Page 77 of Midnight Legacy

For a moment, panic bloomed in my chest that he meant our relationship was over, but he was standing here with me and had just woken me up to make love to me. We stood for so long that I thought he was going to ignore me.

“They must have thought we’d returned to London with the files from the box. They’d forgotten to set the alarms and the security measures that would have kept them safe from attack. They’d taken acting the happy couple to a different level and were in our bed.”

Nausea burned a rancid trail up my throat.

“He was found hanging in the bathroom, a note left on the side of the bed. She was tortured and—” his voice broke off. I didn’t need the visual to know what had happened. “They didn’t know about the cameras in the apartment. I hadn’t turned them off when I left.”

My arms tightened around him. He’d just had to watch our enemies murder me and frame him before killing him too. I pressed a kiss to the centre of his spine.

“I’ll do whatever you need,” I whispered.

His fingers gripped mine at his waist and we stood together until I shivered and his back straightened. “Fuck, Cas, why didn’t you tell me you were cold?” He engulfed me in those strong arms of his, hauling me into his chest.

“You had a few things on your mind.” I kissed his chest and rested my head over his heart to listen to the reassuring beat of his heart that always calmed me.

I had no doubt that whoever committed the atrocity tonight would feel the force of his wrath and regret ever meeting my husband.

***

Chapter Twenty-One

Xavier

The water of the shower had cleansed my body but not the dark thoughts swirling about in my head.

We’d been sitting discussing plans for today when the alarm activation pinged on my phone. All we could do was watch as my apartment was invaded and the couple having sex in my bed were murdered. It was all over in a matter of minutes. They looked similar enough to us as decoys that the team hadn’t realised they got the wrong targets.

The image of the woman lying on the bed with her throat cut and stab wounds all over her torso tormented me. I’d held my breath when I opened the door to our bedroom last night, finally letting it go when I saw Cassandra sleeping in our bed, her chest rising and falling.

I’d sat for nearly an hour watching her before I needed her touch to heat me and take the images away even for a while.

“Zee?” A hand waved in front of my face, followed by Ash’s face. “You okay?”

“Yeah.” I cleared my throat. “Just lost in thought for a moment.”

Every one of us had watched what happened last night. A clean-up crew arrived not long afterward and removed all trace of the scene. Unfortunately, they couldn’t do the same with my memories. I was finally beginning to see why Jordan had established his own cleaning crews and security firm away from the Council. He obviously hadn’t trusted them for years.

Everything was ready for this morning. We were taking Uncle Lucas’ helicopter directly to Cassandra’s family home. After watching our late-night video, I was taking no chances. We were in and out of that house as quickly as possible. Then he was taking her to Tuscany to be locked away in his fortress with his own personal army.

We’d all heard Megan’s temper tantrum this morning when Jordan told her she was taking a holiday away. The silence that followed it was ominous. Jordan cared for Megan, but there was no way that he would tolerate that behaviour from anyone. She was probably tied up with a butt plug up her ass while she considered her actions.

He currently sat sipping a cup of coffee while reading through reports on his phone.

Cassandra was pale and quiet, her hair tied back in a severe bun at the base of her neck. Her morning sickness had been bad the past few days, which was one of the reasons we’d delayed the trip until after breakfast. She picked her crumpet into shreds on her plate in the pretence of eating.

“The doctor said the sickness is low blood sugar. You need to eat.” She jumped when I spoke and then looked guiltily at her plate.

“I…” Her lips pursed.

I should never have told her last night, but I’d been emotional and ready to crawl out of my skin.

Jordan glanced up from his phone. “You both need to pull yourself together,” he snapped. “If they sense any weakness in us at all, they’ll send their hounds to pursue us. When you walk out of here, it is with your heads high and smiles on your faces.”

Cassandra glared at him. “We were murdered in our bed last night.”

He set his phone and sighed. “Technically, you were murdered in your bed and he hung himself in the bathroom.” Her gasp made me shoot him a look that would make most men quake. “My point being, that you show them that you don’t give a fuck and move on. Whoever that was is waiting for a reaction this morning, either from us or the Council. We don’t give it to them.”

“I’m not as hard as you,” Cassandra replied in a low tone.

---