Page 43 of In The Darkness

“Please feel free to take a look around after you find your rooms. Lunch will be served at noon precisely. Summers told me he was preparing a huge country ham, so be sure to come to the table hungry.”

Persephone thanked them and turned to face Nick. “I’m going to the office. I want to discuss things with you before any assignments are given out.”

“I’ll be there in a minute.”

As she left the room, she felt good about this group of men. She only hoped they’d do for their clients what Nick did for her.

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Chapter Fifteen

Nick opened thedoor to the office he and Persephone shared and smiled at the scene in front of him. Hard at work, she tapped away at the keys on her laptop, truly a woman on a mission.

“So what do you think?” he asked her about the team he’d assembled.

Her fingers stilled and she looked up at him with intensity in her eyes. “Well, I’m not all together sure about all of them, but for now, I think we’re off to a good start.”

He stopped at her mention of not being sure about the men he’d assembled. “Which ones?”

Persephone raised her eyebrows. “A con man? I mean, he clearly can physically handle himself. All of them look like they can. But I got the sense he’s more carnival barker than I think I’m comfortable with.”

Chuckling, Nick thought back to how many times he’d heard Julian described in similar terms. “Well, I can tell you his ability to understand the psyche of criminals and his photographic memory have come in handy more than a few times when we worked together. I think if you give him a chance, you’ll see why I brought him on board.”

She twisted her face into a grimace. “And Gideon has something about him that I’m not sure of. Maybe it’s the way he looks. I’m a little worried he’s more playboy than what we need.”

Nick mentally made a note to never let Gideon find out that Persephone had called him a playboy. The guy would just be too damn pleased with himself that a woman thought of him that way.

“I can tell you that he’s a world class bust ass too, but remember he was a Navy SEAL. That’s got to count for whole hell of a lot. Trust me. He’ll be fine.”

A slow smile spread across her lips. “I trust no one more in the world, Nick, so of course I’ll give both of them a chance.”

“Good. I think the team we have to start with will be able to handle whatever assignments come up.”

“I hope so,” she said, pointing at her laptop screen. “We’ve got three clients who need our help already. One in D.C., one in Miami, and one in a small town about an hour outside of St. Paul, Minnesota.”

He walked around her desk and stood behind her to read the details of the cases already waiting for the men. Leaning down, he placed his hands on Persephone’s shoulders and scanned the page in front of him.

The client in D.C. had appealed for help from the police but to no avail. She’d run up against the old boy network that protected politicians, and the man was now threatening not only her career as a congressional staffer but her life.

“How did we find out about this case?”

Smiling, Persephone leaned back against his body and looked up at him. “Not everyone in the D.C. police kowtows to the politicians.”

“My faith in the system is momentarily restored,” Nick said with a smile as he looked down into her beautiful eyes so full of focus.

“And the other two?” he asked as he skimmed through the details about a woman in Miami being stalked by an ex-boyfriend who just happened to be a professional basketball player and another woman in Minnesota in hiding after accusing her boss of sexual harassment and then being the victim of a suspicious home invasion that seemed more to scare her than to steal anything.

“In the past month, I’ve reached out to police forces in every major city in the US, and I’m halfway through my list of smaller cities. I also have people at every one of my father’s newspapers who have promised to contact me if they know of any woman in trouble. It’s a start, at least.”

Nick bent over her and kissed her softly on the lips. “It’s more than a start, Persephone. I just hope we can keep up with all the requests we’re going to get.”

“Me too. Rome wasn’t built in a day is what I keep telling myself, but I don’t want to let anyone down either.”

The concern that she’d disappoint someone in need etched itself into her face and drew her mouth down into a frown. He’d seen that same expression on her face every day she sat tied to that chair, and he hated seeing her look like that now just as much as he had then.

It made him want to do whatever it took to get rid of that worry that showed so clearly on her beautiful face.

He kissed her and then crouched down next to her chair. She looked down at him with anticipation in her eyes.

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