Page 45 of The Queen's Vow (Ruthless Games 2)

TWENTY-FIVE

JULIAN

“Where are you?” Tamrynwhispered.

“I’d rather not say.” I stared at the bathroom door. On the other side, the shower had been running for about ten minutes and steam floated out from the sliver above the metal saddle.

My insides clawed at me to go inside and make sure Becca was still there. The narrow window prevented her from shimmying out, and something told me she wouldn’t run away wearing just a towel. I made her keep her clothes in the main room, and promised her privacy when she was done with her shower.

Privacy. I’d obliterated that one by fucking her.

Something I thought we were on the same page about until she came down from her orgasm and looked at me with tears in her eyes. God, I’d felt so horrible.

The sadness there had wrecked me. I’d seen the look of guilt and shame on women before. What I’d thought was a step in getting her to trust me, only triggered her shame and doubt. Doubt in herself and her decision making. Like sleeping with me was a decision. Felt more like a natural reaction, how she needed me.

Being inside her made this situation more real for me. With her in my care and in my bed, the stakes just soared for me. I wasn’t just protecting a marked subject, I protected a woman who viscerally twisted up my insides to the point of madness. But I had to earn her trust all over again.

I’d tried to talk to her, but she wouldn’t even look at me. Just up and disappeared into the bathroom.

“Has Bennett made any progress?” I’d called Tamryn to get my mind off wanting to go in there and fuck Becca hard against the tile wall with hot water pelting my back.

“Not yet. Fowler wants to know where you are.”

AWOL. I was AWOL from the Bureau at the moment. I’d been struggling with a decision all morning. I hadn’t violated any real department policies. I warned a potential target, sure. But Becca had seen the web page as well and I hadn’t revealed any tradecraft about how we tracked the hit contract down.

I just hadn’t shown up for work. And while keeping Rebecca in this motel room could be construed as kidnapping, she wasn’t in handcuffs or tied up. I fucked her brains out with her hands on me, her fingers rimming my ass. I pinched the bridge of my nose thinking how I made the head of a crime family ride my cock.

“I have some unused vacation time. Can you update my HR app?”

“Without you telling Fowler directly?”

“I never tell him.”

“We never had a mob boss with a bounty on her head. It’s kind of all hands on deck here.” Her voice got low. “He’s gonna find out you have her.”

I squeezed my eyes shut. The credit card charge miles out of the city the same night Rebecca Domenico disappeared could do me in. “Tamryn, can you get Bennett to bug Messina, Byrne, and Daria’s cell phones?” I now wanted to prove to Rebecca that her men weren’t involved. It would put us on the same side.

“Speaking of Byrne, I have an interesting development,” Tamryn whispered.

I shook my head. “Tell me.”

“I got a hit from the flight manifest system. Listen to this... Giancarlo Byrne left the country. His father’s private plane just went wheels up with Giancarlo on it according to the flight plan listed.”

I bolted up from the edge of the bed. “What? Why? Just him? Not Messina and Daria?”

“Just him. A source reported that his father sent Giancarlo to attend a cousin’s funeral. In Ireland.”

Patrick Byrne... Was he getting Giancarlo out of the way because he knew his son was sleeping with Rebecca and might try to stop him from finishing the job to kill her?

I breathed a small sigh of relief because now Giancarlo couldn’t track me. Good. And bad. Right now, Patrick just jumped to the top of my prime suspect list as the one who put the hit on Rebecca. Ruthless didn’t even begin to describe that Boston Irish thug.

Doubt clouded my mind though because Patrick would have needed his son’s expertise to navigate the dark web with specialty software. Including, finding a message board to look for hitmen. Rebecca steadfastly defended Giancarlo and the others when I suggested they were involved with the attempt on her life and the new contract.

If Giancarlo hadn’t created the message board, but Patrick Byrne was behind it, who...

Patrick’s other star hacker...

“Tamryn, can you check the State Department’s status for Salvatore Byrne?”

“Hang on.” She hummed while typing. “Huh.”

“What?” I changed ears.

“When I checked it a couple of weeks ago for you, his status was listed as missing.”

My heart spiked. Was the dead relative ruse really a mission to bring home Salvatore Byrne, the oldest son and true heir to the Bianco/Byrne dynasty? “What does it say now?”

“Classified.”

“Shit.” Although, that could mean anything. Soldiers rarely go completely missing. He could have been found and they were waiting to contact the family. Or sent him on some black op for the CIA.

“Hey, Tamryn. I need a favor.”

“Oh, all of this isn’t a favor?” she said with humor in her voice.

“I fucked up.” My shoulder stung. “I went into a store last night to get...stuff for Rebecca and I for a couple of days and...” That kiss scrambled my brain. “I used my personal credit card by mistake.”

“Did you plan to use your FBI one?”

“No, I meant to use cash.” I didn’t elaborate and tell her how heated and turned on, or rather hard as fucking steel I’d been by the time I got to that register.

“Okay.”

“Can you quietly ask Bennett to wipe it off the internet?”

She exhaled. “Can I suggest something else?”

“Please.”

“Just call Fowler. Tell him what happened. You went to school with Rebecca. Tell him you let passion get the better of you. They want us working on those kinds of instincts. Only he can authorize protection for her.”

“I’m taking every precaution. I don’t trust there isn’t a mole in our office yet. It’s happened before.” I already took a chance by taking Becca when she’d had another escape plan by a professional.

Giancarlo Byrne.

If I fucked this up by tipping someone off in my office and she got hurt, or worse... I didn’t know what I’d do. To the person who hurt her or myself.

My throat burned. I leaned forward and whispered, “This whole mole business stays between us. Either someone is watching Bennett to find Rebecca first or wants to use her as bait to catch the hitman. Someone who wants to be the hero.”

I knew the long-term end game to stop these online hit games was a worthy goal, but I didn’t want Rebecca to be the red cape we waved at bulls to track whoever had the balls to create a listing on the dark web to solicit a hitman. All of that activity, all those comments, all the frenzy, meant there would be more.

“Okay.” Tamryn sounded disappointed. “But if you don’t come back soon, it will mean your job.”

“I don’t care. I can’t...” Christ, I was falling for Becca. Or did she cast that same damn spell she put on three ruthless mafia princes? “Please figure out a way to get that charge off the web for now, Tam. I know how to insulate myself. I made one mistake, I won’t make it again. I have plenty of cash for the rest of the trip.”

“Where are you heading anyway?”

I hesitated to tell her, but I had to trust someone on the inside who could get me out of a jam if I needed it. “The Canadian border.”

“What?” The phone got smothered. “You’re leaving the country with her?”

“Technically, yes. I’m protecting her. I have relatives north of Montreal. A... Um... On my mother’s side. Land that’s in trust for me in a small town.”

Tamryn laughed. “You think she won’t stick out like a sore thumb in a small town?”

“I’ll keep her secluded.” I cleared my throat, and my eyes found Rebecca standing in the bathroom doorway wearing a towel. Her wet dark hair left droplets on her shoulders.

“I need food, Julian,” Becca said to me.

“I really don’t think that’s a good—” Tamryn cut off.

“Tam?”

“A friend of yours?” Becca blinked at me.

“Oh no...” Tam breathed heavily.

“What is it? What’s the matter?” I spoke low into the phone.

“My water just broke. Shit, Julian.” Her words rocked me. “Julian, oh my God. There’s blood. So much blood. I have to go.”

The line went dead and my brain zonked out from processing too many pieces of information at once. Tamryn, a woman I adored like a sister, an assistant who kept my shit together... Her water broke, and she saw blood. She could be in trouble and I had no way to help her.

That also meant I just lost my lifeline to the bureau. I was well and truly on my own.

Right now, it looked better and better to bring Rebecca to Canada. And never bring her back to New York.

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