Page 18

I waited until his footsteps faded, then slid off the desk and locked the door.

Only then did I laugh.

I wasn’t some amateur who lost her head because a dangerous man had gotten his hands on her. I pressed my fingers to my mouth, remembering the desire that had coated his lips.

Lachlan Byrnes had come into my office ready to tear me apart.

He’d left wanting to save me.

Men were so pathetically predictable when they thought a woman needed them.

Especially men with Catholic guilt rattling around in their heads. He wasn’t the only one who’d done his homework.

I yanked open the top drawer and grabbed my cellphone.

Ciro answered on the third ring.

I switched to Spanish before I spoke. “We have a problem.”

Ciro didn’t answer right away. A lighter snapped on his end of the call, followed by a slow inhale. I waited. Men like Ciro made silence a weapon, and only fools tried to fill it.

“What kind of problem?”

“Lachlan Byrnes.”

“Lachlan Byrnes.” Ciro repeated the name slowly. “The younger Irish brother?”

“Yes. The man from Xyst. The one I served papers to last night.” I paced behind my desk, stepping over the broken pieces of the office phone. “He came here, to my office.”

“You let him near you?”

“He didn’t ask permission.”

“You should have called security.”

I looked at the cracked plastic on the floor and almost laughed again. “He had inside help. Whoever he used got him all the privacy he wanted.”

Ciro cursed. “Volkov.”

“Probably. Or Genovese. Or both.” I moved to the narrow window and stared at the brick wall outside.

“What did you say to him?”

“Nothing much.”

“Isabella.”

My name in his mouth held warning and possession.

I hated both.

“I told him nothing,” I snapped. “I played dumb. I played cornered and was exactly what he expected me to be.”

“What does he know?”

I turned away from the window. “Volkov traced Farris back to Whitaker’s network.”

He didn’t react, so I kept going. “He knows the truth about her. Not just about the complaint, but about the fact that she goes by Tammy Bondi and works for Elysian Companions. He also knows about Leon Brands. He threw enough names at me to make sure I knew he wasn’t guessing.”