“Look, my man over there has spotted her three times with the same guy in different locations. We looked into him and he’s some kind of ex-MI5 guy. Works for a firm we know Cannon pay for intelligence. A Phil Dyer, but he uses various aliases. James Cree is a favorite. Alfie Molloy is another.”

It couldn’t be true. There must be some mistake . . . but Landon didn’t get shit like this wrong. “You have photos of her and this guy? And even if you do, that doesn’t mean anything though, right? Perhaps he approached her, but that doesn’t mean she told him anything. He might have been coming on to her, trying to compromise her and failing.”

Landon’s silence on the other end of the phone told me he thought I was being an idiot and was trying to piece together why.

I ended his torture. “I’ve been sleeping with her.”

“Jesus, you’re an idiot. I told you I’d arrange company if—”

“Landon,” I growled. I didn’t want to hear how he thought I was a teenager who couldn’t do with my fist for a couple of months in exchange for a successful deal that would feature in my fucking obituary. It hadn’t been like that. Not that lust hadn’t played a part, but it was more than that. I couldn’t have stayed away from her if I’d tried. And I had tried.

And she’d tried to keep away from me. As much as she wore a mask, the way she fought against crossing the line between guest and crew couldn’t have been faked. Could it? If I’d not bumped into her at the theater, we may never have ended up spending the day and night together.

Had she engineered that?

Had she deliberately played coy to throw me off guard?

Fuck. I didn’t know anything anymore.

“You’re sure it’s Avery?”

“Can you get to shore? I can have someone meet you with the evidence in thirty minutes.”

“But it’s just photographs of her talking to some guy?”

“In one of the photographs, she was given a satellite phone.”

She’d told me the yacht only had one satellite phone and that she wasn’t allowed to use it much. That was why she’d had to use mine. Had that been another lie?

“She has an established line of contact. This wasn’t a one-off.”

My only hope was this wasn’t Avery. That Landon was confused. At a push, August’s hair could be described as brown, although it was so dark, wouldn’t most people call it black or at least dark brown?

I stood up. I had to see more evidence. I trusted my brother, but it was hard for me to believe I’d been so wrong about someone. I had to find that phone, see those pictures with my own eyes and confront her. “I need to see the evidence.”

Thirty

Hayden

Did she suspect I knew what she’d done? As much as I didn’t want to look, I couldn’t help but be drawn to Avery standing on the main deck as the tender got closer to the boat. As usual, her hair was scraped back into an efficient ponytail.

Unfortunately, Landon hadn’t mistaken August for Avery. The photographs his contact had shown me had been conclusive. Avery had met with an ex-MI5 agent on three separate occasions. Once might be explainable. Twice even. But three times she’d spoken to this guy, once just after our night together in Taormina.

Avery knew I was buying Phoenix. She’d seen the bloody documents. She could have worked out the price and the main terms . . . but the deal hadn’t been stolen from me. Not yet.

Why hadn’t Cannon stepped in? Was Avery part of a longer-term approach? Perhaps there were plans in place I didn’t know about.

I’d spoken to my investors onshore, and they’d agreed to the price increase. I was an inch away from completing the deal of the decade, the most significant transaction of my career, and yet I wasn’t elated. Adrenaline ran through my veins, but it wasn’t victory that had put it there. It was anger.

Betrayal.

I’d thought it cut like a knife when I found out I had a leak at Wolf Enterprises, but it was a flesh wound compared to the way my heart felt as if it had been yanked out of my chest and displayed on a stake right at that moment.

The boat was booked until the end of the week, but I had no reason to stay after we completed the sale. Not anymore. But before I left, I wanted an explanation. To look Avery Walker in the eye and ask her how much they’d paid her to fuck me and whether that made her feel like the prostitute it made her.

Avery

Something was wrong.

As much as Hayden and I were super careful, even when we were surrounded by others, I always knew he was aware of me. A look or the tilt of his head gave it away. But as he came aboard all I got was his averted eyes and the back of his head as he swept past me and into the main salon.

Tags: Louise Bay Erotic
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