Roz are too similar.”
His eyes bugged, and he put a palm to his chest over his heart. “You wound me.”
Astrid chuckled at his joke and thanked him for lightening things when she needed it. “I’m sure your ego can take it.”
“Um, maybe. I have to go chat with our guests. Why don’t you get some sleep, and we’ll talk in the morning?”
Astrid hesitated, wanting to handle it but feeling too raw to see straight. When she faced Iago Ravelino again, she wanted to be strong and formidable, not the weak woman he’d beaten so severely that she’d spent three weeks in a coma recovering from her injuries.
“Thank you, that sounds great.”
Jack lowered his head, and she went up on tiptoes, scared to see if his kiss felt different now he knew of her shame. He’d said all the right things but was he just being kind?
His lips slanted over hers, and his tongue licked at the seam for her to open for him, which she did. The taste of him was heady as he kissed her as if it was his job. She felt drugged. Her ability to function normally and make rational choices flew out of her mind when Jack kissed her, and far from it feeling less than before, it felt more, as if he’d let down his guard too.
He pulled away when they were both breathless and dropped a kiss on her eyelids. “Sweet dreams, Astrid. Dream of me.”
Then he was gone, and she was locking up behind him, listening as he walked away. Far from feeling as if her life was falling apart like she thought she’d feel if they ever caught her, she felt as if something new was beginning. She just needed to live long enough to enjoy the beauty she knew was on the other side.
Chapter Nine
He slammed the door to the safe house as he walked in, Alex’s gaze coming to his across the room where he was watching the monitors. Eidolon had a safe house set up in every town they were visiting on the tour in case anything went sideways and they needed to get the Queen to a secure location.
He’d set them up with thoughts of his father in the back of his mind, never for one second expecting Astrid and her past to be the reason he used one of them. He strode up behind Alex and bent to look at the men he’d locked up underneath the sweet three-bedroom home on a quiet street in Nicosia.
“What’s going on, boss? Is this to do with your father?”
Jack shook his head, knowing he should focus on that threat, but this one was currently the most pressing. “No, this has to do with Astrid and her past.”
“She share the details with you?”
“Some but not all of it. I do know these men think she can lead them to something they want and will do anything to get to it, and that they hurt her.”
It was taking every single ounce of restraint he had to hold his shit together. What she’d told him about her past had affected him more than he’d ever let on to her. He wasn’t disgusted as she’d thought but the rage was something he’d only ever felt one time before, and that was when he’d learned what Frederick had done to Will.
His muscles strained with the need to hurt and fight something. He wanted to kill Iago for what he’d done to the woman he’d fought not to care about and lost the battle against. No, not lost, he’d crossed that bridge willingly in the last twenty-four hours. Astrid had shown him the person under the façade, and while he was attracted to the front and the sass she showed the world, it was what was underneath that really drew him.
“Astrid was undercover with the cartel when her cover was blown. She believes it was her handler who ratted her out and that the CIA was really looking for her sister, even though they’d told her she was dead.”
“Is her sister CIA?”
“Yes, she was allegedly killed on an undercover mission just after Astrid was recruited. Astrid believed she was dead until they sent her under with Ravelino and she saw a picture of Juan with Adeline. That was when she got burned and by all that she isn’t telling me, almost died. Roz saved her.”
“Jesus.”
Jack nodded, knowing that if anyone knew how he felt it was Alex. If anything, Alex probably knew more about how he