“I’m not as black-and-white a thinker as you are,” Roman said, “but I won’t hold that against you.”
She laughed. “Magnanimous.”
“I like to think myself altruistic now and again,” he teased. “But consider this. What if Seaver bought her?”
“Bought who?”
“Mirabella. Would you still feel the same way about the rule of law if you found out Seaver paid the judge to rule in her favor?”
Gianna turned her hands palms up. “Where did that come from? Are you serious? She’s a senator. Her career would be toast if something like that got out.”
He just nodded with that I-know-something-you-don’t smirk and swirled the wine in his glass.
“Do you have credible evidence of that?” she asked.
“Not yet. Sam’s working on it.”
“Oh my God.” Gianna covered her ears. “I didn’t hear that. I did not just hear you insinuate your employee is hacking into the life of a judge.”
“Not her whole life.” Roman took a sip of wine. “Just, you know, a few bank accounts…”
She shook her head and closed her eyes. “La-la-la-la-la.”
When he stopped talking, she opened her eyes and dropped her hands. And she found him grinning at her. A bright, open, sexy-as-hell smile that lightened those broody eyes of his and made her ache to kiss him.
“I love to torture you,” he told her.
“I’m so sorry I got you into this. It looked like a cut-and-dry case of custodial interference. Then before I know it, I find out Hix lives in a fortress, Everly thinks he’s a good guy, you tell me Paige may have shortcut the legal process for political gain.” She held her head. “Aye yi yi.”
“Be
t you could use a vacation,” Roman said.
She closed her eyes. “Don’t torture me like that.”
“How does the Caribbean sound? Ever been to Turks and Caicos?”
“You’re so cruel.”
“Everly just informed us that she, Mirabella, Hix, and his security team are leaving for a meeting with Titus Security Group tomorrow. Whether or not we can stage an extraction depends on their security measures, but I’m putting together a plan to fly out first thing tomorrow with my team. Ian is meeting us there. You should come. Get a firsthand look at Hix yourself. Evaluate him with those sexy CIA skills of yours. Because if the worst is realized and we discover the judge took a bribe to give custody to the Seavers, we are both going to be in a position to play judge and jury. And I’d like to think we’d come up on the same side of that gavel.”
She sat back and combed both hands through her hair. “This just keeps spiraling.”
“Come on,” he said with a you-know-you-wanna tone in his voice. “There are worse things than spending a weekend in Turks and Caicos with me.”
All Gianna could visualize was that panty-melting grin, his rock-hard body, and white sand beaches.
He was dead wrong. For Gianna, there was nothing worse than spending a weekend in Turks and Caicos with Roman Steele.
9
Austin sat across a table from Decker on their chartered jet. Three members of Austin’s security team sat on the other side of the plane, playing cards. Everly had settled in at one of the tables with a bench seat. Bella had instantly curled in beside her and fallen asleep half an hour into the flight.
Everly had a Turks and Caicos guide book and a notebook open on the table in front of her, but her gaze kept going distant out the window. One finger absently curled a strand of Bella’s hair round and round.
“Why don’t you go sit with her?” Decker’s question drew his attention back to the conversation.
“What? Sorry. No, I’m listening.” He shifted in his seat and leaned forward, refocusing on the floorplan of the home he’d rented for the visit and the security plan Decker had mapped out. “This is good. These three baboons”—he lifted his chin to his three regular security guards—“will stay inside with us. The four you hired on the island are going to be in plain clothes. Two posted on the street outside the gates and two on the beach.”