You Are Mine (15 page)

“Ah.” Gabriel gave Zac a shrewd look. “You offered him some incentive.”

Zac lifted a shoulder. “I did. He also mentioned that his life would be in danger if he told anyone.”

“What a pity,” Gabriel observed without sympathy. “Did you end up killing him anyway?”

A natural question. Gabriel, at least, knew what kind of man Zac was.

“No,” Zac answered calmly. “We don't need any bodies lying around that might alert Fitzgerald to the fact that someone is investigating him. Besides, the bodyguard might be useful when the time comes for making a move.”

“What move?” Eva asked sharply.

Zac glanced at her, noting the lines of tension bracketing her pale mouth. The conversation was obviously getting to her and despite himself, his heart twisted, dark filaments of anger beginning to wind around him again. “To take him down, angel,” he said flatly. So there would be no misunderstandings. “I've told you this.”

An expression he didn't recognize flickered in her eyes. “I don't want you to kill him.”

“Fuck that,” Alex said from the armchair. “If you don't kill him, I will.”

Eva's head turned sharply to where Alex sat. “No.” The word sounded almost desperate. “I don't want anyone doing anything until we have more information.”

“We don't need more information.” Alex's voice was hard. “That prick's bodyguard stood watch over the door while I was fucking raped, Eva. It's all right there on that damn tape. What more do you need?”

The words echoed around the room, harsh and cold.

Eva shivered.

“The fire, Alex,” Zac snapped, his patience suddenly on a knife-edge. “For fuck's sake. It's cold in here.” He pushed away from the couch, picking up the overcoat he'd been wearing that he'd flung over the back of it. Stalking over to the fireplace where Eva stood, he lifted the coat, ready to drape it around her, but she moved away, putting herself out his reach.

He frowned, staring after her, the overcoat still held awkwardly in his hands.

She'd never done that before.

Clearly she was still pissed off with him.

Can you blame her? Would you feel comfortable telling all your secrets to everyone?

Zac ignored the thought. It wasn't relevant.

Slowly, he lowered the coat to find both Gabriel and Alex watching him speculatively.

Zac stared back. They could think what they like about the relationship between Eva and himself. He'd guarantee it wasn't what either of them thought it was.

But you wish it was.

“Eva's right,” he said coldly, tossing the overcoat back over to the couch. “We need more information. We need proof.”

Alex made a disgusted sound, but Katya was nodding. “I agree,” she said in her cool Russian accent. “I'm not sure Fitzgerald's bodyguard would have been able to tell you much in any case. You're going to need more than that if you want to take this to the relevant authorities.”

Gabriel shifted, put his hands on the back of the couch, leaning against it. “Who said anything about taking this to the fucking authorities?”

Katya was in no way intimidated. “If this man has links with what was going on in Conrad South's casino, with that girl Alex and I freed, then Interpol need to be involved.”

“Oh Christ,” Alex muttered. “Katya mine, the fucked-up billionaires club is not much interested in bullshit operations like Interpol.”

Katya tilted her head to look up into her lover's eyes. “Perhaps you're not. But if a human trafficking ring is going on then the authorities are the only ones who can help the people involved in it. In which case I think they might care about such ‘bullshit operations.'”

Alex let out a long breath, the corner of his mouth turning up. “Why the hell do you have to be so damn intelligent?”

Gabriel snorted. “Fuck, get a room.”

“You're talking sense at long last, brother.” Alex didn't even look at him.

The bickering did nothing for Zac's patience or his temper, not with Eva standing on the other side of the fireplace, keeping the distance between them, her gaze turned inward. She'd taken one hand out of her pocket, fingers at her mouth. Biting her nails. Making him want to close the distance, take her hand in his hand, just hold it. Maybe turn it over in his own, kiss her palm. Soothe her.

The urge was so strong that for a second it was all he could do just to remain where he was.

What are you waiting for? Isn't that what you always do? You wait for her to be ready. But she'll never be ready …

No, she never would. Not to tell her secrets. Not to trust. Not to want him.

Which meant that if he wanted things to keep changing, he was going to have to be the one to change them.

Zac moved, closing the distance between himself and Eva. Slowly but surely stalking toward her. And like the wild creature she was, her head came up, her eyes going wide as she saw what he was doing.

Shock flared bright over her face like a jag of lightning and he saw her take an instinctive step back. But there was nowhere for her to go. The mantelpiece was at her back, an armchair blocking her route to the side. She was trapped.

The shock turned to panic, her hand dropping from her mouth. But by then it was too late. He reached for her, closing his fingers around her wrist.

Eva made a soft, gasping sound, what little color she had in her cheeks leeching away. Her whole body had gone rigid, her panicked gaze locked with his. Her skin was shockingly warm beneath his fingertips and so unbelievably soft, like heated silk. He could feel the rapid drumbeat of her pulse, see the frantic rise and fall of her chest, sense the panic clawing at her.

But he didn't let go.

The air seemed to go thick around them, time moving slow and sluggish as an animal caught in a tar pit.

She was shaking now.

He held on, locking her silver eyes with his. “Tell them, Eva.”

And for one long, timeless second, he thought he saw something leap in her gaze. The kind of response he'd spent seven years longing for.

Then Eva jerked her hand from his grip.

And slapped him hard across the face.

*   *   *

Shock crashed through the room like a ship hitting an iceberg and shuddering with the impact.

The feel of Zac's skin against Eva's palm burned, the hard contours of his cheek, the roughness of stubble, the sheer, stinging heat …

She was shaking.

Jesus. She'd hit him. She'd actually hit him.

The skin around her other wrist burned too, like she'd been handcuffed with hot metal, a bracelet of fire that stung and stung and stung.

She could hardly breathe she was shaking so much.

He'd touched her. Again. In front everyone else.

Her heartbeat was out of control, fear a wild thing clawing in her chest.
Tell them, Eva.
But she didn't want to tell them. Not a single damn thing. And he was going to make her, force her. Use that stupid damn promise against her …

That's not why you hit him.

She could feel the places where he'd held her wrist, where she'd slapped him. Like matches to touch paper, they were still burning. The reflections of that fire leapt in his eyes, bright amber flames.

Then he smiled, a feral kind of smile. As if he knew something she didn't.

You didn't hit him because you were scared of having to tell your secrets.

“Well,” Alex murmured into the tense silence. “I guess it's not a Circles meeting if someone isn't getting hit in the face.”

“Christ,” Gabriel said. “What the hell is wrong with you two?”

Eva blinked, the rest of the room abruptly coming into sharp focus.

Alex and Katya staring at her in surprise. Gabriel's dark eyes narrowed in puzzlement.

And Zac … He wasn't looking anywhere else except at her.

Your physical reaction to him scared you. That's why you hit him.

Behind the fear, under the panic, heat unfurling inside her like a flag. A strangely familiar heat …

The door opened suddenly and Honor came in, the sharp tension in the room snapping like a twig.

Everyone turned to look at her and she stopped, raising one dark brow. “Did I miss something?”

From somewhere Eva found her voice. “No, nothing. Or at least, the only thing you missed was the name of the man we think had something to do with what happened to Alex.”

Honor's cool blue gaze met her brother's briefly. “It's okay. Gabe's already told me.”

“You okay about it, baby?” Gabriel asked.

Honor frowned, coming slowly over to where Gabriel stood. “Not especially. He's Violet's father.”

“Tall,” Alex murmured. “Blond. Arrogant. Entitled. At least that's what I remember about him.”

Eva didn't move, her heard still beating too fast, too hard. Her wrist still burned, her palm still stung. And Zac was still standing far, far too close. He'd turned to look at Honor like the rest of them, but she was so intensely conscious of him she couldn't concentrate on anything else.

Why had he touched her? What the
fuck
did he think he was doing?

“It's when you're aware of the person you want … Physically aware of them in every way…”

God. Oh, holy fucking hell.

He was wearing another of his dark suits, this time in black wool, and he'd taken off his gloves. His fingers were long and blunt, and quite elegant. The dark ink of the tattoos that covered them and the backs of his hands were beautiful. Crowns and stars and religious iconography. That hand had touched her, those fingers had been against her skin.

Her wrist throbbed.

Honor was speaking, but Eva couldn't seem to focus on her voice.

He was so tall. If she closed her eyes, remembered the last meeting on his island, where he'd gone swimming, she'd be able to see his body without those suits. Broad and heavily muscled. Flat stomach. Lean waist. Powerful thighs and long calves. There had been Chinese koi carp up the bronze skin of one arm. A dragon on his back.

She swallowed, her gaze helplessly drawn to his face, turned away from her. A stunningly perfect profile, the straight angle of his nose meeting his elegantly sculpted mouth. High forehead. Strong jawline.

Beautiful. He's beautiful.

How had she not seen? How had she not realized?

It felt like she'd been leaning for years against what she thought was an ordinary brick wall, only to turn around and find out she'd been leaning against beautifully carved marble instead. That was attached to an exquisite palace.

Her heart thumped behind her breastbone, a fast, frantic beat.

She didn't understand what was happening to her, why here, now, she should suddenly be seeing Zac Rutherford in a way she'd never seen him before. Even after he'd forced that promise from her, told her he'd take her body as well as her trust, made her give him her secrets, deliberately frightening her … Even after all of that, she was aware of him in a way that was quite frankly—

Terrifying?

She blinked, stuffing her burning hands back into her jacket. Trying to drag her consciousness back into the present.

“What do you think, Eva?”

Eva blinked again, realizing that Alex was staring at her. That everyone was staring at her. “Excuse me?” she said hoarsely. “What?”

“You can hack into his computer system.”

Zac was looking at her now, she could feel it, and a rush of heat washed over her, like a warm current in an icy sea. This was madness.

I can make you want me.

“Hack into his system,” she echoed stupidly. “Yes.”

“You'll have to be careful.” Zac's deep voice was a shock, strange when she knew it as well as her own. Yet now it seemed to hold timbres she'd never heard before, a soft roughness, sensual as the caress of velvet. “Especially if, as we suspect, he's the one behind those threats.”

The word “threats” pierced the fog surrounding her. Threats such as the email that had stolen past her firewalls and gotten into her own system.

Not that there was any doubt in her mind that Fitzgerald was behind that.

The heat began to dissipate as she realized something else.

Fitzgerald had targeted her. Which meant he knew her name. He knew she was Eva King. He knew what she looked like. He knew
her.

Terror surged inside her, a blind, primitive panic, and it was only sheer force of will, of habit, that enabled her to swallow it down and not let it show.

But, of course, Zac knew. Because when she met his disturbing amber gaze, she could see the knowledge of it in the depths of his eyes. The recognition.

Evelyn Fitzgerald wasn't the only man who knew her.

Another emotion blazed through her, swallowing the fear, so intense she didn't know how to deal with it. Christ, where were all these feelings coming from? It was like finding out the name of The Man had unlocked Pandora's box, letting all the curses loose on the world. Or rather, letting them loose on her world.

She had to shut the box, keep the hope. The hope that she could survive this.

Eva curled her hands into fists, dug her bitten nails into her palms. They were too short to cause real pain but long enough to cause a bit of discomfort. Which helped settle her.

“You want me to hack into Fitzgerald's system?” she asked, pleased that her voice was sounding more or less normal now.

“That's the idea,” Gabriel said. “We need proof. And you're good enough to be able to do it without anyone noticing.”

“Or,” Honor murmured, “we could just attend a party.”

Gabriel frowned and turned to her. “What?”

Honor lifted the phone she'd been bent over. “There's a party on in a couple of days, organized by a charity funded through one of Fitzgerald's companies. It's a fundraiser for the homeless. Looks like Fitzgerald is going to be attending.” She looked around the room. “Who wants an invite?”