Charmed: A Masters and Mercenaries Novella

by Lexi Blake

  Well, then Nina could help him out with that because he needed to keep those boundaries firmly in place.

  “I assure you she is.” He set the coffees on the counter along with the breakfast sandwiches and pastries he’d gotten since he didn’t know if she preferred savory or sweet. He reached a hand out to her. “Unless you changed your mind, baby. You still going to marry me?”

  She didn’t miss a beat, taking his hand and letting him haul her close. “Not a chance, cowboy.”

  He lowered his lips to hers and could feel the stiffness in her body, though she welcomed the kiss readily. “I love it when you tease me.”

  “No.” Deanna paced the floor of the suite. “This is some kind of joke. You aren’t even dating anyone.”

  He needed to get Nina up to date and fast. He kept her hand in his as he faced the intruders. “I met Nina through a friend of my mother’s. I was headed out to Loa Mali to an engineering conference and I had a few days. I spent them with her. As you know I’ve been on the road for six weeks. Nina has come out to be with me whenever she could.”

  “You were on oil rigs,” Deanna pointed out.

  “Oil rigs still have private rooms,” Nina shot back, placing a hand on his chest. “Trust me. If you want to get to know a man, spend three days on a rig with him. You find out a lot about his habits.”

  That hand felt awfully possessive. Yes, this could work out perfectly for him. “Hey, I took you to Loa Mali on a private plane. It wasn’t all bad.”

  She went up on her toes. “I’m going to get dressed. I didn’t think I would have to meet your coworkers until we got to the retreat. I’m going to change.”

  She winced slightly as though she realized the mistake she’d made.

  “I’ll get rid of them,” he promised.

  He tilted his head down and she came up to brush her lips against his.

  “I’ll explain. I promise,” she whispered.

  She thought he was way smarter than he was. Or more trusting. Fuck. He couldn’t tell her he’d known why she’d said what she said. He needed a plan or she would walk out on him and then he would lose the girl and his father would be angry he’d screwed everything up.

  But first, he had to deal with the snakes in his suite. It did not escape him that every one of them was on the Agency’s list. He couldn’t see it. He knew that trio could be hard to take at times. Still, he couldn’t see them betraying not only the company but the country. However, figuring out who was the spy was Nina’s job and he was going to let her do it.

  If he could pull off the fiancée thing. He nodded and she strode off to the bedroom—after she took her coffee and the bag of breakfast goodness.

  He turned to the intruders, and he didn’t have to pretend to be irritated. He fucking was irritated. “You want to explain why I’m not having a very nice morning with the woman I’m going to marry?”

  “You want to explain how you’re marrying a woman no one has met?” Deanna asked. “I don’t buy this, JT. What the hell is going on?”

  “I don’t give a damn about what you want to do with your romantic life. I want to know what’s going on with David Malone,” Jordy said.

  “Why isn’t he going on the retreat?” Patrick stood behind Jordy. “He hasn’t missed the retreat in twenty years. Your email said something about his health. Did he have a heart attack? Because we have the right to know if the CEO of the company is on death’s door.”

  “And how could you send out that email?” Deanna complained. “That should never have gone out. We have people to do that. People who know how to word things so you don’t spark a bunch of rumors that could potentially tank our stock.”

  He winced. “Yesterday was rough. I didn’t think about it. I’m sorry. My father is fine. He had his gallbladder out. His recovery time is minimal, but he needs to take it easy for a few weeks.”

  Deanna’s shoulders came down from around her ears. “All right. I’ll write up a brief report and I’ll handle the press. I was already going to the retreat, so I can get you up to date on everything very quickly.” She frowned. “I made your father’s travel arrangements. He said he was bringing a new assistant with him. Her name was Nina, too.”

  Fuck. He was not a damn spy. “Yeah, Dad wanted to ease Nina into the business part of our world, and he thought the retreat would be the perfect place to do it. The fact that she’s also his future daughter-in-law isn’t really anyone’s business. I’m sure it would have come up, but he wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it. It was also going to be a good way to spend time with her. Instead she got to sit in a hospital room and listen to my parents bicker about how long he would have to stay in bed. Now, if you don’t mind, we drove out here to Dallas late last night so we could get everything we need for the retreat. I’ll be in the office tomorrow if you need anything. I’ve got a meeting with our security company at one, and I would like to spend some time with my fiancée. Deanna, do all the things you need to do, starting with getting these two out of my suite.”

  She looked like she wanted to argue, but she simply nodded. “Gentlemen, you have your answer.”

  “I don’t have any proof,” Patrick replied. “He could be lying.”

  Deanna stepped in between them, which was a good thing because he was about to show Patrick how he handled assholes.

  “He’s a terrible liar,” Deanna said with a tight smile. “Trust me. I would know if he was lying. We’ve reached the end of his patience. You have your answer. Let’s get back to the office.”

  She sent him a look that let him know this wasn’t over.

  He closed the door behind them.

  “I can explain.” Nina was standing in the doorway to the bedroom, a worried look on her face. She’d put on her clothes from the night before and despite a few wrinkles, looked all buttoned up again.

  It was not how he wanted to spend his morning. He needed more time with her.

  He held up his phone. “You’re Nina Blunt. You work for McKay-Taggart.”

  She let out a sigh of obvious relief. “They sent you an email with my dossier.”

  Yep. He’d read it the day before, but she didn’t need to know that. “I guess we have a lot to talk about.”

  She shook her head and walked around him to get her shoes. “We do, but I got a call from my boss. The CIA agent we’re going to be working with is in town and wants to meet right away. I need to get to the office. Perhaps we can talk later this afternoon. We can definitely talk about how this is going to work. Girlfriend would have been easier than fiancée, but we have to go with it now. You need to contact your parents in case the assistant decides to ask about our out-of-nowhere engagement.”

  “They’ll treat you better if they think you’re going to be a member of the family,” he said.

  “You shouldn’t concern yourself at all with how they’ll treat me.” She managed to make what should have been a suggestion sound like an accusation. “I can handle whatever they throw at me.”

  There had been another reason for him changing her plan. “I probably wouldn’t bring a girlfriend to something like this, and my employees would know that.”

  She nodded as she slipped into her heels. “All right. Well, we’ll need a good cover. We can discuss it at the office.”

  “Or we could talk about it over dinner,” he suggested. He could see the no on her face, but he had a counter. “We need to spend time together. Look, I know this is weird, but I was coming back up here to ask if I could see you again. I don’t see how this changes anything at all except that we don’t have to take a week or two before we go on an actual date.”

  Her eyes widened and she grabbed her purse. “It changes everything, Mr. Malone.”

  Oh, she was upset, and he wasn’t sure what that was about. He only knew he wasn’t going to let it stand. But he could give her some space. For now. “I look forward to seeing you this afternoon, Ms. Blunt.”

  She rushed out the door and he admired her very lush backside as he pul
led out his cell phone and dialed his brother’s number.

  “Hey, I just got off the plane. Everything okay?” Mike asked.

  “I slept with my McKay-Taggart contact and she’s freaked out about it.” It was best to own up to everything when it came to his brother. “And you’re going to tell me why.”

  He could do his research, too.

  After his brother stopped cussing.

  Chapter Four

  “All right, everything is ready and you’ve got all your new ID that identifies you as Nina Banks, but we’ve hit a snag and we’re probably going to have to redo it all under a new name,” Big Tag was saying. “Did you get the email I sent out?”

  Nina sat in the conference room at McKay-Taggart. Unlike the London office, this one wasn’t set in a gorgeous botanical BDSM club like The Garden. The Dallas office was sleek and modern, reminding her this was all business and she shouldn’t be thinking about the gorgeous man next to her as anything but a client. JT Malone had shown up long before she’d thought he would, walking into the conference room with his twin, Michael. His identical twin, though it was easy to tell them apart. Michael was grave and serious, where JT’s smile lit up the room.

  She forced herself to focus on the authority figure. “Yes, sir. I got it this morning. I don’t think it will be an issue and it won’t require a new name. I think the best cover would be going in as Mr. Malone’s friend. From what I understand, plus ones are perfectly acceptable at this retreat.”

  Charlotte Taggart sat next to her husband and a single brow rose over her intelligent eyes. “Really? I was going to go with journalist. You’re a reporter writing a story about young business leaders and how they’re shaking up Wall Street. I can put it out there that you’ve interviewed Andrew Lawless from 4L and a man named Seth Stark. They’re both willing to back up the story if anyone asks.”

  That was an excellent cover. Truly bloody excellent, and she couldn’t use it. And she couldn’t tell Charlotte why she couldn’t use it. What was she supposed to say now?

  The silence lengthened, and Nina fought the urge to stand up and walk out. Her brain was blank. She was better than this. The man next to her was short-circuiting all her best instincts.

  “That won’t work.” JT came to the rescue. “Everyone knows I don’t talk to reporters. I’ve got a thing about it. Right, Mike?”

  Michael Malone frowned and sat back, giving his brother what could only be described as the evil eye. “You’ve got a thing about sleeping with the wrong people. You see, my brother slept with the reporter who was supposedly doing a story on the family business. After he slept with her it turned into an exposé of how our family was disintegrating and wealth had ruined us all.”

  JT groaned. “I was twenty-two and I was upset because my brother had run off and joined the Navy and left me all alone. I get chatty when I have a couple of beers, and she used me. And I don’t sleep with the wrong people anymore. I sleep with the right ones, even if they seem like they’re the wrong ones.”

  She could feel every inch of her skin going pink, but she fought through it. “Mr. Malone knows his people best. I think we can come up with a good cover where I go in as his companion.”

  “Fiancée,” JT corrected.

  Now it was Big Tag’s brow rising. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Nina prefers keeping a polite distance in these kinds of operations. If she’s your fiancée, she’ll have to stay in the same room with you. Unless we’re pretending like it’s 1820 and Sandra is guarding her virginity. That might require a different wardrobe. How do you feel about turtlenecks?”

  She should have told him the truth. Or at least some facsimile of it. She should have known nothing got past Big Tag. “I met with Mr. Malone earlier. We ran into each other at the hotel. Unfortunately, we also were accosted by several of the members of his leadership team who were there looking for answers about the senior Mr. Malone’s illness. We were seen together, and Mr. Malone introduced me as his fiancée.”

  “I panicked.” JT had the earnest thing down. “I’m sorry I put Ms. Blunt in this position, but honestly, it’s for the best. I wouldn’t bring a new girlfriend to this retreat.”

  “He’s never brought a girlfriend at all,” Michael admitted.

  “I brought Dana,” JT said quietly.

  Michael turned his way, a sympathetic look crossing his face. “Dana wasn’t your girlfriend. She was a friend. She was a girl.”

  Oh, now she very much wanted to know who Dana was. JT’s jaw had tightened, his eyes going down.

  “Well, she was the only friend I ever brought, so it would be odd for me to show up with someone I wasn’t serious about. I’ve had a couple of girlfriends over the years and I didn’t take them on the leadership family retreat because those girlfriends weren’t family,” JT replied, his voice perfectly even. “I’m not a spy, Mr. Taggart. I’m not good at this. I understand how to get oil out of the ground. That’s about it. If I screwed this up, then maybe we should think about scrapping the whole thing. I know trust is important in this business.”

  “So is corporate espionage.” The last member of their group seemed to peel away from the shadows. He was lanky, with gray eyes and pitch-black hair that tumbled over his forehead in a very boy-band way.

  Nina stared at him and then back to Tag. “You’ve vetted him, right? You actually talked to someone at Langley and made sure he’s not some operative’s teenager who went a bit wild?”

  Big Tag gave her a genuine smile. So often the man smirked in that arrogant way of his. “I assure you, he’s the real deal. Mr. Magenta there is straight out of Langley. Gen Y is now in the house.”

  JT seemed relieved to get to talk about anything but the way they’d screwed up. Though she had to admit he’d done everything he could to take the heat off her. “He’s the CIA guy? I thought he was like your kid or something.”

  “My oldest kids are in first grade,” Tag said, his brows furrowing. “He’s at least a freshman.”

  The young operative put his hands on his hips. “I’m twenty-three, asshole. And I’m not Mr. Magenta. I asked you to call me Mr. Black.”

  “No can do. I already killed Mr. Black,” Tag shot back. “Blew his ass all over the Arabian Sea.”

  Charlotte stared his way.

  Tag put a hand over his wife’s. “No, baby. We share everything. Including our successes. I shared the unholy amount of money you brought into this marriage, all the children, and I share in your kills, too.” He slid a slow smile her way. “I’ll give you half the credit when I track down Levi Green and stuff his entrails so far up his ass they come out his nose.”

  Charlotte appeared perfectly fine with that. “Deal, baby.” She turned back to the CIA employee. “And I think Mr. Magenta suits you. Your generation is very gender fluid. I applaud that heartily.”

  The kid was staring at Tag in apparent horror. “You do know what entrails are, right? They’re kind of already attached to the ass.”

  “Not after I get done with them, they’re not.” Tag started to explain his version of revenge in ridiculously over-the-top detail.

  “Is this that thing where CIA agents don’t want you to know their real names, so they make one up?” JT leaned her way, his voice going low. “I’ve only met two in my time and they both called themselves Mr. Black.”

  She turned slightly so she could whisper his way. “Sometimes an operative will go under a different name to keep anonymity. Mr. Black or Mrs. White or something like that. Why did you deal with the Agency?”

  “I drill in some of the world’s hot spots,” he replied. “Trust me. I’ve met with Agency reps. I was working in the Middle East and they contacted me about putting a man named John Brown on the payroll so it looked like he had a job there. He’s still on Malone Oil employment files. Then there was a lady named Jane White who needed access to a conference we were attending.”

  Michael leaned over while Tag and the Agency kid were arguing about murdering a CIA asset. “Did you sl
eep with her?”

  Michael knew?

  JT sent his brother a nasty look. “I did not.”

  “Fine, call me Drake.” The kid sank down into his chair.

  Tag actually gagged. “No. I will not call you Drake. Where did you get that name? From a bad soap opera?”

  “From my mother, asshole,” the kid replied. “You know I might be young, but I’m a freaking genius, and I’m creative. I’m also really good with all the latest poisons. I won’t kill you, but I will make your dick shrivel up. Would you like a cup of coffee, man?”

  Charlotte laughed. “Oh, you’ll do well, Drake. And I’m sorry, but go for it. I had our fourth kid recently, so I’m okay with not seeing his dick again.”

  Big Tag was grinning. “Don’t be so quick to act on that. I’m going to get my balls scooped out and then we can play forever.” He turned to the kid. “Drake it is then. Drake, I know we’ve read the pertinent reports, but I would like for you to go over it all again since our primary has changed. According to his brother, JT is a himbo who doesn’t read much.”

  JT sent his brother his middle finger.

  It made her think about the fact that her sister had always casually tossed her under any bus she could. Alicia was petite and perfect, super feminine, and far more interested in her hair than her studies. She understood how JT must feel.

  “I believe Mr. Malone understands the operation well enough,” she said. “He certainly understands his business, and the technology they’re trying to steal was something he helped develop, so how about we don’t disparage his intellect.”

  That had every head in the room turning her way, but she wasn’t about to back down. It might be time to remember that she was a badass and he was her partner.

  For now.

  Tag gave her a nod. “All right. Drake…that’s so bad.” His wife’s hand came out, slapping against his chest, and he seemed to take her cue. “Please go over what you’ve found and why we’re doing this.”

  “I would definitely like to know why you think my admin is a spy,” JT said. “She’s a major bitch, and I actually say that with respect. She’s smart and she takes absolutely no shit off anyone, which given that she’s a female in the petroleum industry, she kind of has to. And no, I’ve never slept with her.”