Page 8 of Secret (Chicago Underground 6)
“Oh, well, as long as the men are entertained, I suppose I have done my job.”
He speared me with a dark look before turning to my clothes, his clinical gaze raking over my body. “These look nice. Comfortable.”
“You’re wondering how my ass looks in these yoga pants, aren’t you?”
“And praying there’s a God.”
“I don’t know about God, but I’m feeling merciful.” I sashayed down the hall in front of him, letting him drink his fill.
Chapter Four
Back in the suite, the men all split up into separate bedrooms. We had a few hours before it was time to leave. We were supposed to be resting, but Luke was far too tense. He kept looking over the old schematics of the Barracks, even though our entry and exit routes were well laid out.
“Come here.” I patted the bed. “I’ll rub your shoulders.”
He hesitated before throwing down the papers and lying on the bed. I climbed onto his back, and he groaned.
I laughed. “I haven’t even started yet.”
His words were muffled in the sheets. “But I have.”
With gentle strokes, I rubbed some of the knots out of his shoulders and back. I knew his mind was on what we were going to do in a few hours, but I felt some of the worry leave his m
ind as the tension drained from his body. But like an electrical current, the worry seemed to flow from him to me. Our opening moves were pretty well decided, but what happened at the end? It seemed vague, which I had first assumed was because we couldn’t predict Henri’s reactions. Still, a question lingered.
“So assuming we get in quietly and you do arrest him. How are you going to explain that to your boss?”
It was quiet.
“Luke?”
“I’m not planning to arrest him, Shelly.”
Which meant… “I thought you were joking about shooting him on first sight.”
“I was. I’m going to talk to him first.” He struggled to sit up.
I moved off him. “You’re going to talk to him. And then shoot him. That’s…that’s…”
“Murder,” he supplied.
“Not legal. I was going to say that’s not legal.”
“I told you I’ve done worse than you thought.”
Despite his glib words, he spoke with a solemn intensity. This affected him deeply, his long-standing adherence to the rules not so easily discarded.
“If I arrest him, he’ll just walk. You know that. And even if by some miracle he ended up in jail, he would be able to organize things from there. At a minimum, that would mean putting a hit out on you, on Ella.”
“On you too.”
“I’ve spent twelve years of my life fighting for the law to take him down. It hasn’t. It won’t. This is the only way.”
The words were eerily familiar. This was the only way. Everyone wanted Henri dead, but no one had the guts enough to do it. Not Jade, not Marguerite. Not even me, only Luke. But I wondered how much it would cost him. I wondered where his breaking point was, and whether this was beyond it.
On impulse I pressed a kiss to the back of his hand. Feeling silly, I glanced up. His eyes glowed surprise and approval in the dim late-afternoon light. This close, I could see the gold-and-black striations through the deep green. I had a sudden premonition than this would be the last sight I’d ever see.
I shivered.
