Chapter 21
Chapter Twenty-One
Je t’aime. Tyler’s heart slowly stopped its fierce thundering. His eyes opened.
Just as Esme attempted to sneak from the bed.
Precious.
His arm flew out and curled around her. He tugged her back toward him. “Thought we agreed that the technique of seducing me into oblivion wasn’t going to work.”
Her hand trailed lightly across his chest. “Were you using the technique on me or was I using it on you? I’m a bit confused.”
“You just said you loved me.”
He felt the shiver that skated over her.
She blinked. “Plenty of people say things in the heat of the moment that they don’t mean.”
“You’re not plenty of people. You’re my Esme.”
“Tyler.” She pressed her lips together. Then, “I thought you didn’t speak French.”
“That why you said it in French? Because you didn’t think I’d understand your words?”
Her lashes swept down. “I said it in French because I was at my most basic, my most bare, in that instant. The words tumbled out.” She looked up at him. “They don’t have to mean anything.”
They meant everything. “Who was he protecting?”
“I don’t?—”
“Before our safe house was blown to pieces, you told me that you thought your father was good. That he’d been protecting someone. Only you never told me who he’d protected.” But Tyler had an idea.
She studied him. “You think because I say that I love you—you think now I’ll tell you every secret I have?”
He thought she trusted him, and he would never destroy her trust. It was too precious. “You just told me your biggest secret. I don’t think you say that you love people very often.” Quite the opposite. “I think you guard your heart at all costs. You didn’t even tell Louis, did you?”
“I didn’t love Louis.”
His eyes narrowed.
“He didn’t trust me, not completely, and I never trusted him. I never told him—” She broke off. “My mother.”
“What?”
“I never told Louis what he was trying to discover. He thought my father was this horrible master thief. That my father had been working in the business of darkness for years. But it wasn’t my father. It was my mother.” She rolled away from him and pulled the sheet with her. Esme stood beside the bed, and she wrapped the sheet around her body, toga-style. She looked sexy and beautiful with her hair disheveled, and he wanted nothing more than to pull her back against him.
But his job had been to uncover all her secrets.
She was handing those secrets to him on a silver platter .
He climbed from the bed and hauled on his jeans. Then he waited.
“The Fox has been at work far longer than you and your friends in law enforcement probably realize. At first, she started just by lifting a few jewels from unsuspecting friends. But that was too easy, and she liked a challenge.” Esme walked toward the window. The sheet trailed after her as she peeked outside. After a moment, she turned back to Tyler. “She was always striving for more. Always wanting more. She had the perfect cover. A world-renowned opera singer. She could travel the world, and no one would so much as blink an eye. Who would suspect her? She was so lovely, so kind, so talented.” A soft laugh. “She was actually all of those things, but my mother also enjoyed playing very dangerous games.”
“When did your father find out?”
“When I was about five. He caught her in the act. That was when he made the decision to cover for her. To begin pulling suspicion onto himself. He didn’t care what gossip followed him, as long as she was safe.” She crept forward. The edge of the sheet rustled near her feet. “I don’t think my father loved anything in this world as much as he loved her. After she died, he just wasn’t the same person. It was like I lost them both that night.”
He wanted to pull Esme into his arms. I will not lose you, Esme.
“She died the night before my sixteenth birthday. We were supposed to have this big, elaborate party at my father’s estate. But I didn’t want a party.” Her lips lifted as if to smile, only they immediately curled down. No dimples ever flashed. “I wanted to just spend time with them. I wanted to get away from all the people and all the fake masks that everyone seemed to wear all the time around me. My mother insisted on the party. She made up the guest list. She invited people I didn’t even know and then when everyone was sleeping, she made her way across the sloping roof and toward the balcony of a room that was occupied by a very, very influential British businessman. A businessman and a spy. She wasn’t going there to have some sort of clandestine affair. She was going to steal secrets that he possessed. Only she slipped. She fell. I found her the next morning and…” She looked at the floor as if the thread-bare carpet held all the mysteries of the world. “My father had it all covered up. A tragic accident while she was horseback riding. That was the story. She’d gone out for a late-night ride, and the horse bucked, and we didn’t know until the next day, and it was all so very sad. Heartbreaking.” Her shoulders slumped. “You know, I think that might be when I became afraid of heights, too. Or maybe that’s when I became afraid of everything.”
He had to cross to her. “Esme.”
She didn’t look up. Still seemingly focused on the carpet.
His hand reached out and curled under her chin. He forced her to look at him. “Esme.”
There were no tears in her eyes, but plenty of sadness stared back at him. “I tried to make it right. The things I went on to take? Most of them had been stolen from their real owners. Often by her. I tried to fix everything that was broken, but sometimes, you can’t do that. No matter how hard you try.”
No, sometimes, you couldn’t.
“I thought my father was innocent. He always protected her— because he loved her. People will do some insane things for love in this world.”
Yes. They would .
“I never thought he was evil. Not until Louis came calling. Whispering all his stories into my ear. But I still did not want to believe him. Louis thought that my father was the Fox. He wasn’t. First, my mother was. She was the Fox.”
“Then it was you.”
A nod. “Yes.” The sheet slithered.
“You told your father everything that Louis said.”
“I did. I was my father’s spy, and then Louis died. I nearly died. And now, I’ve finally found the video that showed me that my father was there the whole time.”
His thumb brushed over her lower lip.
“My big confession.” She backed up a step.
His hand fell.
“You have everything you wanted, don’t you? I’ve told you the secrets your friend Grayson wanted so badly. You should call him now. Tell him to come get you. Your work is done.”
“You trust Gray? You trust his boss?” Because Tyler didn’t trust Thaddeus. Not for a second.
“It’s not about trust. I think you need real answers about your family. You deserve them. The only way to get those answers is to have Thaddeus and my father questioned.”
That wasn’t the only way. “Jorlan knows what happened. He’s the one who had the damn drive.”
“He won’t talk. Not unless he’s made to talk. It would take quite a lot to make someone like him break.”
“Yes, well, your father isn’t going to suddenly confess to all his sins. Neither will Thaddeus.” She had to understand that. Unless… “Esme.” His eyes narrowed on her. “You changed your masterplan, didn’t you?” Fuck. I should have anticipated this.
“I really do love you.”
He wanted to haul her against him and never let go .
“I don’t expect you to love me back. That would be asking too much.”
Why the hell would it be too much?
“Our worlds shouldn’t have collided, but they did. First in Paris, by chance. Then now. But this time, it wasn’t by chance. It was because I staged things. I’m good at that. Setting the stage. One of my specialties.”
“What have you done?” He whirled away. Finished dressing. Grabbed a gun. Checked it. Shoved it into the back waistband of his jeans.
Esme dropped the sheet. Completely nude, she walked across the room and also reached for fresh clothing. “I haven’t done anything. Not yet. No need to panic. But a new master plan must be created.” She put on a bra. Panties.
For a moment, he just stared at her. The faint line on her stomach haunted him. The scar that would always remind him of how close he’d come to losing Esme, before he’d gotten the chance to know her. “Esme.”
Esme tugged on a shirt and jeans. She slid sneakers on her small feet. A soft exhale escaped her as she stared at him. “There’s a hit on you,” Esme told him. “I have to protect you.”
“Sweetheart, my job is to protect you. ” How many times did he have to remind her of that important fact?
“Your side is bleeding.” Concern shadowed her face. “I think we tore your stitches.”
“Screw the stitches. Screw everything but?—”
A car door slammed outside.
Screw everything but you. You are what matters to me.
Automatically, though, he hurried toward the lone window at the front of their room. When he looked out, shock rolled through him. “Get a gun,” he ordered her .
“Finally!” He heard the rush of her feet as she hurried across the room. “I’ve been wanting one of my own for ages.”
His eyes were on the familiar figure outside. “You didn’t text anyone.”
“What? No, I didn’t get a chance before you came bursting in the bathroom.”
He watched the figure head toward the office. “Esme, we need to work on that new masterplan of yours. Now.”
“Tyler?”
He looked over his shoulder at her. “Thaddeus Caldwell just pulled up at our motel.”
She shook her head. “H-he can’t be here.” A stutter when Esme never stuttered. “Only Kane knows where we are.”
Kane who’d dropped them off so quickly and left in a flash.
Esme rushed toward Tyler. “He was there in Paris with you. He saved people, just like you did. He’s your friend.”
“I want you to listen carefully to my instructions.” No way would Thaddeus come alone.
She gripped the gun in her hand.
“Crawl out the bathroom window.”
“What?” Her voice cracked.
“You’re small enough to fit through the window. I want you to go out the bathroom window. You’re going to take a burner phone with you. You’re going to take the key to the motorcycle. You’ll get on the motorcycle, and you’ll haul ass away from here.” A sudden thought struck him. “You do know how to drive a motorcycle, don’t you?”
“Of course, I do. It’s me.” But she waved that point away. “I’m not leaving you, Tyler. There is no way I’m running away while you stay behind. You and I both think the guy out there is dirty! Either he’s working with my father or he’s pulling some seriously shady business on his own.”
He hauled her close. Kissed her. “You promised that you’d follow my orders without question.” He let her go.
“If I did, I lied.” She grabbed his shirtfront and hauled him right back to her. She kissed him. Hard. “I do that. I’m a liar. Spoiler.”
“Don’t talk that way about the woman I love. No one calls her names, ever.”
Her eyes went very wide. “You didn’t say that.”
“Yes, sweetheart, I did.” He pulled away from her and grabbed the key to the motorcycle. Then he shoved the key into her hand. She’d tucked the gun into the front of her jeans. Please know how to use that gun, Esme. His fingers closed around hers as he forced her to grip the motorcycle key.
“No, I mean… you didn’t say that now. Now, as in, when you’re telling me to leave you. When some dirty FBI guy is outside. You can’t do this to me now. You can’t say you love me now.”
He wanted to kiss her. But if he kissed her again, he wouldn’t stop. And she had to get to safety. “I’ll tell you again later,” he promised. “First, get the hell out of here.”
She did not move.
“Esme, go. ”
“I won’t leave you to face the wolves on your own.”
“I am the wolf, baby. I’ll take care of the danger and then come right after you.”
“How will you find me?” Then, instantly, “No, not happening. I will not leave you.”
The motel room door shook as a hard fist slammed into its surface. “I know you’re in there!” Thaddeus called.
They were running out of time. “Esme, go. That’s an order. Get the hell out of here. Thaddeus did not come alone. He’ll have backup appearing soon. I will keep them distracted. Go. ”
“Is this truly what you think of me? That I’ll just save my own ass and leave you to fight alone?”
Tyler didn’t answer. He did pick her up and carry her into the bathroom. “I am the wolf,” he said again. Then he hauled the broken door shut and went off to face the Fed at the door.