“Just a routine search,” the man says, not looking at me.
“Are the rumors true? Has someone really gone missing?”
“I’m afraid I can’t answer that, ma’am.”
“Oh. Okay.”
He straightens and looks between me and Augusto, then his eyes narrow.
“Where were you last night?” he asks Augusto directly.
Augusto shrugs. “I was right here, with my wife.”
The man turns to me.
“We left dinner and came straight back here. The horseback riding wiped me out,” I say with a timid laugh.
His eyes flit back and forth between us, each glance making my heartrate tick up a notch.
His gaze turns sharply to Augusto. “What is your role?”
Role? What role?
August answers smoothly. “Financial backing. Stateside.”
The man holds his gaze for a few long, anxiety-inducing moments, then nods curtly and lets himself out of the suite. The other man follows, eyeing us with an expression that says he doesn’t trust a single living thing.
I let out a breath. “That was intense.”
He rests his huge paws on my shoulders and pulls me into his hard chest. “That was just the beginning.”
I nestle against his beating heart. “Tell me about the deal, Augusto. It’s firearms for the middle east, right?”
He breathes in, considering my question.
“Erin… the more you know, the greater the risk I put you in.”
“I’m already at risk, Augusto. And I’m not stupid. Knowing more about it might help me. I might be able to helpyou.”
He nuzzles his head into my hair with a reluctant sigh. “They’re military grade weapons. So illegal the justice department doesn’t even know they exist.”
My spine stiffens.
“We were shown a sample yesterday. Just one of these weapons could detonate an entire village in seconds.”
I cough around the tightness in my chest. “You know what their plan is?”
“Yes. They want to destabilize the region, cause chaos in a different part of the world so their own activities go unnoticed.”
I try to swallow but I can’t. It’s hard to believe what I’m hearing.
“Who do they think you are?”
“They think I’m another financier using offshore investment funds and offering contacts in the embassies.”
“And… he said the Italians weren’t invited. Why don’t they want the Italians involved?”
He breathes steadily, the warmth caressing my ear. “Believe it or not, we’re businessmen. We’re not short-termist like the Russians. We believe in legacy and tradition, oaths and values. The business we’ve built means something to us and we work with the authorities to ensure we can continue—quietly.”
