An Affair of Vengeance (19 page)

“You came here with McCool?”

“McCrea.” Evangeline giggled. “Close enough. Do you know him?”

“I’ve seen him around. Not here, but around, at clubs and such.” The girl’s grin widened, showing off her bright pink gums. “He always pretends not to know me. He is impossible. Congratulations.”

“Oh. Thanks, I think.” Evangeline felt flattered. “It wasn’t easy to get his attention.”

“No, I wouldn’t think so.” The pretty girl tapped her chin with her forefinger. Her pert nose was adorably small underneath her gigantic plastic sunglasses. “If I can be honest, I’m surprised to see a woman with him. I was beginning to think he preferred boys.”

Laughter rippled up from Evangeline’s belly. She finally recognized the bronzed beauty. “You’re Adriana Luz, aren’t you? Your French
Vogue
cover was amazing.”

“Oh, you saw that? Thanks.” Adriana held her hand out in greeting.

Evangeline shook it. “I’m Evangeline. What brings you to paradise?”

“Relaxation! This is the only place in Europe I can go where I won’t have paparazzi crawling over my skin. Here, I’m free.” To demonstrate, Adriana sat up, reached behind her, and unhooked her bikini top. She aimed it like an arrow and shot it onto the stomach of a girl sleeping on the other side of the pool.

“Hey!” The girl woke, giggled, and untied the straps of her halter top. Whirling it around like a lasso, she launched it onto the head of a blonde lying facedown next to her. The platinum stunner awoke, too, and within thirty seconds, each of the six women around the pool had not only roused but partially disrobed.

All except Evangeline. Her top stayed on, and she felt like a prude.

“Come on!” Adriana teased, reaching out to snap Evangeline’s bare belly with someone’s discarded top. “You don’t want tan lines distracting your McCool when he makes love to you tonight.”

Since when was she the conservative girl in the group, anyway? Ridiculous. Of all the challenges she’d thought she would face on this mission, the moral quandary of whether or not to bare her breasts to the midday sun wasn’t one of them. Evangeline wiggled out of her top, balled it up, and threw it straight onto the firm brown butt of a girl lying twenty feet away. The girl yelped in surprise.

“Nice shot.” Adriana gave her naked torso an unapologetic appraisal. “Now you’re showing off your diamonds.”

“Diamonds?” Evangeline giggled. Was Adriana referring to her nipples as diamonds? “You’re terrible!”

Adriana swept her fingers over the crystals on Evangeline’s large necklace. “I mean these. They’re diamonds, aren’t they? They’re impossible to mistake once you know what you’re looking for. And trust me, I know what I’m looking for. Your bracelet, too. All diamonds. All lovely. Did your man give them to you?”

No, no, and certainly
not
. It hadn’t even occurred to her that the gems would be precious. Who kept diamonds in a guest room? “No, I found them in the dressing room attached to our suite.”

“Ah!” The model’s dark, full eyebrows rose high above her glasses. “Well. I’m sure it’s fine. He wouldn’t put anything in there that he didn’t want you to wear. He likes it when you wear his jewels, you know.”

“Who won’t mind?”

“Why, Lukas, of course. Lukas Kral.” Adriana pulled down her sunglasses and gave Evangeline a close look. “You’re wearing his jewels.”

E
VANGELINE WAS TOPLESS
.

So were all the other women by the pool, but McCrea didn’t care about them. He couldn’t pull his eyes away from her. Part of him wished she’d cover up, but it would be silly of her to bother. She was just going along with the other girls, and frankly, she looked like she belonged with them. She was an expert at fitting in. A chameleon. Good at telling people what they want to hear.

Except him. She wasn’t very good at lying to him, not anymore. Or maybe she’d just stopped trying. He knew that she’d been disappointed by that last kiss of theirs, but he couldn’t care. He wanted more, too, but damn it, this wasn’t the time, place, or lifetime for that sort of thing. He wouldn’t let it himself wish for it.

As he watched from the covered walkway overlooking the pool, a thick wind blew through the courtyard, ruffling the fronds of the potted palms and sweeping over the half-naked girls.

Evangeline felt it. She reached up to fiddle with the thick strand of jewels around her neck and her nipples tightened just enough for him to guess that she’d felt the chill.

He ground his teeth. Tired of feeling pulled to pieces by her, he thought of walking away, but then she moved. Her hands ran down her torso, slowly, thoughtlessly, like she relished the feeling
of her warm bare skin under her fingertips. Then she reached to her hips and played with the bows that held her bikini bottom together.

No. She wouldn’t.
Please, don’t
. He willed her to stay at least half-clothed. He couldn’t bear the thought of her naked, here, among unknown enemies. She hadn’t taken a handbag down to the pool and clearly wasn’t hiding a gun in her suit. She was vulnerable enough already without adding nakedness to the fire. Her nudity might inspire less-savory ambitions in the already unsavory men who frequented this villa.

The sharp click of footsteps on the tiled walkway drew his attention. A blond-haired man wearing an elegantly wrinkled linen suit walked toward him, his pale blue eyes glowing like a shallow Caribbean bay. McCrea found them instantly disturbing.

The man smiled as he approached, revealing unnaturally white teeth. “Lovely new girl down there. Is she yours?”

“More or less.”

“Ah, women. Such willful creatures. It’s a shame we can’t own them anymore.” The man laughed and extended his hand. “I’m Lukas Kral. This is my house, and I’m very pleased to make your acquaintance.”

“Likewise.” He kept his face cool, but his brain churned. Evangeline had been right, after all. Their mission had just been amped up a few notches.

“Shall I call you Oliver, or do you prefer Ollie?”

“McCrea is fine.” He wondered whom Krai had been talking to. Few people knew his first name.

“Oh, come, come! Don’t play games with me.” Krai pointed a stiff, knobby finger in McCrea’s chest. “I know who you are, you devil.”

“I didn’t realize my reputation had grown so wide.”

“Oh, it hasn’t.” Krai frowned, crestfallen, like a little boy who’d lost his favorite toy. “You mean you don’t know what I’m talking about?”

“I’m afraid not.”

“What a shame! I’d hoped you wanted to see me so that you could—ah, never mind. I suppose it’s too much to hope for.”

“What is?”

“That you are interested in taking your brother’s place here, at my side.”

McCrea couldn’t have heard him right. According to SOCA’s intel, his brother hadn’t gone any further than London before going tits-up back in Glasgow, where he’d started. “My brother?”

“Indeed! Your brother. Aaron McCrea was your brother, was he not?”

McCrea nodded, exhaling. He’d forgotten to breathe.
My brother was here
. He gazed out to the pool in an attempt to calm his growing sense of suffocation. His damnable brother had walked these halls. McCrea had followed him step for step, and now felt sickened by the realization that Krai seemed to think he’d done it with the intention of inheriting Aaron’s status. He’d never imagined Aaron had risen so high, and to have a man as cruel as Lukas Kral think him his brother’s successor made him feel that he’d gone too far with the charade. “I had a brother named Aaron. Didn’t know you knew him.”

“Oh, I’d say you were brothers. You look just like him, you know. Same golden cat’s eyes. Same quick cat’s grace. He was more of a lion, though. Rather vicious man. You’re a bit more of a cheetah, aren’t you?” Krai slapped his arm, surprisingly quick and strong for a slightly built man of fifty-plus years. “Cheetahs have the components of a big feline—sharp teeth and predatory instincts—but are too small to do much harm.”

Was that an insult? McCrea struggled for a response that would be neither passive nor aggressive, unsure of what line he’d need to take with this new foe. “Cheetahs always have their claws out.”

“Do they?” Deep furrows formed between Krai’s blond eyebrows. “What an unusual adaptation. Do you know why they do that?”

“Not a clue.”

Kral beamed. “How foolish of me. I remember why! Cheetahs’ claws are extended so that they more easily grip the ground as they run. They’re always running, you see, and they need significant traction to get to top speed. But because of this, their claws soon become blunt, dull things, more like a dog’s claws than a cat’s, and rather inadequate for aggression or defense. Such beautiful, useless creatures cheetahs are. All they can do is run.”

McCrea heard the extended offense but refused to rise to it. If Evangeline was right about how her parents had died, then this man was dangerous to cross. “How well did you know Aaron?”

“Rather well. He was like family to me, and I was so glum when he passed away.” Kral’s mouth pillowed into an exaggerated, childlike pout. “But then I began hearing of another McCrea wandering the back alleys of London, and then France, and I wondered if this new McCrea might not be the baby brother I’d heard so much about. I thought you were making your way to me of your own accord. I’ve been watching and waiting for your arrival most anxiously.” Kral clapped his hands together. “How I wish your brother were still here! He’d so love to see you, I just know it.”

“Would he?” He doubted it. The last time the brothers had spoken, it had ended in blows. McCrea tried not to wince as he remembered the feeling of his brother’s practiced fist colliding with his jaw, sending it out of joint in that last, violent conversation between brothers. But then he’d never been much of a talker, Aaron. Attack first, ask questions…never.

“I think he would love to see you. You two are so much alike. Weren’t you close?”

“Aaron was an inspiration to me.” Not a lie, exactly. He’d certainly inspired McCrea to dedicate his life to law enforcement.

“How droll!” Kral laughed. “An inspiration, indeed. What did he inspire you to do? Bite the heads off of small mammals? The man was a veritable monster. I had to put him down, I’m
sorry to say. But he had his uses. I need a man like Aaron at my side.”

“You’ve got another one now.” Even though he knew he had no choice but to step into his brother’s empty position, McCrea’s stomach lurched as his mouth formed the necessary syllables. He had the dulling sensation that he’d crossed into territory from which he’d never be able to return, and his only lingering hope was that he’d be able to save Evangeline from the same fate.

An hour after she skipped down to the pool, Evangeline walked back to her dressing room with a towel wrapped under her arms, this time faced with the quandary of what to wear to dinner. After stripping to their skins, the ladies by the pool had discussed little but every possible angle on fall’s fashion trends, which made Evangeline apprehensive about her evening’s selection. Appearance was armor, or at least the only kind she’d have here.

She toured the room’s evening wear, letting her hands inform her of when to pay closer attention. The smooth silk of a blue summer dress felt like little more than air between her fingertips. She pulled it off its hanger, and just as she was stepping into the delicate dress, a knock at the door made her squeak. Her foot slipped into an armhole.

“Ready for dinner?” said McCrea, his voice muffled by the door.

“Halfway there.” She removed her foot and wiggled her way into the slinky dress. Shoes? The dress would look best with something svelte, but her bag had been delivered and she chose her favorite platform sandals, with a comfortable, thick cork base. Five minutes later, after winding her wet hair into a smooth chignon and smudging a thick sweep of black eyeliner, she opened the door to the bedroom. She’d intended to charge out like a soldier but instead paused, her hand on the doorknob,
struck dumb by the sight of McCrea standing still as night in a gorgeous navy suit.

If only he were less handsome, maybe she’d stand a chance of resisting him as she knew she should.

His hands rested elegantly in the pockets of slim pants that were the blue-black color of a clear night sky. A matching two-button jacket fit his athletic frame like it’d been made just for him. It probably had been. The skin around his jaw gleamed. He must have shaved while she was getting dressed.