50. Wesley
50
WESLEY
By four o’clock, I convince Nina to eat dinner and rest. She agrees only if I spend the night with her—which I’ll never turn down.
When the rest of the team is off-duty, I sit with Jack on his office patio.
“As much as I hate to admit it,” he says, taking a drag of his cigarette, “it makes sense.”
“What does?”
“You and the princess. I can see why during the meeting.” He releases a sharp breath, shaking his head at himself.
I cough over my surprise, surveying the perfectly landscaped garden in front of me. The citronella candle on the end table crackles. “I didn’t mean for it to happen.”
He snorts. “No one ever does.”
“What I said earlier?—”
“It’s okay,” he interrupts, twisting his wedding band. “I’d do the same.”
It wouldn’t feel right to sacrifice Jack—to let Arlo live and cause this chaos. “I was going to say that I can’t picture myself giving you up. Arlo will be dead just for touching Nina.”
He chokes out a sardonic laugh and mutters, “Jesus.”
I sometimes forget how straight-and-narrow Jack is even though he’s the one who shot Santiago in cold blood. Silence falls over us as we pass the cigarette back and forth. I make a note to brush my teeth before seeing Nina. She hates the smell.
“The only way out of this involves something illegal,” I say.
“You could go into hiding.”
I shake my head and return his cigarette. “Nina would kill me.”
“Then disappear. I can get you out on a plane tonight.”
After what happened today, I would leave in a heartbeat if it meant keeping her safe. She shouldn’t go through that again, but her defiance is groundbreaking and I have no desire to test it. The way Maximo’s head snapped aside when Nina cracked it with a metal pipe and said, “I hope I killed him,” afterward left me slightly shaken. I’ve seen much worse, but I’ve been thinking of her as fragile when I shouldn’t.
“Nah, I can’t do that to her,” I say lowly.
“Then what are you thinking?”
The only thing Arlo might want more than his brother’s shooter is a profitable business deal. As much as I dread the possibility of doing this, I don’t see another way. I’m not sure if he would be dumb enough to green-light the princess of a country, but he’ll definitely put a hit on me. He has the tenacity of a stubborn child and would burn the world just to get what he wants, even if it bites him in the ass by shelling out a million-dollar bounty on my head.
“A deal. I… take out one of his opponents.”
“Are you sure?”
“I don’t see another way. We spent the entire day trying to come up with a solution. There’s nothing else.”
Jack huffs, putting out the cigarette before rising. “I’ll use my clearance to pull his records. See what we can offer.”
I’m finally fighting for something—for someone. My tiny world—once filled with dread, blood, and darkness—has grown and I don’t want my old life anymore. This would be my last underground job. The thought of going back under claws at my chest.
I hope Nina will still love me by the end of it. I need her to.
I’ll be fine. I’ll survive. As long as Nina is safe. It would ruin me beyond redemption if she was harmed because of this. Being tethered to her is the release I didn’t realize how desperately I needed. She unlocked part of me I forgot existed.
Jack and I spend an hour reviewing the information, and we conclude that Jose Rivera is Arlo’s biggest competitor. Neither is the biggest drug supplier in southern Europe. If Arlo wants to be the biggest, Rivera is the next obstacle.
I call Adonis and request to conduct business with Arlo at his compound, but he declines outright on the grounds that his neutrality is compromised by letting Nina and me seek refuge. Instead, he offers to pass along a message about where to meet, and Jack and I agree on the location where Arlo had interrogated me. The building Nina set on fire.
Next, we schedule the royal guard to be on standby tomorrow at noon. Last, I turn to my boss and say, “I need to borrow your car.”
“For what?”
“Contingencies.”
Jack hesitates, considering me for a moment before releasing a breath and tossing over his keys. “Don’t wreck my baby.”
“Don’t plan to.”
I drive to my safe deposit box downtown to grab my emergency bag. After double-checking that all of my equipment, paperwork, and cash are inside, I head to the apartment of my old roommate, Noah, who instantly informs me that my room has already been rented out. I almost pity the new person.
I offer Noah five hundred euros to park around the corner from a building—where I’m meeting Arlo—and to bring me the car if I call. If I call, he has to find another way to get home.
“Just like that?” he asks.
“Two-fifty now, two-fifty after. I might not need you, though.”
“Will I still get the other two-fifty?”
I nod.
“And all I have to do is sit in a car and wait for your call—maybe.”
“I’ll text you exactly where to park and exactly where to drive to, should I call you. You sit there and do nothing . You call no one. You talk to no one. You don’t look through the car. I’ll know if you do any of those things and there will be hell to pay. Understood?”
Now it’s his turn to nod.
“Good. Arrive at the east side of the palace tomorrow morning at ten o’clock and call me. I’ll get you through.” My phone dings with a text from Nina.
“The palace ?” Noah echoes.
Nina
Are you coming?
I have a surprise.
I slap the money into Noah’s palm and leave without another word. Anticipation thrums through me on the drive back, followed by a pang of guilt. I don’t want to lie to Nina—I respect her. Everything fell apart in the first place because I was lied to. She deserves better than that, but I would rather her be safe and hate me than in danger and love me.
As I head to Nina’s room, I throw back some pain pills for my wounds. It won’t leave a permanent scar, but I’ll be damned if it doesn’t hurt.
“It’s open!” she calls when I knock on her door.
I enter to find her stretched across a beige tufted sofa, wearing a short silk robe. She grins at me, twirling her finger around the curly phone cord as she listens to whoever is on the other line. Damn. How can I view her as anything other than an angel? She’s other-fucking-worldly.
I drop my bag of clothes by the door and cross the room, my gaze locked on her bare skin.
“I know,” she says into the phone as I lower beside her and drape her legs across my lap. “Ruby, I’ll be okay… Yeah, but this is my decision…”
I stroke her calf at the sight of her troubled demeanor, pressing my lips to her knee, her thigh. This is what I want—to come home to her every day. Her good days, bad days, I want all of it. While continuing to stroke her leg, I slouch down to lean my head against the back of the sofa.
Nina huffs. “No, this isn’t to get back at him. This is the opposite of that… You’ve stayed out of my fights with him up until now. Why do you suddenly care? … That’s not what I meant.” Her head falls back in annoyance. “Yeah, I know I’m being selfish. That’s the whole point… Listen, can we just try this again tomorrow? … All right… Okay… Love you, too… Good night.”
With a long sigh, she hangs up the phone behind her.
“I don’t want to cause a rift in your family,” I say, although there’s no way in hell I’m giving her up.
She attempts a smile. “There was a rift long before you showed up.”
“Still. I don’t want to make it worse.”
She combs her fingers through my hair, watching me dreamily. “It’s less about you and more about me doing what makes me happy, no matter how they feel. They’ll get over it and learn to accept the man I’m in love with.”
I lift a brow. “You love me.” Half a statement. Half a question. I know that she does, but she hasn’t told me outright the way I told her.
A smile pulls at Nina’s lips. She climbs onto my lap, her robe slipping from her shoulder to reveal the lacy bra underneath. My erection grows as I glide my thumb over her nipple peeking through.
“Wesley Dominik Troutbeck,” she begins, gripping my hair to force my gaze to hers, “I am completely and madly in love with you. I don’t care what your job used to be. I know who you are, and I love you in your darkness as much as I love you in your light.”
This woman brings me to earth and puts me in a new dimension at the same time. She’s my home, salvation, and an extension of my soul. I brush away a lock of her hair, caressing her cheek before covering her mouth with mine.
“I really am the luckiest man on earth,” I say against her lips. I slip my hand under the silk, hooking a finger in the panties over her hip. “Is this the surprise?”
Nina nods, her cheeks turning pink. She wore this for me, and the thought only makes me harder. I tug on the string at her waist. The robe falls over her soft skin and I nearly salivate at her full breasts in front of me. I grit my teeth, my body tensing with need. I lightly slap her ass.
“Get on the bed. I want to unwrap my present.”