The patrol boat named the Vivaldi is controlled by Mongoose. There’s no other explanation, even if no one will admit it to me. Most of the crew members don’t seem to be operatives, so I can’t exactly blame them. But I’m positive that the captain and several of his officers are from another Executive. Alpha must have sent for help when the plane exploded. We’re beyond lucky that the Vivaldi was already close enough to pull us from the ocean and take us the rest of the way to Paris.

In the guest cabin, Jamie shrugs off his suit jacket and wrings out his tie. It took us so long to give our report to the captain that we’ve mostly dried off. We’re going to miss the actual wedding, of course, though we’ll still be there in time for the reception. But my overnight bag and everything else in it have fallen into the ocean, sunken all the way to the bottom by now. That includes the compact mirror and anything I could have used to defend myself.

I have no way to contact Alpha if I need him.

Jamie takes a step toward me and rests his hands on my shoulders. “How are you holding up?” He’s misinterpreting my worry as shock. It’s totally off-base, but I might be able to use this to avoid any physical contact until after the wedding.

“I don’t know,” I say shakily. “What about you?”

“Not sure yet,” he says. “I’ll rest easier when I know the Executive has stopped trying to kill me.” A roguish grin crosses his face. “In fact, I think I should make sure you aren’t packing any heat right now.”

Before I can protest, Jamie steps closer to me and reaches for the zipper on the back of my dress. Slowly, in a way seemingly meant to torture me, he partially unzips my dress and reaches for the laces on my bulletproof corset, his blue eyes watching me carefully the entire time.

Shit. I should have acted more shaken up than this. He believes we’re about to sleep together, or at least do whatever it’s seemed like I wanted every other time I’ve seen him. Our bodies are so close together that I’ll have no choice other than to reciprocate. It’s too late to make up an excuse. An Eliza who was falling in love with Jamison Hart would be all over him in an instant, wanting our soaking wet clothes to disappear and be replaced by steaming hot water in the shower. I’d be lying if I said I hadn’t fantasized about this kind of situation at least once. It’s what I wanted to happen in the treehouse, after all.

But now? Everything is different. Jamie isn’t the person I’ve been thinking about constantly. He’s not the man I’ve been fantasizing about inside the safety of my own mind. All I can focus on is the fact that Alpha would have wanted to make sure I was okay after arriving in Paris. He could be anywhere nearby, watching me with his X-ray vision.

He might even be on the Vivaldi itself.

Before August brought me to his safe house, I wouldn’t have thought twice about getting physically closer to a target. It’s never gone beyond kissing and making out anyway, and taking my clothes off has certainly never been an option before. But sex will be worse, so much worse, than a mere kiss on the lips. I have to get out of this. I don’t care if any excuse I come up with sounds like a blatant lie.

To allow August to see me sleep with a target would be unforgivable.

But a knock on the door saves me. “Excuse me?” says a muffled voice. “There’s a phone call for Jamison Hart.”

Jamie’s gaze lingers on me, but he reluctantly zips up my dress and opens the door. A crew member hands him a satellite phone, then offers me a stack of fresh towels. She’s carrying herself like an Executive operative, which has to mean there’s something hidden in the towels for me to find.

“Please let us know if you need anything,” she says to me.

I nod tightly, clutching the towels to my chest, not trusting myself to speak. This has to be a message from Alpha.

Anything else would be a catastrophe.

Jamie is speaking into the satellite phone, not paying any attention to me. “I’ll stop by after the wedding. They can wait until I get there, all right? And I’m bringing my girlfriend to the island with me, whether you like it or not.” He listens for a moment. “Who do you think? Lily Bass.”

Slipping into the bathroom, I close the door behind me and flip the lock. Then I set down the stack of towels on the counter, searching between the soft layers of terry cloth until I find a small piece of paper. My heart beats wildly against my chest as I unfold it with shaking fingers.

It’s a message from Alpha after all.

But there aren’t any written words. Staring up at me is a coded symbol: an arrow with a circle drawn around it.

It means everything should keep going as planned.

I didn’t even realize I was hoping for another message until now. I fully expected Alpha to say something, anything, other than this. My chest flooding with disappointment, I toss the piece of paper into the toilet and flush it away. Instead of a coded symbol to kill my target, or to meet on the patrol boat, or to get out now, it’s this.

Keep getting close to Jamison Hart.

Back in the guest cabin, Jamie has stripped off his shirt and hung it over a chair to finish drying. But he doesn’t look at me when I sit down next to him on the bed. Not when I place my hand on his arm. Not when I slide it up to his shoulder. Not even when I lightly drag the curve of my fingernail along his neck, a move that would be certain to get a response from a target any other time.

“What’s wrong?” I ask finally.

Jamie shakes his head. “A shipment was just delivered to Ophidian. I need to be there to deal with it, so I’ll have to leave immediately after the reception. My father wants to hand me an updated manifest on the island.” He shoots me a glance. “You’re coming with me.”

It’s almost too good to be true. If I travel to Ophidian with Jamie after the wedding, I’ll be there when he receives the manifest from his father. I’ll be able to see where they keep it. But Alpha won’t be able to cover me if I end up at a top-secret facility on a private island, and it’ll be dangerous for me to go there on my own.

But I can’t back down now. There’s an expiration date on how long I can maintain my cover story of being in love with Jamie. After a while, it’ll become obvious even to my target that I feel nothing for him. Not to mention that I’ll definitely be sentenced to solitary confinement if I fail to kiss him this time.

If I hesitate now, I might never be able to find the manifest, and even more people will die.

“I don’t know,” I say slowly, trying not to sound too eager. “I don’t understand why someone else can’t do it.”

“The shipments are extremely sensitive,” he says. “Only my father and I have access to the manifest, so I have to personally direct everything to the right place. I wanted to show you around the island anyway. You can see all the stars from the edge of the dock.”

“Wow,” I say, smiling. “Sounds like an adventure to me.”

Jamie grins. “Is there a kind of adventure that ends in heartache? Because I’m starting to get the feeling that you’re extremely dangerous, Eliza who calls herself Lily Bass. I’ll have to be extra careful around you.”

I should play up this aspect of myself again, keep him wanting more than he thinks he has. My target has to trust me, to want to believe that I trust him, for me to be able to pull this off. There are so many things I could say right now to get closer to him.

Not too careful, I hope.

As if there’s any other kind of adventure.

Still not as dangerous as you, Jamie who calls himself Jamison Hart.

But I can’t make myself do it. It’s a struggle to feel as if I want to say anything at all, and the forced smile on my face is on the verge of slipping. And yet it doesn’t matter. Jamie is pulling me toward him, unzipping my dress again. His mouth is warm on the side of my neck, trailing down to my throat, my cleavage, teasing lower and lower...

He senses my hesitation and glances up at me, his eyes sharp with intent. This is like the moment outside the lighthouse all over again. It’s a test, a way to see if I’m really all in or not. I’ve been reluctant enough to get closer that he’s at least considering the possibility I might still kill him anyway. If I pull away now, he’ll know for sure that this is all just an act.

So I reach out my fingers and tangle them in his golden hair, drawing him back to me, feeling his warm tongue caress me in a way that makes me gasp with desire. He grins against me, clearly finding what he wants in my reaction. I swallow hard, hoping beyond hope that Alpha isn’t seeing me right now.

But I know, just know, that he is.

As Jamie’s eyes close, losing himself in giving me the pleasure that I neither want nor need, I mouth the words into the air, my chest tight with desperation, no longer knowing if I’m speaking to myself or someone else.

I’m sorry.