Commissioner Brown held out his coffee cup for Mrs. Bates to fill, and I pushed my fingers through my damp hair.
Elle was just making her way down the staircase. I’d asked her to take her time showering so that I might first have a few minutes alone with the commissioner.
It wasn’t about keeping secrets or withholding information. Anything he gave me, I would share with her. I wanted to be sure he wasn’t reserved in his responses to my questions for the sake of his maintaining respect for my wife. She got that. She hadn’t liked it, but she’d understood.
Elle and Thomas passed through the arched opening into the drawing room to join us. Mrs. Bates slid the pocket doors shut on her way out after handing Elle a glass of water.
The commissioner got to his feet and greeted Elle. It was the first time I’d seen them together, and my decision to separate him from her was spot-on. His eyes held the sight of her with paternal affection. He would have been less frank during our discussion in order to spare her more suffering, as a father or uncle or even a brother might do.
He would soften his words now that she was in the room with us, but I couldn’t. She needed to grasp the severity of what we were coming up against, and I needed her to experience the anxiety it would trigger while she was in my presence rather than have her hide it from me.
I extended my hand to her as I spoke to the commissioner.
“Devon Parker goes to trial soon, and you believe his conviction is a foregone conclusion based on your evidence and Interpol’s confirmation of the same,” I reiterated. “Trafficking in automatic weapons by way of Eastern Europe will get him how many years in prison?”
“Seven to ten is the recommended sentence for a British citizen but perhaps more in this case.”
“For seven to ten years—perhaps more, as you say—he will sit behind bars with the ability to send his accomplices to threaten my wife, some of whom apparently work for you. And I’m supposed to do what? Ignore the risks? Hope none of his followers are fucked up enough to hurt her before he gets out and tries to do it himself? Fuck if I will.”
“No, we’re not doing that shit,” Thomas said. “The commissioner understands what’s at stake and to what lengths you and I will go to keep Ellie safe.”
Commissioner Brown took his seat and contemplated his next words for a minute. He looked at Elle, and she flashed a warm smile back at him. She liked him, trusted him even.
“I assure you, the corrupt officer you encountered last night will be held accountable. Please, leave that to me. Less blood on your hands, the better. My advice is for you to work more closely with Director Martin on this case. As you know, his team is granted protection against criminal and rogue acts. I would not be granted the same.”
MI5 relied on its agents and informers to provide intelligence for investigations into terrorism and espionage, so it operated differently than the nation’s civil law enforcement agencies. Agents acting on behalf of the Security Service were permitted by the government to carry out criminal activity.
I nodded, picked up my coffee, and pulled it close to my mouth, speaking over the steam, “You discipline that fucking officer or I’ll kill him. Thomas and I will work with the director. You’ll continue to counsel my wife on the matter. However, she may not see Parker again.”
I sipped while moving my gaze to Elle’s. She dropped her eyes to her hands and twisted her wedding band round her finger. Her name fell softly from my lips, and I took her hands into one of mine, placing them on my thigh, holding them there, beneath mine. When she lifted her gaze, I pitched her a small smile. The regret in her eyes cleared, and her lips curved, syncing with mine. We released a breath together.
No one said a word. The commissioner and Thomas each signaled their compliance to my command by bobbing their heads in agreement.
Elle leaned forward with more confidence, her leg rubbing against mine. “Is the video footage ready, Thomas? I’d like to take a look now.” She turned back to me. “And then I want to go home. You can send for Sean or James Jackson or your investigator or whoever you need to work with from Eastridge. I don’t care who or how many. But I want to go just as soon as we see this video.”
My angel had tolerated enough. Anxiety was quietly antagonizing her, and she needed the comfort of our family home. She needed to hold Lissie in her arms.
“Of course, baby. You’re right. Let’s get out of this goddamn city for a while.”
“Come with me, Ellie,” Thomas said, curving his fingers to indicate she should go with him to the library. “Will can wrap up here while you and I fire up the footage on the monitor.”
Elle kissed my cheek, presented her hand to the commissioner when he gestured for it, and then hooked her arm through Thomas’s arm. As the two of them walked away, I watched the sway of her hips. Always I watched. I recalled how she had looked, smelled, and sounded as she screamed my name when I made her come on all fours only an hour before. She was so lovely. So bloody fucking lovely.
Commissioner Brown cleared his throat.
That shit always pissed me off, the throat-clearing thing to get my attention.
“You know how this is going to go down, Commissioner,” I started. “As we discussed, you’ll notify Martin of the sentencing and correctional facility transport details. In that short window of time during his transfer, Devon Parker will die. I don’t see another option at this point. Do you?”
He shook his head and hardened his blue eyes, locking them on mine. “I’ve spent time with Devon Parker. He has a sick mind, Hastings. If he is presented with an opportunity to avenge Simon, he will first hurt her, and then he will murder her. He has priors. He has hurt other women, but he will kill your wife. So, no, I can’t see another way in this instance. We must cut the head off the bloody snake.
“And I’m sorry, mate,” the commissioner added. “I haven’t had an opportunity since Ethan’s passing to deliver my personal condolences. Ethan and I were never close, but nonetheless, he was a friend. He was happy for you, you know.”
“Thank you. He gave his life for us.” I dropped my chin, rubbed my eyes.
He lied to me about so many things. Not sure I care that he did.
Losing my older brother still hurt.
Ethan had been my confidant, my business partner. He’d covered for me whenever I fell into a binge with whatever suited my addiction-inclined tendencies at the time, though nothing and no one satisfied me back then.
He was always smaller than Thomas and me, with less physical strength, and he knew our father undervalued him because of it. But he never quit a fight, no matter how hard he had been pushed or how many times one of us had broken his damn arm or his nose. He had been an excellent marksman from an early age, but that was never enough for our father. His sons had to be warriors. At some point, when we were in our late teens, I had taken on Ethan’s fights, and our father had repurposed him for rebuilding the family’s financial holdings.
Ethan was all about the money all right, and he was quite good at networking and sourcing. He possessed a genuine talent for pulling in business opportunities and setting us up with an advantage. But ultimately, he somehow fucked up deal negotiations whenever he attempted to close on his own. I became the moneymaker, closing deals that made us billions. Our father hadn’t lived long enough to get his hands on a goddamn penny or to see the irony of it all.
“Listen, Commissioner, I’m not certain Elle’s sighting of Parker last night wasn’t a manifestation of anxiety. So, to be clear, I want this incident kept quiet.”
The commissioner extended his hand, and we shook in silent agreement.
I walked him to the door, pleased with our understandings, and headed for the library to join my brother and my wife. It was quite a relief to have an ally in the city who cared about saving Elle’s life without the expectation that I would deliver a hit or lend my financial influence in return.
I released a heavy lungful. Devon Parker was mine. His ghost belonged to me.
The look on Elle’s face was that of confusion. She was on her feet, staring at the large monitor on the wall with the remote in her hand. Rewind. Play. Rewind. Play. She played the same segment of video footage over and over.
“I’m not crazy,” she whispered to herself.
“You’re done with this, Elle. Something scared the hell out of you last night, but it wasn’t captured on camera; that’s all. And now, we know it wasn’t Devon Parker.” I pried the small silver remote from her fingers and tossed it to Thomas. “Unmanned video surveillance never captures what it should in large settings like the Royal Albert Hall.”
“I inspected the camera locations myself, Ellie. None were positioned in a way that would reproduce the view from where you were standing. It’s a technical issue. The security system install was done poorly. You can’t beat yourself up over it,” Thomas added.
Elle nodded, and the anguish marking her expression eased. “Okay,” she breathed. “Okay. It’s not easy when I can’t put my own eyes on him in his jail cell, but you’re both certain he was and is still there, so I’ll deal.” Her eyes met mine, and I pulled her close. “I trust you, Will.”
“Devon Parker can’t get to you. I swear to that,” Thomas said.
She locked her arms round my waist and rested her cheek against my chest, her head positioned so that she could make eye contact with Thomas. “I trust you both.”
Was that pain in his eyes? The suffering in his eyes was different right then, if only for a heartbeat, but I recognized it. It was the kind of hurt that split my chest wide when I was unable to soothe her, and the idea that he might be feeling that sentiment stirred the bloodthirst that lived in me.
Thomas moved away abruptly to cut the video feed. He knew I’d caught his pained expression. “You two should head home to Eastridge. I’ll stay in the city, so we have eyes on the situation from this angle tonight. It’ll be more advantageous for one of us to be here.”
“You’ll need to drive home for the partnership meeting. I want to keep the business plan on track. Sean will make arrangements for the others to attend via Zoom or whatever the hell it is you guys use, and he’ll come along with me to the estate. The secretary he’s been training will cover his desk at the office.”
One night wasn’t enough time to put distance between myself and what I had just witnessed in my brother’s eyes. I gnashed my back teeth together, causing tension in my jaw.
“Ellie’s private secretary?”
“Yeah, spend some time with Ms. Smith while Sean is out. Task her with confidential matters. Review her background information. Make sure nothing was missed.” I pressed the side of Elle’s face harder against the center of my chest and covered her other ear. A stupid fucking instinct to protect her beautiful, pure spirit.
She could still hear me, of course, and she would reprimand me for my behavior as soon as she escaped my hands.
Let her scold me. It’ll give me an opportunity to shut that sweet little mouth with mine.
The thought of tasting her caused my cock to rise and one corner of my mouth to twitch.
“Do not fuck my wife’s secretary, Thomas,” I ordered before releasing Elle.