Chapter 15

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

The flight to Washington in the privately owned Wynter Security jet was far more comfortable than the commercial airplane, with its cramped seating, that Sapphie and Angel had flown to England on when they fled Washington two years ago.

The main cabin of the Wynter-owned plane seated twelve people comfortably in wide seats that were more like armchairs and arranged in clusters of four. When those seats tilted all the way back, a footrest swung out from beneath it, turning it into a full-length bed. The shower room and toilet were as luxurious as those in a five-star hotel: Sapphie had stayed in a few of those when she was with Marco.

There was also an actual bedroom at the back of the cabin, with a king-size bed and an adjoining full en suite bathroom.

Sapphie, Angel, and Magnus occupied one of the sets of four chairs on takeoff. Fergus sat at another one with the three men, employees of Wynter Security, they had brought with them as added protection.

Linus had reluctantly remained in London. Reluctantly, because Magnus had explained Linus didn’t like animals. Nevertheless, the youngest Wynter brother had assured a concerned Angel that he would take very good care of Angus and Henry while she was away, and that they would be waiting for her when she came back.

Sapphie really hoped that last part was true.

Especially the part about Angel coming back.

Sapphie knew she was placing an awful lot of trust in not just Magnus, but in the hope the situation might have changed. That the last two years might have mellowed the Carluccis’ attitude and they could now all sit and talk about the situation like reasonable adults.

That hope and the belief that Magnus and the other men would protect her and Angel were the only reasons she had felt able to fly to Washington, DC, at all.

Sapphie had put Angel down for a nap in the bedroom a short time ago, leaving the door slightly ajar when she returned to her seat, so that she could hear her daughter when she woke up.

“You weren’t exaggerating when you said you’re richer than the Carluccis,” she said ruefully, having resumed her seat opposite Magnus.

Magnus chuckled as he stood up to sit in the chair next to her, where Angel had previously been sitting, before he took Sapphie’s hand in his. “Which doesn’t mean I’m suddenly going to turn into an entitled dickhead like your husband did,” he assured.

She shook her head. “I didn’t think you were.”

“No?” He raised skeptical eyebrows.

She grimaced. “If I did, even for a moment, then it was my own insecurities talking and has absolutely nothing to do with the truthful and honorable man I know you to be.”

Magnus lifted her hand to kiss her knuckles. “I’m not feeling in the least honorable when it comes to wishing it was the two of us secluded in the privacy of the bedroom at the back of the cabin right now.”

He saw Sapphie’s breath catch in her throat, no doubt in reaction to seeing the fire burning in the depth of his eyes.

“Are you really sure about us?” she prompted with a worried frown. “It was all a bit rushed. I don’t want you to feel trapped?—”

Magnus’s lips crashing down on hers silenced whatever else she had been about to say.

When they came up for air, he pressed his thumb against her tingling lips. “I love you, Sapphie. I know myself well enough to know that isn’t ever going to change. Not now, not tomorrow, not next year, not a decade or a lifetime from now. I’ll love you forever.” He made it the vow it was.

She gave a shaky laugh. “Well, that told me, didn’t it?”

He smiled. “I hope so. Now, do you want to stay here and sleep beside me, or would you prefer to lie down with Angel in the bedroom?”

“Is that your polite way of telling me I need to take a nap too?” she teased.

He chuckled. “Yes.”

She gave an incredulous laugh. “I’d ask if you’re always this bossy, but I already know that you are.”

“And you’ve fallen in love with me anyway,” he said with satisfaction.

She sobered. “I have. And that isn’t ever going to change,” she added with certainty. “Not now, not tomorrow, not next year, not a decade or a lifetime from now.” Her fingers tightened about his. “I promise to love you forever too, Magnus.”

“Thank you,” he accepted soberly.

She glanced at their surroundings. “But maybe we should choose somewhere less…public the next time we have a conversation like this.”

“Or when there’s an empty cabin I can take you to and we can make love.” The constant hardness of his cock whenever he was in Sapphie’s presence hadn’t lessened in the slightest.

She frowned. “You’ve been a bachelor for so long, are you going to be okay with having an instant family?”

He grinned. “Are you kidding me? Angel is the most adorable child I’ve ever met in my life.”

“She has her meltdowns.”

He chuckled. “I saw that when she was crying for Henry. But we all have our moments. It doesn’t make us bad people.” He sobered. “I’m hoping we’ll give her some brothers and sisters she can play with sometime soon.”

“Some brothers and sisters?”

He nodded. “As many as you’ll give me.”

This was another thing that Sapphie recognized made Magnus so different to Marco—there were so many of them, all of them positive in Magnus’s favor!—because Marco hadn’t wanted any more children. He’d stated emphatically that one child was enough of an inconvenience to his lifestyle.

Magnus placed a gentle finger beneath her chin, lifting her face until her gaze met his. “Don’t think about him until you have to.”

Until she was face-to-face with the Carluccis, Sapphie knew he meant.

Which was going to happen in a few hours’ time.

But she wasn’t alone this time. She had Magnus, Fergus, and all their men with her.

She hoped their protection would be enough to keep her and Angel safe.

There were even more of the Wynter employees waiting for them in the terminal at the private airfield near Washington after they had landed and—thankfully—been allowed to leave. Sapphie had been afraid she would be arrested the moment she stepped onto American soil.

“His name is Knox Wilder, and I called him before we left London and asked him to bring his team of men with him,” Magnus confided softly when Sapphie stiffened beside him upon seeing those half a dozen waiting men. A very large man with a shaved head stood front and center. “He’s currently running the Wynter Security New York office instead of me. A position that is going to become permanent once we have this situation sorted.”

“If it ever is,” Sapphie muttered.

“It will be,” Magnus insisted. “Knox and his team flew in earlier this morning to secure and contain the Carlucci home ready for our visit,” Magnus continued. “I know he looks a little scary, but there isn’t another man on the planet, apart from my brothers and cousin, I’d rather have at my back.”

Knox Wilder was probably about the same age as Magnus, but he somehow seemed even bigger than him. He also looked rougher, with his shaved head and tattoos visible along the thickness of his neck and on his hands beneath the cuffs of his shirt.

Magnus and Fergus had changed into formal suits and shirts and ties before leaving the plane. Knox Wilder was similarly attired, but the effect on him was somehow less…civilized.

“Look, Mummy, the man has pretty pictures on his hands,” a very tired Angel admired as they approached him.

The colorful tattoos were pretty, Sapphie agreed, although she also thought they were less innocent than they looked. She’d seen similar tattoos on men who had been in prison or were involved with the Mafia.

“Ms. Jones,” he acknowledged after Magnus had made the introductions. She noted his accent was English rather than American. “And Little Miss Jones.” He dropped down onto his haunches as he greeted Angel, a grin splitting his weathered face. “I’ll tell you what all these pretty pictures are if you’ll allow me to carry you out to the car?”

Sapphie’s eyes widened when her daughter didn’t even hesitate to allow Knox to pick her up and carry her out of the terminal, the two of them chatting together as Knox told her what each of his visible tattoos were.

“He had a daughter of his own,” Magnus confided softly as Sapphie hurried to keep up with the man who had so easily taken possession of her daughter.

“Had?” Sapphie echoed.

He nodded. “She died of bone cancer ten years ago. She was only five.”

“Dear God…” Sapphie breathed.

“Yeah. He and her mother were no longer together anyway, but she totally absented herself from their daughter’s life after they were given Millie’s diagnosis and prognosis.” He glanced at the other man as he carefully strapped Angel into the child seat fixed in the back of one of the SUVs. “Knox had tattoos anyway, but he adds another one, usually something that meant something to Millie, on the anniversary of her death. Angel couldn’t be in safer hands. Now or when we reach the Carluccis’ house.”

Sapphie felt slightly ashamed of the way she had made assumptions about the other man based purely on the way he looked. She should have known that Magnus would never have allowed Knox to take Angel with him if he hadn’t trusted the other man implicitly.

But she would be lying if she didn’t admit to growing increasingly nervous the closer the SUVs came to the Carlucci mansion, even with all these strong and muscular men to protect her daughter.

“So, you said Knox’s men had ‘secured’ the Carluccis’ home: does that mean my in-laws know we’re coming?” she prompted Magnus as he sat in the front of the vehicle with one of Knox’s men driving. Sapphie sat in the back next to Angel.

“Knox made an appointment to see them, using his name, to ensure they were both at home, then he sent two of his men to secure the area and ensure no one else came in or went out of the house,” Magnus answered her. “The Carluccis have no idea why Knox made the appointment.”

Just as well; otherwise, Roman and Patrice, with or without Knox’s men standing outside, would probably have had a welcoming committee waiting for them.

Even knowing how very protected they were, Sapphie’s hand still felt damp in Magnus’s as they rang the doorbell and waited on the top step for the Carluccis’ manservant to open the door.

Fergus and the other Wynter Security men, from England and New York, stood behind them like sentinels. Knox and the two men who had been standing guard outside when they arrived were waiting in the SUV with Angel. They had a firm instruction from Magnus to get Angel away from here at the first sign that something had gone wrong with the meeting with her grandparents.

The door swung open, and the familiar figure of Frederick, the Carlucci family retainer for many years, stood in front of them. “Can I help— Miss Sapphie!” he exclaimed, a pleased smile lighting up his previously haughty and lined features. “I can’t believe it’s you,” he added warmly, staring at her intently, as if he feared she might evaporate into the ether if he looked away. “Mr. and Mrs. Carlucci are going to be so—” His smile faded. “But where is Miss Angel?” He frowned. “Did something happen to her?”

“Miss Angel is well and safe,” Magnus answered him. “Now could you go and tell your employers that Mr. Wilder is here waiting to speak with them? He has an appointment with them this morning.”

Sapphie almost laughed at how wide Frederick’s eyes became as he looked up and noticed, for the first time, it seemed, the half dozen men standing behind the massive Magnus and Fergus. “It’s okay, Frederick,” she assured him. “We come in peace.”

“Unless your employers decide otherwise,” Magnus growled.

“Mr. and Mrs. Carlucci are going to be so pleased to see you,” the manservant assured Sapphie before hurrying away to inform his employers they had visitors.

Sapphie sincerely doubted the Carluccis would feel any pleasure in seeing her again, knowing that Roman and Patrice’s interest had only ever been in Angel.

“Knox will keep her safe.” Magnus gave her hand a reassuring squeeze.

Sapphie really hoped that was true. She didn’t care what the Carluccis did or said to her—although she had a lot more to lose now that she and Magnus were in love and going to be married—but she never ever wanted the older couple to get their hands on Angel. Angel had enough of Sapphie inside her that if that ever did happen, she was confident her daughter wouldn’t become thoroughly spoiled by her grandparents the way Marco had been. But Sapphie really wasn’t willing to take that risk.

“We’re leaving here together,” Magnus assured her. “All of us. We’re going to be a family.”

Sapphie so much wanted that to be true.

She stiffened, every particle of her suddenly on high alert, as the Carluccis, not waiting for Frederick to show their visitors into the sitting room, both rushed down the hallway toward them.