Until Twilight (11 page)

see what’s what with the G8 ministers and the heads of Kopf. Maybe even Liebermann

will show up. We get everyone here in one place and we can force the issue.”

Bella looped her arm around Lane’s waist and hugged him as they headed for the

elevator. “I love it, as you Americans say, when a plan comes together. Let’s hope this is what’s happening.”

“Yeah?” He teased her, pleased that he was able to bring a light to her tired eyes.

“Luck has a lot to do with this one.”

“I’m not going to deny how important luck was here,” she whispered as the

elevator doors whooshed open. “But I’ll take all that comes my way.
Especially when it
comes to us.
” She whispered those last few words so the others could not hear.

Lane could not take his eyes from her as they rode down to the lobby. Their affair

was only days old, and yet the intensity of his desire for her was raw. A savage need to take her bed every other hour consumed him and just to look at her was becoming

torture. She was so brilliant, so sensual, so utterly fascinating, he could take her away for a year and his cock would still be up and happy every time he caught sight of her.

To distract himself, Lane took out his cell phone as the elevator arrived at the lobby

floor.

They exited and walked straight ahead.

“I have to check with the concierge about our dinner reservations.” Nicole turned,

her expression tight as she nodded toward one corner of the lobby.

“And I need to send a fax,” Adam lied as he tipped his head in the direction of the

guests’ office.

75

Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

This way with Nicki and Adam positioned as they were, the four of them had a

comprehensive view of the front doors and the lobby.

“Come on, I see Raul,” Lane said to Bella and took her arm to lead her to his

Nemesis colleague.

He noted his friend, usually so dapper in suit and tie, today looked a little the

worse for wear with his latest gig here, tracking whoever came in and out of this lobby.

But as always, he doggedly pursued his assignment. They didn’t call him The Bull for

nothing. Making the introductions, Lane played the scene as if they were all old pals

just happening upon each other. Bella, a good actress, went along with everything,

taking her lead from Lane.

“Here, here,” Raul said as he rose to his feet. “Damn, I haven’t seen you both in so

long. I need a picture for Irene and the kids.”

“A picture,” Lane repeated, digesting that because Raul had no Irene and no kids.

Lane turned a bit to see the reason why Raul was so devoted to the idea of a snapshot

with his iPhone and spotted the target. “Okay, great! Let me put my arm around Bella!

Smile,
cara mia
,” he said to her
sotto voce
, “the three-headed hydra seems to be gracing the lobby behind us.”

“How charming,” she cooed, posing for Raul. “I always wanted to be a
turista
.”

“
Bene, bene
,” he told her as they both looked at Raul’s screen.

The image was a tall, wiry gray-haired man. A short, balding one. “The first must

be our Russian caviar, eh? This one is definitely our Bavarian dumpling,” she told him

with a fire in her eyes. “And this one,” she said with obvious distaste, “is the brother of the man we met yesterday.”

Lane searched his memory banks, checking the familiar look of this man against all

those he’d met yesterday. A slew of aides and government workers came to mind. Then

he had it! He turned his back to the three men who formed Kopf Industries so that no

one could read his lips when he mouthed the name, “Umberto?”

The Italian vice finance minister!

76

Until Twilight

Raul cleared his throat. “That’s this dude’s name?” he asked Bella as he too turned

his back. “Got a first name?”

“Giorgio,” she told him in a low voice.

“Okay. Let me just send these on over to Maddie in Texas. She told me to get

pictures of everyone of interest in this lobby and she’d run it through our face recog

software.” He pushed a couple of buttons. “Okay…there we go…done!”

Bella had swung back around and began to mutter in Italian. Lane knew from her

tone, she didn’t like what she saw.

He shifted his gaze.

Through the front doors came the vice finance minister of the Italian Republic. He

looked weary, rumpled and harried. His dark eyes scanned the lobby as his retinue

surrounded him and his bodyguards took note of everyone within twenty yards. The

one man they didn’t expect, the one they blocked, frisked and then let through because

their boss told them to, was his brother, Giorgio Umberto.

Although the two men embraced, neither one displayed any brotherly love toward

the other.

“Got a shot of that, Raul?” Lane asked from the corner of his mouth.

“Maddie’s gonna dig my artistic talents.”

“As long as the resolution is high enough for our techs to work with, she’ll be mad

for you, buddy,” Lane assured him. “Uh-oh. What’s going on there?”

The Umberto brothers were having an argument. A low-pitched, violent exchange

in which one was giving beady-eyed statements to the other. They broke off as quickly

as they had begun, Giorgio leaving his brother to return to his two Kopf buddies.

“Any idea what they said to each other?” Lane asked Bella quietly while Raul

clicked away at text messaging.

“They’re not happy with each other, which you could understand without a

translation,
sì
?”

77

Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

He nodded.

“Giorgio told his brother to come see him tonight in his room.”

“Really?” Lane was shocked at that.

“But our friend refused.”

“Wise of him. He should not go anywhere he is not previously cleared for.”

Lane’s phone rang. “Hold on, let me get this. It’s…”
Adam?

“Hey, Lane. Listen to me. That embrace we all just saw?”

“Yeah, what about it?” Lane asked, spotting Adam across the lobby near a potted

palm.

“The central office of the Italian government just officially announced on radio and

TV that they are freezing all assets of Kopf Industries.”

Lane swore. “The vice minister knew all along what was happening!”

“You bet,” Adam said and clicked off, his expression self-satisfied.

Lane repeated the information to Isabella and Raul.

Bella crossed her arms, stared at Lane but seemed to be looking right through him.

“What are you thinking?”

“I wondered why the vice minister of finance was so fearful of coming to this

conference. Now we know one reason. His own brother is involved. He is part of Kopf.

And the vice minister is obviously apologizing to his brother about the freezing of

assets.”

“He should have told us.”

“
Sì, sì.
Very bad of him to conceal this fact. But I think the best thing to do now is for me to become reacquainted with Herr Gottfried. I think I can coax some information

from him.”

“No. Bad idea.”

78

Until Twilight

“Good idea,” she contradicted. “I will say that I am here with colleagues from my

business and that I saw him and wanted to buy him a drink.”

“No, Bella.” Lane’s gut said this was a horrible move. “You said you hardly knew

him. Just met him a couple of times.”

“Ah, but it was obvious he liked me.” The way she said it left no doubt that the

reason Herr Gottfried “liked” her was that he wanted to lay her.

“
No.
”

She ignored him, unbuttoned the top button of her silk blouse and removed the clip

that had held up her glossy dark waves today.

“I’m telling you, Bella. This is not wise.”

She shook out her hair so it tumbled down her back and smiled at him, her back to

her quarry. “Not to worry. I will be safe, darling.”

Raul noted that last word with the arch of a dark brow.

That word, however, made Lane even more determined to keep her from the

German. “No, Bella.”

“While you two argue about our Kraut, I want you to know one small fact.”

“What?” Lane shot at him. “Sorry.”

“Hey. I get what goes on here between you two. No problem. But Maddie has

written something here. You need to take a look, Lane. Do you know what this means?”

Lane had to read it twice. The text message said, “I may be nuts here…or it’s just

my false labor which doesn’t seem to be getting any lighter.
But.
I know this guy in this picture. I swear I do. Give me a few minutes to get Jessie on this over in Face Recog. But I could swear I have seen this man before. Couldn’t tell you his name. But bear with

me.” He passed the phone over to Bella.

She shrugged. “All right, but I can’t stand around waiting when an opportunity has

presented itself. He might walk away any minute.” Then she curved her lips in a smile

79

Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

and brushed a light kiss on his cheek, playing to the audience in the lobby. “
Ciao
, Lane,”

and she sped off toward Gottfried.

He tried to look unaffected by her departure, knowing the German would want to

investigate precisely who Bella was and who she was with.

“Talk to me, Lane.” Raul had a shit-eating grin on his face.

“You can be replaced, you know,” Lane warned the man.

“No I can’t, Lane, old man. And obviously she certainly can’t.”

Got that right.
He kept his back to the lobby. “How’s she doing with Mr.

Wonderful?”

“Great. Who wouldn’t want a woman like that to approach you with those

gorgeous sultry eyes flashing?”

Lane ground his teeth. “Sure. Sure.”

Raul’s phone pinged. He clicked on. “Oh, wow. Read this from Maddie.”

Looking over his shoulder briefly to cast a jaundiced eye on Bella, he reluctantly

read the new text.

Maddie wrote, “Oh, hell. I
do
know this man. He’s the one I saw over a year ago when Dan and I were staking out Rick Carstairs’ ranch. It’s clear to me now that if he

was there then he was one of the men meeting and planning a coup of the U.S.

government with the man who was then the Speaker of the House of Representatives

here. Be very careful there. This man is dangerous.”

He texted back and asked which of the two brothers in the picture she referred to.

“The one on the left,” she messaged back.

“You’re certain? They look a lot alike.”

“They do. Sure. But I’m certain. The one on the left.”

Jesus.

“Do you know who he is?” she texted again.

“I do,” he replied.

80

Until Twilight

“Who is it?” she responded.

“Italy’s vice minister of finance.” Lane whirled, staring at the place where Bella

should have been standing conversing with Wilhelm Gottfried. Instead, there was no

one.

“She went into the bar with him,” Raul said in a low voice.

“We’re—”

Raul grabbed his coat sleeve. “No, we’re not going in there. She is a big girl and if

she’s been hired by us, she can take care of herself. Cool to a simmer there, fella. The lady is delicious, but she also has brains.”

“You’re right. You’re right.”

Forty-five tense minutes later, Bella emerged from the bar. Her German took

himself and two of his bodyguards straight up in the elevators.

“Well?” Lane asked when she returned, her bravado escaping her like air from a

balloon. His relief increased with every breath she took. “What?”

“Nothing. He’s secretive as a clam. I have an invitation to his villa in Lake Garda

anytime I like, but aside from that? Nothing.” She closed her eyes and swayed, nearly

falling into the lobby sofa next to him. “Take me upstairs.”

“Go,” Raul said. “Nothing much going on here now. My relief arrives in about half

an hour. Get some rest. I know what you’ve been doing for the past forty-eight hours.”

Lane helped Bella stand. “Come on. We’ll order room service for dinner and you

are going to bed to get some sleep.”

“
Bene notte
,” she bade Raul with a watery smile. Walking with Lane, she seemed as limp as a rag doll. Then in the elevator, she fell against him. “I need you,” she told him, reaching up to kiss him. The desperation rippled through her body and he felt the terror of it. “I may need you for a long, long time.”

Proud as a beast that had conquered his own part of the jungle, Lane assured her,

“I’m taking you to bed. But you are going to eat and sleep in it. That’s it.”

81

Desiree Holt & Cerise DeLand

She pressed her face to the column of his throat. “And if I wake you in the night,

will you make love to me then?”

“Always, Bella,” he promised. “I will always make love to you.”

82

Until Twilight

“If Italy froze the Kopf assets why hasn’t Umberto been released?” Isabella asked as

she and Lane walked down the hall from the elevator.

“Maybe they’re using him as leverage to get the other seven countries to follow suit.

None of them has stepped up to the plate.”

“If that doesn’t happen then the bomb threat is still in play,” she pointed out.

The moment they walked into their suite Isabella kicked off her shoes, ran her

hands through her hair and flopped down on the bed.

“I need a shower,” she announced. “Just talking to Gottfried makes me feel dirty.”

Lane knelt next to the bed, and began rubbing her feet, her ankles and up the length