"Katya."

She paused but kept her back to him. "Yes?"

There was a long silence. Then he said, "I need a clear head for the game tonight. It's nothing personal."

Oh, wonderful. So he'd spotted her disappointment, which really shouldn't come as any great surprise, but still. She didn't want to appear desperate. She didn't want to be one of those lovers of his who clutched and hung on. Who didn't want to leave when it was time to go. Who always wanted more. Her mother had been like that and look how that had turned out.

But no, she wasn't her mother. She was stronger than that.

"I understand," she said levelly. "I'll see you later then."

He moved fast, so fast she wasn't prepared for his warm hand on her shoulder, pulling her around. Or for his arms sliding around her, pulling her up against him. Shocked, she could only stare as he pushed her back against the wall, pinning her there with his body. And then the shock slid away as he kissed her, another deep, hard kiss. She pushed her hands into his hair, the wet silk of it soft against her fingers, opening her mouth and kissing him back, desperate after all.

And when he pulled away, she couldn't help the words that came spilling out. "Do you have to go now?"

One corner of his mouth curved into a smile that took her breath away. Both rueful and wicked all at once. "You have no idea how much I want to stay. But I meant it about the game. I need my focus and touching you screws with it. I need to keep my distance until it's over, okay?"

Despite that smile, she could see the intensity in his eyes, a blue flame that made her want to tremble. He wasn't lying; he wasn't playing games again.

The small, hard knot of disappointment she'd been pretending wasn't there since she'd woken up that morning abruptly disappeared. She kissed him lightly, just once, to take the taste of him to last her through the day. And smiled back. "Then you'd better let me go, hadn't you?"

"I don't like this. I don't like this at all." Zac's expression was grim.

Alex kicked his feet up on the desk and stared at the computer screen in front of him. It showed the interior of the Nine's usual meeting room at the Second Circle, the fire burning in the grate, a food platter that wasas usualuntouched on the coffee table in front of it. Zac must have put his laptop on one of the side tables so Alex could see the couch in front of the fire and the armchair that was Eva's special seat. She wasn't sitting in it now, though, but standing in front of the fire with her hands out, obviously trying to get warm. The expression on her face was absolutely unreadable.

Zac stood opposite her, his arms folded, facing the camera, looking like an expensive and well-dressed undertaker in his perfect suit. If undertakers were usually built like a brick shithouse, that is.

"Okay, so we now know this isn't about poker," Alex said. "And the people playing aren't there for the game."

"So why the bloody hell were they invited in the first place?" Zac's voice was terse. "Are they potential buyers? Business partners?"

Alex crushed the instinct that had him wanting to reach for a pen from the desk and toy with it. He couldn't afford to give in to any kind of revealing behavior, not even with his friends.

Yet he felt antsy and restless, like he couldn't keep still. Jesus, he had to concentrate. But the problem was all he could think of was Katya's green eyes staring into his. The feel of her bare skin against him. The taste of her in his mouth- "Alex?" Zac was staring at him. "What the fuck are you doing? I need you to concentrate."

Ah Christ, this was ridiculous. He'd never been this distracted over a woman before. Over anyone before. With an effort, he tried to curb the restless feeling. "Yeah, well, get off my back and I might be able to."

Eva turned from the fire to face the camera, something intense flickering over her face. "They're potential buyers," she said with certainty. "And they want to buy women."

There was a cold, heavy silence.

He didn't want to ask why she was so certain. He had a feeling he already knew. "I'm not sure about the sheikh and Christine. But the others-"

"Are all businesspeople," Zac finished, unusually impatient for him. "But I couldn't find a single damn thing on any of them, which usually indicates something pretty dodgy. You don't get to be as rich as that without climbing over the back of someone. Usually several someones."

Alex frowned. "I know August is shady as fuck. And Lau has Triad links, or at least her husband used to."

"Yeah, they want to buy." Eva had turned fully to face the camera, her gaze sharp enough to cut. "Or maybe they want in on the action. Motherfuckers."

Alex wanted to say something else light and flippant, the way he normally did when he was uncomfortable, but he couldn't think of a single damn thing.

"Gabriel said you thought the invites came from the Seven Devils," Zac said.

"Yeah, it's an idea." And it was becoming less an idea and more of a certainty.

The expression on Zac's face sharpened. "Are there links between South's casino and the Lucky Seven? I mean, we know South was one of your father's seven and so was Tremain."

"Shit," Eva said viciously. "Didn't Gabe mention that the Lucky Seven had been a high-class escort joint as well?"

Unease slid through Alex. There had been women back when his father had first taken him to the casino, beautiful women in pretty dresses. He'd been such a fucking innocent, he'd thought they were the wives of the players. Or the girlfriends. He hadn't thought hookers.

On the screen in front of him, Eva took a few steps toward the camera. Her eyes had gone silver, sharp as an unsheathed blade. "Leave this to me, Alex," she said, a hoarse sound in her voice. "I'll deal with them."

It didn't take a genius to work out what that meant. "No. Not yet."

Her expression twisted. "Don't be a prick. This needs-"

"No, Eva," he cut her off coldly. "At least not yet."

"What the hell do you mean, not yet?" She'd taken another step toward the camera. "You have to-"

"Angel," Zac interrupted, his attention on her. "Let him speak."

Alex held Eva's gaze. "I have my own plans for Conrad, okay? You even gave me the idea, remember? So I need you to wait before we move on this. Just for a night."

Eva's mouth tightened. "Alex, I-" She stopped as the sound of the door opening came through and the two on the screen glanced over in the direction of the room's entrance, off camera.

"Hey," someone said shortly, Gabriel from the sound of it.

Then another voice, a woman's. "Hi, guys, I hope you don't mind me interrupting." A figure appeared on the camera, small and slender, and very definitely female. Bobbed black hair. Beautifully dressed. "Oh," the woman said, "Am I-." She turned to face the camera.

And Alex met a pair of eyes as blue as his own.

Honor.

Her hand in his had been so small as he'd walked her onto the school grounds, her eyes wide and scared. And she'd held on to him as if she never wanted to let him go. As if he could protect her from the world ...

Her mouth opened, but before she could speak Alex leaned forward and cut the connection leaving the image on the screen. His sister, with her mouth open, shock clear on her fine-boned face.

His hands were shaking. Everything was shaking.

He shoved the chair back and got to his feet, walking to the window and back again, struggling to get himself under control.

What are you so afraid of?

The truth. Everything....

But no, he could not think of that. Of the fact that he was a fucking coward, that he'd been running for so many years he had no idea how to stop.

That wasn't the most important thing right now. Only Conrad mattered. Only the game. Only taking that prick for everything he had.

Alex ran a hand through his hair, took a breath. Then he turned back to his computer and closed the Skype window. Honor vanished.

If only making everything else disappear like that were as simple.

Katya sat at the roulette table on the Fourth Circle's empty gaming floor and gazed around the place. There was something sad about it in the middle of the day. Something vaguely tragic. Like an older woman disguising herself with makeup, hiding the cracks of age under a layer of paint. Clinging on to her youth.

One of the red velvet curtains over a nearby window had been pulled fractionally back, allowing the daylight to shine through. Dust motes hung in the air.

The cold light of day was never kind and revealed all kinds of things. The stains on the floor. The tear in one of the curtains around a group of chairs. A long scratch down one of the tables.

Without the music, the lights, and the people, without the night to hide all the flaws, it looked like what it was: a large, cold, empty room.

She let out a silent breath, Alex stealing into her thoughts once again. This room was like him in many ways. A man who was doing everything he could to hide, to distract.

The problem was the truth was still there underneath. And all the distracting in the world, all the pretty paint and lights and music, wouldn't change that.

She reached out and gave the roulette wheel a turn, watching as the red and black colors whirled. But no, she'd told herself after he'd left that morning that she wouldn't think of him in that way. Remembering the sex was okay, but thinking about the man was not.

Especially not with the game coming up tonight.

Which was part of the reason she was sitting out here, waiting for him to come out of his office behind the bar where he'd been ensconced for most of the afternoon doing God knows what.

She didn't want to interrupt whatever it was he was doing, but she wanted to talk to him about the game.

Ever since the morning, she'd been going over all the information she had about Conrad South and the other players Zac Rutherford had sent her. Digging up what she could about the white slave trade. Looking for anything that might link the names to any kind of trafficking rings.

But there was nothing and it disturbed her. This whole situation had suddenly gotten a lot more dangerous and she hated going into a dangerous situation with very little information. She wanted to be prepared and that meant they needed a plan. Or rather, it meant she had to get Alex to let her in on whatever his plan was, since he obviously had one. One he still hadn't told her about.

Again a little sliver of hurt caught at her, a flash of disappointment.

She ignored it. She'd let herself feel the night before, in the bar when he'd pinned her against the wall. When he'd told her the truth about why he'd left. Let the thrill of knowing she'd affected him settle down inside her, glorying in it.

But that's all she would allow. She couldn't let herself get closer to him. Like she'd told herself that morning, the physical aspect of their relationship was finethey were already pretending to be lovers anyway, so a little reality wouldn't hurtbut anything more and things could get compromised.

"Katya?"

Pushing aside the thoughts, she looked up to see Alex shutting the door to his office and making his way over to where she sat.

"Were you waiting for me?"

"Yes." She stilled the roulette wheel as he approached the table. "I'm sorry, I don't want to interrupt anything."

"You're not." He was as impeccably dressed as he had been this morning except now his hair looked like he'd run his fingers through it one too many times. And there was a certain tension in his shoulders, a tightness around his mouth. "What's up?"

She frowned. "Perhaps I should be asking you that question?"

"It's nothing." He pulled out one of the chairs next to her and sat down in his typical lazy sprawl. "I was talking to Zac and the others earlier, getting their thoughts on the Conrad situation."

"Are they going to contact the authorities?"

His gaze flickered. He leaned forward and picked up the ball from the roulette wheel, rolling it through his fingers. "I'd prefer to wait until that girl we rescued is safe. She didn't want us calling the police, remember?"

She studied him silently a moment. "What is your plan, Alex?"

"My plan?" The silver ball flashed through his fingers.

"You told me you had one last night."

The ball stilled as he reached to give the roulette wheel a spin. "Oh, right. That plan." He dropped the ball into the wheel, where it made clicking sounds as it raced around the inside of it. "Why do you want to know?"

"Haven't we had this conversation? I need to know in order to protect you properly. This situation is even more dangerous now and we can't afford to take any chances. I don't want to go into this game-"

His hand shot out, stilling the wheel abruptly, the movement cutting her off. "You're not going anywhere."

She stared at him. "What? Of course I'm going to be there. That's what you hired me for. That's what-"

"No." Alex lifted his gaze from the roulette wheel, his eyes blazing blue. "You're not coming, Katya. You're staying here."

There was nothing but certainty in his face, and all the strength of his stubborn will.

"Why?" she demanded. "South said you couldn't play if I'm not there."

"Conrad South can go fuck himself," Alex snapped. "You're not going to be there and that's final."

She swallowed. "But you're going, aren't you?"

He didn't look away. "Yes."

"Why? You have the information you need; what's the point of playing now?"

Shadows moved in his eyes. The echoes of the past. Rage and pain, and something else she couldn't identify. And she realized he wasn't attempting to distract or conceal them; he was letting her see.

Her throat closed. "What?" she forced out. "What do you want from him?"

"What do I want?" Slowly, Alex picked up the ball and spun the wheel again, dropping the ball once more so it flashed around the inside rim. "Revenge, Katya mine. I want revenge."

She didn't need to know what for; she'd already guessed. But all of a sudden she wanted to hear his story, hear it in his own words.

Are you sure you want his secrets? Once you know one, you'll want them all.

But no, she needed to know this. It was background to the mission; it was vital.

Keep telling yourself that....