Page 50 of The Scarab's Game
That’s why my team existed. We reminded them that all their money didn’t keep them safe from the truth.
Money and the truth. My stomach twisted in a knot.
How much did the Russians pay you, Dad?
That information hadn’t been in any report from his brief trial. My mother must have known—she was too smart to have missed the signs. Still, an investigation into a CSIS officer selling secrets must have included his wife, let alone everyone he knew. They must have gone after Mum, although she shielded us at the time. We were too young.
She never told us the details.
Discovering she was with MI6 once upon a time, though? Of course, she knew how to keep secrets. Had she been in on Dad’s crimes? Did he know she was an intelligence officer, too?
Whatever the truth was behind my parents, Mum made her own version of lemonade from those lemons. She rebuilt her entire life after they locked him up. Now she ran a company that helped the victims of charlatans and thieves like her husband.
I took Jenn by the shoulders. Her perfume filled my senses, and it was all I could do not to breathe her in. Imprint the moment on my brain.
Fuck, she was beautiful. Her hair was drying, and she didn’t wear a stitch of makeup. It was just her, plus her intoxicating scent.
“Promise me you’ll be careful. Don’t let him sweet-talk you into anything. Men like him are dangerous.”
She moistened her lips, and I almost lost it. But she nodded and whispered, “I need to get into bed.”
I pulled her closer, wrapping her up in my arms. The tension in her shoulders evaporated, and she sank against me the same way she had when we first came in. If the team hadn’t been waiting for me, I could have stayed in that moment forever.
But my teamwaswaiting. Prepping for another crime.
I’d last visited my father in September. Next month, Mum would force us all there for our annual visit. Every year, he asked if I’d met anyone special. And every year, I avoided the question.
A one-night stand didn’t care who my father was. They didn’t have time to learn my secrets. And they definitely weren’t around long enough for me to start crafting lies about my career.
You’re no different from your father.
I squeezed Jenn closer, then released her. This cozy sweetness was better than I deserved. “Get some sleep. I’m sure your back needs the rest.”
She gave me a weak smile. “Don’t stay up too late.”
My hand found its way to her cheek, against my brain’s orders. “Will you have time for breakfast on the balcony tomorrow morning?”
“You said you were sleeping in.”
I barely shrugged, unable to let her go. “I don’t sleep very much.”
She touched my hand, holding it against her face, and her eyes fluttered closed. “Breakfast would be nice.”
So beautiful.My thumb swept across her cheek, which grew redder the longer we stood there. My cock twitched again, reminding me it hadn’t gotten its way in four months.
That was my cue.
I pulled my hand back and headed for the table. “I’ll let you know before I call room service, so you can put in your order.”
“Thanks.” She padded out of the room as I sat.
I waited for her door to click closed before turning my earpiece back on. “Sorry, folks.”
In full command mode, Scarlett said, “We’re going to have a chat when you get home.”
“More than one, no doubt.”Don’t piss her off too much. “Rav, I’m going to toss a tracker into Jenn’s bag in the morning. I won’t be able to stick around the gallery again, so I’d like you to stay close to her. Keep an eye out.”
Rav was tireless. The military trained him to function on little sleep, so asking him to forgo a night wasn’t unusual. “Text me when she leaves.”