Now it was a waiting game.
It was early evening, and since Grigoris announced that the Spaniard took the job, it had been a flurry of quiet, controlled activity. Though they had a detailed, multilayered trap planned, nothing was scheduled or fully in place. It had taken the combined power of France, the members of Hungary who were here, and the bonus people-power of the Spartan Guard to get everything and everyone in place.
Since the Spartan Guard hadn’t been part of the original planning, they didn’t have roles to play. Their presence did mean that rather than staying to guard Nikolett, Maxim had been able to join one of the teams in a backup position. Two of the four members of the Spartan Guard that had come to Paris—Tobaisand Emel—also took backup and lookout posts. Regina and Keanu stayed behind to protect both her and Eric.
It took ten minutes, but he finally convinced Regina to give them privacy. She wanted them all in one suite, but it didn’t take much to persuade her to stay in the larger suite while he and Nikolett retreated to her room. All the equipment that would allow Regina to listen in to the live comms was in Grigoris’ suite.
Eric closed the connecting door and turned to Nikolett.
They hadn’t been alone since she jumped up and ran out of the room, then announced she thought the man she’d only minutes before been proposing as their spouse might actually be the enemy they were hunting.
He had no idea what she was feeling, but the fact that she hadn’t argued with anyone about either going with them, or demanded to be linked in so she could listen live as Regina was now doing, was a bad sign.
Nikolett sat on the couch, hands gripping her knees, feet together on the floor. To someone else, she might look poised and in control. But he knew her. She was barely holding it together. Stiff and fragile.
Eric sat beside her, projecting calm. He wasn’t actually calm. Internally, he was raging with the need to kill anyone and anything that made her feel bad.
“What if I’m not smart?” she said in a small voice.
This wasn’t where he expected their next conversation to start. “You are.”
“You keep saying that, but what if I’m not?” She was staring down at her own hands gripping her knees. “If Gus is the Spaniard, how stupid am I to have not seen it before now?”
“No one saw it. Nikki, your people are good. If they vetted Gus and didn’t find anything suspicious, it means there was nothing to find.”
“Or it means that he covered his digital tracks and the only way to catch him was in-person conversations. I’m the only one who talked to Gus, so it’s me who should have figured it out.”
“…and you did.”
“Too late!”
“We’ll get him tonight or tomorrow…”
She shook her head, almost violently, and he trailed off. He had a feeling they were having two different conversations.
“I don’t remember,” she finally whispered. “I don’t remember the end of the night.”
Eric’s stomach flipped and sank like a stone. “You said you had too much to drink.”
“What else would explain the way I passed out and why I don’t remember much? But…but I didn’tthinkI’d had that much. I figured my tolerance was low because I haven’t been drinking while I was on pain medication for my leg.” She swallowed. “But was that me trying to explain away something I should have questioned?”
He swallowed, trying to keep his voice even. “Nikki, do you think he drugged you?”
“I don’t know.” Her voice broke. “I don’t know.”
“Fuck.” Eric gathered her up, pulling her into his arms. “Baby, have you been sitting here worrying about this all day?”
She nodded, her forehead cracking against his collarbone.
The idea of the woman he loved drugged and helpless with another man would shatter his control, so he took that thought, boxed it up, and put it to the side to focus on her.
“If he isn’t who he said he is, then he probably…”
“Drugged me,” she said, trying for cool and calm, but her voice cracked. “The question is why?”
He could think of a dozen—all terrible—reasons, but he could see in her own eyes they were both thinking about one particular possibility.
“Nikki, did he touch you while you were unconscious?”
