Love and Let Die

Chapter Fifteen

Charlie looked around the well-appointed jet and decided that Damon Knight must be the shit back at MI6. It wasn’t a massive jetliner, but it more than made up for size with luxury.

There were twelve leather seats in the cabin and they didn’t look anything like the tiny coach seats she’d flown in before. This sucker reclined fully and looked to have been built for two.

Or just really oversized men. Ian took up all of his seat. He sat beside her, looking down at reports as they waited for the others to board.

Of course even the comfiest of seats couldn’t make up for the soreness she was feeling. Damn plug never made her sore. It also hadn’t made her come like the world was ending. She squirmed a little, trying to find a comfy position.

Ian’s head turned, a devilish grin lighting his face. “Do you need help, love? Is there something making you uncomfortable?”

She would take a little soreness to see him smile like that. If he thought he was embarrassing her, he was so wrong. Embarrassment was for people who had nothing better to do. “Yes, I am because someone decided to shove a very large item up my poor backside and now that same person is making me take a twenty-four hour flight.”

His smiled broadened and he leaned over, brushing her hand with his. “Your Master is a horrible man. He obviously thinks only of himself and about just how good your ass felt.”

“Oh, my god, please stop,” Chelsea said from her seat behind Charlie. “I can’t tell you how gross that is.”

Ian winked at Charlie. “Your sister is a prude. Are you really in pain? I’m sure they have something you can take for it.”

She rather liked the ache. It was a reminder that he was still here with her. She squeezed his hand, adoring the intimacy. “I’ll just have a glass of wine. I’ll be fine.”

He nodded and turned back to his files, the ones she’d given him. Small steps. She couldn’t ask for anything more.

Well, she could hope that they were all still alive tomorrow, but that was about it. She wouldn’t put it past her uncle to have a couple of surface-to-air missiles at his disposal.

The cabin door opened and Simon and Jesse entered. Simon looked dapper in his three-piece suit, as though he hadn’t been up all night. Charlie watched as Simon’s blue eyes found Chelsea’s before moving past her. Jesse was carrying a briefcase and had gotten a haircut. He looked deeply uncomfortable in his dress shirt and slacks, but it looked like Simon was forcing him to take the job seriously.

Simon stopped at their aisle, looking to Ian. “Everything is in place.”

“And the office?”

“Is closed for the week. I sent Phoebe home, and she’s going to work from there until we decide it’s safe.”

“She probably threw a party,” Ian muttered.

“She cried. She cries a lot,” Simon said with a sigh.

Jesse frowned as he took a seat at the back. “She’s just a little sensitive. You should try being nicer to her.”

“So everyone is off then?” A new voice filled the space, and Charlie turned to see a large man with golden brown hair and green eyes standing in the aisle. He was wearing jeans and a black T-shirt that molded to his broad shoulders and muscular chest.

Ian glanced up at the newcomer. “Everyone who’s alive.”

He’d asked her to keep up the illusion that Avery was gone.

The newcomer shrugged a little. He leaned forward, moving in close to Ian. “I’ll believe that when I see it.” Had she not been sitting so near, she wouldn’t have heard him. “I know Adam’s work when I see it. If you need anything, I’m here for you.”

Ian’s eyes tightened. “I’ll let the Agency know. Ten, this is Charlotte Dennis. Charlie, this is Tennessee Smith. I hope you’re still using your real name. Has the Agency forced you to join the color scheme of aliases yet?”

An “aw shucks” grin came over the man’s face. “Naw, you know I think those Agency names are a little silly. I know we’re supposed to hide our real names, but I’ll just kill anyone I need to and it’ll be fine.” He reached out for her hand, drawing it up to his lips in a gallant gesture. “Not that I’m a killer, darlin’. I’m really more of a lover. Charlie, is it?”

Ian reached over and grabbed her hand out of Ten’s. “Not to you. She’s Mrs. Taggart to you."

He pulled her hand back, but didn’t let it go. She threaded her fingers through his.

Ten’s handsome jaw dropped open. “The dead one?”

A shit-eating grin lit Ian’s face, and he brought her hand to his lips, brushing them across her knuckles. “Guess you don’t know everything, do you? And if I hear you calling her Charlie, I’ll strangle you.”

Ten sat down across from Ian, his big body taking up the chair. “Well, I like my natural coloring. Zhukov still looks blue, by the way. He’s also become decidedly chatty.”

Charlie could imagine what had loosened his lips. His time with Ian would almost certainly have warmed him up. “Did he admit that I wasn’t supposed to be his only victim?”

“He’s already admitted that the entire McKay-Taggart team was on the list. Though they had left off the new kid. He was real disappointed about that. Apparently not being on a hit list makes him feel like he’s not on the team.”

“It’s rude,” Jesse said from the back. “I’m just as dangerous as the rest of you.”

“I’ll kill you myself if it makes you feel better.” Simon took his seat.

Jesse shrugged. “I just think it was rude for them not to include me, that’s all.”

Ten frowned, his grin disappearing. “The fourteen people on that list included your niece.”

Ian’s hand tightened slightly on her own, the only acknowledgment that he’d heard what Ten said. “What does the Agency know about Nelson’s recent activities?”

Ten crossed his arms over his chest. “We’ve placed him in Russia and a couple of places in India. Since you shut down his last enterprise, he’s been moving quite a bit.”

“What are his ties to the Denisovitch syndicate?”

Ten hesitated, his eyes looking around the cabin.

Ian shook his head. “We made a deal, Ten.”

“Is she really The Broker?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ian replied.

How much had he given up to keep her out of the Agency’s hands?

She kept her mouth shut. There was no way she was going to push him. Her ass was already sore.

Damon Knight walked out of the cockpit. “You know who she is and you also know that he’s not going to admit to anything, so you might as well not try. I’ll be honest, I suspect the younger one, too, but he put her in the deal so we can’t have either one of them.”

He’d protected her sister? Even Chelsea turned, staring at Ian for a moment.

“The Broker is done,” Ian said with a grim finality. “You don’t have to worry about that particular problem again. Now, part of my deal with the big bosses was that you would give me full disclosure on Nelson, so start talking.” He dropped her hand, his body closing off from her.

Nelson was still between them. She fought to keep a smile on her face. No matter how close they seemed when he was making love to her, there was still a gulf there, keeping them apart.

Patience. It had always been her downfall, but she was determined to remain patient this time.

“Fine,” Ten finally said. “From what we can tell, Nelson’s ties to Mikhail Denisovitch go back four and a half years. We have a man in a friendly syndicate. As friendly as syndicates can be. He says Nelson started meeting with the heads of the syndicates after he claimed to have evidence against your wife in the murder of her father.”

Charlie shrugged at that. “Of course he had evidence. He’s the one I hired to kill the bastard. I’m sure he didn’t mention that to my uncle.”

“No, I’m sure he left that bit out,” Knight said. “So the question becomes what is Nelson doing in India? I understand why he would spend so much time in Russia. He’s doing some of the syndicate’s dirty work.”

Ten looked up at the MI6 agent. “Why would he be working with Dusan? Tell me something, Charlotte, what does your cousin do and why would he need someone of Nelson’s talents?”

Charlie shrugged a little. “He wouldn’t unless a whole lot has changed. Dusan wasn’t my father’s favorite. He put up with him because he was his brother’s kid, but he thought Dusan wasn’t loyal enough. He wanted to go to college. My dad wasn’t big on the whole scholarship thing when it came to his soldiers.”

“He liked them dumb and loyal, huh?” Knight asked.

Charlie nodded. “Yes.” Dusan was actually one of the only cousins she could stand to be around for more than three minutes. “He didn’t have a high profile when I was living in Russia. My uncle must have put him in charge of a group after I got out. You said he was working the pipeline?”

Ian nodded. “That’s what we’ve figured out. They steal crude straight from the pipeline.”

She knew how the scam worked. “But they would need a finger man. Uhm, a man who works for the oil company who can tell them when the coast is clear, so to speak. The government has been trying to crack down on that kind of thing. Most of the oil companies take security seriously, so he would have to have someone on the inside or he would have to be negotiating with someone who was already there. It’s how they dealt with all the hijacking stuff.”

Chelsea popped up over Charlie’s seatback. “Our father particularly enjoyed hijacking aid and relief packages. He stole everything from antimalarials to AIDS drugs to vaccines for babies. He would sell them on the black market. Such a lovely man.”

Baz was suddenly behind Knight. “We’ve got the go-ahead. If we’re all here, I’m ready to take off.”

Knight nodded, turning away.

“Give it another minute or two. We have one more passenger.” Simon glanced out the window to his right. “Here he comes now.”

Ian stood. “What the hell? Did the Agency send someone else?”

“Nope. I have no idea who it is.” Ten held his hands up. “As far as I know, I’m on my own.”

“You might be, but Tag is not,” Simon said as a shadow fell over the front of the plane.

A man entered, the sun behind him making it hard to see him for a moment.

Sean Taggart had a duffel bag in one hand and a ball cap on his head. “I have my knife kit. If it gets taken by some security fuckers, you’re buying me a new one, brother.”

Sean had come for his brother. She couldn’t help but love him for it. The fact that Ian would have backup that he absolutely, one hundred percent trusted warmed her.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Ian sent a terrific frown his brother’s way. “You’re supposed to be watching out for Grace and your daughter.”

Sean sobered. “Grace and Carys are perfectly safe and you know it.” He was tight-lipped as he looked around the cabin. He obviously wasn’t going to talk freely until he and his brother were alone. “And someone has to watch out for you.”

“In the back. Now.” Ian looked down at her. “Don’t you move.”

She glanced around the small cabin. “Where would I go?”

“We leave in five minutes, Taggart. You should get your family situation sorted,” Baz said before disappearing back into the cockpit.

Ian stalked off followed by his brother. Charlie was left with Ten.

“Now, darlin’,” he said, switching to sit next to her. “Whatever are we going to do on this very long flight?”

“Tag is going to kill you,” Knight said with a shake of his head as he left to join his partner.

Gorgeous lips turned down in a sulky frown. Tennessee Smith likely wouldn’t have to kill often. He would just seduce the information out of his victims. “It might be worth it. Besides, I’m not so bad myself. Don’t discount me just because the packaging is so damn pretty. Maybe I can take Tag down. I’m just wondering why he would hide such a lovely wife. I wouldn’t hide you, honey. You were obviously meant to be shown off.”

“Ian didn’t hide me. I faked my own death and then spent the next five years working my way back to him. He’s my Master and my husband, and if you think I won’t shoot your balls off if you try to touch me, then you haven’t worked up a proper profile on me.” She gave him a smile and couldn’t miss the fact that Simon was covering a laugh.

Ten might be gorgeous, but he had nothing on Ian.

“You can’t blame a guy for trying. It’s a long flight and I don’t read magazines.” He turned his chair around. “How about you, sweetheart? Why don’t you come sit on old Ten’s lap and we can talk about all the things we can do at thirty thousand feet.”

“Touch her and I’ll kill you,” Simon said. “If you need some relief, Yank, I suggest you have a wank in the loo.”

Chelsea faced forward in her seat, her shoulders up around her ears.

Ten glanced Charlie’s way, sitting back in his chair and giving her a little wink.

Yes, it was going to be a very long flight.

* * * *

“What the hell is going on, Sean?” Ian closed the small curtain that separated the cabin from the kitchen.

If Sean was intimidated by his very dark voice, he didn’t show it. It sucked because it was the same voice he used to use on his kid brother to get him to do his damn homework. No one was intimidated by him anymore.

“It’s time to kill Nelson. I’m coming with you.” Sean set down his bag. “Everyone has scattered. Li and Avery are going to our safe house on the East Coast and Jake and Adam are taking Serena, Grace, and Carys to the west. Alex and Eve are headed to Canada.”

Sean was smart enough to not say more. Ian didn’t care that Ten had watched his back on multiple occasions or that Damon Knight had been one of his mentors when he first started working. No one needed to know the locations of his team. No one. Alex and Eve were making their way to Toronto where they would fly to Saint Petersburg on Canadian passports and visas that allowed them to sight-see. They would report back on Denisovitch’s movements.

But he’d meant to keep his brother out of this. “You can’t come with me. You have a kid.”

“And you have a wife. I don’t see what the problem is, brother. Grace has always known that if you went after Nelson, I would go with you.”

“She’s not my wife. Not really.” But the words sounded stubborn and dumb even to him.

His baby brother’s eyes rolled in frustration. “You can keep saying it but I hope like hell you wake up before all this is over. Nothing you say is going to get me off this plane. Adam worked up my visa and I managed to get a bunch of shots. What’s up with that? Can’t Nelson pick a country with less contagions?”

He didn’t have time for Sean’s complaints. “I can have you hauled off this plane.”

“You could try. You might even succeed, but I’ll hop the next flight to India and I’ll be on your doorstep a couple of hours after you get there. Don’t think I can’t find out where you’ve set up shop. Adam might be afraid of you, but Serena craves my enchiladas. Who do you think wins that war, big brother?”

Ian’s fists clenched in frustration. “I don’t want you hurt, Sean.”

“And I don’t want you dead.” He stepped up, leaving very little space between them. “I know you are always going to see me as your snot-nosed kid brother. I know that deep down you’ll think you’re responsible for me until the day you die. And I know that I haven’t done the one thing I should have done for all those years you treated me like a brat kid and bossed me around.”

Fuck, he didn’t want to have it out with his brother. He’d spent the last year and a half trying to make up for choosing Sean over Grace when his brother had asked him to protect the woman he loved. Sean couldn’t know how much the distance bothered him, how much he missed his brother. “What is that, Sean?”

Sean put a hand on his shoulder, his face grave. “Thank you, brother. You didn’t have to take over after Dad left. You could have watched out for yourself but you took over and made sure I had what I needed. Don’t think for a second I don’t know who bought my birthday presents or made sure I had school supplies.”

Ian looked down at the man he’d raised. There was six years between them. It didn’t seem like much now, but when their father walked out on them, Sean had only been ten and then it was a chasm. Their mother had been depressed and barely functional. He’d had to grow up at sixteen. He’d had to take control. He remembered that first night when he sat waiting and hoping that his father would come home. And then he’d gotten up the next morning, begged his mother to get out of bed so she could go to work. She’d stayed in bed for a month. He’d gotten a job working after school until midnight at the local grocery. His childhood had been over. “It’s not a big deal, Sean.”

Sean shook his head. “It’s a big fucking deal, Ian. I know our relationship has been strained, but I’m done with that. I love you. I admire you. If anything happens to me and Grace, you should know that we’ve left Carys in your care.”

That shocked the fuck out of him. “I thought you would leave her to Alex and Eve.”

“No. It was never even a thought in our heads. You’re her uncle and I happen to know that you’re damn good at raising a kid. I hope like hell you get your head out of your ass and start raising some with that crazy bitch in there because she is your match, man. Charlie is everything you need.”

Somehow he didn’t mind his brother calling her Charlie. It bugged him when other people did it. Charlie was his name for her, but when Sean called her that it was an acceptance, a brotherly front. But he didn’t want to think about this right now. He wanted to live in the damn moment for once in his life. “I’m not kicking her out.”

“Ian, you can’t honestly believe she’s here to hurt you. What does your gut tell you?”

“My gut was wrong before.”

“No, it wasn’t. You said you knew something was wrong with her. What does your gut say now?”

“My gut isn’t in control. My cock is and my cock doesn’t give a shit. Do you understand, Sean? My cock doesn’t care that she could have slept with Nelson. She could roll out of his bed and into mine and my cock would be ready to go. I don’t care that she might have slept with half the syndicate, that she had her father killed, that she nearly got me and Li killed. I don’t care. I just want to get inside her again. If you told me this had all been a lie, that she was walking me into a trap, I would probably go into it willingly because I don’t know that I can survive losing her again.”

A smile crept over Sean’s face. “I think we call that love.”

Yep, the vomit was right there at the back of his throat. “It’s stupidity, Sean.”

“You say potato, I say true love. I know you. I know you’ve played through every horrible scenario in your head. I know you’ve gone through all the ways she could be tricking you and everything she would gain by betraying you, but have you thought through the fact that she just loves you and wants to be your wife?”

The plane jumped a little. He was out of time to get his brother away unless he wanted to toss him on the tarmac. “That’s not the likely scenario.”

“You can’t play this on percentages and chances, Ian. Did you read Eve’s work-up on her? Did you read about the way she behaved, the things she did when you weren’t around?”

He glanced into the cabin. Charlie was looking out the window while Ten seemed to be staring down her shirt. And he was sitting in Ian’s fucking seat. What did she really do when no one was watching?

Ten reached out and put a hand on her arm, pointing at something outside the window. Ian felt a low growl start to build in his chest. But then Charlie frowned at him, removed his arm, and seemed to give him a good talking to.

The raging jealousy that had been inside him since the moment she’d walked back in eased a little. Charlie wasn’t interested in Ten. As far as he could tell she hadn’t looked at another man, and Eve had said she was perfectly celibate in Florida. It had been her reputation there.

Why was he believing a pathetic piece of trash assassin over her?

“You know she sent a bunch of information to the Agency? She stopped a couple of terrorist plots in their tracks. That wasn’t Chelsea. That was Charlie. When I sat down with the Agency, they didn’t want to torture her."

“They wanted to hire her,” Sean surmised.

“I didn’t tell her that.” He didn’t want that life for her. He was allowing her to believe that he’d saved her from torture when he might be keeping her from a job she would love.

“She wouldn’t go. She is right where she wants to be and that means you have some decisions to make.” His brother slapped him on the back, a manly gesture of affection.

He might have to choose between her and Sean because she would still be wanted, still be under the syndicate’s kill order. “Sean, if I run with her…”

“Slip me a postcard every now and then. Let us know you’re okay. You should always know that we’re here if you need us. You have to choose her now. If you love her then you have to pick her over me, like I picked Grace. Let’s finish this and then you run with her. Your job is done. I’m fine. Better than fine. We’re all happy, Ian. You played a part in all of us finding what we need. Your little family is set. So you can run and know that we’ll be fine. You have a new family now.”

Charlie’s eyes came up, finding his. She gave him a smile and mouthed the words “save me” and pointed at her erstwhile suitor.

Save her. It was all he’d wanted to do back then.

Knight’s voice came over the system. “This is your pilot. We’re about to take off. If you want to keep your ball bag in the right place, you’ll sit down and buckle up.”

So he was set. He was going to meet with Eli Nelson and his brother was at his back.

And he kind of wanted to keep his ball bag where it belonged, but Ten might lose his. He strode down the aisle. He wasn’t going to fight with Ten. He didn’t need to.

He took the seat across from Ten. “Charlie?”

She didn’t need more than that. She unbuckled and immediately moved to sit beside him without a backward glance.

Sean settled in across from Charlie, a smirk on his face.

“Buckle up, baby,” Ian said.

It might be a long flight, but at least he liked the company.

Most of it.

* * * *

The sun beat down on Nelson’s head, the heat nearly unbearable, but he stayed in position, watching the massive yacht in the distance.

He was getting too old for this shit. He was starting to envy the king and his carefree world. Kamdar didn’t have to hustle, didn’t have to worry that every day might be his last.

He was a little naïve to not worry about that last bit since Nelson’s job was to make sure the king didn’t have a good many days left.

The king was lying back on a chaise as his harem lounged around him. Beautiful women in bikinis that barely covered anything at all. They were all there awaiting the king’s pleasure. Including the new blonde he’d picked up when he’d refueled yesterday.

It had been the simplest thing for Nelson to get his own pretty blonde on board. His attempts at getting close to the king himself had met with failure. The king, he’d been told, was on vacation and not meeting anyone for business.

It would be so simple if he could just murder the fucker, but until he figured out where the research documents were stored, Kash Kamdar had to be kept alive. The last thing his bosses wanted was the research being made public. He needed every copy either in his hands or destroyed.

Hopefully Olga would do her work and do it well. She simply needed to get into the king’s bed and then wait until he made a mistake.

Or if he took too long, then Olga was not only magnificent in bed, she was also a well-trained torturer. She could lick a man’s balls and then make him wish he’d never been born with them.

He just wished she would get on with it. The shit in Russia was getting to be a pain in his ass. His employers didn’t understand that the pipeline raids were a delicate balance. He had to keep both the syndicate and the insider he’d placed at Malone Oil happy. The young engineer he’d found spied for him and let him know when security was weak, and then Nelson let Denisovitch know where to strike. All his bosses wanted was more profit. They didn’t understand that the minute Malone Oil found his spy, they would likely find him and figure out that rival oil companies were using the mob to weaken their competitors.

The world was changing. Governments controlled very little now. Oh, they made a good show of it, but they no longer had real power. Nelson had seen it coming a long time ago. The Agency paid shit, and they weren’t known for their loving care of retired employees. So when The Collective had first recruited him, it had been a godsend. The Collective understood how the world worked. They also knew how to keep an employee happy. Money. Profit. That was what The Collective traded in. He’d found his place.

Until fucking Taggart had ruined everything.

He’d been valuable to The Collective when he had CIA entrée. Now he had to hustle like the rest of them and hope he satisfied the men in power.

Corporations were the new kings, and they liked their warfare waged quietly.

He just sometimes had to convince them to be patient.

His cell rang—the private one he always had to answer. He put down his binoculars just as the king started in on a pretty Asian woman. It looked like he was branching out from his usual blondes.

“Yes.” No need for “hello” or “this is.” They knew exactly who he was and they didn’t care for pleasantries.

“Why was the Agency and MI6 swarming Dallas?”

Fuck. He hadn’t exactly explained to his contact that a round of assassinations had been part of his deal with the syndicate, but then he was awfully good at deflecting blame. “Denisovitch found his niece. I’m afraid I wasn’t able to convince him of her worth.”

Like he would try. He wanted the bitch dead, too.

“I explained to you that The Collective believes she could be an asset.”

“I brought your concerns to the syndicate, but I’m afraid they believe in revenge more.”

His contact’s frustration was clear in the tightness of his tone. “Try harder. We want the girl brought to us. She’s proven to be smart and capable and willing to get her hands dirty.”

They didn’t understand Charlotte Denisovitch the way he did. “Then why did she tip off the Agency about Al-Qaeda plots?”

There was a small chuckle over the line. “The fact that she knew about those plots at all makes us interested in her. We’re not terrorists, Mr. Nelson. We’re capitalists. There was no money to be made off anarchist plots. We stood to lose billions if the Euro dropped, so in our minds she’s quite the hero. We expect you to keep the syndicate in line.”

Yeah, because that was an easy job. “Denisovitch can be unreasonable.”

“Then maybe he shouldn’t be the head of the family anymore.”

Fuck. He was going to have to off another mobster. He’d been lucky last time. If he got caught, it wasn’t like The Collective would send the cavalry in. They would just find another agent to take his place and move on.

“Finish the job in India. If you can kill the project and bring us all the research, there will be a rather large bonus in it for you. Then you can handle the Russian problem and we can discuss your retirement from the field. We think it might be time to move you to management.”

Those were the magic words that kept him dangling on a string. Oh, he knew he would never really be out of The Collective, but he could move out of the field. He could move into recruitment and training and stay for months on his island.

He would be able to enjoy it because Taggart would be dead. He could always claim that Denisovitch wouldn’t listen. Everyone knew the man was insane. He would let the syndicate do his dirty work and then get rid of the head and install someone more reasonable.

It could work out for everyone.

“Of course. I’ve placed a spy inside the king’s household.”

Another chuckle. “You mean you put a whore in his bed. That man has the stamina of a rutting bull. Don’t let her kill him until we have that research. Is the site rigged?”

At least he’d managed to do one thing right. “I have more than one spy. I managed to find one of his employees with a gambling problem. I think I’m almost ready to move. And yes, the research site is rigged to explode when I choose. I have to make sure I get the research out of there before I blow it if I can’t get Kamdar’s copy.”

“It might be easier to take it from the king than to get it from the site. Make sure the scientists are inside when you pull the trigger. We have our own who can continue the research or quash it, whatever we decide.”

Because The Collective ran the world and they didn’t like anyone else interfering. Technology, research, innovation had to come from The Collective and no one else. Whether they bought it or stole it, all knowledge would come from them.

“Absolutely. Perhaps the next king won’t be so disagreeable.” The Collective would likely make sure of it. Nelson already had several candidates in mind. After all, it was always in their best interests to install their own leaders.

“We shall see, Mr. Nelson. Now, listen closely. I have it on good authority that you have some visitors on the way.”

His whole body tightened with dread. “Who?”

“Well, let’s just say your old friends aren’t in Dallas anymore. Good luck to you. You know what happens if you fail.” The line went dead.

If he failed he would very likely find himself answering questions he didn’t want to answer. And his retirement might be from life and not the field.

How had that fucker found him?

Unless sweet Charlotte had been keeping tabs on him and wanted to please her dipshit husband. Otherwise, Taggart would have taken his bait and been looking for him in Russia.

He should have known assassins couldn’t take down Taggart himself. Now Tag would want revenge for more than Grace’s near death during their first real meeting.

He had to move fast. It might be time to call in a few friends and take the boat over himself. He picked up his binoculars again and prayed the king decided to go back to blondes.