"Well, I just want to make sure there's nothing else pressing happening that week."

  "Don't make me remind you that you work for me now. You will work when I say you're available to work."

  I couldn't stop it. That thing that always got me in trouble. My fucking mouth. "But obviously, as it's a retreat, that seems auxiliary.” I forced my attention back on him. "But okay, I get it. It's important. I just hadn't realized that it was mandatory."

  "Well, it is," he said with a glacial tone that was all frostbite.

  "Of course. I'll make the necessary arrangements."

  And I could tell that was what he wanted to hear the first time. Me bending over backward to accommodate and please him. I had to resist the urge to punch him in the mouth. But I knew there was no way Bridge or the others were going to let me go anywhere near Barcelona. So I asked him the one thing that was still really pressing. "So back to Price. Have you heard from him? What's the status on his wife and daughter? Anyone have any news about them?"

  He shook his head. "Interpol is working on it. Don't you have a friend at Interpol?"

  "I wouldn’t want to overstep our friendship."

  "Of course. Well, we're working on it. Sooner or later Price is going to get her back. I'm sure of it."

  I frowned as I watched him walk through the door. "How can you be so sure?"

  "I have a good sense about these things. Make sure you get Barcelona cleared with your husband."

  And just like that, he had my hackles up. "Bridge understands how important my work is to me."

  "Of course he does. And well, he is one of my brothers, so he can reassure you that I'm perfectly harmless. And the team will benefit from you being there. So, win-win."

  Except the way that he said win sent a chill down my back, and something told me that Barcelona with my boss was the last place on earth I wanted to be.

  Nine

  Emma

  That evening, on the threshold of Covington House, I hesitated. Usually, I hesitated for nobody. I'd been in and out of this house a lot in the last year. Whether they were angry or not, this was my family.

  At first, I stayed behind Bridge like I was guilty of something, but then realized what I was doing and straightened my shoulders. I was not guilty. I’d made a mistake. One I was sure I could fix if my husband would just talk to me. I changed my posture and walked in like I belonged. But then a familiar woman welcomed us at the entrance, and I was a bit taken aback. Bridge hesitated as well. "Mum? I didn't expect you to be here."

  "Uh-huh. Where the hell have you been keeping my new daughter-in-law hidden? I went by your house, but you weren't there. I went by the hotel, and still you weren't there. But then when I ran into Livy and she said everyone was coming over tonight, I decided to invite myself."

  He shifted on his feet and rubbed at the back of his neck. "Oh, um, Mum, it's complicated. You see—"

  I stepped around Bridge and his mother gave me a wide smile. "There you are, love. I have been dying to feed you. I know how it is when you first get married and the last thing you want to do is cook or eat out. So come eat."

  And that was that. She took my hand and tugged me through the great room straight to the kitchen. All I managed was a quick hello to everyone in the room. There was no stopping for scrutiny or judgment. She’d done me a kindness even though I’d hurt her son. There were called-out hellos, but no one sounded enthused to see me.

  What did you expect?

  I didn't even get to ask them. Belinda laid her towel onto a stool, which I assumed indicated I was meant to sit there. "I'm making a roux. While you're there, love, chop the meat, would you?"

  "Yes, ma’am." I knew to pay attention and listen.

  She paused with her back turned to me. "Okay, sweetheart, I'm only going to say this once."

  My stomach sank. Oh, she knew. She knew I’d fucked up and this was meant to be a lecture. "Ma’am, I'm so sorry. I mean, I'm sort of new at this, and I didn't know the extent. I would never, ever—"

  She turned around, a grin plastered on her face. " I am so sorry my son is a twat. I raised him better."

  I sputtered and then laughed. "Oh, okay. I hadn't expected that, but yes, he can be.”

  “He is mule-headed. He thinks he knows everything. Swears he's right about everything. He can be judgmental, and good God, that man will make you contemplate murder at least three times a day. And that's usually a good day, mind you."

  I nodded in agreement. "Yes, that is, in fact, accurate."

  "And I'm sorry because I did raise him well, honestly. He just… Sometimes he just defies logic and reason. And sometimes, well, sometimes I have had the urge to slap him. Not much can be done about that. But with a little patience, you will learn to love him."

  It was too late for that, because I already loved him. But I wasn't going to say that.

  "I-I don't know what to say."

  "You don't have to say anything, love. You just need to start eating." She shoved the first plate of tapas my way, and I started eating. My taste buds reveled in the home-cooked appetizer.

  And before I knew it, another plate of something delicious was placed in front of me. Were those dates stuffed with goat cheese? And the sauce on top of what smelled like a freshly made garlic roll made my mouth water and my stomach grumble. I knew better than to argue with his mother, so I dug in. Of course, I started to moan, probably in a very undignified fashion. But goddamn, the way she could cook.

  "I feel like I've tasted the sauce before. What is it?"

  She turned and grinned at me. "Family recipe. Now, I'm just going to get the other heathens fed because they asked for more sauce. I'll be right back."

  I wasted no time in approaching Livy. After all, this was her house. She was trying to grab a tray out of the container pantry, nearly bringing down one of the carefully stacked and organized containers on her head. “Oops, be careful.”

  Livy turned around slowly. “I'm torn between tugging you to my chest and hugging you so tight that you can't breathe and using an open palm to slap you.”

  “How about that hug, and then maybe a light tap on my ass?”

  She lifted a brow. “Your arse isn't where I was going to slap you.”

  “Kinky.” I joked but my heart tripped. If I didn't have these guys, I didn't have anyone. At least not here. Sure, I had mum and all the aunties and distant cousins, but these guys were my family. And I may play tough, but I needed them. The girls hadn't been part of my bargain in the beginning, but I'd grown to love them. All of them. “I deserve that.”

  Livy shook her head then tugged me into a tight embrace. “I love you, Emma, but you are a moron. Full stropping cow. His father? Really, Emma?”

  A flush crept up my neck. “I know. I know Liv. And I’ve wished I could take it back a thousand times. I just felt like I had to. I was trying to protect him, and I made a mistake. As you know I can be impulsive, but I never meant to hurt him. I'm not Mina.”

  Livy gripped both my shoulders. “Of course, you're not Mina. We actually love you.”

  “All that time they were together, and you never warmed to her?”

  Livy shrugged. “I'm pretty sure she didn't even know my name. Or she did and she didn’t care. You are here now, but you're going to have to fight for his heart. And as much as I love you, I'm annoyed, so you’re going to have to maybe show all of us that we weren't wrong to trust you.”

  “I get that. Just don't give up on me. Okay?”

  Livy rolled her eyes. “Family doesn't give up on family. That's not how it works. Family can be mad. Family can apparently kidnap you. But family doesn't give up on family.”

  Tears still brimming, I returned to the living room and the girls found me. Nyla plopped herself down first. "Oh, so you fucked up, huh?"

  I blushed and slouched in my seat. "Yes, it seems that I did."

  She nodded and planted a drink next to me, something with mint that looked mildly fizzy. Was it a mojito? She held out her arm and took a long sip of her own cocktail and then smacked her lips. "God, Drew might be a burgeoning alcoholic, but man, he can make a drink. You look like you need one."

  "Um, yeah, I suppose," I muttered as I looked down at my hands.

  "First of all, next time you're in trouble, you call one of us. That's the deal. I thought you knew this when you joined the crew."

  I flushed. "I know. I should have called you. Any of you, really. I made the wrong call instead."

  Telly met my gaze, and her dark eyes searched mine. "You did. But don't let him bully you. We love Bridge, but he can be a bit of a cock sometimes."

  I laughed as I shoved the garlic bread in my mouth. "You sound like his mum."

  "Oh yeah, I love Belinda. She calls him out to his face constantly. Or more along the lines of, 'Don't be a twat, Bridge.' It's quite a delight to watch."

  I laughed at that. "So you're not mad?"

  Nyla shook her head. "No one's mad. The lads are confused because, well, they know how things are with Bridge and his dad. And they're very protective because they have been around him longer and they know how horrible his father is. But they are very protective of you too, because they've known you since you were a kid."

  "Yeah, a kid. That's how they still see me."

  She shook her head. "You know, that's how they're always going to see you. They're men. But you have reasons to make them see you differently."

  When I turned to meet Telly's gaze, she crossed her arms and cocked her hip. "I'm not sure if I should be stinging angry with you or high-fiving you for having the balls to go toe-to-toe with Bridge."

  "I didn't intend for that to be the scenario."

  “Maybe not, but I did hear that you gave Ollie and Liam quite the chase. You put some self-defense moves on them, and they had quite a difficult time with you."

  "Yeah, but I still ended up locked up, didn't I?"

  Telly shrugged. "Sometimes it's about the fight."

  "Well, I hate that. I wish it was about the winning." I glanced around at my girls. "So, do I have to apologize again, or can we just hug this out and pretend that I didn't completely fuck up my marriage?"

  Before I knew it, their arms were around me. The scents of jasmine and vanilla and lime enveloped me. They weren't mad, and I wasn't alone, which was a relief. I could feel the warmth spread all over me.

  Dinner was a quick affair. The girls ate mostly in the kitchen. I’d thought most of them had already eaten, but they came back for seconds of Belinda’s incredible food.

  When I joined the crew in the living room, I saw a familiar face. "What the hell is he doing here?"

  It was the handsome kid, the one from the office. Alex was nearly as good-looking as Bridge. Less dangerous though. He had dark wavy hair, ice-blue eyes, a dimple on his chin that defied logic and natural selection. He nodded when he saw me. "Hi, Emma, I'm Alex. Pleasure to meet you finally."

  I glanced around and glowered at my husband.

  Bridge ignored me, which only made me glare harder.

  Alex winced. "Sorry about that. I have tried to be discreet and stay out of your way."

  "Yes, but the fact that you're turning up when I least expect you is concerning."

  He shrugged.

  "Is there anyone else I need to know about that works with us?"

  Alex smirked. "I think you've already met Ollie and Liam. The undercover security in the office will make themselves known."

  I groaned. "Let me guess, they’re mates of yours?"

  Bridge came and stood behind me then, plopping a hand on my shoulder. Alex raised a brow and then backed off.

  "You didn't have to do that."

  Bridge shrugged. "Do what?"

  This was the game he was playing? "Whatever."

  Bridge nudged me aside and I had to make room for him. "All right,” he said to the group. “The reason we're here tonight instead of already tucked away is that our mysterious friend has been sending Emma notes."

  Ben's gaze narrowed immediately. "What mysterious friend?"

  "Do you remember the first note that let us know Toby's death hadn’t been an accident? And now this. I got a bouquet of flowers today, letting me know that my office was bugged."

  East muttered under his breath. "Are you fucking kidding me right now?"

  Drew leaned forward, his elbows on his knees. Surprisingly, he did not have a drink in his hands. "What makes you think it's from the same person?"

  “The card stock is the same. The handwriting is the same. Smooth. Authoritative."

  East sat forward. "Well, if you give it to me, I can analyze it and see if we can find anything about the person who sent it."

  "Sure, I can do that. I don't know what to do, because they weren't wrong. I found at least one bug in my office. But I don't know if they're friend or foe."

  East, ever cautious, ran his hand through his hair. "I don't like it."

  Nyla nodded. "That's the thing; it's all well and good to give us information, but there is always a reason for people doing you a favor. I don't like it either.”

  “What do I do?”

  “Good question.” Ben’s voice was cool. “As long as your safety is not in question, I'd say utilize the information. He might be someone in our camp. What we've already learned from these assholes is that they've been assholes a long time, and there are other people who want them gone too. People who lack the power to make that kind of massive change themselves. So yeah, I'd say believe it."

  I nodded. "Okay. So, what am I supposed to do now that I believe it?"

  Bridge shook his head. "I don't like it. It puts you in even more danger."

  Ben met his gaze. "Well, the fact that she's not in the Winston Isles means we're going to have to use her."

  “Francis expects me to go to Barcelona with him in two weeks. There's probably viable information to mine from his team there that we could really use. I'll have better access to him, too."

  Bridge shook his head. “I don't like it."

  I shrugged. "Well, you don't have to like it. It is what it is. But we can learn something valuable from that trip. I say I should go."

  Bridge started to shake his head, but Ben stopped him. "Look, she's already in whether we like it this way or not. So we're all going to have to just let her go and protect her the best that we can."

  Next to me, I could feel the anger vibrating from Bridge as he said, "You might be right, because we need this over as quickly as we can. In the meantime, East, see what you can do to flush out who our friend might be. I want to know what they know. I don't want information force-fed to me. I like everything out in the daylight."

  He met my gaze as he said it and that went straight to the heart. He and I were going to have to talk whether we wanted to or not. There were things we needed to discuss that were going to affect not just us, but the rest of the team as well.

  Ten

  Bridge

  By the time we reached the estate, we were both tired and tense. Mum had fed us, and Emma seemed in a better mood, but nothing was at all settled between us.

  Instead of the helipad, we landed on the lawn and walked in the front entrance. When I opened the door, she gasped at the foyer.

  "What's wrong?"

  "I've never come through the front door before."

  I frowned at her. "Of course you have. We came this way—"

  I stopped myself. No, she hadn’t seen it then because her head had been covered with a bag. Because I’d been a dick, as my mother had made a point to shove it in my face several times. "Sorry about this morning."

  She turned to me. "Are you?"

  I grinned at her then. "No, not really."

  "Wow, at least you're honest."

  "Unlike some of us."

  "Enough, Bridge. Enough. You can choose to stay mad at me, but I'm not fucking Mina. I haven't been conspiring with your father for years. I never even met the man until the other day. He called saying he had something important to tell me that would affect our marriage. My whole goal was to tell him to go fuck himself. Tell him to stay the fuck away from your life because there was nothing he could do to stop us. We were already married. But then he hit me with a goddamn sledgehammer. Should I have talked to you before I went to see him? Yes, but I’m done apologizing. I'm prone to impulsivity. You know this. That's the thing with you, Bridge; instead of addressing your own feelings about something, you will punish and punish and punish. Fuck, I'm tired of it. You have to deal with me, eventually. You married me. Then you kidnapped me and brought me here. I'm stuck with you. So one way or another, you and I are going to have a conversation whether you like it or not. Personally, I could do this forever, but there's information you really need to know."

  I shook my head. “He sold you a bill of lies."

  "You know what? That's the thing. I believe he told me a bill of lies too, but you still need to know what they are so we can deal with it appropriately, not this childish bullshit of you not speaking to me. That's not how this works. That's not trying to sort things out. Guess what? When you're in a relationship with someone, you have to expect that they will fuck up once in a while. That's being human. I'm not some perfect paragon. And if you didn't know that from the start, then well, the joke's on you. But here's a bigger joke; you fucking kidnapped me."

  I scowled down at her. “Stop shouting, Emma."

  "Oh what, my shouting makes you uncomfortable? Fuck you, Bridge."

  She stormed away, and I snatched her wrist and tugged her back. "Watch your mouth with me, Emma. I only have so much patience."

  "Or what?" She furrowed her brow at me. " Seriously, or what? You'll kidnap me and hold me against my will?"

  I opened my mouth to answer but then I had to shut it again.

  "Yeah, that's what I thought already happened. So, what more could you do? I know you. I know you to your core."

  The soft jab of her fingertip against my sternum had all my breath leaving me. She did know me. And I hated that. I hated that she knew me and still met with the old man.

  So is this really about your hang-ups and not necessarily what she did?