47. Jenn

Chapter 47

Jenn

The next morning, I lay in bed, staring out the open balcony door. The warm breeze wafted in, the calm view nothing but a reminder of my shitty reality. How had this dream trip turned out like this?

A knock at the door startled me.

“We have an hour and a half until the helicopter picks us up,” Emmett called from the hallway. It should have been a statement, but it sounded more like a question—or as though “Are you coming with us?” was meant to follow.

You should get up. Shower. Pack. Do something.

I couldn’t summon the energy. All I’d managed to do this morning was open the balcony door. Some part of my brain thought the sounds and smells would carry me back to my first night in Monaco. Back to when my world was semi-normal, and my biggest worry was Simon cheating on me.

The morning sun glinted off the stupid gold bracelet. Love. Screw that. For the fifth time, I tried wrestling it over my wrist, but it wouldn’t budge. I should have searched for something to fill in for the screwdriver, so I could take the damn thing off.

Emmett knocked again. “Jenn?”

I closed my eyes, memories of last night flooding back. The tense, silent ride to the hotel. Requesting a separate room from the front desk, only to be told nothing was available at three in the morning. The way I’d followed Emmett upstairs without a word, locking myself in this room the moment we arrived.

Scarlett had called several times, but I’d let every call go to voicemail. I wasn’t ready for either of them yet.

“I’ll be back in fifteen,” Emmett said.

I lay still, listening to the world outside my room. Cars honked on the street below. Tourists laughed as they passed by. Birds chirped in the palm trees, and gulls soared overhead.

A bitter laugh escaped my lips as I thought about Dante. The guy with the stolen painting was the only one who hadn’t lied to me. My cheating ex, my lying lover next door, my best friend, all of my other supposed friends in town, Massimo, and even Noah—I was a pawn in everyone else’s games.

“Recovery agents,” I whispered to myself, rolling my eyes. “Right.”

My father’s warnings about the Reynolds family replayed in my mind. But if Joseph had been framed, were any of those warnings justified? Unless Enzo was lying about that part, too. But why would he? It’s not like he had anything to gain by bringing it up.

Movement on the balcony caught my eye, and I startled, shooting up to sit. Emmett stood there, wearing worn jeans and a light gray golf shirt. His hands were up, as if trying to calm a spooked animal.

“I had a feeling you weren’t coming out.” He stopped just outside the open door. His whole body seemed tense, uncertainty written across his face. “So I climbed around the divider between our balconies.”

On my first night in this suite, I’d walked out onto that balcony, wishing Emmett would follow me. Wishing he would have joined me to stare down at the city, wrapped his arms around me, and kissed me. The memory felt like it belonged to someone else now.

“Picking the lock might have been smarter,” Emmett continued, attempting a weak smile, “but Jayce would be proud of me.”

“I’m going to book my own flight home,” I said, trying to keep my voice as neutral as possible so he wouldn’t figure out how deep he’d gotten under my skin. I wouldn’t give the con artist that satisfaction. “And I’ll call a cab to take me to Nice.”

“Can I come in?” Emmett asked, his voice soft and hesitant.

“No.”

He shifted his weight, clearly uncomfortable. “Can I apologize?”

“No.”

Emmett sighed, dragging a hand through his hair. “Explain?”

“Explain what?” My voice cracked, betraying the emotions I was trying so hard to hide. “About how my best friend is a complete stranger? Or how you’re exactly the same as every other man I’ve ever fallen for?”

‘You keep dating these bad boys, then you’re surprised when they treat you… badly,’ Scarlett had once said to me. That’s why I didn’t tell her about Simon. Because she was right.

I lay back down and rolled away from him, wincing as my bruised cheek touched the pillow.

Fucking Enzo.

“Or maybe,” I continued, “you can explain how my father was right about you all along?”

There was a long pause. Long enough, I figured he’d given up and left.

But then his voice wrapped around me one more time. “That’s what I thought for most of my life. It’s why I stayed away from you.”

“Stayed away?” I scoffed. “Until you conned me into sharing a room with you. You probably staged the break-in, didn’t you?”

“Jenn, I wouldn’t?—”

“You and your little crew, pretending you were all protecting me.”

“That was Enzo,” Emmett said, desperation in his tone. “He thought you were an undercover agent using Dante to get to Massimo.”

I shot up again, spinning to face him. “That’s rich! Considering Dante and I are the only two honest people in this whole fucking country!”

Emmett raised his hand, placing a barrier between us. “Noah told me last night. And we found two bugs inside your room. That’s why I brought you here. I was afraid they…” He trailed off, looking down at the balcony floor and clenching his fist.

Feeling exposed in my little sleep tank, I pulled the cover up.

“I was afraid Fenix was here, and they might come for you.”

A weak laugh escaped me, tears pricking at my eyes. “And you were right, weren’t you? Except you threw me right in their path.”

“I’ve made a lot of stupid choices in my life, but trying to protect you was never one of them.” Emmett gripped the doorframe and looked up at me again. His eyes glistened. Tears? Seriously? From the con artist? “That’s where I failed last night. I chose the team over you, and I almost?—”

His voice broke, and some gullible part of me considered forgiving him.

I really, really wanted to.

But how could I? After everything that happened, all the lies and deception, how could I ever trust him again?

“Despite everything, I almost lost you. When I realized they had you?—”

A sudden clatter above us, like cutlery on porcelain, interrupted his words. Someone above him was having breakfast.

“Can I come in?” he asked again. “Please?”

I swiped the back of my hand across my eyes, clearing away the tears threatening to fall. “Fine.”

In two long strides, he was at the side of my bed. He fell to his knees, leaning his elbows on the mattress. “I would have switched places with you in a second. Would have taken Enzo’s bullet if it got you home safely last night.”

The memory of Emmett fighting with Enzo on the yacht flashed through my mind. The terrified look in his eyes when he told me to drop, and the fierceness he went after Enzo with. The struggle for the gun. Enzo’s curses from the water.

“Those wouldn’t have been stupid choices, either,” he said.

He’d crushed me to the floor of the speedboat, shielding me with his body. His weight, the scent of his cologne mixed with sweat, and the rapid beating of his heart against me all came rushing back.

“Giving in to my feelings for you wasn’t a stupid choice, Jenn. Making love to you wasn’t, either.”

I clutched the blanket tighter to my chest, as if it could protect me from the choices my heart wanted to make. “I don’t even know who you are.”

“You don’t understand my career . That’s all.”

“You’re a thief!” That was so much more than a career.

“A recovery agent. We use our skills to return stolen items.” Emmett shook his head, leaning forward slightly. “You knew that already. Just not how we do it.”

Was this another con? Another way of twisting words to manipulate me? But why? He’d already gotten me into bed. Already gotten away with the scarab he was after.

“I don’t know how to explain it any better or how to apologize or how to make you change your mind.” Emmett’s words came out in a rush. He extended his hands across the bed toward me. “Let me try. Please, honey.”

My heart clenched. God, I wanted to believe him. I’d been in love with him for so long, and I’d honestly thought this was my chance.

“I don’t know if I deserve it or not. I’ve lived so much of my life thinking I was no better than my father, and now? Now, I’m just… I’m lost.” Emmett’s shoulders sagged. “Scarlett and I only learned about Mum’s MI6 connection two months ago. We hadn’t talked to her or the team about it yet.”

“Really?” The word slipped out before I could stop it, but he kept talking through my surprise.

“And my dad?” This man, always confident and in complete control, was slowly breaking down in front of me. “I had no idea, but did Mum? Why did he confess if he was innocent?” He let out a long sigh and closed his eyes, a tear rolling down his cheek. “I’m tired of secrets. After I came home in April, I couldn’t even go out in public for weeks until everything healed. There would have been too many questions.”

My hand twitched, wanting to reach out and comfort him. To tell him everything would be all right.

“But when I woke up next to you Thursday morning, I thought my life could go back to normal.” Tears streamed down his cheeks, and he didn’t try to hide them. “And then that night? I wanted to tell you everything. Let you into my crazy world and maybe earn a little of your love.”

I shuddered.

Did he say love?

“I don’t know if I’ve lost my chance or if you can find it in your heart to let me back in,” Emmett whispered, “but I swear, I will do everything in my power to make it up to you.”

Despite everything, despite the lies and danger, I reached out. My hand trembled as I took his. “Where would you start?”

Emmett’s brows knit together as he twined his fingers with mine. “Wherever you want.”

I stared at our hands, letting the warmth of his skin against mine melt away a little of the pain. “I want the truth. All of it. No more lies, no more half-truths or omissions. If you want me for more than this week, that’s what I need.”

He stood slowly, his rich brown eyes locked on mine until he slid under the covers beside me, wrapped me up in his arms, and kissed my unbruised cheek. “First, the bracelet is equipped with an advanced GPS tracker.”

A what? I stiffened as a hint of anger seeped back through the sympathy.

“I won’t apologize for that.”

He was tracking me? Maybe the truth wouldn’t fix everything.

“It’s how we found you before they got away.” He lifted my left hand to his lips. “I’ll have Will remove the tracker, but I’d like you to keep the bracelet.”

And the smidgen of my anger receded again. “Is this sort of thing normal in your world?”

“It’s standard practice for all of us, but…” He chuckled, rubbing his thumb over the side of my hand. “Why don’t I tell you about the time Jayce and I got stuck in a museum for four hours one night, and then we can discuss what normal means?”