Lexi Blake - Dungeon Royale

Finally, a deep sense of peace thrumming through him, he collapsed on her. Resting his face against her neck. His world was filled with her. Her scent, the way her chest moved against his, warm arms around him. He could drown in her.

His mobile trilled.

The room stilled, time seeming to stop. He always answered his mobile because it was always work. He didn’t have a bunch of friends who called and interrupted him. He had work and they called when it was important.

“Don’t, Damon.” Her face was red, her lips tight, and now the tears showed up as though she couldn’t stand to have him walk away even to answer his mobile. Their intimacy was fragile.

He ignored it. Fuck whoever was calling him. They would call back. This was his time with her. This felt oddly sacred, and he didn’t want it interrupted. He wanted to hold her, cuddle with her and kiss her all over again.

Her mobile trilled.

“They’ll go away.” He willed them all to go the bloody hell away.

The intercom buzzed, and Ian Taggart’s voice came over the speaker. “Knight, get your ass down here. We’re wanted at headquarters. Apparently your friend has been causing trouble, and he’s after your girl. Let’s go.”

Baz was after her? Baz knew about Penelope, knew the way to get to him was through her. A sudden vision of Penelope cold and dead struck his brain like a hammer. He was supposed to protect her. How could he protect her when he couldn’t stop fucking her long enough to answer his bloody phone?

He was supposed to be in control, but she stripped it away from him. He had to get it back, and he wouldn’t do it by cuddling with her. He was trapped between giving her what he knew she needed and keeping distant enough to be effective.

He rolled off the bed and started for the shower. He needed to think.

“Damon?”

“Get dressed. We have work to do.” He didn’t look back. He really couldn’t stand to see her cry.

Penny sat next to Damon, their chairs almost touching, but she might as well have been in another country. Nigel’s office was silent, lit only with the fluorescents above. There was no such thing as opening a window at headquarters. The windows were treated so no one could see in, every pane bulletproof.

Since the moment he’d gotten the word that Baz was still running about London causing trouble, Damon had shut down. There had been no more caresses or hugs. No kisses. No dirty talk. When he’d come out of the shower, he’d been distant. Not cold exactly. He’d given her an encouraging smile, but he’d held himself apart.

She could still feel his cock deep inside her, but he was miles away.

“Are you all right?”

He’d asked her more than once, but she just gave him a tight smile. He seemed to have shifted to treating her with an awkward politeness, like he hadn’t made love to her an hour before. “I am, Damon. Where is Nigel? Why didn’t you bring the rest of the team in?”

The Taggarts were sitting outside in the waiting room. They’d ridden over in Damon’s Benz. Damon and Taggart had talked quietly, but she’d just looked out the window.

For one brief moment, she’d felt so connected to him, so close. She’d never felt as open and free as she had when Damon had taken over.

She really hated Basil Champion.

“Nigel wants to talk to us first,” Damon explained.

The door opened, and Nigel walked through looking like he hadn’t slept well the night before. The lines around his eyes seemed to have deepened over the course of the weekend.

He strode straight to his desk. “Harris was discovered with two bullets in his chest early this morning. Champion got through hospital security. A nurse found the body.”

He flipped open a folder and tossed it on the desk. Penny couldn’t help the gasp that came out of her throat. Harris was lying across a mattress, blood staining the white sheets, his eyes wide open and staring up.

Damon’s hand shot out, slamming the folder closed. “You didn’t have to show her that.”

Nigel’s eyes narrowed. “You’re the one who made her a field agent.”

“Under my command and I will decide what she does and doesn’t see. Don’t pull that shit with me, Nige. You know damn well I mean to protect her from this. Penelope, wait outside.”

Nigel shook his head. “Absolutely not. She has every right to know what’s happening. If you’re telling me you don’t trust her enough, then I’ll shove her right back behind a desk. This is serious. We have an agent dead.”

“I’m trying to protect her,” Damon said, his voice tight.

She knew the job was dangerous. “I’m fine, Damon.”

Nigel’s fist came down on his desk, the first time she’d ever seen him lose his temper. “She’s either your partner or your girlfriend. She can’t be both. You told me you could be professional.”

She couldn’t let Nigel pull her from the op. Somehow, she had to see this one thing through. It was important. She was the only one who knew about Damon’s weakness. He wouldn’t stop, and maybe the next partner would leave him when he needed her. “No. I want to go on. We’re fine.”

Nigel ignored her. “Read the note, Damon. Open the folder and read the note that was left on Harris’s body. Read the note and then the e-mail that followed this morning.”

Damon stood, not looking back at her. He picked up the folder and stepped away from the desk, opening it. A long moment passed, tension thick in the air. Nigel sat in his chair, running a hand through his thinning hair.

Damon didn’t say a word, but she saw how his back straightened, his jaw tightening.

Nigel looked over at him. “Is it true?”

“You knew what I meant by training.” Damon didn’t look up, his voice a harsh grind. “You knew. Don’t play the prude now, Nige.”

“What does it say?” Penny asked. She didn’t like the way the men were looking at each other.

“I rather thought you would be a gentleman about it,” Nigel shot back.

“You didn’t hire a gentleman, Nigel. You hired me, and you knew what I wanted from her.” Now he looked up and there was a bitterness in his eyes she hadn’t seen before. “You have no idea what it’s like in the field. None. Don’t you dare start to judge me.”

“What does it say?” She was more forceful this time because she was starting to think she had an inkling and it wouldn’t be flattering. Somehow it made her a bit angry instead of embarrassed. Days ago she would have been shriveling up inside at the insinuations she was hearing, but spending time naked with Damon had changed her somehow. There hadn’t been anything wrong with it. It had been a lovely thing.

Damon frowned as he turned to her. “Give me your handbag. Where do you normally put it? Is it locked up while you’re here?”

What the hell was going on? Her brain was racing. “No. I leave it in my desk. Why would anyone try to steal…” The truth hit her squarely in the forehead. “They didn’t try to steal something. They put something on it.”

She picked up her bag. It was a simple thing, large and roomy. She’d bought it on sale at H&M about a month after her mum had passed on. It had been an impulse buy because the pattern was so unlike her. Paisley. It didn’t really go with anything but she’d loved the colors. The pattern was busy, easy to hide something among.

She ran her hand along the material and on the front of the bag, just below the clasp, she felt it. A bug. Small, wireless. She pulled it off and stared at it, thinking about the man on the other end. “I really hate you, you know. I hope your balls shrivel off and die.”

“Penelope!” Damon stood, staring at her with shocked eyes.

“Well, I’m not stupid. Obviously that note has something to do with our physical relationship, and Nigel thinks I’m some schoolgirl who doesn’t know the score and he’s going to try to protect the sad virgin. First off, I would protest and say I’m not a virgin, but lately I’ve been thinking I might as well be because the sexual relations I had before don’t even fall in the same category. Kissing Damon is sexier than full-on intercourse with other men. I don’t want to be protected. I knew what I was getting into. I’m not leaving now that it’s getting a bit deadly.” She held the small device on her fingertip. “He’s trying to break us up, but it won’t work.”

His eyes flared and for the briefest moment, a look of wonder came across his face. It was quickly shut down and he averted his eyes, looking back to the file. “Keep quiet. Get rid of that thing before you say another word.”

Because if he really was still listening, she’d just given away a lot. She’d stood there and pledged to not leave him. She’d given away a weakness.

Tears filled her eyes. She’d just proven how stupid she could be. She’d known he was listening and she’d still talked.

Nigel hit a button on his phone. “Send me someone from tech. And tell our Americans they can come in now if Mr. Smith is through with his debrief. We have a lot to sort through. Unfortunately, this bloody mess has gone international. The Agency is here. You need to read his other demands.”

The CIA had sent someone?

Nigel took the device from her, palming it and closing his hand.

Damon stayed where he was, though she wanted so much for him to cross the distance between them. “Keep your voice down until that thing is gone. I swear I’ll find the mole and I’m going to make whoever it is pay.”

Someone had been listening and watching her every move for days, perhaps months. It made her stomach turn, but she needed to make one thing clear. She moved close to him, her voice low. “I’m staying with you. I don’t care what Nigel says. I’m strong enough for this. I can be good for you.”

Damon shook his head, a dismissal. “Nigel might be right about this.”

“You know I’m right, but I don’t know what we can do about it now.” Nigel’s voice broke through the quiet.

The doors opened and Ian Taggart walked through followed by his wife and a tall, well-built man with brown and gold hair. He was wearing jeans and what looked like a Western shirt and cowboy boots.

“Are you fucking kidding me?” Taggart asked. He’d obviously been brought up to speed on the situation, and he wasn’t happy about it.

“Don’t, Tag.” The new guy crossed his arms as he looked around the room. “We’re all getting fucked here. Can we be sure it’s safe to talk now?”

One of the techs walked in, a younger man named Marvin who had never once spoken to her until Friday last. He’d walked up to her and asked her about something trivial that might have been wrong with her computer. It had only been a few moments, but she’d turned.

Where had her bag been?

She closed her eyes, trying to remember everything about the encounter. It had been lunchtime and the rest of her group had gone, but Marvin had shown up. She’d stayed to answer his questions. She’d put her bag on her desk, turned and pulled up the update he’d asked about.

“Don’t give it to him. He’ll destroy it or he’ll fake a report that gives us absolutely nothing. He’s working with Champion.”

Nigel stopped in the act of handing over the camera.

Damon shoved her behind him, as though the man would pull a gun and shoot her right there.

Marvin was a weasel, but she doubted he was a killer.

“I don’t know what she’s talking about. That’s ridiculous,” the tech said, but his hands were shaking slightly.

Taggart stepped up. He was a good foot taller than the tech and had at least seven stone of pure muscle on him. Taggart loomed over the man. “Penny, are you sure?”

Sure? It could be someone else, but the timing worked. If Marvin was supposed to follow Damon Knight’s movements around SIS, then he would have known Damon had requested information on her. Apparently Damon had delved rather violently into almost all aspects of her life. Champion would want to know why Damon was so interested in a translator. “When did you request my files, Damon?”

“Late Thursday night.”

The timing checked out. “And Friday at roughly eleven a.m., he stopped and asked me about my computer. He had access to my bag. I had it out because I was going to lunch. The rest of the time I have it locked in my desk.”

Marvin shook his head. “Anyone could have done it. There are people with keys to the desks.”

But instinct pointed to him. She wouldn’t have been on Champion’s radar before. The minute she’d come into his focus, Marvin had appeared. Sometimes she had to follow her instincts. “Check his computer. He likely has more than one here.”