Deception of the Heart (21 page)

He wait
ed for her answer, so she nodded, her head moving jerkily. She peeked at Jon again, waiting for him to make eye contact or smile at her. He looked down at his hands instead. Melanie’s sense of dread that had started that morning grew into something much worse and more overpowering as seconds ticked away. Why was he acting as though he didn’t really know her? Wasn’t he the same man who kissed her and made love to her so passionately only hours ago?

‘
Melanie, I am so glad you came to us with your doubts.’ The short man grinned at her, the dimples in his square cheeks giving his smile a boyish charm that would have affected her if she wasn’t so worried. ‘By the way, I was hoping you would, dear.’

Was she supposed to know what he meant by
that bizarre comment? She searched her memory but came up empty. Nothing, not even a vague idea of how to connect their brief, purely friendly meeting with Pete and the Spitieris. He seemed to know them, as impossible as that sounded. Plus, he and Jon must be much closer friends than she thought. She saw it in the casual way they interacted, an ease born out of familiarity, even though Jon was noticeably tense. The tension radiating from his tall, muscular body was almost palpable to her oversensitive senses.

‘You’re right, of course. About Pete, that is
.’ Bernard nodded, his voice soothing. He might just as well be talking to his daughter, his paternal smile starting to annoy her. She didn’t want him to be nice or reassuring. They needed to act, and now. If Pete planned to kill Daniel, there was no time for niceties and chitchat.

‘
Then why aren’t we on the phone now?’ Her voice sounded sharper than she intended, her frustration reaching the boiling point. ‘If I am right, and if you know about…’ She stopped when the pieces of the puzzle finally fell into place. ‘You know. You knew even before I came here, didn’t you?’ She shook her head, trying to make sense of the discovery. ‘But if you know, then why don’t you do something about it?’

It
didn’t make any sense; she had to think, but her thoughts were running in circles.

‘Let
Bernard explain.’ Jon’s voice made her look up, their eyes meeting properly for the first time. She felt an icy cold ring close around her chest, making breathing difficult. He looked like a stranger, all the warmth and familiarity wiped away, as he watched her with a strange, dispassionate expression, his lips tightened into a firm line.
Smile,
she commanded him desperately in her thoughts.
Smile at me and say that things will be all right. I will believe you because I need to believe in you. Everything else is slipping away.
Yet he looked somber and distant, her hopes dying an instant and swift death that left her frozen.

‘
Pete is under surveillance, Melanie.’ Bernard nodded at Jon, his brown gaze pensive as he watched the younger man. ‘He has been from the moment he set foot here in Rome. Or rather, much earlier than that, while still in New York. We’ve been monitoring his moves for the last two years, at least.’

‘We?’ Did she step into some badly done remake of a Bond movie? She watched
Bernard and stepped closer, ignoring both Jon and Daniel. ‘What do you mean? Do you work for the police?’

‘Something
like that.’ He nodded and sat down on the sofa, patting the spot next to him, his invitation unmistakable. She chose to ignore it. The idea of sitting down while he briefed her was unbearable. ‘Our agency is very interested in the group Pete belongs to. The Peace Brigade?’ He waited for her to say something or at least show some kind of recognition.

He would be disappointed because she had never even heard of them
. The name alone sounded like some ridiculously bad remake of an old-fashioned action movie or a spy novel.

‘Are you sure?’ she asked finally, surprised at how normal her voice sounded. Inside she was quivering with
a fear that refused to be named and categorized. For now at least… ‘I mean, Pete never even mentioned it to me. I’ve worked with him for a few months now, so I am sure I’d have heard about it if he belonged to some… weird club.’

‘It’s much more than that
.’ Bernard sighed, his voice troubled. ‘And no, if he didn’t feel you’d be interested in getting involved, he’d certainly make sure to keep you in the dark, dear. That’s the way they run their organization.’

‘Organization?’
She glanced at Jon again, desperate for some support. Did he really know about this? He must have. His unmoved face and distant eyes told her he was in on it all along.

‘
Yes, or rather a movement, if you were to read their manifesto.’ Bernard grinned mirthlessly, his features darkened in anger. ‘Destroy the world as we know it and build a new, just society from its ruins. They pick influential people, be it politicians, scientists, or even artists, and bring across their message. There have been at least three murders linked to the Peace Brigade in the last two years alone.’

‘Then why don’t you shut them down?’
It didn’t make any sense. If the people in the brigade were criminals, the way to stop it should be rather simple and predictable. At least that was how she imagined the world to work, but maybe she was wrong?

‘
Because one or two arrests won’t change anything. The rest will go into hiding, regroup, grow… you name it. And after they exit their dormant state, we’ll face the task of tracking them down again all over from scratch.’

‘
So what can be done?’ Maybe she was slow at understanding, but it didn’t make any sense. ‘You can’t catch them, and you have to stop them. Do you intend to go and ask them to stop?’

‘Good one
.’ Bernard acknowledged her sarcastic remark with a short smile before continuing. ‘We’re in luck this time, dear. They have a big operation planned for this coming weekend. Simultaneous attacks in Rome, Paris, London, and New York. Their biggest yet. If we manage to take them down silently and without the other branches realizing what is going on, we actually stand a chance of finishing them once and for all.’

‘It’s Daniel, isn’t it?’
She looked to the older man, who had been silent for the length of their conversation. He nodded at her with a weak smile, his eyes reassuring. ‘So it’s not some competition tryst, as I thought.’ She spoke softly, almost forgetting the other men in the room. Finally at least some of it made sense. She had been trying to come up with any plausible reason why Pete might hold a grudge against Daniel, and there was absolutely nothing. Her idea of professional envy was the only guess she had, and it proved to be wrong.

‘Absolutely
.’ Bernard nodded, his gaze telling her he knew exactly what she was thinking, which was disconcerting. ‘We have every reason to believe he is planning to assassinate him in La Casa del L’Arte, dear. Probably before Daniel’s speech too.’

‘So why this whole masquerade
?’ She was too upset to care that she was being rude. ‘Why not just take him down quietly once he arrives there, without this fuss? If police and guards will be present, Pete can’t do anything, can he? You can arrest him then, and none of his accomplices will be any wiser.’

‘True again
.’ Bernard didn’t mind her anger apparently. His smile still firmly in place, he explained patiently, his voice almost apologetic. ‘We couldn’t be sure of the exact plan. The details were still in the dark. We knew the most plausible scenario, but the predictability made us wonder if he was trying to cover up his tracks, that maybe he was aware someone was watching him and led us on, playing a game of cat and mouse. Therefore we involved Daniel.’ He gestured to the old man, who nodded, affirming the story. ‘We are watching them when they work together, Brunner and Daniel. Leaving them alone would be absolutely stupid. At the same time, we managed to gather enough information from our sources and Pete’s room to confirm that yes, indeed, he is ready to strike tomorrow night, before the presentation.’

‘Your people were
in our hotel?’ she asked with stiff lips, trying to imagine strangers searching Pete’s room, only a wall away from what she considered her private space here in Rome. Had they been in her room too?

She sensed more than she saw Jon move, the short, quick shift in his posture chilling her blood.
She could tell he was uncomfortable and had a pretty good idea why.

‘It was you, weren’t you?’ she asked him, ignoring the other men in the room. ‘
You went to Pete’s room today. That’s why you insisted we go back to the hotel even though I told you my hand was ok.’

He nodded. Every last shred of her insane hope that he’d deny it crumbled, the air knocked out of her lungs
. The pain brought tears to her eyes.

‘We needed
to retrieve the last data,’ Jon spoke, finally looking at her properly. She searched for any sign of warmth or care in his handsome features, desperate to rediscover the man who had held her in his arms as if that was the only place she belonged only hours ago. But he was gone, completely and irrevocably. There was no Jon anymore. That simple ‘we’ had turned him into nothing but a part of the team.

It all made
sense. He wasn’t interested in her, the whole act nothing but a carefully prepared performance to find out where she stood. Every smile and every kiss meant nothing. His mind had been focused on the job.
But he did want me,
a little desperate voice in her head cried, refusing to let it go.
He wanted me enough to make love to me with passion that wasn’t possible to fake.
But she knew it was a purely physical act, possible for any red-blooded male to execute once he put his mind to it. She couldn’t have made it any easier if she’d tried.

‘By now we know for sure that the assault is planned for Casa del
L’Arte. Daniel is definitely the most prominent of all of the victims. The other attacks seem to be coordinated to accommodate his schedule, ’ Bernard intercepted once again. ‘Pete is in touch with the rest of his team, which makes removing him rather impossible. There are at least two other members of the Brigade helping him. His disappearance would definitely be noticed. The last thing we need is to alert them that we are monitoring their moves.

‘Instead, we have to make sure
Pete shows up at the presentation.’ Jon added, his voice impassive, ‘Intercepting him at the very last moment will prevent the Brigade from realizing what’s going on until it’s too late. Arrests made at the same time are our only option. That way, none of the separate cells will get the opportunity to warn the others.’

‘
But is it safe?’ She swallowed, trying to imagine the stress Daniel must have been under. Listening to others discussing his possible demise couldn’t have been pleasant, to say the least.

‘As safe as it ever is
.’ Jon shrugged, the movement pulling her eyes to his powerful shoulders. He’d changed into a dark, long sleeved shirt and black jeans, his looks dangerous and sleek, reminding her of a black panther. ‘Pete can’t know he is being watched, that’s the most important thing. Everything else had been sorted out; that’s the last missing link to make our operation a success.’

It was sorted out, all right! Melanie felt like screaming, her helpless fury directed at
the tall, dark man with the face of a grave angel of revenge, not a flicker of emotion in his handsome features. She wanted to scratch his face until he bled, if only to find proof he was human. What kind of a man did the things he did? A horrible thought found its way into her brain, making her even more miserable: Was that something he did often? Did he regularly sleep with female suspects in order to extract information and help his team?

She felt sick, a bitter taste of bile rising to her mouth. For a moment
, she worried she might throw up, the embarrassment of falling apart in front of him and the other men too much to even consider.

S
he took a steadying breath and silently counted to ten before she asked, her voice purposefully measured and cool, ‘What is my part in all of this? I mean, now that you know I am not involved into Pete’s plans, I am pretty sure you have a plan to use my presence, don’t you?’

She
’d impressed Bernard, his dark eyes appreciative as he nodded. Jon didn’t look too happy, but she chose to ignore him, directing her full attention to Bernard from now on.

‘
You are very smart, Melanie.’ He smiled, his nod confirming her fears. ‘As I said, I am very happy that you came to us with what you know. Very, very happy.’ He sighed, the smile replaced with a worried expression that she imagined was very well rehearsed. She couldn’t quite make up her mind if she liked him or not. His mix of friendliness and shrewdness was a rather confusing combination. He was one of those people one wanted to have as a true friend and feared to make an enemy, she decided, wishing she could just walk out and disappear into the fast approaching night.

‘
Of course, it would make things a bit easier if we could count on your collaboration, my dear. You could help us finish it off smoothly, if you choose so.’ There it was, the carrot for the donkey. Just the right amount of praise and promise, enough to reel her in and make refusal impossible.

‘What would you like me to do?’ she
challenged, tired of the game. If she could do something to help Daniel, she’d do it, if only because she genuinely liked him. ‘I am horrible at pretending, so don’t ask me to lie to Pete for you to extract information, because I will only make things worse.’