Page 82 of Rupture

And stepped inside.

47

The hotel suitewas all pristine elegance. White gossamer curtains drifted in the breeze, the walls washed in the palest pink like dawn breaking. The type of refined luxury that made Finn acutely aware of the gun calluses on his palms.

He crossed to the open window, letting the cool evening air wash over his hot skin. The sling had been irritating him all day. He removed it, testing his injured arm with careful flexes. Still tender, but healing.

His thoughts drifted inevitably back to Rose.

His hands bunched into fists. What kind of man was he, feverish with desire when she’d barely escaped with her life? She needed rest and recovery, not his desperate wanting. But the thought of her sleeping in the next room made his skin raw with awareness.

Get it together, Jones.

He shook his head and, needing distraction, strode through the pale stone archway into the ensuite bathroom. A domed ceiling arched overhead while aquamarine tiles gleamed against rough sandstone walls. No utilitarian fixtures here. An enormous circular bath dominated thespace, more like a Roman plunge pool than standard hotel fare.

A world away from the spartan existence of his special ops days and hasty washes in rivers and arctic streams. He turned the taps and steam rose as water thundered against stone.

He uncapped a bottle of bath oil, letting the golden liquid stream into the water. The scent bloomed in the humid air, citrus mingling with mint and cedar, promising relief for his weary muscles if not his racing thoughts. The temperature climbed as steam wound around him.

Finn toed off his boots and peeled away his shirt, his skin damp in the gathering heat.

His mind flicked back to Rose’s note.

The Widow would arrive tomorrow, no doubt with a briefcase full of carefully packaged lies.

He fished his phone from his pocket.

Nik answered on the first ring. “Finn. You good?”

“Yeah. Rose is checked into her room. Luca?”

“Same. Clean bill of health. By the time I got there, he had three nurses’ numbers and was angling for a fourth. Had to drag the bastard out. He’s disgustingly fine.”

Finn let out a dry chuckle. “Figures.”

“We’re heading back to camp now. Duke’s still with the crew. They’ve all been admitted into hospital until Triton pulls them out tomorrow.”

Finn pinched the bridge of his nose. “Rose had a note waiting for her in reception. The Widow is arriving tomorrow.”

“Fuck.” Nik made a whistling noise. “What does that bitch want now?”

“To clean up their mess. Probably has a case full of nanobots locked and loaded.” Finn exhaled sharply, hismind shifting to their other pressing concern. “Any news on Thea?”

“No. Nothing.”

Triton’s shadow never lifted. It just kept stretching, becoming longer and darker. The uncertainty about Thea gnawed at him. Logic said she was either dead in a ditch somewhere or out there plotting her revenge. His instincts screamed the latter. He’d seen the obsessive drive in her eyes, felt it radiating off her like heat. A woman like that didn’t just disappear quietly into the night. She was out there, probably already sharpening her next knife.

“Copy. I’ll see you in the morning.”

“Copy that, Finn.”

The line went dead with a click.

He’d barely set the phone down when a knock sounded at the door.He didn’t need to check. Every nerve in his body screamed who it was.

Rose.

In the days since he’d met her, his awareness of her had shifted into something primal—like he could track her through walls and distance.

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