“It’s okay, I didn’t want to stay there. Leo has helped me.”
Tam and Hallie exchanged a glance.
“You didn’t want to stay in Estonia?” Hallie asked.
“I didn’t want to stay with my father.” She shuddered. “That place is like a prison.”
“And this was a better option?” Hallie seemed disbelieving.
“You of all people should understand,” I told Hallie. “Look at the way things are with you and Marlon, and how things were with you and Tam when you first got together.”
Our brother, Harvey, had been murdered during what should have been his wedding to Hallie. Hallie’s father had then offered her up to Tam instead, since I’d already been engaged to Jodie at that time. The union hadn’t gone well initially. The age difference between the two of them was obvious, and Tam wasn’t the kind of man who took kindly to having someone else in his personal space. Plus, Tam hated Marlon Wynter, almost as much as I hated Rasmus, and hadn’t wanted to be a part of the thing that would join our two families. He also blamed Hallie in part for Harvey’s death, since he’d never have been standing at the altar, where he’d been shot, if he hadn’t been there to marry her. Since then, we still hadn’t learned who was responsible for Harvey’s murder. The most likely culprit had been the Gilligans—the rival criminal family in London who would have had the most to gain from preventing the union—but they’d denied having any involvement.
“That’s different.” She eyed me curiously. “And how is this like when Tam and I got together? Are you saying there’s something between the two of you?”
I felt as though I was being interrogated by my mother, even though Hallie was a few years younger than me.
“There’s nothing between us,” I snapped, ignoring the fact I’d come down Kaja’s throat a couple of hours earlier. I didn’t want to look at Kaja’s face, not wanting to read her expression. I didn’t think I’d said anything to give her the wrong idea. I’d told her I wasn’t ‘saving’ her from her father. Yes, we were fucking, but there was nothing in it. No emotion, just sex.
I remembered how I’d felt finding her in the forest after she’d killed one of Rasmus’s men, seeing her foot bloodied, terrified that she was badly hurt. The rage at the mere thought of him attempting to rape her hit me afresh.
I clenched my fists. No, I didn’t care what happened to her. I might even have to kill her eventually. I couldn’t do that if I went and caught feelings.
“Come on,” I said. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Where do you want to go?” Tam asked.
“Back to my place, of course.”
“Don’t you think Rasmus will think to search for you there?”
“I’m not sure he even knows who’s taken his daughter yet. It’s not as though I left a calling card. There’s a possibility he knows it was an Englishman, but that’s about all.”
“You don’t know that. You might have been caught on a security camera somewhere. If he sees your face, he’ll recognise you.”
I shrugged. “Then he’ll come for me, and I’ll fucking kill him.”
Tam pursed his lips and shook his head. “You’re being reckless, Leo. You have been ever since you lost Jodie.”
“I didn’t lose her. Rasmus took her from me. Now are we going or what? I want to sleep in my own bed.”
“Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you.” Tam lowered his voice. “And remember the drop tomorrow night. I need you there by midnight.”
I resisted rolling my eyes. Sometimes, I believed Tam still thought I was fifteen. “That’s why I’m back, remember? I haven’t forgotten.”
“Good, because there’s been word of the Gilligans sniffing around the drop-off site. I’ve set up extra men there, but I’m still not happy about it.”
“What do you think they want? To steal the cargo?”
Tam shrugged. “Possibly or disrupt it somehow.”
“How do they know what’s coming?”
“I’m not sure they do, not for certain, but from the amount of activity, they’ve clearly figured out something is going to go down.” Tam blew out a breath. “Anyway, I need your head in the game, not distracted, and this seems like one hell of a distraction.”
Which distraction was he talking about? The one that involved Rasmus coming to get his daughter back, or the one that involved me fucking Kaja? Could Tam tell? We were brothers and didn’t hold much back from one another. Would it surprise him if I told him she’d given me head during the flight?
I didn’t bother to reply.