Doyle came after her, another satchel, another case, and some sort of box tucked under his arm.

“Ciao, Miguel.”

“Hasta luego, chica.” He blew her a sly kiss, but stood, armed, until Sawyer turned the boat out to sea.

“All good?” Sawyer asked.

“Five-by-five. Three Russian underwater pistols with cartridges, holsters, and cases. And a little gift for Doyle. Lester took to Doyle, which is fortunate, as Lester doesn’t like alterations in agreements.”

“You couldn’t have carried it all.” After taking off the satchel, Doyle passed it to Bran. “Lester is barely taller than Gwin here, with a face like a rat after it’s been squeezed in a door.”

“He’s also worth about a couple hundred million, and is quite the bon vivant. He likes brainless, built women and hot, younger men, often at the same time. He’d have oiled you up and slithered all over you given half the chance,” she said to Doyle.

“Not my type. But I got a prime bottle of tequila out of it.”

“Tres Cuatro y Cinco—that’s not just prime tequila, it’s the god of tequilas. It ain’t for margaritas or Jell-O shots. It’s for sipping and savoring. Anyway, Lester came through.”

She sat, opened a satchel. “Let me show you our new toys.”

“First? Where am I going?”

“I’ll take the wheel.” Doyle moved to the wheelhouse. “I’ve seen the new toys.”

Because she didn’t really want to see the guns, Annika rose. “I’ll go with Doyle. He’s going to teach me to drive the boat.”

“Here, you take the wheel.”

As Sawyer moved aside, Doyle shifted Annika, put her hands on the wheel.

“I can?”

“I’m staying right here.”

Behind her the men exchanged a look that expressed appreciation on one end, acknowledgment on the other. With Annika occupied, Sawyer went back for a briefing on SPP-1Ms.

Once in the water, he didn’t fire it—no safe target and no point in wasting ammunition. But he got the feel of it, the weight, the balance—a different sensation.

As they dove, with the search once again the focus, he kept Annika—and all the rest—in his eyeline.

Riley’s intel could be wrong, or Malmon might have sent advance forces. But again they found nothing, and no one.

Still, he had a job to finish. When they got back to the villa, he focused on that. The others gave him room and quiet.

He glanced up when Annika came in.

“I’m sorry, but Sasha said you need to eat.”

“I’m nearly done.”

“She said she’s making chicken parmigiana.”

And suddenly, he was hungry. “Really?”

“And it would be time to eat it in thirty minutes.”

“That should work for me.”

“Sawyer? Will you lie with me in my bed tonight?”

“I was going to ask you the same.”

Her smile just brightened the room. “Then I could put the laundry I folded—yours—in my room?”

“That’d be nice.”

But she should have more than just sex, he thought. Because however fatalistic, Doyle had it right. When beauty fell into your hand, you held on to it.

And in Sawyer’s mind, you cherished it.

“Maybe we could take a walk around the gardens after dinner.”

“That would be nice, too. I like to walk with you, and have you hold my hand like Bran holds Sasha’s.”

But over dinner, Riley suggested moving up the timetable.

“We head over to Malmon’s villa, scope it out. We need to make sure it’s empty. He could’ve sent staff or soldiers ahead, or arranged for locals to stock it up for him.”

“That’s why we decided to go in after midnight,” Doyle reminded her.

“It’s after eight now, and a good thirty-minute hike. We need to case it, find any exterior security, deal with it. After Sawyer pops us in, we may have more security to deal with. Then we have to find the three most logical locations for the bugs.”

“Why wait?” Sawyer had to side with her. “Y’all mostly decided on the time to give me a chance to finish the bugs. They’re done, so let’s move it up.”

“And if there is someone in residence?” Sasha asked.

“We’ll figure it out.” Considering that, Riley switched wine for water. “It’s a hell of a lot easier to figure out on-site than it is to speculate.”

“There’s a point,” Bran agreed. “So should we say we’ll leave here at nine then?”

It wasn’t the romantic garden walk Sawyer had envisioned, but he calculated every step took them closer to resolution. If they could eavesdrop on any of Malmon’s plans, they could foil them, maybe turn them back on him.

And if they beat him badly enough, what use would he be to Nerezza? Whatever punishment she might mete out for failure, he’d earned.

“We’re closer to the sea,” Annika told him. “More above it, but closer.”

“He’d want a good view.”

They came to a wall.

“Other side of this,” Riley told them. “The gate should be up ahead. It’ll be locked. Smarter to go over the wall anyway.”