Chapter 30
Idaho
It had been two weeks. Two fucking weeks without my girl. Shit. I'd been without her now longer than I'd known her. Yet, my whole fucking world was flipped upside down. Who knew one doe-eyed, innocent, pain in my ass could fuck me up just by not being here?
That was all about to change.
Her being taken from me was all it took for me to realize the depths of my feelings for her. Her absence made me realize how cold my life would be without her. How much I wanted her by my side every day. That I loved her.
I paused as I walked down the hallway and heard raised voices.
My brows shot up as I realized one was Keely's.
Lock hadn't said a word about what had happened with her in the parking lot.
He was sticking his head in the sand, trying to pretend there was nothing there.
Nothing between them. I knew how that ended.
Not well for those of us trying to hide.
"What the fuck do you mean, you're leaving?"
Grimacing, I stopped close enough to hear, but not so close that Lock would know I was there. I wanted to know what the hell he'd done to make Keely leave.
"You heard me, Liam. I'm moving to Washington, D.C."
"The fuck you are! You think Fremont won't send someone after you there?"
"That's not your burden to bear, Liam," she sighed.
"I'm not one of the club's old ladies." There was silence for about three heartbeats as she waited.
My idiot brother said nothing. "Since no one will give me a reason to stay, I'm leaving," she said after Lock didn't correct her.
"I'll be working with the FBI. Fremont wouldn't dare mess with me while I'm a part of their task force. "
"Keely..."
"No," she snapped. "This is what's best for me, Liam. Unless something better comes along," Her eyes were practically begging, "I'm leaving soon." I moved out of the way as she swept out of his office and down the hallway. Her eyes darted away from mine, anger and misery written all over her face.
I went into Lock's office and found my brother sitting there at his desk, his head in his hands as he grumbled under his breath. "You're the something better," I told him.
His head shot up, glaring at me. "What?"
"She wants you to tell her she's wrong," I explained. "She wants you to tell her you love her and ask her to stay." I sat down across from him, putting my boots up on the desk, despite the scowl he gave me for doing so. "But you're a stubborn fucker who doesn't want to admit you've fallen for her."
"I don't know what you're talking about," he growled. "And get your fucking feet off my desk."
I shook my head. We had both lost our women. That happened to our father, too. It was apparently the curse of the Sharpe men. "You can fix this."
"No. I can't," he muttered. "Stay out of it."
We sat in silence as we both considered the mess our lives were at the moment.
I'd spent the last two weeks trying to find a way into Luxembourg without causing an international incident.
All I needed was one day with Eva's father.
One fucking day and I'd have him eating out of my hand.
Luckily, I'd come up with a better solution than relying on an old, stubborn duke to see reason.
Thomas had helped me as much as he could.
The day he stopped by to grab Eva's clothes he admitted that he wasn't going to sit back for long and allow the duke to do this to Eva.
It was obvious that he cared about her as a friend, family even, and seeing her so upset was difficult for him.
He admitted to coming up with a plan for him and his family to smuggle her out of Luxembourg and for all of them to move here.
I asked him to hold off on that, because if my plan was successful he wouldn't need to put his family at risk. Though I was immensely grateful that he was willing to.
"Why are you smiling?" Lock asked. He seemed relieved to switch topics. "I haven't seen you smile since she left. In fact," he added, "it's been like a tomb around here."
Everyone had been upset when we'd come home without Eva. Even the guys had grown attached to her, but the women were taking it the hardest of all. They'd all been looking forward to having another woman around full-time and had already grown to love her. Eva had that effect on people.
"I've got a plan," I told him.
He gave me a wary look. "What kind of plan?"
"The kind that gets Eva back." I grinned at him. "You in?"
"Fuck yeah."
"Good. Here's what I need you to do..."
* * *
"Then it's settled," I said, grinning at the men sitting around the large table.
Andrew had gotten me a short-term lease on an office space within a day and currently I was meeting with the largest distributor of steel that Luxembourg offered.
It was one of the main exports that kept the country wealthy and happy, but this company had been trying to get the duke to allow them to build manufacturing plants inside their own country.
This would allow them to ultimately cut costs.
The duke had refused them at every turn. So, now they were working with me.
This was only the beginning. Once this deal was in place, I planned to hit their financial services. This wouldn't stop until I had Eva back and her father begging for forgiveness. He needed to understand that I would burn his kingdom to the ground to get her back.
"We'll get the paperwork together," the man across from me said, smiling as he shook my hand. "I look forward to working with you."
"I'm looking forward to it as well," I told him.
The door slammed open behind me. A smile spread over my face as I turned and found Louis Desmet's furious face, and Andrew's look of dismay. "Well, Louis," I said, satisfaction dripping from every syllable. "What brings you here?"
"You know exactly why I'm here." He glared at me. "You're trying to ruin my country."
"Not at all." I smiled at him. "I'm a businessman. I'm only trying to get a piece of the pie."
"By trying to bankrupt us," he snarled.
"Hardly," I told him, shrugging. "I'm not doing anything illegal.
I'm merely bringing jobs and money to my own country.
" I’d just signed a deal with Wayworth Industries to build four new plants here in the United States, one of them here in Tucson.
All on my dime. Or my company's rather. As the majority shareholder for Wayworth, I now had control over their largest producer of steel. It was a glorious fucking feeling.
The duke was right. Concluding my plans would take away jobs, revenue, and stability for his people. And I wasn't going to stop there.
"Bullshit," he spat. "You're trying to destroy my country."
"No," I told him, shaking my head as I walked toward him. "I'm trying to get your attention. If you ignore me, then I'll destroy your country."
He gave me a confused look, then glanced at Andrew, who looked like he wanted to sink into the floor. "This is all about my daughter?"
"What else would it be about?" I asked, a smirk playing over my lips.
"You thought you could take what belonged to me.
That you had more power than me. Perhaps that's true, in Luxembourg," I told him.
"But I don't have to play your game your way.
We're on my turf now and you're going to do what I want, or I'll do exactly what you're afraid of. "
An angry flush reddened his cheeks. He stared at me for a long moment before he finally spoke. "You would put my people into financial ruin? You would devastate my economy?"
"For Eva? I would level it all. I would flip your country upside down until the masses revolt and burn your castle."
"What do you want?"
"Eva back here with me."
"That's impossible," he snapped. "She's not safe here."
"She is," I argued. "I'll protect her. You know I will."
"No," he said, shaking his head. "I can't risk it."
"Then I guess I'll be working on my plans for the financial services industry next," I said with an evil grin.
All the color leached out of his face. Steel they could survive without.
But if I took over their banking industry they were done.
And he knew it. "Your people will fix my problem long before I'll have the chance to get you out of the way.
Sure, it'll take time, but soon enough there will be riots in your streets.
" I stepped closer to him. "Is that what you want? Your people angry and starving?"
"Why are you doing this to me?" he demanded. "You don't even know my daughter."
"Wrong. I know her more than you ever will," I told him. "You've lived with her for her entire life and never once listened to what she wanted. Now you'll lose her and regret that for the rest of your life."
"Why?" he asked with a scowl.
"She belongs to me," I growled. "You took what was mine." I cocked my head, staring him down. "Now I want her back."
"And if I refuse you'll wage a trade war on me," he sighed, rubbing his brow. "That will put my entire family at risk. Including Tatiana."
"She won't be in any danger. I can't say much for the rest of you."
"You think she'll forgive you?" he asked. "If you get her family killed?"
That wasn't going to happen, whichever way he played this I'd make sure they weren't killed, but I wasn't about to let him know that.
He stared at me with a hard look. "You're asking me to trust you with my daughter. What are your intentions?"
"You think I'd be doing this if I had any other plan than to marry her?" I asked.
"You hardly know her," he said in disbelief.
"Doesn't matter. I know what I need. I love her," I added.
The men from Wayworth were watching the exchange with wide eyes, but I didn't give a shit.
They knew who their ruler was and they weren't going to speak up and have the duke pissed off at them.
I had zero doubt this was going to end up in whatever version Luxembourg had of the gossip magazines, though. It didn't matter.
"It's too much to ask me to trust my daughter to you. I don't know anything about you," he said.