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“Ready,” Juliasaid.
Ronan wished there was more fear in her voice, that there was some evidence that she understood the danger of the situation in which they would soon find themselves. There was too much they didn’t know, too much that could go wrong, and they weren’t even sure Elise would be among the girls being brought to Manifest’sshowcase.
He had the urge to tell Nick to turn around, to take Julia straight to the airport and force her onto the plane back to Boston, to throw up his hands and tell John Taylor it had been a mistake to take the job, that they couldn’t helphim.
But it was too late for that. For one thing, he couldn’t turn his back on Elise Berenger, couldn’t turn his back on the other girls like her now that he had a chance of saving even some ofthem.
For another, he could no longer deny that he was deeply and hopelessly in love with Julia — and there would be no future with Julia without the safe return of hersister.
16
Julia squeezedRonan’s hand as the limo’s back door was opened by one of the guards standing outside the gate to the villa. She forced a bored expression onto her face — she’d studied the few pictures of Anuska Král she could find online and found that this was her most often utilized expression — and stepped from the limo with as much dismissive entitlement as she couldmuster.
“Identification,” the guard said in accented English. He held a tablet in one hand, a tiny digital wand in theother.
She was aware of Ronan stepping from the limo behind her as she offered the guard her wrist, the diamond watch band glittering in the lights from the cars still inline.
She looked around, trying to look vaguely impatient while he brought the wand up against the watch. Her heart hammered in her chest, the gun she’d strapped under the skirt of her dress burning against herthigh.
A beep sounded from the tablet and the guard looked from its display to Julia’s face, then backagain.
He stepped back and waved her through. She was momentarily relieved she hadn’t had to answer any questions, then remembered that she wasn’t done yet: there would be a check at the front door of the villa, assuming they made it thatfar.
She stepped through the iron gate and waited on a cobblestone path while Ronan proffered his own wrist. Not wanting to seem concerned, she glanced around, watching as another guest — a woman with striking dark hair and eyes so light gray they appeared almost silver — offered the back of her neck to one of the guard’swands.
Did she have the chip embedded in herskin?
Julia tried to get a better look without being too obvious and thought she caught sight of a tattoo that might have been the Manifest symbol at the woman’s hairline. A moment later the guard cross-checked a picture on his tablet against the face of the woman in front ofhim.
She returned her gaze to Ronan as the first guard waved himthrough.
He held out his arm, and Julia tried to hide the trembling of her hand as she took it. It was only the first test, but they’d passed, which meant they were one step closer toElise.
The air was soft and fragrant, the walkway leading to the villa lined with trees strung with white lights. It might have been a black-tie party for celebrities or wealthy philanthropists, and Julia’s stomach turned as she thought about everything they’d learned about Manifest: trafficking, arms dealing to terrorist groups, even black market organharvesting.
She had to get Elise away from these people, and it had to be tonight. If Braden Kane was right — and Ronan said his sources were as good as they got — the girls would soon beauctioned.
After that, finding them would be next toimpossible.
She reconsidered their decision not to use a comms system to allow for communication between Nick, Declan, Clay, and her and Ronan. Deep down she knew it had been the right choice — they couldn’t risk being caught with it, especially since so much of the security inside the villa was unknown — but she still hated the fact that she and Ronan were on theirown.
It felt way too much like walking into a lion’sden.
“Easy,” Ronan said next toher.
She hadn’t realized that she’d tightened her grip on his arm. “I’mokay.”
“Good. Stay close,” he said as they approached the front door to thevilla.
They took their place in line behind a handful of other people waiting to enter the villa. She let her gaze skim over the faces around her, not wanting to give anyone reason to make eyecontact.
She wasn’t under any illusions: she didn’t look enough like Anuska Král to fool anyone who knew the woman well. But the people around her didn’t know she was posing as the Czech heiress. Only the guards armed with tablets would know that, and presumably they weren’t well acquainted with any of the guests. They would do exactly what the guard at the gate did — look at her picture on the tablet and compare it to Julia standing in front ofthem.
She looked enough like Anuska Král to pass under those circumstances, something she’d proven at the gate. Her best bet with everyone else was to avoid in-depth conversation, keep a lowprofile.
There was only one person in front of them in the line for the door, a diminutive man in a tux that looked vaguely familiar to Julia, his bald head shining under the lights at the front of thehouse.
The guard at the door held a wand to the man’s cufflink, looked at the tablet, and waved him in withoutquestion.
