Page 120 of The Saint (Gentlemen Rogues 3)
Just as soon as I figured out what the hell to do about Gabe'sproposal. He wanted to try and use me to figure out who the hell the men chasing me were and what they wanted.
When Westin led us into the room, I checked all of the familiar faces. I had met half of these people at my supposed engagement party. Had they all been mocking me? Laughing at how naive I was?It didn't seem that way. But still, what if I had made a fool of myself by believing?
Can you let that go and just enjoy him?
That was the real question. But it wasn't one that was getting answered now.
Saint pulled out my seat for me. I smirked as Westin had already reached for my chair when Saint growled low at him, and Westin just sat on my other side, smirking at Saint. I was going to need to talk to him about that. Whatever the hell that was, it couldn't be healthy. I didn't want to be a thing that could be won. A possession, a prize. Gabe stood at the center of the room with some state of the art clicker and several images came up on the screen in front of us. I recognized one of those men. They had all been part of the gang that had tried to grab me earlier today. Or was that yesterday? I wasn’t really conscious of time at the moment.
"In front of you are the capture squad that tried to pick Kaya up off the street yesterday."
So it had been twenty-four hours.
"We know their names, Ivan Maslov, Trent Jacobs, Ethan Maslovovich, and Ricardo Lucci. They’re all lieutenants of Antonio Igno. Interrogations started with them today, but we'll take another shot at them later tonight. Lucci already cracked. We're of course verifying all information he gives us. All we know is that Kaya Reynolds," he indicated me with a nod of his chin, "was spotted at the auction gala several weeks ago. Once she was flagged, Igno put out the request for a capture squad."
Capture Squad? Who were these people?
My skin started to prickle as several eyes started to dart toward me. The ones I recognized didn't look at me, but the others, all agents in this clandestine organization that my mother had been part of, stared openly. Maybe that was the most difficult part, knowing she had this secret life the whole time.
Was it really that secret though? She had trained me. Wherever we moved, she immediately enrolled me in martial arts. I had been instructed in all disciplines. Once when we were in France, I even learned some savate. I just assumed she thought it was important that I learn how to defend myself. But when she was gone, I shoved down those skills. It was like I had locked away every feeling I had about my mother.
Well, they came back with a vengeance, didn't they?
I didn't even want to think about it. The blood and the bruises and the breaks. I just wanted to close that all off and shove it away.
"Three times now, the squad has gotten close. The first was not when they were chasing after Kayaand Saint near the All Saints Tech building. The first began at the auction. They recognized you there, correct?"
He was addressing me. All eyes turned to me, and the prickly heat of all that attention was unnerving. "I assume so. I made eye contact with one of them and he seemed to be in pursuit, so I ran. We saw them again at the All Saints offices. They tried to take out Saint, but I didn’t get an impression other than I was to be captured. I guess. I don't know."
Gabe nodded. "Then they did this to her flat." He pulled up the photo of my burned out flat, and my heart squeezed. The pain of knowing I lost everything was fierce. But it eased just a little thinking about the room Saint had created for me. The refuge he'd made me inside an unfamiliar space. The way he'd made me feel at home.
Westin spoke up. "Do we know the exact target? Is it capture or kill? Because that looks like a kill attempt."
Gabe nodded. "Our best guess is they were trying to flush her out. Especially if they've been watching her place and it seemed like she wasn't there. Matter of fact, they timed it so that not many students were at home. There were no casualties. Theblast was mostly concentrated to her flat. It did reach into her neighbor's flat as well, but her neighbor was not there. Injuries listed were mostly smoke inhalation. It was a controlled blast. Too controlled to be a gas explosion."
The side door eventually opened and everybody tensed. I could feel it. It was like a heavy weighted blanket fell over the entire room, but not in a comfortable, cozy kind of way, but in a way that was restrictive. The man that walked in held his jacket in front of him and he was being escorted by Ryan who was now on his feet. Ryan met my gaze and gave me a nod and a wink. It was his way of letting me know he was okay. I’d only managed to visit him for a few minutes last night, but he hadn't been awake. The entire room just scowled at the man he accompanied, who grinned unabashedly at everyone else.
"Kaya, this is Drake Webster. He's a consultant we use from time to time. He has inside knowledge of the Igno empire."
I nodded at him and he grinned at me. Okay, had I been transported to some special island where they train models to be spies? I certainly hoped Gemma was still hanging around because she would have a field day. Although, as I glanced around the room, some of the men, while good-looking, were more on the average good-looking scale. But this one, like Gabe, Saint, Lachlan, and Westin, though older in his thirties maybe, was next level handsome. Almost like they were an elite team of pussy bait. Honestly, it was distracting. Webster looked at the screen in front of him and smiled.
"Oh, all the familiar faces. What did they do now?"
"They tried to grab her," Saint said gruffly as he nodded at me.
Webster leaned forward, his gaze on me now sharp and shrewd, and then something cold crawled up my spine. The previously dancing, glittery eyes were dead. Cold. When he turned his gaze away, I was relieved. Tension ebbed out of mybody, but now into Saint's then Westin's. I glanced across the table at Saffron, and her jaw was tight. Her whole body was tense. I could see the muscle in her neck, and it looked as if Lachlan was holding her hand under the table. To contain her? She hated this Webster guy. I could tell. It was in her body language.
Gabe was the only one in the room who was neutral to him. And why was that? Who was he?
Webster spoke again. "You look like your mother."
Gabe nodded. "Yes. We're pretty sure that's how they spotted her. Igno has had a standard trace and trap flag on her mother for twenty years. When Kaya turned up a spitting image, his memory activated. The only problem is, they have the wrong woman."
Lock whistled low. "Jesus Christ. So now they're chasing her thinking she's her mother?"
Gabe nodded and Drake sat back and laughed. "Oh, this is a trip. All right, do you know what they want with her?"
Gabe shook his head. "That's why you're here. Insight."
