“Hey, hey,” I said, rubbing his back. “Are you okay? What happened?”
“Can we leave please?”
“Of course. I already gave them the ticket for the car.” I pulled back and studied his face, but I couldn’t tell what he was upset about. “Let’s go.” I took his hand and led him outside where our car was already waiting.
Once we were finally alone in the car and headed out of the estate, King rubbed his hands over his face. “He had a bruise on his jaw.”
“What? Who did?”
“Demitri. The new boy toy.”
I pulled the car over and shifted into park before pulling out my earpiece and unhooking the hidden mic. I gestured for King to do the same. After telling Linney we were turning everything off now that we were safely away from the op, I slid the electronics into a zip-top bag and stuffed them into the glove compartment.
“C’mere,” I said, pulling him in for another hug. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s fine,” he said gruffly, pulling away and looking out the window. “I don’t know why it even bothers me. If the kid doesn’t want to be thrown around, maybe he should get the hell out.”
Silence descended.
I couldn’t help but reach over and brush the floppy locks off his forehead. “You of all people know it’s not that easy,” I said carefully.
“It should be.”
“Yes. It definitely should be.”
More silence. This time it was more comfortable. I continued brushing my fingers through King’s hair.
“You know you can talk to me about it if you want,” I told him. “Obviously you don’t have to, but—”
I was half expecting him to snap at me, but he turned to me with a sweet smile. “Thank you, but I’m fine. I made my peace with myself about that part of it a long time ago. I just… it was hard seeing that nothing has fucking changed. He’s still stealing art. He’s still taking advantage of people less powerful than himself. He still thinks he’s the most important fucking person in the room.”
His anger didn’t surprise me, but I had to admit it was frustrating to see how much of a hold Elek still had over King’s emotions. It had been two years since the Van Gogh job. According to King, that had been the end of his relationship with the older man.
But here he was two years later still passionately engaged in his hatred. It was clear now that I hadn’t needed to make up the lame story about DNA on the Greek coins to get King to help us out. He wasn’t doing it for immunity.
He was doing it for revenge against Elek.
Part of me wished he didn’t care enough about the guy to get worked up over him one way or another. Was that selfish of me? Sure. But even if King wasn’t interested in me, I still wanted him to be free of the stronghold the Hungarian seemed to still have of him.
“Then let’s get back to the house and make sure our strategy is flawless so we can take away the thing he values most.” I shifted the car into drive and pulled back onto the road. After a few minutes, King shifted in his seat, his thoughts still back at the gala.
“I don’t just want him to lose the crown, Falcon. I want him to lose his freedom.”
Unfortunately, that wasn’t something I was going to be able to accomplish. Nadine’s instructions were to carry out this op silently, meaning Elek Kemény would be left alone as soon as we took the crown back.
But I didn’t dare tell King that. There was no telling what he’d do.
16
King
My entire body still jangled with adrenaline and nerves. I’d spotted Elek for the first time in over two years. Seeing him across the large ballroom had been even more nerve-racking than I’d expected. I was hit with the immediate gut feeling that I wasn’t good enough or that I needed to work hard to please him. Being faced with that Pavlovian response was both eye-opening and depressing. It illustrated just how much control he’d had over me that I’d never realized.
Coming into contact with Elek’s new lover hadn’t been a picnic either. I felt like my emotions had gone ten rounds tonight.
But I’d meant what I’d said. I wanted Elek put away.
“King. You know that’s not part of our mission,” Falcon said carefully.
“It could be.”
“Yes, it could be. But one of the goals of the mission is for it to not attract attention in the media or other intelligence agencies.”
“Isn’t Interpol already involved?” I asked, wishing my brain didn’t feel like jumbled up nonsense.
“No. They’re involved in our attempts to capture you, not our attempts to retrieve the crown. Linney is working with us in an unofficial capacity because she’s an integral part of my team and I trust her not to report back to her supervisors at Interpol. This retrieval op is purely an FBI mission. It’s not the global task force.”