He pulled on his trousers and coat, shoved a pistol in his pocket, and paused by the leather pouch sitting in the sand. Scooping it up, he felt the promise of discovery in its slight heft. He glanced at Lottie before tucking the pouch into his inner pocket for safekeeping.
He departed for the lower cave. There, he saw the tide was already low, the cave opening to the ocean and pink horizon. He and Lottie could leave now on the lighter. He almost regretted their imminent departure from this cocoon, their return to the outside world with all its problems…
He squinted, seeing something bobbing near the mouth of the cave. He reached for his weapon, aiming it at the object as it came closer and closer. A rowboat with a single occupant.
“Granger? Is that you?”
Recognizing Delaney’s voice, he lowered his pistol. He headed over and helped her dock.
“You managed to find me,” he said.
“I followed you at a distance last night like you instructed, oh great spymaster. By the time I made it into the caves, the tunnel was blocked.”
“Did you see anyone leaving?”
“No.” She cocked her head. “Who else was there?”
“A pair of assailants shot at us. Members of the First Flame would be my guess. Unfortunately, I didn’t get a good look at them. They could have escaped…or they’re buried in the cave.” He paused. “Along with Tony Quinton.”
Delaney digested the news. “Primus thought you could use extra reinforcements, so Laurent and Calderone are here too. They can start digging and looking for bodies.”
“I’ll help,” Jack said.
Delaney shook her head. “Primus wants to see you. He’s waiting at a cottage nearby, and he’snot happy.”
Jack’s gut clenched. How was his mentor going to take the news that he’d not only reunited with his wife but wanted to do so for good?
Delaney pressed closer, her voice urgent. “I saw you with your widow last night. What happened? You know your instructions were to keep her out of?—”
“Ahem.”
He spun around, and his heart seized at the gloriousness of Lottie. Her hair was liquid honey over her shoulders, her slender legs displayed by her trousers, the curves of her breasts playing peekaboo in the vee of her hastily buttoned shirt. Even her slight shiner heightened her fearless beauty. A resilient goddess who did not back down to darkness.
His blood plunged from his head to his cock.
Which was probably why he missed the fury in her eyes.
Until she said in tones of glacial civility, “Good morning. How lovely to see you again…Eleni.”
Twenty-One
As Jack entered the cottage on the outskirts of Hastings, he wanted to get the meeting with his superior over with. The most pressing reason was Lottie, with whom he had not parted on the best of terms. Although he’d tried to remind her that nothing had happened between him and Maria Delaney/Eleni Pappas, nor ever would, Lottie had given him the cold shoulder. His fumbling attempts to apologize had only made matters worse since Delaney had been on the boat with them, making no attempt to hide her amused smirk.
Things hadn’t improved when he’d seen Lottie to her lodgings.
“Wait for me,” he said. “I’ll be back after I speak to my superior.”
She arched her brows. “You will inform him of my involvement in this case?”
He’d drawn a breath through his nose, his own feelings on the matter going back and forth like a damned teeter-totter. On the one hand, his instinct to protect Lottie was shouting at him, telling him he was an idiot for considering letting her get sucked deeper into this perilous mess. His would-be informant had been murdered, and he and Lottie were bleeding lucky they’d escaped the caves relatively unscathed. If anything had happened to her…
Yet there was another voice in his head, a newer one.
And it said,“Letting her?”
No oneletLottie do anything. She made her own choices, and woe to the bastard who tried to stop her, even if his intentions were good. The realization struck him that he’d been that bastard in the past…and what had that gotten him?
Years of loneliness, longing, and coming by his own hand.
