Her Enemy Protector (Tempt Me 2)

Ruby stiffened. “Something I agreed to so I could clean up after one of your messes again.”

“Me getting caught wasn’t an accident.” Jasper shoved his fingers through his hair. “I needed to make contact with the Silver Knights, and I figured with the arms exchange coming up, they’d fall for the cocaine in the trunk hook, line, and sinker. Which they did.”

The only thing in life Lucas hated more than being taken for a fool was the watery split-pea soup he’d survived on when his mother was still alive. A setup. He’d built his entire carefully considered plan based on a setup.

“He kept his mouth shut about all of this until we left for Fare Island. At that point, I couldn’t get him to shut up,” Clausen said from her spot by the door, her hands clasped behind her back, and her back straight in the Silver Knights version of at ease.

Brain spinning, he ran through the possibilities. They were still there. He’d have to figure out how to mix the interfering Americans in on this operation, but he’d find a way to keep it minimal.

“What’s the CIA’s interest in this?” he asked.

“Same as yours,” Jasper responded. “We have to stop the exchange.”

“There is no ‘we.’” No. There was Elskov and then there was everyone else.

Jasper shrugged. “You’ll have to take that up with the U.S. government because that’s who I take my orders from.”

Since killing him and dumping the body out the window wasn’t an option, Lucas ground his teeth together as he enjoyed the mental picture of Jasper sailing through the midnight sky without a parachute.

“How long?” Ruby asked, her voice shaking just enough to yank Lucas back to the here and now.

Jasper’s mouth formed a tight line, and for a second it didn’t seem like he would answer, but he did. “They recruited me when I was on my post-university trip to New York.”

“That was years ago.” Ruby’s gray eyes widened with shock. “You never told me.”

“I couldn’t. Anyway, if you’d known what I’d been doing for the past five years, you would have worried more. I know you.”

“At least one of us can say that,” she snapped.

“Rubes.” He reached out for his sister, but she rebuffed the attempt. “Don’t be that way. I didn’t have a choice about telling you.”

The benefit of growing up as a foster kid meant his family drama was of a different shade than what he was seeing between sister and brother. For him, hate was just hate and neglect only neglect. But the animosity and hurt building between Ruby and Jasper had a different feel to it, the kind that would sink this operation if he didn’t get them to stop now.

Lucas spoke up. “We only have a few days to find the location of the exchange. Do you have leads?”

“Nothing beyond that it’s supposed to happen this weekend. The betting money is on Sunday. Rolf doesn’t trust me enough to give me details, so it’s a good thing I’m such an amazing snoop.” Jasper said. “As much as I hate this marriage ruse, at least it got me back on the island so I could track that information down—even if I had to bring along my latest flavor of the week.”

“Just what I always dreamed about being called.” Clausen rolled her eyes in disgust. “Finally, after working my ass off in the academy and then Silver Knights training, my dream has come true.”

“Then we start tomorrow,” Lucas said, already sorting out a plan that took the new factors of Jasper and Clausen being on Fare Island into account. “We have to get the location of the exchange.”

“It’s gotta be on his phone,” Jasper muttered.

Rolf had the phone fisted in his tight grip when he’d greeted Ruby and Lucas after they’d arrived on the island. At the dinner table, the crime boss had only briefly looked up from the glowing screen during the meal as the phone lay between him and his right-hand man. Even the recon photos of Rolf the Silver Knights had on file showed the phone.

“He does seem attached to it,” Lucas said. Too bad the simplicity of the answer didn’t make the solution any less complex.

“His life’s on that fucking thing,” Jasper said, rubbing the spot on his neck where Clausen had zapped him. “It’s encrypted, secured six ways to Sunday, and you’d need your own personal army to peel it out of his grasp.”

Lucas shrugged. “Sounds simple enough.”

Jasper looked at him as if he were delusional. He wasn’t. He was just determined not to let anything stand in his way. This arms deal could not happen. He had to figure out how to do that without outing Jasper, blowing his cover, endangering Ruby, or violating the queen’s edict not to harm Rolf Macintosh. A child’s game for a guy who’d figured out how to navigate the foster system by the time he was seven, survive on the street by the time he was thirteen, and play for the good guys when he joined the Elskovian army at eighteen.

“Just remember that—” Jasper pointed at the chain at connecting Lucas’s and Ruby’s wrists. “is just pretend. Don’t fuck with her because you think you can. I know the truth about you.”

“No one is fucking with me,” Ruby said, getting right in Jasper’s face. “But you sure are pissing me off.”

“Rubes, you don’t know him. He’s not who you think he is.”