Amaury moved closer. “You can’t blame her. It’s her insurance policy. As long as Keegan believes Rose is the only one who knows where the flash drive is, he won’t kill her. If he assumes that she told one of us, what’s stopping him from getting rid of her and getting the information out of us?”

Reluctantly, Quinn had to admit to himself that his friend had a point, even if it didn’t make the fact that Rose didn’t trust him any more palatable.

“Still, we’re ultimately more equipped to safeguard this information rather than having a civilian do it. We have to know where she keeps it hidden.” Samson paced. “I wish we would have never been dragged into this mess, but there’s no way we can back out now. Besides, she’s family.”

Quinn shot a look at his boss, whose last word had jolted him. How had they accepted Rose so easily?

Samson shrugged. “She’s your wife. That makes her family, no matter what the situation between the two of you might be.” Then he motioned to the door. “And Blake is your flesh and blood. We can’t turn away from that.”

“You have no obligation toward her or Blake. Only I do,” Quinn protested. “I can’t put all of you in danger, because my wife has made a bad call.”

It felt odd to call her that again, but at the same time, he knew he couldn’t back down from acknowledging what she was to him, what she would always be: his wife.

Amaury rolled his eyes. “Oh, put a sock in it, Quinn. You would do the same for any of us. So, let’s cut to the chase. There’s only one way to get Keegan off Rose’s back.”

“Remove what he’s after and you remove the threat,” Samson said.

“No, destroying the flash drive alone won’t be sufficient,” Quinn interrupted. “The only way to eliminate the threat for good, is to eliminate Keegan. Even if we destroy the data he wants, he’ll seek revenge. Rose and Blake will never be safe as long as he’s alive.”

Amaury nodded. “Exactly.”

“I want to know more about this Keegan before we come to a decision,” Samson cautioned.

“But we can’t wait!” Quinn protested.

“There’s no need to wait. You do what you need to do to protect Rose and Blake, and the rest of us target Keegan. Thomas is already working on finding everything he can about him. It shouldn’t take long.”

Quinn knew his boss’s high ethics and realized that he wouldn’t give permission to kill him unless it was the only possibility. There was no use in trying to convince him otherwise. But he hoped that whatever Thomas dug up would justify taking Keegan out for good. Any man who posed a threat to Rose had to be eliminated. Particularly one who’d laid his dirty paws on her.

Samson turned to the door, then changed his mind and turned back to Quinn. “And another thing: you and Rose . . .”

The hairs on Quinn’s nape rose, instantly alert.

“Maybe if the two of you resolved whatever issues you have, she might tell you where to find the flash drive. It would help us out a great deal.”

“Easier said than done,” he murmured under his breath.

But his boss had heard him nevertheless. “Maybe you should try harder. I didn’t win Delilah over by twiddling my thumbs. Neither will your anger get you any further with Rose. I thought you were a master in seduction, or am I mistaken?”

With a smirk, Samson left the room.

Amaury grinned. “If you want to, I can give you a few pointers.”

“Get out of my sight!”

He needed no advice on how to seduce his wife. Seducing Rose had never been the problem. Her body still responded to him, he knew that for certain. But would her heart answer to his again? Would she open it once more and let him in? Would she trust him once more?

Despite the misgivings he had about her lying to him, to a certain extend he could understand her caution. After all, they hadn’t seen each other in two hundred years, and he was practically a stranger to her. But that was something he wanted to change.

21

Instead of heading home, Samson drove to Thomas’s house. Eddie opened the door instantly, inviting him into the spacious living room where Thomas sat in a corner, which had been fitted out as an office.

Eddie shut the door behind him. “Hey, what’s up?”

“We have a situation. I have a job for the two of you.”

Eddie’s boyish face lit up. “Cool. What do you need?”

Thomas rose from his chair and joined them. “Short party, huh?”

“I doubt Haven minded that we all had to leave early. I’m sure he’s got better things to do than entertaining the likes of us.”