Page 31 of Captured Pawn
Oh, I understood exactly what Nick was telling me. What I didn’t understand was why I wasn’t running the other direction, trying to find a phone to call the authorities. I’d clearly lost my mind.
Nick turned on the lights and the details of the cozy beach house came into focus. This space was as beautiful as the main house, but it felt homier… like someone actually lived here instead of the stuffy museum that the mansion felt more like at times.
The main living space was one large room—a living room and gorgeous kitchen were broken up by a mammoth eat-in island in between.
Nick went to the refrigerator, pulling out a couple bottles of beer while I glanced around the kitchen until I wished I hadn’t.
I stood there staring at the pile of sex toys—vibrators, paddles, floggers, plugs, clamps—spread out on display as if he were hosting an orgy.
The bottle of open beer floated in front of me. When I didn’t take it, Nick must have followed my gaze to see what I was looking at.
“Shit… I forgot… I should have cleaned that stuff up.”
Memories from earlier today slammed into me.
“It’s fine. I saw you with that beautiful woman earlier today. It looks like you guys must have had a really good time.”
I hated how petulant my voice sounded, even to me.
“What? Oh, you mean Angela?”
“Whatever her name is. It’s not important,” I bit out.
“The hell it’s not. In fact, Angela is why you’re here tonight.”
My gaze snapped up to his, unsure what he was up to. “What? You mean she’s here?”
“Fuck, no. I’d called her because she’s done some safe work for me in the past. I brought her in to try to retrieve the items I need from the Bishops but after we started talking about the mission, she let it slip that she’d known about Matt’s plans the night he was killed.”
I tried to make sense of what he was saying. “She knew my brother?”
“I knew they were acquaintances, but I found out today they were sleeping together before he died. He’d let his guard down and told her everything. Since Bishop’s goons had been waiting for him when he got there, that makes her a possible threat. I had security escort her off the property as soon as I found out she could be the mole. I’m gonna dig deeper and God help her if I find out she betrayed Matt.”
I hadn’t particularly liked the blonde earlier in the day but knowing she might have had something to do with my brother’s death made me feel true hatred. I racked my memory. There had been something familiar about her earlier and only now did I understand why. She’d come into the shop once looking for Matt. He hadn’t been there, and I’d told her a few places she could check for him. It had all seemed innocent at the time.
“I need to know. We need to find out if she’s the reason Matty is dead,” I demanded.
“I don’t disagree, but we need to focus on getting back the items we need first. I made her think it would take me weeks to regroup and plan my next move. If she does run back to old man Bishop, he’ll think he has plenty of time, which gives us a window of opportunity.”
My eyes landed back on the sex toys, and I hated that I could feel the blood rushing up to heat my face and down to flood my panties with wetness.
“Come on. I have something to show you,” Nick said, holding out the bottle of beer again.
Reaching out, I took the drink before following behind him through the cottage, past a pool table, down a small hallway, and into a large office.
I glanced around, taking in the comfortable-looking leather couches and chairs. The heavy wooden desk was covered with files, papers, and computers. On the wall was a bank of a half-dozen flatscreen monitors, each displaying rotating views from the dozens of security cameras spread out across the property.
I’d expected us to take a seat in the office, but Nick went to a built-in bookshelf instead. He moved a few items around and did some things I wasn’t able to see from my vantage point, and then the next thing I knew, the shelf started to slowly move toward Nick, making an opening in the wall.
Bright lights came on automatically as a hidden windowless room came into view. Not quite as big as the official office, this room screamed danger the second I stepped foot inside.
One wall was covered with dozens of weapons and munitions. Being raised in the security business, I recognized most of the items that were available for sale at reputable weapon dealers. It was the more deadly versions I’d never seen in person that told me this was no hobby collection.
It really was an impressive display. My father would have loved it.
“Have a seat,” Nick said behind me, dragging my attention away from the artillery and to the balance of the room, which was no less impressive.
Another wall of monitors took up a lot of the space, but this time, the security feeds were from different locations—shipyards, loading docks, factory floors I understood.
