by Lexi Blake
“Nah, we need to play this off like they’re not worried,” Big Tag said. “We’re going with the police line that it was a drunk driver. We can’t let anyone know you’re worried someone’s trying to kill you.”
“Maybe we should talk to the police here in Dallas about the whole case.” JT finally spoke, the words sounding grim coming out of his mouth. He leaned against the pool table. “Maybe it’s time we bring the authorities in.”
She shook her head. “That’s not a good idea. What can the police do? We filed the accident report because that’s a thing people do. If anyone goes looking for it, they’ll find a report that we were hit. But that’s why we didn’t tell them what we suspected. We can’t open that door. We’re leaving tomorrow. The most they can do is exactly what Adam will do, and he’s got better equipment.”
“So much better,” Alex agreed. “Also, calling in the cops would probably be akin to calling in the press. The minute a reporter gets a whiff that a Malone heir might be the target of an assassin, that story goes everywhere and then we scare off our spy.”
“Maybe that’s a good thing,” JT said. “We scare off the spy and then we’ve got more time to figure out who killed my friend. That should lead us to the spy.”
“The more likely outcome is the spy simply changes the time and place for the drop-off,” she pointed out calmly. “We know who the actual spy is. We don’t know who is working for you. This is our best shot at figuring out who your mole is.”
He was quiet for a moment, but his head came up and a steely glint hit his eyes. “You’re right. This is all about my company. I get to make the calls here. I say I don’t care what happens to that tech.”
Big Tag turned JT’s way, his brows drawn together in obvious consternation. “What are you talking about? You do know how much money you stand to lose if someone else gets this tech before the patent goes through? Hell, even with the patent it can be hard to quash outside of the US and Europe.”
“Not to mention the fact that we don’t know what North Korea will do with that tech,” Alex pointed out. “I know it seems like the only applications are in petroleum and gas, but a material that flexible could easily be used on warheads. From what I’ve read you’ve managed to create a new material that doesn’t corrode the way some of the plastics we use now do. That’s very important, JT.”
JT’s head shook. “Bill was the one who developed the actual material. I gave him my ideas on what we need, especially for deep-sea drilling. I did a lot of the testing, but he’s the smart one. The new material will ensure fewer leaks and keep the ocean cleaner. It should do the same thing for pipelines to ensure we don’t pollute ground water.”
“Yes, and I assure you someone will find a way to take that revolutionary thing you’ve helped create and pervert it,” Tag said. “I’ve seen it a million times. We just managed to get a bunch of guys back on track after someone fucked up a medical breakthrough that should have been used for good.”
“What’s going on, JT?” Alex studied him for a moment. “You’re not one to panic. When I realized you were going in instead of your father, I actually was happy about it. Your dad doesn’t take anything very seriously, but you understand what’s on the line. So why are you hesitating now?”
There was a long pause, and she realized the time where her boss didn’t have to know she’d slept with the client was at an end. “He’s worried about me.”
Tag snorted. “Worried about you?” He gave JT a shake of his head. “I know she looks all soft and sweet, but Nina’s solid, man. She might wear frilly dresses, but they hide a multitude of weapons she’s incredibly accurate with. I applaud my sisters for putting those skirts to use. Do you know how hard it is to hide a knife on my thigh? I mean I can get it up there, but getting that fucker out is hell. And her getting a halfway decent photo of the dude trying to run you off the road? Pure gold. That’s why I hired her. Cool as a cucumber.”
“Damon actually hired me,” she said, hoping maybe they would leave it at this. If they thought JT was merely upset that any woman had been put in danger, they might still come out of it with their secret intact. For a little while.
“She could have died.” JT’s jaw had tightened stubbornly. “She took her damn seatbelt off. When I was doing a hundred miles an hour.”
“That’s how she got the picture,” Tag replied as though it should have been plain.
Alex seemed a bit more sympathetic to JT’s problems. “I know it seemed reckless, but Nina knew what she was doing. I would have probably taken the same chance if I’d thought to. Not only does it give us a shot at figuring out if this was one of your employees or someone he or she hired, it also scared the asshole off. She might have saved you a lot more damage.”
“Or I could have lost control of the damn truck and she could have died,” JT insisted.
“But I didn’t and everything is fine.” She wished now they didn’t have company because she needed to calm him down. She knew she’d said she would go to the guest room, but he needed her.
“You could have died.” He shook his head. “No. This whole retreat is off. I’ll call and make an excuse, but I’m not putting her in danger like this. It was one thing when I thought all she had to do was watch for the drop to happen, but no. Someone tried to kill me tonight. I’m not putting her in front of me like that.”
“It’s her job. It’s literally her job to take a bullet if she has to. She did it really well last time. Didn’t even die,” Tag joked.
She appreciated the fact that Tag would never treat her any differently than a male operative working the same job. He would be sarcastic and he would give her all the backup she would need. He would also be absolutely certain she could do the job or he wouldn’t have assigned it to her. “I don’t know, boss. Given the two choices, I might have drank the roofied tea instead. Leaves less of a scar.”
“That’s how you got that scar?” JT asked. “I knew that was a bullet wound.”
A long sigh came from Tag, and his stare went right for her. “Seriously? I thought you were my smart one.”
Well, there went the secret. “Guess not.”
Alex looked back and forth between her and Tag as though he didn’t quite understand. “What? I think Nina’s super smart.”
“Not when it comes to fucking the client,” Tag replied with another sigh. “And apparently making the client so happy while she’s fucking him that he can’t stand the thought of losing her. I will admit, though, that you are good at hiding that shit, Blunt. I picked up on him sniffing around you, but not that he’d already had a taste.”
“Hey,” JT said, suddenly standing tall.
It was obvious her billionaire had far too much stimulation for one day. “JT, he’s not wrong, and sarcasm is his love language.”
“He doesn’t have to talk about you like that.” JT’s voice had gone dangerously low.
“He doesn’t mean anything by it,” she tried to explain.
“Stand down, Malone. I’m not impugning your lady’s honor or anything.” Tag didn’t look worried about the potential for JT’s anger. “I didn’t know she was your lady. Normally I have an excellent radar that warns me when my employees are boffing the clients. Like I said, Nina’s really good at covering.”
Alex had folded his arms over his muscular chest. “Yeah, Ian’s excellent at figuring out who’s doing who. I mean who is having what is obviously a deep and meaningful relationship with another person involved in a mission.”
Alex wasn’t bad at snark himself.
It was time to come clean. “Ian, Mr. Malone and I met in the bar before the job started. We didn’t realize who the other was, and one thing led to another. I assure you our physical relationship won’t affect the mission.”
“It’s affecting the mission now,” Ian replied.
“I think I should have some say in how this goes.” JT wasn’t giving up.
Her heart sank. She knew what he was doing, knew why he was doing it, but this
was her job. He’d promised her he understood, and the first time she was in danger, he was playing the white knight and not letting her do what she needed to do. Now that she didn’t have to hide their relationship, she could at least try to save the situation the only way she knew how. “I think JT and I should talk about this privately.”
JT stared at her. “There’s nothing to talk about. I can’t believe you did that. I can’t believe you put yourself in that position.”
It had been a risk but a calculated one. “You were handling the situation well. I thought about it and decided to try to get us an edge. You knew the area. You knew your truck. I trusted that you could keep us on the road.”
JT’s eyes had narrowed. “But what if I hadn’t? You could have gone through the windshield. Hell, the way you were sitting, you could have gone all the way through the back of the truck. You wouldn’t have survived that. I do know that road. I know exactly how dangerous it is. Animals cross there all the time, and they pop out of nowhere. Anything could have happened.”
He was definitely feeling the aftereffects of adrenaline. Perhaps if they’d been more secure in their relationship, he would have yelled at her in the truck and they wouldn’t be doing this in front of her bosses. She truly understood why he was upset. He wasn’t a trained operative. He wasn’t used to being in danger. He definitely wasn’t used to the panic that could come with some of the situations she’d been put in. She’d learned how to stay calm, though the instinct to panic had been there. It had been all about him. “I was worried about you too, but we had to do our best given the situation, and we did.”
“From what I can tell, you two made a great team.” Tag was watching them as though trying to figure out how to handle the client.
“Well, I’m not putting my teammate in more danger,” JT insisted. “The mission is off.”
“You can’t call it off. I know tonight was disturbing, but we don’t get to walk away from this. We’re dealing with the Agency. This mission is about far more than Malone Oil.” She needed to get through to him. She crossed the space between them and took his hand in hers. “I understand exactly what you’re feeling, but you can’t make big decisions right now. You need to sleep on it, and I think you’ll find things are different in the morning. You’ll be able to see the situation with more clarity.”
He stared down into her eyes. “You think I’ll care less about what happens to you in the morning? Because I assure you I won’t. I’ll still want you safe.”
He really was heartbreakingly handsome. She wanted nothing more than to brush back that dark lock that tumbled over his forehead and made him look younger than he really was. She wanted to take him to bed and make him forget they’d been in danger at all. “No, I think time gives us the distance we need to properly assess. Right now you’re too close to the fear to understand how well the encounter went. You did a magnificent job. You did everything I needed you to do. I was perfectly happy going into this job with you as my partner before, and the way you handled that truck and the ride back reinforced that belief.”
His shoulders relaxed, and she almost thought she had him.
“I can’t put you in that position again,” he said grimly.
“And that is why it’s a bad idea to get involved with the client.” Tag’s voice was every bit as somber.
Irritation began to war with sympathy. She had to find a way to get him to understand. “JT, this is my job and I’m good at it. You need to listen to me. Imagine me trying to tell you how to work a rig. Or explain engineering to you.”
He shook his head. “It’s not the same. I get that you have a dangerous job, but I shouldn’t make it more dangerous. That doesn’t mean I have to put you in harm’s way. I think what you should do is take a couple of weeks off and spend them here with me. You don’t have to do this job at all. You don’t need it. I can find something else for you.”
Alex stood up. “Maybe we should leave them alone for a while.”
“And miss the show?” Tag asked.
She turned on her boss. “I think I can handle this.”
“I’m sorry, but I don’t think you can, and I can’t leave until we figure out what we’re going to do,” Tag announced with a sad shake of his head. “We don’t have time for you to bring him around. My contract is with Malone Oil, not JT’s dick. Don’t look at me like that, man. That’s exactly what you’re thinking with, and I’m not judging you for it. You’re in deep with a girl. That’s when your dick takes over. Unfortunately, the Agency isn’t going to wait for Nina to convince you she’s not going to wither and die without a male hand guiding her.”
“That isn’t what I said.” JT was staring at Tag like he might try to take the big guy on.
“I assure you that’s what she heard,” Tag countered. “You’re making a bad play and it won’t work.”
She wasn’t sure exactly what she was hearing beyond JT’s fear. It had been a rough night for him, and if she had any choice at all, she wouldn’t push him. She would go to bed with him and they could talk this out in the morning. She’d made the decision to spend the night alone, but she hadn’t been unaffected by what had happened. She could have lost him, and in the face of that, it seemed silly to need time alone. They needed some time together if they were going to see if this had any chance of working. Unfortunately, time wasn’t on their side, and she had to find a way to make JT see that. “We’re not sure what the Agency will do. That’s what Tag is talking about. We have a duty to your company to keep this operation in our hands. If we pull out, the Agency won’t stop. Right now they’re satisfied we can handle things, but they believe this technology is important. They do not want it in the wrong hands. Malone Oil could find itself in a bad place if McKay-Taggart isn’t handling this mission.”
“Will find themselves in a bad position,” Tag corrected. “There’s no question about that.”
“I agree.” Alex settled in as though he knew they weren’t going to be able to give them the privacy they needed.
She shoved her frustration down. “Let’s go somewhere and talk about this. We need it settled because we’re supposed to get on a plane tomorrow and we’re supposed to be engaged. We can’t fight with each other and you can’t be tense. They will pick up on it and change their plans. That can’t happen. We’ve got one shot at this and if we screw up, that prototype will be on the way to North Korea.”
JT seemed to think about it, but the minute she saw the stubborn glint in his eyes, she knew all her patience was going to be for nothing. “I’ll say we broke up. There are already people in place. There are several McKay-Taggart employees already down there on the island. They can do the job. Hutch and Sandra are there, right? And the CIA guy is there. I don’t understand why we need Nina.”
And she was done explaining things to him. It was obvious he wasn’t going to listen and that his fear was worth far more to him than she was. She had to keep a tight rein on her emotions because she really wanted to lose her temper. Or cry. She wasn’t sure if she would be crying because she was so angry with him or because he was marginalizing her. Maybe both. It didn’t matter, though, because she would cling to what she always had—her work. It was time to stop worrying about JT and start doing her actual job. She turned to Tag. “I think we should call Michael in. With a haircut he looks exactly like JT, and I assume he knows something about the business.”
“You fucking will not,” JT shouted. He seemed to realize he’d raised his voice and he checked himself. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell, but you’re not sending my brother in.”
She saw Tag start to address the situation, but this was hers to deal with and she wasn’t hiding behind anyone. “Mr. Malone, I understand that you’re used to being in control, but this is my mission and if you don’t comply, I will be forced to have you taken into custody. At that point I will take your brother with me and we will complete our mission. It would be safer for all involved if you did what you promised to do, but make no mistake. I
will be on that plane tomorrow with you or without you.”
His stare threatened to burn a hole through her. “Your way or the highway, huh, Nina?”
She hated the fact that she had to fight back tears. “In this, yes it is. I believe we agreed to that when we began. When we realized the situation we were in, I agreed to try a relationship with you only because you agreed that I was in charge of the mission. You should understand I never would have touched you if I had realized who you were for this very reason.”
His expression had softened and there was a clear look of panic on his face, as though he finally realized he’d gone way too far. “Hey, I wasn’t pushing you away. Damn it, Nina, I’m doing this to protect you.”
Tag’s face had darkened, the first time during any of this that she’d been worried about what her boss would do. “Did he tell you he didn’t know who you were that first night?”
“He didn’t.” She didn’t want to explain this, but she owed her boss something. “I still thought I was going in with his father, and I honestly hadn’t studied up on the rest of the family. I knew David Malone had two sons and Michael worked with the Dallas team, but I hadn’t met Michael. I probably should have read a dossier on him when I agreed to the mission. I have now.”
“Why would you?” Tag countered. “He wasn’t part of the mission. I’m not accusing you of anything. You were doing your job and you had every right to sit in a bar when you weren’t working and hook up with whoever you liked. But I assure you JT knew exactly who you were. My assistant even told him where you were staying. I asked Genny to bring him up to speed because I knew we didn’t have much time. She sent JT a dossier on you. I waited to send you his until I knew he was going to do the job. You’d had a long flight. I assumed you would be asleep, which is why you didn’t get that info until the morning. But he knew.”
He couldn’t have. “I only gave him my first name. I came on to him.”
“I wanted to talk to you,” JT said, not quite meeting her gaze. “It had been a rough day and I needed to meet you. And then you were sitting in the bar and you were so beautiful.”
