Chapter 20
Jack was always startled by the homey living room, decorated in crocheted doilies and frilly porcelain-faced dolls—and the muzak that was always playing from an unseen speaker. The weird background music gave the room a feeling of a doctor’s waiting room, but set in some old granny’s home.
And the granny in question was a demure Chinese woman who could be pushing a hundred, for all he knew. She was half as tall as he and might go hurtling through the air should he lean over and blow a puff of air at her.
But she was a shrewd business woman, whom he had trusted for years with his secret stash savings. Her clientele list was short, and secure. She kept money, did not launder it, for a small fee. And her methods were—well, Jack would have never gone with her had she not been vetted by a friend years ago. For she kept all deposits in shoe boxes. Yes, he’d left two million pounds in a shoe box with a little old Chinese woman.
And he trusted her completely.
But now, as he waited on the Barcalounger covered in enough doilies to make him itch, he tugged at his tie. The woman’s granddaughter had greeted him at the door, after the secret knock, and his verifying the code, and had offered him tea while she retrieved her grandmother. He’d refused the tea. He was still feeling the whiskey from the airplane. It had been the only way he’d been able to manage the flight. Three quick shots downed and swallowed. He’d tilted his head against the seat, gripped the arms as the plane had taken off, and hadn’t released that tight grip until it had landed.
But he’d survived. Wonders did not cease.
Dressed in a bright red kimono splashed with embroidered green flowers, the old woman entered the room. Her eyes lit up as she spied him and she bowed ceremoniously toward him.
“You are returned so soon, Mister Angelo.”
“I, uh—what?” Jack looked up into her sweet, unwrinkled face. It had been years since he’d last been here. “No. I haven’t visited in a long time.”
Her mouth pursed as she shook her head. Gleaming black hair had been pulled into a neat bun and secured with red-lacquered sticks ending in gold dangles. “You are wrong, Jack Angelo. I spoke with you two days ago. In this very room.”
Jack stood abruptly. The woman did not startle, but instead followed his gaze upward. She pressed her arms akimbo and gave him a look that he wondered might laser out his pupils.
“You must be mistaken,” he said. He’d never been given her name, so he was not sure how to address her. “I was in Helsinki a few days ago. Are you sure? You didn’t give my box to someone else?”
Her shaking head batted the gold dangles against her hair. Now she wrung her hands together. “It was you. Very sure of that. Same face. Same voice. Same yellow tie.”
Jack stroked his tie. Someone had been here, impersonating him? He didn’t have to think long to land a guess on the ECU. If they had suspected he’d go AWOL, he would not put it past them to make that escape as difficult as possible.
“Show me my box,” he insisted.
With a nod, the woman scampered out of the room. And Jack ran his fingers along his jaw. “Fuck.”
* * * *
Saskia walked out of the hotel and turned into an alleyway. She’d managed three hours of sleep. She felt rested, but couldn’t wait to really sleep.
Yet she was in London for one reason, and if she didn’t get on that man’s ass immediately the trail would go colder than Helsinki in January. Not that she had a trail. She was waiting on Chester to return with information about Jack’s family. He’d said a name… Jonny. Could be a brother. Would Jack stop in to visit him? Had they a job planned? She had to cover every angle.
As she turned the corner to head down the street, a man assaulted her, clasping her about the shoulders and whipping her body back around the corner into the alleyway.
But she didn’t fight.
“I found you,” she said, unable to hide a smile at seeing Jack again. Even if he had slammed her against the wall so hard her shoulder blades tingled.
“If that’s the way you want to play it.” He dangled before her what looked like a dog collar with a thumb-sized black box attached to it. “Will you wear this?”
Saskia assessed the collar, and could only come up with one result. “Is that a signal blocker?”
He nodded. “Made it myself. Just for you.”
“Aw, a gift from my guy. It’s not exactly a fashion statement.” She gazed into his eyes, which held hers as if a vice. A clutch she didn’t mind at all. So maybe there was something undeniable between them. “Go for it.”
He wrapped the leather strap about her neck, placing the GPS-blocking device at the back, closest to the chip embedded at the base of her skull, then fastened the clasp in the front of her throat.
“Kinky,” she offered.
The man’s smirk stirred her thoughts to visions of actual kinky foreplay. “You into that stuff?”
She waggled a brow at him. “I’m into anything you’re willing to try.”
“Let’s start with this.”
And then he kissed her. Hard. And claiming. There was no way she was going to struggle free from the sensuous attack that she wanted more than she needed to breathe. He tasted like whiskey, and she was all right with that. Wrapping her legs about Jack’s hips, the movement pushed his shoulders against the brick wall. His grip on her ass squeezed, pulling her tight against him.
The man kissed like he walked through the world. With confidence and a certain power that no one would take for granted. And she matched his greedy want with the same clinging, demanding need. If she never got another kiss from this man, she felt sure her world would crumble. Something about him, the compelling need to always be close, tight and inside him, would not allow her to relent. They belonged together. But in a weird way that defied tenderness and cuddles. Rather, they smashed together and clung with a vengeance.
So when he broke the kiss and forced her down from the cling she felt as if the world had suddenly been pushed off its axis. It took her a moment to gather her equilibrium and look to him questioningly.
“I saw you board the plane. Was too busy pushing down the whiskey to settle my nerves to approach you.” He grabbed her hand and started walking swiftly down the block. “I have things I want to tell you,” he said. “But I need distance from where you’re staying.”
She agreed. The ECU probably had cameras on them right now. Not even probably, but surely. She swept her gaze about the building fronts and the traffic signals, spying the CCTV cameras that were everywhere. Chester at headquarters could access those cameras with an ease that made her head spin. And he was surely already aware that her GPS was being blocked, so that would put up an alert on his end as well.
Jack tugged her into the lobby of another hotel scattered with frothy green plants. They walked swiftly past the reception desk, angling down an aisle that passed a restaurant boasting hand-fed veal, and a few boutique shops whose windows glittered with rhinestones and platinum. They exited another door that was on the opposite side of the block where they’d entered. He was weaving and she followed.
Ten minutes later, after twists, turns, and a double back, Jack slowed his pace. The neighborhood was less city and quainter, yet the vehicles were BMWs and shiny SUVs, so Saskia guessed it was an elite neighborhood. They entered a deli advertising vegan meats. One side of the small shop featured half a dozen tables set in the hazy winter sun beaming through the windows.
Jack nodded she go find a table and he went to the counter to purchase coffee.
Saskia sat at a table away from the front window that looked out to the street, in sight of another CCTV camera. She scanned the menu above the deli counter, curious about what, exactly, was a vegan meat. Wasn’t that an oxymoron? And not at all appetizing.
She tugged at the dog collar. It wasn’t tight, but the new leather did itch. She’d keep it on. For Jack. Because right now her alliances held a sharp split and sat at opposite ends of the scale from one another. The ECU had been good to her and she had no reason to betray them. And yet Jack. Well…Jack. She wanted to do right by him. This was the first time she’d felt inclined to help another person because she trusted him. Trust wasn’t an easy thing. Her and Jack Angelo? That felt comfortably easy.
He returned to the table with two coffees and a dessert bar topped with a froth of chocolate frosting. But Saskia was suspicious. The signs on the walls warned her to be cautious. She leaned over and sniffed at what looked luscious and gave off a strong cocoa scent.
“What’s wrong? You don’t like vegan food?” Jack asked.
“How can meat not be meat?” She prodded the chocolate frosting, then licked her finger. Tasted like chocolate. “Is this vegan too?”
“I believe so. No milk products used. Give it a bite. Because when I get into it there’s going to be no more sharing.”
Taking a bite, she had to admit it wasn’t bad. Certainly not cardboard.
“It’s not the cinnamon buns from Helsinki, that’s for sure.” She pushed the plate toward Jack.
He made good work of the treat in three bites. And for some odd reason, the sharing of the treat seemed to bond her closer to him. It was silly thinking. Swooning teenager stuff. But she’d never had such a feeling about a man before, so she went with it.
Careful not to catch her chin in palm and gaze doe-eyed at him from across the table, Saskia propped her elbows on the table and spoke in low tones. “So? You wanted to tell me something? Because even if they can’t track me, it’s only a matter of time before they mark my location by the cameras. Chester Clarke is the one who arranged my hotel stay. There’s not a step I’ve taken since landing in England that hasn’t gone remarked by the ECU.”
“I know that. And yes, I’m risking my safety coming to you. I had to do it, Saskia. I…couldn’t walk away from you like that.”
The schoolgirl inside her swooned. But she maintained a calm façade, nodding he continue.
“This is what you need to know. I had to go AWOL for my family.” He hunched forward so their faces were close and their conversation was private. A lunchtime crowd had started to file in and the noise in the deli had increased, which disguised their words well. “My brother specifically.”
She’d been right to suspect he was here for his family. Saskia wondered what Chester had found. But maybe Jack would fill her in now.
“My brother is in deep shit with a dangerous bunch. They’re no Russian mafia but they won’t blink an eye to cut off fingers, hands, or even heads. I’ve got less than twenty-four hours to come up with a million pounds to save him from getting decapitated.”
Saskia spread her fingers about her neck, just below the leather collar. Decapitation was a very distinct threat.
“I used this assignment in Finland to visit the surgeon to have my chip removed,” Jack said. “Only, I didn’t expect that the ECU would be one step ahead of me. How could they know I’d plan to go off the grid?”
Saskia shook her head. “I don’t have that intel, Jack. And trust me, I’d tell you if I did.”
“I believe that. They know too much. But that can only mean they have information about my brother and his situation. They have to. Are they involved? Is this some kind of test? They are arseholes, if it is. But it doesn’t matter. I’m here to save Jonny. Family first. Always.”
Saskia nodded, bleakly wishing she’d had such a family to stand up for, criminals or not.
“You have a means to get the cash?”
“That’s the problem. I was feeling confident after the flight landed, until I arrived at the—you don’t need to know the location. My stash that I put away before I was sent to jail? It’s gone. Someone who looked just like me took it all two days ago. I think the ECU got to it. I was counting on that to get Jonny out. Now I’ve got to swindle the big bucks. A million in less than twenty-four hours? It’ll never happen. I might have to go in big guns blazing and take everyone out to save him. But I don’t want to do that. I just…” His sigh rippled down Saskia’s spine. His angst was apparent. “I can’t do that anymore, Saskia. It’s not me.”
Gentleman Jack had become the epitome of the moniker. And in his line of work, that wasn’t optimal. Saskia laid a hand over his on the table. “I have some money, Jack.”
“I can’t take your money.”
“You can. It’s like yours. A secret account that I put together before the ECU found me. My rainy-day stash. It’s all online, but I can liquidate it quickly.”
He swiped a hand across his jaw and looked aside. His eyes tracked to the camera outside and across the street. She knew exactly what he was thinking. They couldn’t stay here much longer and remain out of the ECU’s view.
“How much you got?” he finally asked.
“Enough to cover your brother’s ransom. I can have it in about…” She worked the angles she’d have to go through to gather the money from the various stashes she had all over the world. “Ten hours? I’ll have to go online and move things around.”
“I need cash.”
“It’ll result in cash. Promise.”
“It’s too risky for you. The ECU will know your every move.”
“Not if I keep the kink collar on.”
He smiled at that. “Why are you doing this? If you do this, Saskia, you can’t turn back. You’ll be as much an ECU target as I am.”
She sat back. Why was she offering to sacrifice the freedom she’d earned and had never thought she’d want to lose?
Did she love the man?
No. Love wasn’t that easy or quick. Was it?
The two of them felt comfortably easy.
“I don’t know, Jack. Maybe I just want to help. Maybe I want to be something more than the chick in the costume who does what she’s told. Maybe I like you a little more than I should.”
He clasped her hand and leaned across the table, compelling her to move in closer until their foreheads touched. “I can’t promise you anything,” he said. “I don’t know what tomorrow will bring. I don’t even know what the next hour will bring.”
“I get that.” And if she jumped, she’d not surface the same person in the same situation or the same comfortable lifestyle. Ever. And that thrilled her beyond belief. “Let’s do this. I just need a safe, quiet place with a laptop and a wifi connection.”
“My family has a safe house in Brixton. We’ll hop a cab.”
“Really? The cameras will pick up our every move.”
“We’re leaving out the kitchen, and, you won’t be looking like yourself when we do.” He nodded over his shoulder and the first person Saskia noticed was an elegant woman in a fur coat with her gray hair pulled up to reveal diamond earrings.
“You think so?” she asked.
“I’ll distract her. There’s another reason I’m called Gentleman Jack. Niles would be jealous.”
He tugged his suit coat and adjusted the yellow tie. His wink was devastating to her swooning heart. And Saskia suddenly felt one hundred percent sure she’d made the right decision.