Chapter 59

**Hadassah POV**

"You good?"

Calum doesn't look back. "Trudging through mountains of encoded, classified data on covert operations whilst we're in a hostage crisis." His fingers work with ultra-speed over the keyboard. "It's not what I imagined when I said we should take some time off to travel."

I cast furtive glances down the hall before I enter, closing the door behind me.

"He's going to kill us the moment I give him what he wants."

"No," I say, approaching him from behind. "He won't."

He whirls around on the chair. "Why not?" He launches to his feet. A battle in his eyes. "Because you're fucking him? That's the only reason why he has kept you alive for so long."

Outrage overtakes my mind and I shove him back—he fumbles a few steps.

"You should know better than to say that to me."

"Once upon a time, I'd never dare to think of it." His hands billow from his sides thoughtfully. "But it does make you wonder why Mr no-loose-ends keeps his biggest one alive. You're not even just a vulnerability, you were their enemy, trying to make them see the inside of a federal court. Now... Torin... listens to you. Since when does the captor take orders from his captive?"

I try to affect calm but I fail. Miserably. "He doesn't take orders from anyone."

"But he cares about you... that much not even you can't deny."

"And that might be the only thing keeping us alive," I say fiercely. "Torin has been working against his brother for a long time, long before I got into the picture. He has a forger, mercenaries to protect him, things that can make moving around the world undetected, very easy. But that won't work forever because one day he will find us. And when that day comes, we all have to be ready."

Calum's face falls. "What does that mean?"

I turn to the side, pacing, my arms folded. "He reached out to an Italian Mafia boss who can provide what we need to stave him off when the time comes. But first he needs something in return and it's not money."

"Leverage," he answers. "Gaza had dirty intelligent agents on his payroll. I guess that gave him a lot of access, eyes and ears on the inside and a sentry to watchout if the authorities ever got too close. Does he want something like that?"

"That is worth more than millions because it prevents the seizure of his assets and would keep him out of prison. A priceless commodity."

"Yeah, okay," he says dismissively, nodding fervently. "But what is our role in their war? At that point, we have no use, and Torin can't let us go."

I concede a nod. "I'm working on it."

"Translation: you don't have a plan."

I pause, lifting a hand to silence him. Growing footsteps. Calum hears it and darts back to his seat, swivelling around to face the desktop. The door opens sharply as if hoping to be caught in the act of something debaucherous. A guard stands in the doorway and clasps his hands in front of him.

"Torin wants to see you."

Calum casts a glance behind him but says nothing.

I retreat and I follow the guard out to the top of the staircase. He goes down, but I press up against the glass railing, overlooking the high-ceilinged living room. Torin sits with an MacBook on his lap and a stack of documents on the coffee table. He looks up and I can see his smug smile burgeoning from here. He lifts his hand to summon me with a flutter of his fingers. I remain where I am.

Torin rises from his seat, pushing back a lustrous wave of his hair, and he moves to stand under it so he can look up at me. I glare down at him, keeping my face deadly still, careful not to reveal anything.

He outstretches his arms towards me theatrically. "But, soft! What light through yonder window breaks?" He gestures grandly at me, adding a flair of melodrama. "It is the east and Hadassah is the sun! That thou her maid art far more fair than she?"

I break, a smile conquering my face.

He drops the act with a victorious smile. "Can you come down here?"

I yield and I walk down the flight of transparent steps, slowly. Torin never breaks eye contact, and he casually slips his hands in his pocket, waiting patiently like the wolf that he is. I approach warily and he guides me to where he was sitting, and he makes me take his seat. He stands over me, transports his laptop to my lap and motions for me to look. I peruse the document with my name on it.

"What is this?"

"Once this is over, you can't go back to your home... your life. The least I can do after what you have been through is make sure that you and your mother are safe." He nods to the MacBook. "That is a title deed, a property in your name."

My eyes fly up, and shock unhinges my jaw. "You... bought me a house?"

His face pulls into a disgusted frown. "Of course not. I bought you a chateau that sits on half a million acres of woodland. A beautiful place to raise a family... children."

I remove the laptop to stand up, right under his nose.

"Why?"

"I like to plan ahead."

I snort a small laugh. "You're so sure you're going to win this war."

He gives a careless shrug, smirking. "I don't know about that. But I do know is that I never lose."

"Awfully confident for someone who had their account sapped."

He frees a carefree, condescending laugh. "A minor inconvenience. In this world, you learn quickly to be like water. Adaptable."

I stare at him, evaluating, weighing what I know about him and what I don't. "You have a plan to recuperate your loss, don't you?"

"One to cripple Gaza... excuse me. One to cripple Santos's organisation," he says with a glorious glint in his eyes, like his triumph is guaranteed. "The most sophisticated crime syndicates use the profits from their illegal enterprise to invest it in legit businesses as corporate fronts. It's how they launder their money. After Gaza's death, Santos moved to primary protocol to secure his assets. And I know where, and I'm going to hit it. I'm bankrolling everything I have for this operation."

I gawk back at him. "Uh, you probably should redo your risk assessment."

He waves me off. "It's a calculated risk. I can lose everything or I can win everything. I can't wait forever for boy wonder to crack the book to bribe Tommaso into brokering an alliance. I can save myself."

His eyes trace across my features, and he pouts mockingly. "Oh, Hadie, don't look so worried. Whether or not this operation is successful. I always have an ace up my sleeve."

I nod and gesture at his laptop. "I can't accept that. I rather not be indebted to a Moon, you have enough against me."

Irritation flashes in his eyes. "It's not like that." A chiding in his voice. "It's for your safety. If you can't do it for you. Do it for your mother. You both need a fresh start. You might as well do it in style, by style I mean on a piece of real-estate worth seven figures.