Inferno's Kiss (24 page)

Cleo stiffened as her thoughts slammed to a halt. Condellaire. That’s what had really been bugging her every time she heard his name. It hadn’t registered with her this morning, and she’d forgotten it until now. It was an old Sicari name, but it was rare to hear it.

Lysander was the only one off the top of her head she could think of with the same last name. Perhaps they had a connection somewhere in the past. It wasn’t impossible, since the Sicari population numbered less than three thousand all over the world. Then again, Dante was a Sicari Lord and Lysander wasn’t. Well, her friend did have
some
Sicari Lord talents, considering he had a Praetorian father. Dante came to a stop in front of the table, and she forgot all about his possible relationship to Lysander.

It was clear the gods had taken their time creating Dante, right down to those dark blue eyes of his that reminded her of the sea during a storm. Eyes that were studying her carefully at the moment. A shiver skimmed its way across her skin as she met his gaze. Something had changed. In the garden when she’d teased him, she’d had the advantage. Not now.

He was in complete control, and she was the one who was suddenly feeling discombobulated. She wasn’t sure she liked the feeling. Her gaze flew to his sensuous mouth, and she saw it tip upward slightly. Her heart skipped a beat. Now she was certain she didn’t like the way she was feeling. Suddenly, she was glad there was a table between them.

Folding her arms across her chest, she narrowed her gaze at him and waited for him to say something. Hands clasped behind his back, Dante studied her. The appraisal in his dark eyes made her edgy, and she forced herself not to squirm beneath his observation.

“Why are you so eager to get into the convent?” His quiet question made it clear he expected an honest answer.

“I have a friend in there, and I want to get her out.”

“How do you know she’s in the convent?” Again, his tone indicated he wanted a straightforward answer.

“Marta was taken more than a year ago when one of the Chicago guild’s missions went south. I tracked her back to the convent a few months later.”

She didn’t bother to go into detail about Lysander’s torture or her desire to help not only Marta, but her best friend as well. Lysander was like a brother to her, and she knew he still felt the sting of that failed mission.

“And you’re sure she’s there?” he asked quietly.

“Would it matter if she wasn’t? It’s a breeding facility, and that means there are Sicari women . . . and children there,” Cleo said grimly. Dante’s gaze narrowed for a moment before he nodded.

“All right,” he said with a somber expression. “Why don’t we make a pact? You tell me everything you know about the convent, and I’ll give you my word you’ll be part of the team.”

“You mean the
assault
team that enters the convent when you authorize the rescue.”

He frowned, and she instinctively knew he’d been trying to keep his promise vague. Now that she’d narrowed the definition, he wasn’t so keen on the terms. With a cheerful smile, she waited for his answer. Irritation flared in his blue eyes. She’d backed him into a corner, and he wasn’t happy about it.

“Done,” he bit out in a fierce tone. “But you’re to do as I say. No questions asked.
Capisci
?”

“Understood.”

“All right then. Show me what you have.”

“Take a look,” she said with a smile as she nodded toward the blueprints she’d been studying when he’d entered the room.

With a fluid move that reminded her of the power she’d seen him exhibit in his martial arts exercise, Dante’s invisible touch flattened the floor plans on the table. One hand pressed into the tabletop, he examined the architectural drawings of the convent for a moment before he raised his head to look at her.

“Where did you get these?” he asked with amazement.

“I had them sent over from the safe house along with the rest of my things.” She stressed the last few words in her reply. Best to let him know she had no intention of going anywhere. “I have a source who does odd jobs for me when I need something.”

She didn’t bother to mention that Antonio had been her lover over a year ago and, despite going their separate ways, he was always willing to help her whenever she asked. Something told her the man was still in love with her. It was the reason she’d left him. Love wasn’t in the cards for her. Not even with a man outside of the Order.

“I’ve been trying for almost a year to get my hands on these floor plans.”

“Maybe you just didn’t ask nice enough,” she said in a husky voice.

Her hands caressed the table as she extended her arms out to the side and leaned toward him until her face was inches from his. She knew she was being deliberately provocative, but she didn’t like the way the balance of power had shifted between them. It made her feel vulnerable, and she didn’t enjoy the sensation one bit. Being provocative was a way to balance things out.

Although he didn’t move, she could see the way his entire body went rigid as he looked up to meet her gaze. Something flashed in his blue eyes, and she suddenly wished she’d worn something a little more feminine instead of her black knit shirt and slacks. Suggestive words and body language would only get her so far where this guy was concerned. And the thought of breaking through that steely exterior of his filled her with more excitement than she knew she should be feeling.

That impetuous kiss she’d given him this morning had been hotter than anything she’d experienced in a long time. She knew it had affected him, too. His hard-on had announced that fact loud and clear. A tremor rocked through her as she remembered the way her body had responded when she’d pressed against his erection. As suddenly as the memory assaulted her body, she recoiled from the thought.

What the fuck was she thinking? He was a Sicari Lord. She knew better than to get involved with one of her own kind. No, not her kind. This man was way out of her league. Still, what would it be like to tempt him? And she was certain temptation was something he was trying to avoid where she was concerned. She jerked away from the table, suddenly uncomfortable in his presence.

Distance. She needed to put some mental distance between the two of them. That was the best way to handle things. More importantly, she had to stop letting her attraction to the man interfere with her goal of freeing Marta from that hellhole the Praetorians had her in. An odd expression crossed Dante’s face, and once again, she wondered if he was reading her thoughts. The notion made her edgy.

“Reading my thoughts is forbidden,
il mio signore.
”

“I wasn’t reading your mind, Cleopatra,” he murmured. “Your face is expressive enough that it’s unnecessary.”

“Oh really?” she snapped. “What am I thinking now?”

“You’re feeling vulnerable, and you’re worried I’ll find a way to keep you from going with me to the convent.”

“Well, you’re right about me thinking you’ll find a way to lock me out of the rescue,” she said with a grim smile. “But vulnerable? That’s a bit of a reach.”

Deus
, she was a liar. The man had every one of her senses on full alert. He had no idea how much she wanted to see him completely naked and aroused. Her stomach did a flip-flop at the image filling her head. She’d lost her mind. Her gaze met his, and although he gave the appearance of being in control, she was certain it was a façade. He straightened upright as if aware he’d revealed more than he cared to.

“Tell me what else you know.” His terse words were an order, and she quickly pointed to the drawing on the table.

“The convent is heavily guarded. Angotti said there are always ten guards on duty outside the convent and at least five or six more inside. That doesn’t count the Praetorians who’re inside for . . . other reasons.” Her words made Dante draw in a sharp hiss of air.

“That’s at least twenty or more Praetorians on-site with more on the way if they get an alarm out,” he said grimly as he ran his hand over the back of his neck. “Not only do we have to fight Praetorians, but we need time to get the women out, and some of them might not be in good shape.”

“Angotti told me where the control room is. If we take out their communications links, that will buy us enough time to get in and out before they know what hit them.”

“And exactly how do you think you can get to the control room before they realize they’re under attack?” The dark, skeptical tone of his voice made her smile. Dante Condellaire, like most people, underestimated her.

“Because we’re going to get inside without them knowing it.” Her confident words made him snort with disgust. Her smile widened as she pointed to the western side of the convent’s exterior wall. “We go in here. They won’t be expecting us if we enter this way.”

“That’s because that side of the building is situated on a cliff that drops straight down to the Tyrrhenian Sea,” Dante said in an irritable tone of voice. A long, tapered finger traced the edge of the convent’s west wall. “Are you actually proposing we scale the cliff?”

“Actually, we don’t have too far to climb,” she said as she reached for a stack of photos and spread them out in front of him. “I shot these last year. Notice the caverns here and here? These are the remains of an old tunnel system that used to lead up to the convent several hundred years ago.”

“How do you know that?” Dante arched his eyebrow at her with a healthy dose of skepticism.

“When I learned Marta had been taken to the convent, I did some detailed research on the place in hopes of finding a way in. It took me a while to find anything useful, but I eventually located a journal written over a hundred years ago by a
Vigilavi
who worked at the convent doing odd jobs. He talked about a tunnel system the sisters had used to get down to the sea for fishing. The cliff face collapsed at the top while the guy was working for the nuns, and they stopped using the tunnel. In his journal, the
Vigilavi
wrote about building a balustrade on the balcony that connected with the tunnel.”

“And you think these two caverns are part of that tunnel system?”

“I know they are. I explored them shortly after I took these pictures.”

“
Sweet Virgins of Vesta
, are you out of your mind? How in Juno’s name did you even get in there? A boat couldn’t get that close to the rock face without the risk of being damaged.”

He grabbed one of the photos and stared down at it before he lifted his angry gaze to glare at her. She sent him a disgusted look. It wasn’t like she’d just gone exploring at the drop of a hat. She’d had a
Vigilavi
fisherman observe the cliff for more than five months, not to mention the two weeks she spent in the sun watching the rock face, before she’d ventured into the tunnels.

“I used scuba gear and an underwater scooter to get from the boat to the cliff wall. The cavern at the base of the cliff was easy to get in to. It leads upward to this opening, which is where the tunnel ends.” She circled the desk to look over his shoulder and pointed to the yawning cavern high up on the cliff. “The balcony just above is actually part of the rock, and the portion of the tunnel that led from the cavern to the balcony fell into the sea a long time ago.”

“And what makes you think the Praetorians don’t know about the tunnel system?”

“The Praetorians took possession of the convent about twenty years ago when the order of nuns became too small to maintain the place.” She breathed in the musky cologne he was wearing and wondered if he wore it often or if today was different. “I’m certain from the amount of cobwebs and debris I had to go through that no one’s been in that tunnel in more than a century. Parts of it have caved in some, but there’s enough room to get through those areas. Even if the Praetorians know about the tunnel, they don’t think it’s a threat. And my hunch is that they don’t have a clue that it’s even there or they would have blocked off the balcony a lot more securely. There aren’t any cameras or motion sensors either, otherwise they would have caught me.”

“I thought you said you weren’t reckless.”

“I’m not, but I was willing to take a risk. Two different things.”

He released a guttural sound of disgust as he studied the photographs and the building plans. Standing this close to him made her senses go haywire again as she breathed in his essence. Damn, the man smelled unbelievably delicious. He was spicy heat and raw male. Her gaze drifted over his profile, and she suppressed the urge to brush her fingertips along his strong jawline.

“It’s going to take some time to get all the details into place,” he murmured as he braced his hands on the table to peer at the blueprints.

“We can be ready in three weeks.”

At her confident statement, he turned his head to look at her before he straightened to his full height. She swallowed hard at the way he towered over her. He arched his eyebrows in a silent demand for an explanation.

“I’ve already got most of the equipment on order or in place. But most importantly, I’ve got a distraction to help us breach the inside a little easier.”

“A distraction?”

“Sonny Mesiti,” she said in a tight voice as Angotti’s sniveling echoed in her head. “He delivers weekly food supplies to the convent. We steal one of Sonny’s delivery vans and make a special delivery the night we go in. Attacking them from the front once we’ve taken charge of the control room will make things easier
and
we’ll have transport for the hostages.”

“All right.” He looked down at the photographs again and sifted through them with his long fingers. “I want to do some more reconnaissance, but on the surface, I think your plan is a good one.”

“I’m glad you approve,” she said in a wry tone.

“Why wouldn’t I approve?” Dante turned away from the table, an expression of puzzlement on his face.

“I don’t know.” She shrugged with a small amount of resentment. “I think it was the
on the surface
piece that rubbed me the wrong way.”

“I was merely reserving the right to abandon your plan if the reconnaissance doesn’t verify your data.”