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Giorgio responded. “All the main players are dead. Swain sent someone for Lavender and Tiberius, so they’re presumably en route to him. Heidi begged us to help her, so she’s with us. We’re all at the boats except Niall. He’s still in the house looking for Malachi.”
“I’m going to help him.”
“No. He said to—”
“This isn’t up for debate.”
“Fuck.” That was Leo.
They could come after me if they wanted to, but my instincts were screaming that Niall needed my help. I listened carefully as I neared the house, knowing Niall would be jumpy. I didn’t want to surprise him and get shot again. I didn’t hear anything, so I called to him.
“Marco?” His voice came from the floor above.
“I’m downstairs.”
Niall appeared from a room at the top of the stairs. He started down, but as he did, Malachi stepped out of an adjacent room, throwing knife in hand.
I aimed, knowing the shot counted more than any I’d ever taken.
I fired.
Malachi staggered back. His knife fell from his hand as he dropped to his knees and face-planted on the ground, blood pooling under him.
Niall stared at his would-be assailant, color gone from his face, then he turned to me as I ran toward him.
I pulled him into my arms. “See? I told you, you needed me.”
“Asshole.” He squeezed me so tight it hurt my shoulder, but I didn’t care.
“I lov—” Niall pulled away, apprehension on his face. “I’m sorry I…”
“I fucking love you too, okay?”
His eyes widened. “Y-you do?”
“Yes. Did you really not know that?”
“Jesus, Marco. I love you so much.” We hugged again, then Giorgio cleared his throat. “Break it up. This isn’t exactly a place where we want to linger.”
“Did you take care of everything?” I asked.
Niall smiled. “I planted the USB in Compton’s pocket. The authorities will have all the evidence they need, and it will look as if Compton was going to turn on all of them.”
“Will there be enough for them to bring Swain down too?”
“That depends on how far his reach goes and how many cops he has in his pocket.”
“So, in other words, we can’t count on it.”
“No, but we will get him. X isn’t going to rest until we do.”
I nodded. “Let’s get out of here.”
Leo burst through the door then. “Did you—”
He stopped when he saw the body at the top of the stairs.
He glanced at Niall, then back at me. “I’m glad you didn’t listen to us.”
Niall frowned. “What do you mean?”
“They didn’t want me to go after you.”
“He told us not to,” Leo said, pointing at Niall.
Niall laughed, then the rest of us did too.
“It’s been a hell of a day,” Leo said.
“Yeah.” Niall’s eyes widened, and he looked at me. “You don’t know all about Swain do you?”
“What? There’s more?”
Giorgio cleared his throat. “Let’s get this body moved, and you can tell him on the way to Christiansted.”
They insisted I head to the boat. My shoulder was throbbing, and I knew I’d overdone it, but I still didn’t want to leave. Even though I knew we’d taken care of everyone, I couldn’t relax when I reached the boat. I paced, restless energy vibrating through me until I saw Niall, Giorgio, and Leo emerge from the trees.
24
Niall
We radioed to the others that we were safe and they should go ahead. Leo explained that Swain had gotten word we were planning an attack and changed his travel plans.
“How could he have known?”
“Someone with intel on our organization told him,” Giorgio said.
Leo grimaced. “The most likely candidate is someone from my shop. My first priority when we get back is to find the rat.”
“You don’t have to do that on your own,” I said.
“Yeah, I do. If someone I hired wrecked our chance at Swain, I want to be the one to deal with it.”
“I get that, but if you want help, I’m in,” Marco said.
“Thanks.” Leo looked back at me. “You said he was a prick. See how wrong you were?”
Marco just laughed. “He meant to say I’ve got a big prick.”
Leo snorted, and I felt heat rise in my cheeks.
With Leo joining us in the boat, I couldn’t mention what Marco and I had said to each other before Leo had come into the house. That didn’t stop me from thinking about it, though. Even though I’d blurted out the words without meaning to, it hadn’t been a spur of the moment thing for me. And if Marco had said it back so readily, surely he’d meant it. Of course that didn’t necessarily mean he wanted what I did. Plenty of other men had ignored real feelings when they were inconvenient.
We didn’t have much chance to talk once we were back on St. Croix. We used a burner phone to give the local authorities an anonymous tip about gunshots coming from Arlington’s island. Once that was done, we headed back to the townhouse where I’d been treated by Dr. Janssen. Dalton was receiving the same conscientious care I had while Walsh hovered over him.
