Page 65 of You Don’t Kiss Your Brother's Best Friends

I stood on my toes, and gave him a long, emboldened kiss.

“Yeah, well Emily doesn’t play like that,” I winked, before spinning away.

~ 37 ~

JOCELYN

Back in the kitchen, we found four people on their hands and knees working frantically with towels. Apparently Dorothea had knocked over an entire tray of stuffed mushrooms, or artichokes, or only God knew what. The mess it made was catastrophic.

“Get the mop,” ordered Kayden. “Don’t do that.”

We cleaned quickly, and fell into the prep work necessary for tonight. For at least an hour, no one bothered with us at all. Not Raif, not Evelyn, not anyone. The sudden silence blanketing the manor was almost a little creepy.

“When we leave tonight,” Kayden muttered, pulling me off to one side of the kitchen, “you need to be ready. Forget about your things. Forget everything except following our signal.”

“And what signal will that be?”

He looked up; to make sure we were still semi-alone.

“Trust me, you’ll know it.”

I wanted to tell him I trusted him with my life, and that I’d follow him to the ends of the earth if he asked me to. Right now though, our private conversations were limited.

“Okay,” I conceded.

He gave me an appeasing smile, then dashed off to complete whatever tasks head chefs were responsible for next. Itmade me nervous, not knowing where the others were. Bishop was gone, and so was Andre, but neither of those disappearances seemed to bother Kayden.

Eventually, the sound of a distant helicopter reached our ears. It grew progressively louder, until it was obvious the aircraft was approaching the island. Kayden and I shared a knowing glance.

Be ready,he mouthed silently.

Everyone in the kitchen stopped whatever they were doing and just looked at each other. Raif barged in; looking extremely worried, and demanded to know what was happening. When everyone shrugged, he flew out of the kitchen just as fast.

“Finally something that’s not on his itinerary,” I joked, and the kitchen staff laughed.

“There’s gonna be a lot of that soon,” Kayden leaned in and whispered.

~ 38 ~

ANDRE

The plan worked better than expected, with everyone out of the manor. We figured there might be stragglers. A few men from each group that stayed behind, to watch over things while the rest of their crew went to the docks.

Instead, they all went — every last one of them, from what I could see. Men like this were traditionally restless. They got stir-crazy, and hated to be cooped up in the same place for too long. Even a place as beautiful as this.

I encountered not one person on the way up to Roman’s soon-to-be chambers, which were of course the best in the mansion. An entire wing had been dedicated to him and his crew, and they’d been diligent in searching it top to bottom before his arrival. There could be any number of cameras, or listening devices, or even worse. Much, much worse actually, when it came to this kind of business.

Slipping into the suite unseen was easy. Scoring the one keycard that actually opened his door, was not. We’d had to sneak it out of the pocket of Raif’s jacket, and into the replicator during the one time he took it off, which was when he went to the bathroom. Even there, the man was so efficient in doing his business there wasn’t enough time to run the cloning program. Not without Kayden barging in there to distract him, askingcountless annoying questions that had nothing to do with dinner and everything to do with keeping him occupied.

In the end, we barely pulled it off. I knew this the moment I held up the replicated card against the electronic reader, and heard the satisfying whir of the lock disengaging.

Roman Wynter’s room was grand and palatial, as I knew it would be. The man was all pomp and circumstance, with no class and zero moral substance. Everything in his world was over the top, and I could tell by looking around that no expense had been spared. He enjoyed the best of everything, always, no matter how many innocent lives were destroyed in the process.

Just one more reason he needed to die.

His things had arrived ahead of him, as we knew they would. The locks on his bags were easily picked, so I produced the necessary tools and set to work. The whole thing took less than a minute. My feeler held the tumblers in place while the torsion bar did the rest.

Click.

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