Aras

“Quite an upgrade to her accommodations,” Ezekiel said a couple hours later.

“Yeah,” I responded.

I was in no mood for this conversation and wasn’t sure I could convince Ezekiel I was doing this for the right reasons.

Best to stay away from the topic, though I knew I had no shot of doing so with Ezekiel.

When something was on his mind, he would never let it go.

“Why the change?” he asked.

“Consider it a gesture of goodwill,” I said.

“Goodwill?” he parroted skeptically.

“Yes, you’re familiar with the concept,” I said.

“I am, but I’m not sure how it applies in this situation,” he said.

“Would you rather her be difficult, wild, crazy, more disruptive?” I asked.

“I would prefer her be dead or shipped off so you can finish your business and we can get back to ours,” he said.

I didn’t respond, knowing I didn’t have a good comeback.

Ezekiel was one hundred percent right.

Goodwill, trying to build trust with Lake, was pointless. She was simply a means to an end, and I needed to remember that.

“Has Vlad been back to the townhouse?” I asked.

“No,” Ezekiel responded.

I had men on the townhouse at all times, and I was almost giddy with anticipation of how he would react when he found Lake gone.

“Speaking of business, tell me what’s going on,” I said.

“Yuri gave us some new business to handle in the Balkans. And we have a couple of new contracts, one in New York, one in San Francisco,” Ezekiel said.

“Do you have them covered?” I asked.

“Of course,” Ezekiel said, as cocky now as he had been all those years ago.

“Good. Once this is done, I’ll make this up, Ezekiel,” I said.

“I know,” he responded.

I let out a quick smile, then left Ezekiel’s suite and went down to the control room.

I told myself not to, had tried to strong-arm myself into staying away, all to no avail.

It had been ninety-six minutes since I had seen Lake last.

Far too long.

I knew that was insane, knew that I was risking losing focus, and yet I headed back to the basement to the cameras and started flipping through the footage.

Lake’s cell had been converted to an inconspicuous wine storage room, a cover that I thought was effective.

I didn’t linger there.

Instead I kept moving until I found the image I had been looking for.

When Lake’s picture popped up on the screen, I felt something break free in my chest.

This was getting out of hand, had already gotten out of hand, but the relief at seeing her again was something I could not ignore, as much as I might want to.

She was looking around the room, and I watched her avidly as she touched each piece of furniture, opened each drawer, all of which were empty.

I could interpret what she was doing as an attempt at escape, but it wasn’t that.

No, this seemed almost normal, like a person getting accustomed to her surroundings.

The camera image was grainy, but I still couldn’t shake the sense that Lake seemed different.

Even when she had been alone at the townhouse, there had been an aura of sadness around her, misery.

I didn’t see it now.

Perhaps I was reading into things, trying to make myself see something that wasn’t there, but Lake seemed different.

Not happy, not that I would expect her to be in this situation.

But she seemed…unburdened.

I instantly knew the reason why.

She was here with me, a stranger she didn’t know and couldn’t trust, but she didn’t have to worry about him.

The hatred that always boiled just below the surface popped up at the thought of Vlad.

He had hurt her, had come damn close to snuffling out her light like he had snuffed out my mother’s life.

He would pay for that. He would pay for my mother’s death, pay for the harm he had caused Lake.

I pushed thoughts of Vlad aside and kept looking at Lake, wondering what she was thinking.

Smiled when she peeled back the heavy duvet and climbed underneath.

The sixty-degree temperature had just been a part of the process, a constant reminder that I was serious, but I could see how relieved she was to be out of it.

I kept my eyes on her, watching as she climbed beneath the sheets, her eyes shut, the expression on her face almost dreamy.

Even under the heavy covers, I could see her hand trace its way down her body.

I should have looked away.

This was probably another ploy. I had no doubt that Lake was aware of how appealing she was, and didn’t doubt that she would use that appeal to her advantage.

I also didn’t doubt she was smart enough to know there were cameras on her right now.

All those were things I knew.

But even knowing them couldn’t make me look away, especially when she spread her thighs wide under the covers.