Page 29 of Knot for Sale

“We have a problem,” I said. “Something unforeseen has come up.”

“Yeah, you said.” Curran’s brown eyes narrowed, examining me through the video connection. “You did a sweep for bugs before you called me, right?”

Damn it all.

“No. Hold for a minute.”

I hauled out a metal briefcase from beneath the desk and opened it, powering up the portable RF detector and magnetic field probe with its green, circuitry-embossed wand. After methodically waving it over every surface in the office area, I stowed it again and returned to my seat.

Unmuting the call, I nodded. “It’s clear.”

Curran was still watching me like he was worried I’d been replaced by a Midwich Cuckoo. “Where’s your head at tonight, boss? You’re starting to worry me.”

“My head is eyeball-deep in plans to get two people off this yacht within the next three days, as it happens,” I said. “And bypeople, I meanomegas—one of whom happens to be Tommy Huntwell’s niece.”

There was a longish pause.

Then, “You’re kidnapping Huntwell’sniece? Pardon my French, butwhat the fuck?”

I tamped down my irritation with Curran’s inability to read my mind from fifteen hundred miles away. “They’re estranged. She didn’t know Tommy and Cade were going to be on the yacht, but it’s looking more and more like they may have lured her here for unknown but probably nefarious purposes. She’s been hiding as a beta. They got into her cabin to steal her suppressors and heat blockers. She’s due in less than a week.”

Another pause, shorter this time.

“Oh.Balls.”

“To put it mildly,” I agreed.

“And the other one? You saidtwopeople.”

“A male model friend of hers. I don’t think he has a direct connection to any of this, but I can’t exactly leave him behind to face these arseholes alone.”

Curran huffed. “You do realize that Onyx and I are in London, your yacht is moored in Lisbon, and you’re off the coast of Greece?”

I swallowed a growl. “I’m aware, thank you.”

“Just checking.”

“There’s a reason I pay you two as well as I do,” I pointed out. “Pull out the bank card; make it happen. I don’t care how. Oh, and bring heat blockers with you.”

Curran looked like he’d taken a bite out of an unripe persimmon. “I’m tellin’ you right now, boss—I don’t think it’s feasible. Not in three days. Four, maybe.”

“Make it feasible,” I said, past the sinking feeling in my chest. If it could be done in three days, Curran would have said so. He wasn’t the type to lower expectations so he could look like a hero for coming through early.

He didn’t comment on my sharp remark.

“What about the rest of it?” he asked instead. “You walking away?”

Acid burned in my stomach. “I don’t know yet.”

Curran grunted. “Better figure it out pretty damned fast, then. I’ll keep you posted.”

With that, he disconnected the call.

He was right, damn it. I was here for proof; some kind of leverage to use against the oily snake in the grass who’d taken my sister. I wouldn’t get that proof by abandoning ship—literally—halfway through the week. But I also risked blowing my cover completely with this stunt, unless I played things very,verycarefully.

The eccentric billionaire persona might conceivably stretch to cover absconding with two desirable omega models during the middle of the cruise—especially if enough money changed hands with that slimeball organizer from the lingerie company, Casick. If I was right, he was in this trafficking scheme up to his eyeballs, and he might not care who was buying the merchandise as long as the price was right.

Sending the omegas away and staying behind myself would look a lot more suspicious, though. This ruse only worked if I was a love-struck alpha beguiled into irrational behavior by the attentions of two irresistible omegas.

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