Love and Let Die (Masters and Mercenaries #5)(87)

“You say that like it’s a bad thing. I’ve spent the last couple of years pretty much doing that for you. At least he worshipped me back, and don’t wrinkle your nose at the idea. Until you’ve had a man who wants to hold you, who wants you more than his next breath, you don’t get a say in the way I feel.”

Ian seemed to be talking to someone on the speaker phone. Charlie stared at the flowers. They were beautiful, just buds now, their graceful curves only starting to reveal the bloom inside. She’d been like that once. She’d been full of possibilities. She hadn’t even known what those possibilities were. Ian had shown her.

She wouldn’t bloom. Maybe Chelsea was right, and they had never really had a chance.

Fourteen flowers. She touched them all, a little worry sparking in the back of her brain. “Chelsea, how many flowers do you count?”

“I don’t care about the flowers.”

“I count fourteen. Fourteen yellow roses and no one knows who sent them.”

Chelsea suddenly seemed to care about the flowers. “It could be a mistake. Maybe whoever sent them meant to send a dozen and they got fourteen by mistake. They send flowers by the dozen here in the States.”

No one in Russia sent an even number of flowers to anything except a funeral. And no one sent yellow flowers except to show their profound sadness or to mark a betrayal.

These were funeral flowers meant for a Russian daughter. For her.

“We have to get out of here.” Chelsea tugged on her arm, pure fear on her face. It seemed she’d gotten the message, too. “They don’t understand how far our uncle will go.”

Liam strode down the hallway, a grim look on his face. He shoved his way into the conference room and immediately started talking. Everyone was facing him and then Grace started to cry.

Oh, god, what was going on? Charlie stepped to the window that separated them.

Charlie watched as the conference room seemed to tense and then Liam and Grace went running out of the room followed by a tense-looking Simon and Jesse, who was checking the clip on his SIG. Jake moved back toward his office while Adam was back at his computer, his fingers flying across the keys.

Something had happened. Something spectacularly bad.

Baz chose that moment to walk down the hallway. He stopped, looking into the conference room before poking his head into the office where Charlie was standing. “What’s going on?”

“I don’t know.” But she needed to find out. Ian had told her to wait, but she couldn’t just sit here when it looked like everything was falling apart. What had caused Grace to cry? To run out of the room like the devil was chasing her?

She looked into the lobby and Grace had her purse. Liam was escorting her out of the office, his eyes moving, searching for a threat.

“Looks serious. I better go get Damon.” Baz’s expression never changed. He looked back, his eyes catching on Phoebe’s desk. “Nice flowers. Someone must be in love.”

But those flowers weren’t about love.

Ian stood up, looking at whatever Adam was doing on the computer. When his face lifted toward the door, there was a weariness to his eyes that she hated. He ran a hand across his brow, his shoulders slumping.

Alex and Eve were holding hands and suddenly Eve turned into Alex’s body, his arms wrapping around her. Eve was crying.

Charlie stood up. Fuck. What had happened? What the hell had happened? She couldn’t just sit here. Ian would just have to punish her. She moved toward the conference room door.

“Uhm, I don’t think you’re supposed to leave. Ian was very specific about it,” Phoebe said as she walked back in the office, pushing her glasses up her nose.

Charlie ignored her, moving into the hall. She looked to her left and Grace was locking the front doors as Liam paced by the elevator. They were locking down. Her heart rate picked up, thumping through her chest.

She crossed the space between them, her hands trembling as she opened the conference room door.

“Liam, Simon, and Jesse are with her, Sean,” Ian was saying. “They’re taking her out the back after they get Carys from daycare. Nothing’s going to happen to them, and Li might be a paranoid idiot, but I’m following his lead on this one.”

“I’m leaving the restaurant right now. Have Li text me the meet spot. Not at home.” There was a click and Sean’s voice was gone.

“What happened?” Charlie asked. Grace couldn’t go home?

Ian’s eyes pinned her, making her want to squirm. “I told you to stay in your seat and you are not allowed to talk.”

It was bad. Whatever had happened was really bad, and it was personal. “Please tell me.”

“Why, Charlotte? Why do you need to know?”

“Because I care about these people.” Because somehow through years of studying them, she’d come to love them. They had become her family.

Ian was so cold as he stood over her. All the heat that had been between them was gone, snuffed out utterly, and she could feel the vast distance that separated her from him. “Do you really? I have some questions about that.”

“I didn’t write those e-mails to Nelson. It was Chelsea.” He might never believe her, but she would defend herself.

“And Chelsea is your sister. Your ultimate loyalty is to her. I guess at the end of the day, it all comes down to family, doesn’t it? You’re always going to choose your family.”