Page 73 of Resurrection

“We do business differently,” I assure her.

“Well, if you ever do business like him, I’m quitting.”

Jay grins while he waves her out the door of the boardroom. “You know what Finn told me? Dying or going to jail were the only ways people got out of his organization in Boston. That’s not Carys’s policy.” He takes a breath. “At least not yet.”

Ekaterina walks along the hall beside him, their voices floating back to the boardroom. His words shouldn’t be funny. Her face when Jay mentioned removing her heard was priceless, and her expression plays in my mind while I shred papers. When I’m sure I’ve hidden the paper trail, I head for the kitchen.

The sharp click of Lena’s knife is audible before I reach her. As soon as I enter the wide-open space, I glimpse Finn wedged deep into a couch watching football.

Normally I’d chat with Lena to confirm dinner plans, but he exited the meeting so abruptly I want to check in with him first.

“You okay?” I sink into the spot beside him.

He grunts and doesn’t look at me. “Just trying to figure out what we’re missing. There’s a clear timeline with Valeriya and Eric. It appears as though it’s linked to the warehouse and the PLA. But it might not be. Then there’s your father’s involvement, which doesn’t seem connected. But I heard them talking in the hotel, so I realize it is.” He rubs his forehead. “I fucking hate sitting around waiting for shit to happen. I make things happen. People don’t come at me—I hit them first.”

“That’s why you left the meeting?”

He chuckles, but the sound is without humor. “No. I excused myself because I wanted to drag Ekaterina behind the house and show her what her kind of initiative gets. Six fucking feet under.”

Silence sits between us. My heart pounds as I picture him hauling her out of the meeting. His admission is appealing and horrifying. Something isn’t right with me. To love a man capable of that, who would enjoy that, seems wrong. Itiswrong. But nothing about being with him is wrong to me. Not even a bit.

“We had a miscommunication.” I rub his leg, and he links his fingers with mine.

“Almost got you killed.” He squeezes my hand.

“But I’m still alive. And her intentions were good.”

He turns to face me for the first time since I sat. His knuckles skim my cheek. “What she said means Eric and Valeriya were probably fucking.”

“That crossed my mind.”

“She called the Chicago office before leaving for Ireland. He admitted to your father he knew what happened to her.”

“You don’t have to dance around it. You think he had her killed.”

Finn is silent for a moment, lost in thought. “Was she going to the PLA for protection? To blow the whistle on something Eric was doing? Does the PLA meeting have anything to do with this at all?”

I lean my head against his shoulder. “What do you think?”

“I don’t know. But I will. I have three weeks to understand these connections before Eric makes his move.”

The last two weeks have passed without incident. During the day, I hole up in my office attempting to stay on top of everything at work. Sometimes I worry I neglected my company for months instead of a couple weeks. Maybe I did. God knows from the minute I saw him in Boston, half my brain zeroed in onhim. I never quite got my mind back. Now I don’t want to return to whoever I’d been before.

While I work, Finn and Jay track any lead they can find on Eric or my father. Finn is dogged, possessed, determined to find the truth before the clock ticks to zero. On the phone, on the internet, conferencing with people, calling in favors, and still nothing has turned up that satisfies him. He’s even offered to fly to Chicago to shoot Eric and bury his body in my father’s backyard. He was mostly kidding. I laughed and told him I’d be too sad if he was arrested by the FBI to be happy about Eric’s demise.

I should care more. Whatever they’re planning should bother me the same way it does him. But I can’t imagine he could ever say or do something great enough to sway me. Spending my days working in my office and my nights in Finn’s arms, striving for the stars, is a new bliss. Happiness is an addiction. Leaving him will be hard when I have to go back to Chicago for a while, but I’m not worried. We’re solid—I’ve never been so sure of anything in my life as I am with him, with us.

In the kitchen, Lena peers at a security monitor on the wall. Finn has had cameras installed at the end of the long laneway, so we have lots of warning regarding visitors.

I stab at my salad and observe her staring at the screen.

“You recognize the car?” she asks.

I squint and shrug. “Generic. Rental? Or a limousine service?”

“You’d better call Finn.” She waves a hand at the monitor as she goes back to prepping dinner.

“I’ll text Jay.” I pick up my phone from the island. Lena shoots me a disapproving look. “What? He’s the head of my security, not Finn.”

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