I lead him toward the castle side of the property. When we get to the door, he points to the front entrance instead. We walk the long gravel path, well beyond the house, and then Finn says, “Please tell me he didn’t say Lorcan’s name during your conversation?”
“No, no. He told me he didn’t have any idea what you were going to do about Pierre-Jacques’s threat. I don’t know if he was being careful or if we got lucky.” I replay the discussion to make sure. But Lorcan never came up. Jay was too distraught about them knowing his kids’ names.
“He threatened our kids?”
Finn shoves his hands into the pockets of his jeans and stares into the darkening fields. The sun has sunk into the horizon. “We’ll have to move them.”
“Where?” The tail of my braid rests on my shoulder, and I give it a little tug. I’m trying to keep calm because he always has a plan, and when he doesn’t, the two of us make one. He won’t let me down.
“Lachlan…” The name sticks to his tongue. He avoids addressing his brother whenever he can. “… suggested we need a connected family to give them the greatest chance at maximum protection. I don’t disagree.”
I shake my head, a laugh escaping. “None of them like you. Every family you’re associated with wouldn’t be keen to offer you any favors. Hagen was your best bet, but my parents said he was sniffing around you in prison.”
A frown mars his forehead. “Your parents?”
“They came to see me because of the explosion.” I hold up my casted hand. “My father told me I’ve got sharks circling me. PLA, Hagen Volkov, who knows who else.” If I asked my father to keep the kids, Lena, and Sofia safe, I’m sure he’d employ the best people, spare no expense. I won’t let them stay unprotected, so I’ll ask if I have to.
Finn nods, his gaze focused on my hand. “Come here.” His voice is gruff. “Nobody is getting to you while I’m still breathing.”
I snuggle into his chest and wrap my arms around his waist. “What’s your plan?”
“I need you to call Demid Kunznetsof. I can’t rely on the Volkovs or the Byrne family.” He tightens his grip on me. “I don’t know where else we turn.”
“My father,” I whisper. Even suggesting him sends a surge of anxiety through me.
“He can’t be trusted. Charles’s first priority is Charles.” Finn rests his chin on the top of my head. “Will you call Demid?”
“Yes.” We had a good working relationship until his daughter, Valeriya, turned up dead in an Irish harbor less than a year ago. Eric, my former fiancé, was the likely culprit since they were having an affair, and she was pregnant. The memory makes my stomach roll in protest. “He’ll take them in. I’m not certain what he’ll want in return.”
“Call, but make the call from outside. Somewhere out here or in the fields.”
“We’re not going to remove the bug?”
Finn chuckles. “What’s the good in that? They’ll put another in there, and we might not find it next time. We know the room is bugged. They can listen to us have sex and talk about skin creams and whether my black shirt matches my jeans.”
I smack his chest. “We’ve never had those conversations.”
“We do now.” A hint of a smile plays at the corners of his lips. “We’ll bore whoever is listening with innocuous day-to-day ramblings, and they’ll never see the knife we’re going to shove into their back.”
His arm stays around me while we amble toward the mansion again. “Kim and I ran into Jade today while we were out exploring.”
“Did you?” His voice has a wary tone I don’t expect.
“She seems lonely. We could befriend her, maybe get information from her.”
He grimaces. “There’s something off with her.”
“What do you mean?”
He stops walking and turns to face me again, his expression pinched with uncertainty. “You won’t believe me.”
Finn doesn’t lie to me, so the fact he thinks I won’t believe him explains the way he’s been acting since he returned to the room. Is his hesitation about how I’ll interpret the incident? “What happened?” I give him a beat to answer and then add, “Did she make a move on you or something?” Jealousy sours my stomach, an emotion I haven’t experienced in years.
He chuckles. “No, nothing like that.”
He must not have noted how Jade feasted on him rather than lunch when she first noticed him. But then when we met each other in the ruins, she was so shy and meek.
“I saw Pierre-Jacques slap her across the face.”
“What?” I clutch my heart, Kim’s warning about abuse rising to the forefront of my mind. “Kim said she heard he was abusive.” I try to catch his gaze. “Did you say anything?”
“They were in their bedroom. The door was cracked a bit.” Finn gives the width with his hands. “Him hitting her wasn’t what bothered me.”
“Him abusing his girlfriend isn’t a problem for you?” I cock an eyebrow, and annoyance spills out of me.
Despite Finn’s penchant for violence, I’ve never worried he’d take out his frustrations on me. Even when we were young and he was fighting for his life in The Cage, the minute his rage dissipated, it was like it had never been there at all. Now that he’s older, he’s mellowed. Though Finn calls it ‘getting smart’ about how and when he attacks.
“Wouldn’t be the first man I knew who controlled a woman with his fists.” When I open my mouth to protest, he holds up his hand. “I’m not saying it’s right.”
“So, you stepped in? Said something?”
“No, I—” He scratches the top of his head. “The fight might have been real, but the slap—I don’t think it was.”
“Did he hit her?” I cross my arms. What is Finn trying to say? The notion of Jade being abused stirs my protective instincts. My relationship with Eric was fraught with abuse—more psychological—but any way you examine it, she’s being hurt.
“Yes. He hit her. She fell to the ground.”
“He hit her that hard?”
“That’s not—” He groans. “You weren’t there. She saw me watching. She got in his face, as though she was challenging him. I think she was giving him a cue. She was very aware I was there.”
I glare at him. How can a man who is so smart not recognize this as a cry for help? “Did it occur to you that maybe she wanted you to do something ? Maybe somebody would witness her suffering? Someone strong enough, tough enough to help her?” I managed to claw my way out of a relationship with Eric, but we continued to fall back into unhealthy patterns. Finn invading my life snapped my relationships with everyone in my life into focus.
He shakes his head. “That wasn’t the vibe.”
“And you’re an expert on domestic disputes?”
He returns my glare. “I’m an expert on manipulation. On people trying to con me. On power dynamics.”
“You’re telling me she wanted to be hit? The sole purpose of him hitting her was to manipulate you?” The idea is ludicrous. What woman would agree to be slapped so hard she tumbled to the ground? Will she have a bruise tomorrow?
“I’m saying there’s something off about their relationship, and it’s not the domestic abuse. You weren’t there. The energy in the room…” He fumbles for an explanation, flustered. “It wasn’t right.”
The wind lifts the few strands of hair that have escaped my braid. I tuck them behind my ears as I consider Finn’s words. How does he not see this for what it is? “I think you’ve been so used to being the most powerful man in a room, you can’t understand a woman’s fear and how it might look to someone else.” God knows the number of times I’ve had to conceal my fright are too numerous to count. The result isn’t always neat and tidy.
He purses his lips, and when our gazes connect, his is brimming with the same stubborn determination as mine. “Maybe I’m wrong. It’d be a first.” His hands rest on his hips, and he takes a deep breath. “Don’t let your guard down with her. I might not understand exactly what happened between them, but my gut doesn’t buy what my eyes saw.”
“What woman would welcome the abuse? That doesn’t happen, Finn.” I can’t hide my frustration. She’s trapped in an abusive relationship and rather than helping her, he walked away. I love him, but at times like this, I don’t like his stone-cold facade. “Whatever our plans to get out of this end up becoming, we need to keep in mind she might be a victim too.”
Finn runs the palm of his hand across his shorn strands. “What’d Kim think of Jade today?”
A lie forms, and then I reconsider. We have to survive this as a team. “She said something seemed off with her.”
He raises his eyebrows in the closest he’ll come to an I told you so with me. “You’ve got a good heart, Carys. Someone with a black heart, they’ll take advantage of your kindness in an instant.”
“I’ll be careful,” I murmur. “Doesn’t mean you’re right.”
He loops his arm around my shoulders and brings me to his side, his lips pressing against my temple. “Except I’m always right.” I shove his side, but he tightens his hold on me with a chuckle. “Let’s go back to our room and give them an earful.”
“We’ve got some lost time to make up for.” I rise onto my toes and kiss his jaw.