On The Rocks (23 page)

“You can…” Abandoning the sentence, she took
a deep breath and forced the corners of her mouth higher. “I’m glad
things went well.”

As she pulled away, Abrahan draped his arm
over her shoulder and turned her face to his. “What were you going
to say, my love?”

Her dark eyes flared, and a genuine smile
blanketed her face. “You can… talk to me. If you ever need to.”

She said nothing else. Just stood with him
in this little slice of serenity.

In all their time together, Sabine had never
pushed, never pestered. She wasn’t loud or attention seeking. Just
a quiet support he’d neglected too long. He hugged her closer and
she clung to him tightly, warming him from the inside out.

Perhaps he would trust her… a little.

“We should take a trip. Would you like
that?”

She angled to look up at him. “Where would
we go?”

“Anywhere you wish.”

“Madrid? No, Cairo,” she said excitedly.
Then she gasped. “I’ve always wanted to go to Mumbai!”

All of which sounded really loud.

But the look on her face made it worth it.
“You’re like a child in a sweet shop!”

“It’s just, we’ve never taken a trip before.
Not out of Italy.”

“It’s settled then. Wherever you wish to go,
we’ll go.”

“When?” she asked, her enthusiasm
infectious.

Abrahan tipped his head back and laughed.
Santa Maria
, he hadn't heard that sound in far too long.

“Right after the party. A private
anniversary celebration, just for you and me.”

Sabine's eyes went glassy, and she stared at
him so long he wanted to fidget. “Thank you, Abrahan,” she
whispered.

The way his name rolled off her lips stirred
his blood. She cupped his face with her hand, her slender fingers
brushing along the cruel ridge where his ear once existed. The
touch was unfamiliar, but he relished it all the same.

Their eyes connected, and the tranquility he
found in hers soothed him. He stood there, breathing her in,
totally content.

“
Mano
!”

As ever, peace yielded to chaos.

Footfalls slapped against the concrete
behind him, quick but heavy.

With a sigh, Abrahan turned to eye his
brother. Sanzio looked like he’d been in a fight with a hurricane.
The pressed shirt and slacks he’d worn to lunch were gone, replaced
by wrinkled jeans and a flamboyant, jewel-toned shirt. The
shoulders didn’t fall properly and the tails were untucked, one
side dramatically higher than the other. The thin flip-flops on his
feet made a terrible outfit even worse.

“I’ll leave you two.” Again, Sabine started
away and he pulled her back.

“No, stay.” To Sanzio, “What is it now?”

Nostrils flared and eyes narrowed, Sanzio
jabbed a finger in his brother’s direction. “You send me off with
the women? Am I not your partner in this?”

“You were insulting our guests. A woman
who’s done nothing to you, and a man integral to the next phase of
business, Zio.”

His brother grunted rudely. Perhaps now was
not the time to inform Sanzio of the change in their business
relationship. Xander would be Abrahan’s only partner in this
enterprise.

“We’ll discuss it further when I return from
my trip.”

“You’re leaving?” Sabine said, glancing at
Zio.

“Tomorrow. I have an errand to run. It won’t
take long.”

“But the party. I still have a few things to
do and was hoping for your help.”

He trailed his fingers along her jaw. “It’s
important I do this.”

“Send me,” Sanzio said. “I can take care of
it for you.”

No he couldn’t. More and more it was
painfully obvious Sanzio couldn’t take care of much.

“I’ll handle it.”

“See! You don’t even trust me with the
smallest things.”

Swallowing a sigh, Abrahan padded over to
his brother and gripped his shirt. One by one, he pushed the
misaligned buttons from their loops. “Have you found the woman
yet?”

“You know I haven’t.” Sanzio’s chin dipped
as he watched Abrahan’s movements. His face bunched as though he
was unsure why those motions were happening in the first place.
“It’s an impossible task.”

A hard tug snapped the two plackets down
firmly, fixing the problem at the shoulders and aligning the
buttons correctly.

“Even in this you fail, Sanzio. Look at
you.” He shook his head, pushing the buttons through the correct
holes. “You’re a mess.

“You will stay here and help my wife with
whatever she needs for the party plans, which is more your cup of
tea.” Abrahan leaned forward and sniffed. “Or should I say cachaça?
Can you handle that, or should I have someone else do it?”

Shirt still undone, Sanzio jerked away. Rage
simmering in his eyes, he looked at Sabine, and then came back to
his brother. “You should be careful of how you treat those you say
you love,
brother,
” he said, sneering. “No lion is born
king, but no king reigns forever.”

Abrahan balled Sanzio's shirt in his fist,
dragged him close. “You would threaten me?”

Sanzio swiped his forearm down, breaking
free of Abrahan's hold. He took a sip from his flask. “It's the
truth. Something you have forgotten in this lie you’ve created for
yourself. You should hear it from someone who
does
love
you.” Turning awkwardly, he stalked off.

Moments later, the Maserati came barreling
out of the garage. A sharp right had it on the road and quickly out
of sight.

Abrahan kept his gaze on the road long after
Sanzio had disappeared. What had gotten into his brother?

“I worry for him,” Sabine said quietly.
“He’s unhappy.”

Yes, but Zio had been unhappy a long time.
Even as a boy nothing seemed to satisfy him.

Abrahan had given him everything he could
possibly want, only asking in return that Sanzio have a little
dignity and pride in himself and the work they were doing. But it
would be a mistake to continue to ignore his brother's outbursts.
Sanzio would
not
be his downfall.

Abrahan cleared his throat, regaining his
composure. “Come along.”

He took Sabine's hand and headed for the
house. He would forget this messiness with his brother for now, and
while they had a moment's peace he was going to make love to his
wife.

“IS NAI PISSED?” Xander asked as the
hydraulic hatch on the side of the yacht lifted. He already knew
the answer, but chances were high Naima made her anger known to
Phil on the way back. If he knew how mad up front, he'd be better
prepared to do damage control.

Phil was back in his usual jeans and shirt
combo, the shades and weapons the only items still in place from
his short stint as Xander's muscle. Grin as knowing as ever, Phil
turned his head to him and then turned away. But he didn’t say a
word.

In fact, Phil had been a little too quiet
lately. The big man wasn’t exactly a talker to begin with, but it
was like he had a gag order on
everything
lately.

Only explanation? Something bad happened in
Bruges.

Something Phil didn’t want to talk about,
not that he ever talked about his visits to Belgium in the first
place. He was just there to check up on Zlata, their “charge,” as
Phil put it.

Xander knew the truth though. And he
shouldn’t press, but, hey, that’s what brothers did, right?

Phil guided the speedboat into the narrow
basin built into the yacht’s bottom deck. It rocked with the gentle
waves, hitting the row of bumpers that lined the hub and kept the
wood from being damaged.

Long leg loped over the edge of the boat,
Xander stepped onto the shiny, epoxy-coated wood floors. Turned to
Phil. “You gonna talk about her or what?”

Phil glanced at him. Well, his shades did
the glancing, and Xander knew the eyes behind the tint were
hard.

“Who?”

“For a man who isn’t in the Lifestyle, you
sure are a masochistic bastard.”

Phil hopped out and hit the button that sent
the hatch back down. Then he stepped past Xander and hit the
stairs. “If I were you, X, I’d be worried that Nai’s found the
really sharp knives.”

Yeah, that might be a concern. Naima was so
pissed when he’d sent her away earlier he actually thought she
would defy him in front of Abrahan and stick around. No doubt she’d
spent the last hour plotting his death. When she wasn’t dry heaving
or sleeping, that is.

“She might stab me, but she won’t kill me.”
Small solace that was. Getting stabbed just because wasn’t fun
either, as he’d learned more than once over the years. Xander
shrugged, following Phil up the stairs to the second deck. “She
doesn’t do dead bodies.”

“You might be the exception,” Phil murmured.
He broke right just as Naima came barreling out of her room.

In sweatpants and a loose shirt, she stalked
toward him, emotion radiating from her in waves. The page in her
grip crackled as her hand sliced through the air.

“You.”

That single word held so much raw angst
Xander turned to look for Phil. Wasn’t the man supposed to be
guarding his damn body?

Naima didn’t slow, coming past the couches
on this level, down the narrow entryway to the stairs, and blocking
him in.

“Don’t you
ever
—”

He hit her with a glare that snipped her
words off at the root.

She bit her lip, the frustration clear. Her
breathing punched out of her nose, and her voice lost all its
charm. “You promised me you wouldn’t cut me out of this. Every
moment uv’it, you said.”

“I didn’t cut you out.”

“What the bloody hell d’you call what just
happened?”

“Two men, taking care of business.” He held
the bag out to her. “Your sparklies.”

Her eyes narrowed to slits so thin they had
to be closed. “I could have stuck around. Stayed close to
Sabine.”

“And it would’ve been the wrong move. Sit
down.”

Hands on her hips, she took a slow breath
and looked away. The voice that came out struggled for composure
and failed. “Where was you eighteen months back, X?”

The Sudan, maybe? Berlin? Oslo? Or was he
already in Russia handling Nikolay?

Hell, he couldn’t remember, there’d been so
many countries and so many deals between now and then it was hard
to keep the whole criminal enterprise thing straight at times. But
he knew that wasn’t her point so he didn't bother mentioning
it.

Naima kept going, getting angrier by the
second. “You was
stuck
wif’out me.
I
found your
angle.
I
tracked Galletti.
I
got in good with Sabine.
I
did all the grunt work so
I
should have been there
for whatever Abrahan was off’rin’.”

Under different circumstances, maybe. But
Naima had no idea how pale she looked. Her eyes were tired, her
cheeks drawn. She was petite to begin with, so losing weight didn’t
help in the least. She’d barely kept anything down since leaving
Monaco, and when she wasn’t on the chunder bus she was passed
out.

Xander was seriously concerned about both
her and the baby, questioning his decision to let her come at all.
He had half a mind to get her to Naples and send her to Oman, and
only
because Oman wasn’t Paris.

In his periphery, Phil was coming back into
the room. But Xander kept his focus on Naima, bucked his chin
toward the couches. “Sit. Down.”

She didn’t budge.

What had he done in a past life to get stuck
with such stubborn people in this one?

She motioned to the slight swell of her
belly. “It ain’t fair you treatin’ me like some china doll just
‘cause I’m up the duff.”

He fought a laugh. Whenever Naima got good
and mad the polished, proper lady facade slipped and she was just
another girl from Hackney pumping piss and vinegar from soles to
crown. Funny as hell when not directed at him.

But Xander’s ‘hood made Hackney look like
finishing school.

“You’re right,” he said. “It’s not
fair.”

“Too right, I’m right.” Nodding, she lifted
her balled fist and waved it in his face. “Do it again, you bloody
tosser, I’ll nut ‘cha and give ya’ a bunch of fives.”

He snatched her off her feet and she yelped.
“Xander!”

She squirmed in his hold, like that would
make him let her go. At the couch, he dropped her on her ass.

“Sit down before you fall down.” Arms pinned
to either side of her, Xander got right in her face, scowling. “If
you didn’t look like any minute you’d return lunch, I’d’ve let you
stay. Galletti doesn’t need any information about you because he
will
find a way to use it against us.”

“You think I’ll cock it all up, don’t
you?”

“For fuck's sake, Nai, the man sells info
for a living. Don't you think any enemies
I
have would be
overjoyed to learn I have a wife? And that she's
pregnant
?
Why do you think Phil was pissed you jumped yourself in the middle
of this from the start?”

She opened her mouth and nothing came out.
Then her face paled further.
Now
she got it.

“I didn’t have a choice. They didn’t bite
until they knew who you were to me.”

Xander took a deep breath that didn't make a
dent in his quick anger. But he lowered his voice. Screaming and
pregnant ladies weren’t a great combo. Screaming
at
them
even less so.

“I know. But we want him to forget you even
exist, Nai. And after this job, you won’t.”

“What?”

“You’re out after this.” Her eyes went wide.
“Soon as the party’s over, the
party’s over
. Until the
baby’s here safely and you’ve gotten some rest and I’m convinced
you’re healthy enough to continue in whatever capacity I see
fit.”

“You can’t do that!”

“Can and did. I shouldn’t have let you come
in the first goddamn place.” Christ, she was gonna get herself
killed. And for what? Trying to prove she could still be on the
job? This wasn’t a nine-to-five with scheduled maternity leave and
benefits. What the hell was wrong with her?