Page 61 of Midnight Danger

It was true. If Cassandra looked at me with her huge pleading eyes, I’d put a few noughts on what I’d pay for an item.

“Do we have decoys to take with us?” I asked.

Jordan’s eyebrow quirked. “I think they might notice that the newly married man has the wrong woman on his arm.”

“No one knows I’m married.”

Ash laughed bitterly. “I guarantee there are women out there already lamenting you being taken off the market. Stop being naïve.”

I glared at him for several seconds until he finally met my gaze.

“What?” he snapped, rubbing his hands down his face. “Your Uncle Lucas told me to stay the fuck away from Lucrezia. He doesn’t want a Blackwood in the family.”

“What did you say?” Jordan asked.

Ash stared at the ceiling. “I think my open-ended invitation to Tuscany has been withdrawn.”

“Give him time to cool down,” I replied. Uncle Lucas’ bark was often worse than his bite. He tended to overreact when it came to his daughters.

Jordan was silent, staring into his glass like it contained the secrets to the greatest mysteries of the universe.

“How’s Megan?” I asked.

His eyes contained agony when he glanced up. “Fine. She ordered cushions the other day.” His tone was remote, distancing him from the situation.

“You’re only causing both of you pain by denying your feelings,” I commented.

“Megan deserves a man who can give her everything she’s always wanted. She used to talk about kids and dogs, baking cookies at the weekend. Those are things I can’t give her.”

“Bullshit,” I barked. “The two of you can’t keep your hands or eyes off each other. That type of attraction is rare, considering you’ve known each other a while.”

“She’s fragile,” he argued.

“Then don’t break her.”

We stared at each other in a silent battle, the muscle at the side of his jaw pulsing.

“For a moment after I got Cas back from that madman Malcolm, I was going to walk away. I argued that she was only in that situation because she’d run from me.” I pinched the bridge of my nose at the memory of her lying pale in that hospital bed. “Then I realised the only person who would love her the way I did was me.”

Jordan didn’t reply and returned to staring into his glass again.

“How many passes can we get to the auction?” Ash asked.

“Four,” Jordan replied. “Technically, two plus guests.”

“I’ll run the op from here,” Ash said, rubbing his hands over his face again.

“Tell me I don’t have to take Cas,” I begged, not wanting to drag my pregnant wife into this shit storm.

“If I have to take Meg then you have to take Cas,” Jordan retorted.

“Where is it?” I asked, dread unfurling deep in my stomach.

“No idea. The location is released a few hours in advance. They obviously think whoever is coming will have access to the means to arrive on time.” Jordan looked as unhappy with the situation as me.

When we paid Marco a visit a few months ago, we thought he was a player who tried to cross my uncle. Now it turned out he was involved in a heavily armed biker gang who liked to dabble in global theft. This was rapidly spiralling out of control. Fucking awesome.

“I guess I better go and share the happy news with my wife that she needs to go dress shopping.” I reluctantly pushed myself up. “Will we be able to take weapons in?”

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