Love and Let Die (Masters and Mercenaries #5)(89)

“She’s not trying to get away from you.” Chelsea had tears running down her face. It was the first time she’d seen her sister cry since that awful day she’d nearly lost her legs. “She’s going to go down and offer herself up. She’s going to let them kill her. Can’t you see that? She would rather die than be the reason you lose someone else.”

Charlie looked at her baby sister. She loved her so much. For so many years, Chelsea had been the only thing that kept her going. Protecting Chelsea had been her whole life, the only thing she’d managed to do right until it had all gone wrong. “We can’t escape fate, but we gave it a good try, didn’t we, sister?”

Chelsea choked back a sob and nodded. “We did. Let me go with you. I can sit with you. I would rather go with you.”

“Nobody’s going anywhere, damn it.” Ian hauled her up, ignoring her protests. He looked back at the crew gathered around them. “That door stays locked, Alex. You tell Simon and Jesse to secure the women and then get their asses back here. Li, Jake, and Adam can handle them. I need extra eyes on her.”

“Ian?” Alex’s face was flush with emotion, the question meaning something she didn’t understand.

“I’m going to take care of her. Make sure I can. Watch that one. She doesn’t get to play the martyr either.” He started to walk down the hall, carrying her easily.

She was trapped in his arms. She had to make him see reason. “You have to let me go, Ian. Did you see the roses? My uncle sent them. It had to be him. Yellow roses. An even number of yellow roses.”

“It means someone thinks we’re going to be planning a funeral.” He seemed to understand, but he didn’t stop. He just walked toward his destination.

“There are fourteen of them. Ian, there are fourteen of us if you include Carys. He’s going to kill the baby. He’s going to kill the wives. He’s going to eradicate everyone you love if you don’t let me go. If I make it easy for him, maybe he’ll be satisfied with that.”

“He won’t. His path is set. He knows damn well that I will come after him. I won’t stop until he’s dead. We’re all on a path now.”

She’d set them there. “You can get off. Please, Ian. Please, let me go.”

He walked into his office and set her down on the sofa. He put his hand over her mouth. “Don’t move.” His voice lowered to a growly whisper. “Charlie, trust me.”

She looked up at him as he stalked back and shut the door. He grabbed what looked like a walkie-talkie and turned it on, looking at the screen. He walked through the room, staring at the screen and fine-tuning it.

He was looking for bugs?

He finally turned it off and shoved it back in his desk before turning to her, a grave look on his face. He walked her way and she stood up. Now he had to listen to her.

“Ian, Avery’s already gone,” she said. “We can’t lose someone else. Please let me go.”

Her whole world tipped upside down as he got to his knees and wrapped his arms around her waist. “Forgive me.”

“Ian, what are you talking about?” She couldn’t seem to catch her breath. Without even really thinking about it, her hands found his hair. God, she wanted this. To hold him one last time. She sank her hands into his thick sandy hair.

“Forgive me. I can’t trust anyone. Not anyone outside of our family. Please forgive me, baby.”

Had he used the word “our”? “There’s nothing to forgive, Master. I love you, but you have to let me go and face them.”

“I can’t. Forgive me for lying to you but they were watching. It’s too important. I’m trying to protect all of us. They were in the room. I had to lie.”

“Lie?”

“Avery’s alive, but it was a close thing. She managed to get the car to stop, but she collided with another vehicle. They took her to the hospital. She and the baby are fine, but Liam thinks it was an attempt on her, and the assassins from last night at Alex and Eve’s weren’t there for you.”

Pieces of the puzzle fell into place. “They were trying to get Alex and Eve.”

“I just found a device on Alex’s cell. Someone is listening in. We decided to fake Avery’s death. Adam hacked the hospital system and had her pronounced dead. Liam is taking the rest of our women to a safe place. He and Jake and Adam will protect them. Sean will run with his family. They won’t come back out until I tell them it’s safe.”

“Fourteen yellow roses, Ian. They want to kill you all and it’s my fault.”

His head shook slightly. “It doesn’t matter now. All that matters is that you have to keep the secret, too. I don’t want either of the MI6 agents to know Avery’s alive. I’m pissed that they know we’ve already killed two of them.”

At least he trusted her this much. “I won’t tell them a thing. Chelsea doesn’t need to know, either.” She was making her choice. She loved her sister, but her final loyalty had to be to Ian. “But they can’t stay in hiding forever. My uncle won’t stop trying to kill me. Let me go and maybe he’ll forget about the rest of you.”

His arms tightened around her. “I’m so sorry, but you have to understand that I will never allow you to walk out that door and let them take you. I don’t care if you could make a deal with them that saved us all. I won’t let it happen.”