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I was the one assigned undercover to take these bastards down. He grins widely at me, but when I look at Matt, the look on his face makes my chest tighten.
24
MATT
I do this for a living,in and out of situations like this every day. It’s part of our training, the job, but my heart is still beating like a fucking freight train. When Marenah put her life in jeopardy, jumping into the water to gain entry to the boat, when she left the safety of my arms to yet again make a play to save those people, it brought back too many feelings. If only someone like her or Scottie had been there years ago when Alyse was taken, she may have survived too, but my heart is warmed when the ambulances, police, and social workers arrive. I know the people that have just been taken from the boat are going to make it. While they may have scars from whatever trauma they’ve dealt with leading up to this, we were able to keep them from being transported into another living hell, and for that I am grateful and feel good about the work accomplished tonight.
When I got the message that Scottie had been called in by Interpol to run ops from the outside, I was relieved and thought we could wait it out until he did what he needed to do to make sure the men had begun to leave port with the people.
But no, Marenah. What the hell to do with Marenah, my little undercover princess. My heart is still pumping at the near escape we had. If I hadn’t known Scottie was running ops, she could have taken him out, and any chance in hell of convicting the people responsible for this could have gone out the window. They could have murdered my princess. She could have been killed right before my very eyes if I hadn’t taken her hostage in front of them, but damn the look in her eyes when I held that gun to her, the look of betrayal and hurt.
This is what getting involved with someone means in my business. You no longer have the upper hand. The people you love can always be taken from you or used against you at a moment’s notice.
I am only half-listening to Scottie and Marenah as my cell signal is restored and I send a message to Jay, but the next words out of Scottie’s mouth stop me dead in my tracks. She is not a double agent, like many of my team thought, she’s fucking Interpol. Jesus, just the fact that she’s been inside Chase’s Italian villa and has seen the setup sends chills down my spine. I know the Italian Mafia were appreciative of our help stepping in to save the next don of the Larussio family, but that credit’s only going to go so fucking far. Even Chase and Brian aren’t going to be able to explain how one of the owners of their security team, privileged to all the comings and goings of the Italian Family, is literally in bed with an agent of Interpol. Fuck!
“What possessed you to get on that boat without backup or to storm that cabin? You could have been killed,” Scottie says. Marenah hangs her head slightly at the chastisement of a man clearly her senior and who with one call could end her career. “I know your heart was in the right place and that things were not as they appeared. I tried to send you a message by putting your cuffs on you in front, but you were so emotionally involved, you didn’t even catch it, Marenah.”
He looks like he’s going to say something else, but I look at her face, and I don’t think so. I hit the send button on the message I was texting and drop the cell into my pocket, slowly walking toward her. “I’ll take it from here, Scottie. If you don’t mind, I’ll borrow these for a while,” I say, taking the cuffs from his hands as the grin on his face spreads, and he heads out to meet with Nate and Dereck.
“What don’t you understand about staying put, out of danger? You could have been killed or taken right along with those people.” As soon as I say those very words, I know that’s the exact feeling I can’t seem to shake: the absolute horror of losing her. I am pissed that she put herself in that situation intentionally, but she is also the most passionate person I’ve ever met. She cares deeply about others and is someone that acts on her emotions, and that type of person is clearly a danger to herself and to my heart.
She looks up at me, and if I think my little spitfire is going to break down and apologize, I have another think coming. Her blue eyes flash with anger. “You could have found another way besides pointing that gun in my face,” Marenah says, so low only I can hear her even if anyone was hanging out in the trees with us.
I reach out and grasp her nape and pull her to me, tilting her chin so she needs to look up at me. “If I hadn’t been there, Scottie would have had to do it. I didn’t realize he was finishing up a couple assignments with Interpol until we were on the boat. I knew you weren’t in danger from him, which is the only reason I let him put handcuffs on you. I just wanted you out, and so did he. We were trying to protect you, Marenah,” I say.
“I don’t understand why they didn’t send backup in,” she says, pulling her necklace out and showing me the button I’m pretty sure is a confidential asset of Interpol. “One click of this and they’re supposed to come and get me, and I pushed it twice.” Marenah’s emotions are beginning to show in the shine of her eyes. Tears she’s trying to hold back. My little spitfire is all fire and toughness on the exterior.
“Remember the rules, Marenah. Only if it doesn’t endanger the mission or cause more casualties,” I say, and the dam breaks.
“They didn’t come for me because I’m expendable,” she says, and her tears begin to flow.
“No Princess, they didn’t come for you because they knew Scottie was on board, and as the most senior, he would have been waiting for his alert to come in. If he felt there was a chance to keep the mission intact and get us out of there, he wouldn’t push that button. He also had the advantage of knowing that, if I was on the boat, my team was on the ground and we wouldn’t be there without a plan.”
She takes it all in and nods, wiping her tears with the back of her hand.
“So now that we’ve got that out of the way, you owe me a few explanations. I get that you couldn’t tell me that you were with Interpol, but surely you could have given me some other reason for a relationship between the two of us not working out? I mean, something, before I took your virginity, Princess,” I say, rubbing my finger over her lip, wondering if what she tells me will be enough to get her out of the punishment I already have planned for her.
She doesn’t say anything at first, and then the conversation turns deeper than I thought it would. “I wanted it to be you, and I don’t regret anything. I know this is impossible for us, but I still wanted my first time to be with you, and I still would have done whatever I could to get those people out. All I could think about was that they were being ripped from their lives, that loved ones would always be devastated, like you for your friend Alyse. I had to do everything I could with the knowledge I had. I have no regrets,” she says, looking down before I lift her chin to see her eyes sparkling with unshed tears in the moonlight.
She turns from me, looking out onto the beach at all the helicopters and police cars that are lining the otherwise normally quiet dock, before looking back at me and stepping on tiptoes to press her lips against mine. “I think my ride’s here,” Marenah says, and I look down at the handcuffs I have swirling on my fingers, intending to treat her to a night of punishment for making me worry and putting herself in jeopardy, but she is right. That would only prolong the inevitable.
25
MARENAH
The walkto the beach and toward Scottie is probably the longest I’ve ever taken. The heat of his gaze penetrating me as I leave sears into my senses and causes me to slow. If I turn to look, I will never be able to leave, so I continue walking toward the helicopters. Dereck and Nate are talking to Scottie as I approach, and they both look out over the distance behind me. “Matt’s fine, lads,” Scottie says. “Marenah needs to come with me and clear up some paperwork,” he says.
Nate nods, but Dereck doesn’t. A man of few words, he looks beyond the cover of the clearing, and my eyes follow his to the lone man standing in the shadows of the protection. “Take care of him for me,” I say, as Scottie leads the way to the helicopter, and I hoist myself into the machine and buckle into the seat. “Headquarters, Lad,” Scottie says as he climbs in, gesturing overhead to get this bird in the air as quickly as the pilot can.
“Roger that!” the pilot says as the whirring starts overhead, drowning out everything around us. We are soon in the air, and I don’t miss Dereck and Nate walking toward the man in the shadows. He hasn’t moved at all, watching as the chopper hovers and then turns, moving out toward the lake.
I swallow hard, trying my hardest to keep my tears at bay at one of the hardest decisions that I’ve ever had to make. His team, the only family that has ever really cared for him, will pull him through. They are more than a security team, they are like brothers, and Matt doesn’t deserve to have to leave the only family he’s ever known outside of orphanages and gang runners, just to be with me. He should have so much better, and I and my family, along with my job, will only cause him suffering and pain in the long run.
It seems like forever when the helicopter finally lands on the deck of a ship and the whirring sound begins to fade to the point where we can hear each other speak. “Interpol satellite headquarters,” Scottie says to me as the pilot jumps out, leaving us in the machine by ourselves. “Two things. You will give a statement and let them know that you got on that ship and charged that room because you thought I was in trouble. Nothing else is acceptable, understand, Lass?” he says, taking me completely by surprise.
I slowly digest what he intends and nod my agreement. “Lastly, nothing, absolutely nothing about Matt and his team. If asked, and I highly doubt you will be, you don’t have any idea who it was that dragged you out of that room,” Scottie says, and again I nod before he jumps down. I follow suit as he leads the way to the stairwell that takes us into the main deck of the ship, down a large hall, and through a door that opens into a spacious main cabin that has windows all around it and allows a view of the ocean for miles around.
Scottie heads to the desk, and the man behind it stands and extends a hand first to Scottie and then to me. “I’m Captain Lyons. Congratulations, I wasn’t sure for a while if you were going to be able to bring them in. We were following things from below when things went south,” the large burly guy says, and I barely see the flick in Scottie’s eyes, but it was there. I didn’t imagine it, and when he turns and introduces me and swipes his finger, just briefly across his lips I understand exactly what he’s telling me.
