Page 133 of The Heart

But I guess I did do that.

I smile too, studying his face again just as he looks at me.Why can’t I stop looking at him?

Leena doesn’t say anything, and I start to get a little concerned. I turn to her.

She’s crying.

Fuck!Should we not have told her? My eyes shoot to Luke, but he’s still smiling. I furrow my brows. Our woman is crying.

Crying means something is wrong.

Why is he okay with this?

“She’s happy, Seb. These are happy tears,” he explains. My eyes find Leena’s again, and sure enough. The look she’s giving me can only be love, despite the water leaking down her face.

“Sweetheart, stop worrying me with this shit.” I cup her face so I can wipe them away.

“Stop doing really cute shit and I will.” She leans into my hand, then plants a kiss in my palm. “I love you,” she whispers, looking between both of us.

“We love you too, Leena,” Luke says. “Now try and get some sleep. It’s a long drive back.”

She nods, smiling wearily, then moves to curl up on the seat next to Colton. The sleeping man subconsciously wraps an arm around her, pulling her close. I smile at them, then over at Luke.

We look at each other for another long moment. And when he takes my hand in his, I feel like for the first time, I might have done something right.

—

Knowing where Jace is was a relief, it also opened up a whole slew of intensified research over the past two days since he checked in. Between pulling local building plans and information, running strategies and monitoring the cameras, the team’s been working their asses off night and day. Ryan hasn’t even had a second to get back to figuring out how they hacked our penthouse. But the intel we’ve gathered will prove invaluable if Jace can’t get himself out of there.

Leena and I are sitting side by side, a little too close, since I dragged her rolling chair up against mine earlier, each of us focused on the monitors in front of us. I’m busy pouring over another topographical map of the surrounding area when she speaks up.

“Seb?”

“Hm?” I glance over, then smile at the stream of code scrolling across her screen.

Fuck yes. Finally.

“Chen! Get in here!” I shout without taking my eyes off the screen.

“What is it?” she asks.

“That, sweetheart, is Jace pulling through.” I smile, tugging her onto my lap and pushing us away from the desk just as Ryan comes into the room, sitting in her chair to take over. He shoves up his glasses and begins tapping away, his eyes fixed on the screen.

“Alright. He did it. I’m in,” Ryan says and I hold Leena tighter. “Let’s see what The Queen of Diamonds has to hide.”

—

I watch the video for probably the tenth time. Because if this is what I think it is, it’s a huge fucking lead. It also means that the hours we’ve spent going through the paperwork and security footage Ryan pulled from the Queen of Diamonds’ server hasn’t been a waste of time.

That sending Jace in there wasn’t a waste of time.

I rewind it again.

It’s dark. The woman talking on the phone is not in view of the camera, but I can still mostly hear her side of the conversation, even though humming generators are garbling her voice. Which explains why our search for utilities came up short. They’re off the fucking grid.

“No, I don’t care if it’s a fucking emergency… not using my docks. Tell that asshole if… step foot on this island… play nice with another Card. I’m fucking done… kidnapping bullshit… fuck around with The King, that’s…”

I rewind it and listen again.

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