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She flinched. It was small, imperceptible to most, but he’d seen the flash of apprehension at the name of Elskov’s version of the CIA, FBI, MI6, and Interpol all mixed together into one badass operation with only one goal: to protect Elskov and its queen, who’d been recently restored to the throne after a bloody coup that had nearly destroyed the country.
“Good to see you know of our reputation and now realize the seriousness of your situation—and that of your brother.”
Her cheeks flushed. “You’re a right bastard.”
“Literally and figuratively. I’ve learned to live with it, so should you,” he said, glad to finally have the upper hand. Usually, that wasn’t a problem. With Ruby? He had a feeling he was going to have to expect the unexpected. “We’re under a tight deadline and don’t have time for petty personality problems. Your stepfather is selling a large cache of weapons to a very bad man who wants to do horrible things. I will not let that sale go down, and you’re going to do whatever it takes to help me ensure it doesn’t.”
He wasn’t about to give her names—not until he had to—but she had to comprehend the seriousness of the situation.
She huffed out a frustrated breath. “And how am I supposed to do that?”
So glad she asked. It was about time they got down to it. “By providing access to your stepfather and helping to gain insight into the deal’s location.”
“One problem with your plan,” she said with a smirk. “I’m not involved in any of Rolf’s business. For the past year I’ve kept as much distance between us as possible. You’ll notice I’m here in Elskov, and he’s still holed up in his private fiefdom on Fare Island, surrounded by goons and sycophants.”
Oh he knew. He had satellite imagery of everything happening on that island. If Henriksen ever came anywhere near that island, he’d find his every twitch photographed, logged, and documented before he ended up in maximum security prison.
“Not to worry,” he said. “We have a plan. It’s time for a family reunion.”
She blanched. “You don’t understand. He trusts no one. Not me. Not Jasper. Not anyone.”
That didn’t matter; in fact, they were going to use that to their advantage. “We have a can’t-miss cover story.”
“I’m telling you,” she said, her low, sultry voice getting louder with each word. “There’s. No. Way. It. Will. Work.”
“There’s always a way.” If he didn’t believe that, then he’d still be living in a rented room above the Ensom Pub surviving on his wits and the scraps of information he could steal and sell to the highest bidder. Instead, here he was the literal lord of the manor charged with protecting Elskov. “There’s always a way, and if there’s not, I make one.”
She considered him for a moment, her gray eyes focused on him as if he were a safe she was cracking, then she sighed and shrugged her shoulders. “I don’t suppose I have a choice.”
“No, you don’t.”
“Then it looks like we have a deal.” She held out her hand.
He took it, shaking on the agreement. The feel of her small hand in his sent a jolt straight from his palm to his already half-hard dick. He couldn’t deny the woman’s sex appeal, but he couldn’t fall prey to it, either. The men who had were either broke, in jail, or dead. He’d managed to successfully avoid all three up to now and that wasn’t going to change.
“Of course,” she said, pulling her hand from his and looking down at her own hand in half wonder and half concern, as if she’d experienced that zap of attraction, too. “I do have two conditions.”
He almost laughed. She didn’t give up, a quality he couldn’t help but admire even if it meant she was going to be a real pain in his ass. “And those are?”
“One, you get Jasper out of jail and into protective custody.” She looked him dead in the eye without a flinch, her neutral poker face in perfect order. “My stepfather has many enemies, and while he may not trust my brother, he would see any harm done to Jasper as a personal affront. His enemies would be thrilled to exploit that vulnerability.”
Not a problem since they already had him squirreled away under twenty-four-hour guard with two of his most trusted agents. “Done. And the other?”
“Give me the space I need to get whatever information you need.” She held up a finger. “No wires.” She held up a second. “No cameras. I’ll bring you back the information you want, but I have to do it in my own way.”
“No.” Not even if hell froze over.
Her hand dropped like a lead weight into her lap. “No?”
“No.” He leaned forward, close enough that he could smell her exotic perfume and see the way the vein in her neck stood out as her pulse picked up from his nearness. “You see, I’m your cover story and the reason for your return trip to Fare Island. We’re officially engaged and about to invite your mother and stepfather to our wedding. As long as those weapons are out there, Ms. Macintosh, there won’t be any daylight between us.”
Chapter Two
She was in a puffy, pink nightmare.
Ruby looked around the guest room she’d been assigned, aka Barbie’s LSD nightmare. From the sheer blush of the walls to the Pepto-Bismol duvet cover on the bed, there was pink everywhere she looked. It was like karma coming back to haunt her for insisting on getting the magenta highlights along with the violet ones, despite Isla warning her she might want to dial it down a notch—or twenty.
She sat her heavy design travel kit down on the taffy-colored rug and did a three-sixty. Although they’d been colored to match the overbearing design scheme, she picked out two motion detectors, a trigger alarm on the door, and sensors around the windows. There was probably more, but she didn’t have the stomach to find out if the bathroom was done up in shades of watermelon or salmon, so checking in there would have to wait. Just the idea of a fifty-shades-of-pink bathroom made the designer in her throw up a little. Still, there had to be a way out of this room, and she’d find it. Lucas may think he had a winning scheme to get those guns, but she knew better.
