There had to be something I could say to stop this.
“Nate’s joining our family,” I improvised wildly. “If he’s done something wrong, we’ll make restitution.”
A vein in James’s forehead throbbed as he glared in my direction. His tone, however, remained bizarrely pleasant, and that was somehow more chilling than if he’d raised his voice. “I can’t fail to notice that none of this surprises you, Alex. I suspect it isn’t a shock to you that Nate’s been spying on his hosts. You’ve gone to some lengths to hide your relationship with Nate, but your texts tell a different story.”
My jaw dropped. Mytexts?
“If you’re going to leave your phone around for someone to look through, Nate, you must realise that people are going to take advantage of the fact. There are some marvellous spyware programs these days.”
Fuck.We really had been babes in the wood in our attempts to investigate them.
Nate hadn’t taken his eyes from James’s face. “Alex doesn’t know anything. Let him go.”
Panic seeped through his voice, and cold fear clenched my heart as I realised this really was it. It was ridiculous. We were in the twenty-first century, in England, in a posh house in the middle of a city. This couldn’t be happening. It justcouldn’t.
“I was thinking car accident,” Steven said into the silence, proving me wrong.
I looked sideways at Nate, assessing. Was he recovered enough to fight? Because damned if I was going down without one.
There had to be a way out. There had to be some magic words to stop this. We just hadn’t found them yet, and I had the feeling we were almost out of time.
Chapter Thirty
NATE
“I’ll tell you everything I know about the Mortimer banks if you allow Alex to leave.” My dragon keened deep inside me at the betrayal of our family, but he knew that Alex was the most important thing.
James’s eyebrows rose, and he sank back in his chair. “An interesting offer,” he said. “I was right about your sentimental streak being a weakness. But how valuable can your knowledge be? By your own admission, you are kept to the junior ranks of your family.”
“My grandfather recruited me for this task. I can tell you precisely what he asked me to do and why he asked me to do it. I can also pass on every piece of information he has about your bank and other businesses.”
“I see.” He tapped his fingers on the arm of his chair. I couldn’t tell if he was tormenting me by pretending to consider it or ifhe was thinking about making a deal. It was pitifully little I was offering him, but it was all I had.
“Your problem, Nate, is that I can compel you to tell me those things anyway.”
“But how would you know if I was telling the truth? If you let Alex leave now, I’ll tell you truthfully and fully everything I know. I swear to you on my treasure.”
Alex stiffened beside me at the sacred dragon oath. “Nate,” he murmured.
“No,” I said. I didn’t know what he’d been going to say, but he had to stop talking. He had to get out of here. He had to be safe, to go back to his precious Celtic Sea and frolic in the waves—and had I just started quotingPuff the Magic Dragonwhen I was facing certain death? Whatever Steven had given me must be good shit. The point remained, Alexhadto be safe.
James sat watching me for a long minute, the weight of his regard making it difficult to hold his gaze.
Incongruously, Steven’s phone started pinging. When it kept going, James glared at him. “Turn that thing off.”
And then his began to sound. Chime after chime.
“Dad.” Steven was alarmed. “Shit,” he said, staring at his phone.
James had his out by now and didn’t waste time in exclamations. “Tell Tom to shut everything down,”he ordered Steven, then he was in front of me. His face contorted with fury as he thrust it into mine, and smoke wisped from his nostrils. “What do you know about this?”
He had all the power that went with being head of the family, and it was a struggle not to submit to that much might and authority. Somehow, I managed it. “If you allow Alex to leave, I’ll tell you.”
He headbutted me. James Fortescue, CEO of Fortescue Bank and upstanding pillar of the community, headbutted me like a drunk at closing time. The force of it slammed me back against the sofa.
Alex was trying to get between us, and Steven was shouting, and everything was chaos. Steven paused to draw breath, and into the instant of silence came the sound of rapping on the door.
With a burning glance back at me, James strode to the door. He opened it a mere crack, preventing whoever was out there from seeing in.
