by Lexi Blake
He had to admit it was enough to get his dick going.
“I don’t know,” Theo said, shaking his head. “Tag makes good money through the company. Big brother is wealthy, if you know what I mean.”
Ten snorted. The kid was naïve. “I’ll eat my leathers if this was financed through his profits from McKay-Taggart. I always thought he gave up Charlotte’s money too easy. Bastard. I blame the Brits. They were eager to close the case and split that ten million. I bet Charlotte had double that put away.”
“I don’t think Ian would lie to you,” Theo said solemnly.
Fuck yeah Ian would lie. He would lie to protect his wife and family. Those millions would give him a whole lot of security. If he really was honest with himself, he’d known it at the time. He’d signed that deal and wished Tag and Charlotte well.
Maybe he was the naïve idiot.
No matter what Tag had spent and how he’d gotten the money, Sanctum was impressive as hell. The building was three stories tall, with a bar lounge and locker rooms on the ground floor. Above was a dungeon built for play, and finally privacy rooms and aftercare centers.
He meant to have Faith in one of those privacy rooms by the time the night was through.
“What’s the plan?” Theo asked. “Should Erin and I stay close?”
“I need you two to scene. Something hot. Faith likes to watch, from what I can tell. I’d like to spend some time alone with her.”
“You won’t hurt her, right?”
He sent Theo a look that had sent many junior operatives fleeing for their lives. “No. Obviously I’m not going to hurt the girl. I need her. I’m going to fuck her and make her mine. You knew this was going to happen.”
“I guess I thought you would like her more than you do.”
Like? It was a ridiculous word. He didn’t “like” Faith. She was the target. He didn’t like targets. Of course he didn’t normally crave the target, either. “I’m going to make sure she survives this mission. That’s all I can promise you.”
He glanced at the clock above the bar. She wasn’t scheduled to meet with him for another twenty minutes. Apparently it took subs longer to get ready than Doms. Probably all that pretty corset stuff had something to do with it. He’d rather have her naked.
It did give him time to clear up a few things. He spotted Damon Knight in the lounge. The big Brit was sitting with the Russian and another man. Kai Ferguson. Damn. Ten liked to avoid Kai. There was something about the man he found a bit unnerving. Like Kai could see right through him. Still. He had a mission and he needed information the Brit had.
“Is Case going to be here tonight?”
Theo shook his head. “He’s tailing the sister. The last I talked to him, he was hanging out in the parking lot of an expensive steak house on Lemmon. He’s getting shots of everyone Hope McDonald is meeting with and he’ll try to identify them by morning. I think it’s awfully interesting she happened to show up in Dallas.”
Ten had spoken to Hope McDonald briefly. She’d made her disdain for him plain. She obviously wasn’t a big fan of the lifestyle. “Have we confirmed the conference she’s attending?”
“Yes, but she wasn’t on the attendee list before yesterday morning. I think she came here to see Faith. The question is was she being an attentive big sister or is there something else going on.”
Could she be working with Faith? She could be the inside man at the pharmaceutical company. “She seemed to like you. Maybe you should spend time with her.”
Theo seemed to turn a little green, or perhaps it was the lighting from the human hamster wheel. Some sub was making that wheel turn and hard. It changed colors based on how fast it was spinning. “She gives me the creeps.”
Ten had been forced to fuck worse. “Suck it up, buttercup. I wasn’t telling you to screw her. Talk to her. Ask her about work. Get a feel for her.”
“Fine, but I’m not sleeping with her. I’m not doing any of that. Ever. There’s Damon. Let’s see what he’s got for us.” Theo started toward the bar.
It must be so fucking easy to be young and so pure he couldn’t ever imagine whoring himself out for information. Ten felt about three thousand years old as he watched Theo walk away. He felt a momentary wish that he could have been that naïve once. He’d always known his body was another tool to be used in service of his country.
He strode across the space between them, utterly ignoring everyone in his path. It was a trick he’d learned. He could hyper focus and allow everything else to fall to the side.
Except he was struggling to do it around Faith. She seemed to invade his thoughts, visions of her coming into his head at the oddest times. He’d been driving earlier, his brain working on the Ukrainian situation, when an image of her all soft and dewy from sleep had whispered across his brain, disrupting his thoughts.
He’d been useless from that point on. He’d had to go home and meditate before he could clear his brain of her.
Meditation was a useful tool and one not many people would associate with him. Franklin Grant had insisted he take transcendental meditation classes twice a week, and he’d kept up the practice.
At first Ten had believed the old man had done it to help him focus, to center a young man in need of discipline. Now he understood that Franklin Grant had given him that gift for one reason and one reason only—so he could take the pain that would later be handed to him. So he wouldn’t break when other men would. So he would be the perfect operative. So he could die with the country’s secrets intact.
Like his brother had.
He knew Phoebe was at complete peace with Franklin Grant, but Ten had issues with their adopted “father.” At the end of the day, Franklin had always been Ten’s handler, even when he’d been a shit-out-of-luck teenager on his way to self-destruction. Franklin had simply shown him a better way. Why destroy himself when he could destroy someone else?
He was nothing more than an animal who had been trained to protect. A guard dog for the country.
And then suddenly he could feel Faith, the way her hair tickled his chest and how warm she’d been in his arms.
He ruthlessly quashed the image. He had a damn job to do.
“Knight, have you learned anything at all?” He was well aware his tone wasn’t the most pleasant.
An elegant brow arched over Knight’s eye, and that was when Ten realized they weren’t alone. A pretty woman with blonde curls sat at Knight’s feet, her head on his lap as he petted her, his hands moving possessively over her.
Damn it. He’d been rude. If there was one thing these men didn’t like it was a man being rude around their women.
Actually, he didn’t much like the thought of anyone being rude around Faith.
“Please excuse me. Penelope, you look stunning tonight. How are you this evening?” He managed to ask the question in his “charming” tone. That was how he thought of it. He’d been taught to shove his inner asshole deep and make himself pleasant to be around.
“Better,” Knight allowed.
Penelope Knight grinned at him. “I’m lovely, Mr. Graham. And yourself?”
Penelope Knight was former MI6. She wouldn’t drop his cover or misstep.
“I’m doing wonderfully and looking forward to the evening. May Theo and I join you? Faith isn’t due for another couple of minutes and I thought I would get caught up on what everyone’s gathered this afternoon.” Polite. He could certainly play that way.
Knight gestured to the seat in front of him. Theo took the seat to the left and Ten joined him.
“I’ve been talking to Ferguson here about his impressions of Faith,” Knight said. “He spent some time with her this afternoon.”
Kai Ferguson had been with Ten’s sub? Faith had spent time with the casual, charming younger man? Kai Ferguson didn’t have a body covered in scars. He didn’t have a load of undiagnosed mental issues. Hell, Kai helped people with their issues. He was a therapist dedicated to helping soldiers coming back from war.
&nbs
p; There was no help for an operative because the war never ended for him. It kept rolling along.
Kai held a hand up. “I only talked to her, Ten.”
“He came over and helped me install the fire pit in the backyard,” Theo offered.
“And you didn’t think to mention that to me?” Ten was well aware of the chill in his voice.
Kai took over, his eyes somberly watching Ten. “Tag thought as long as I was there it would be a good time to get a personal view of the woman. Eve’s in the locker room doing the same thing, but two viewpoints are better than one, and it’s helpful to get both a masculine and feminine viewpoint. Some people act differently around men versus women. I don’t think Faith is one of those people. She’s lovely, by the way, and she speaks highly of you. In my opinion, she believes she’s falling in love with you.”
“Good,” he said, trying to cover up the fact that hearing those words gave him a sense of satisfaction they shouldn’t. He should be pleased because a woman in love was so much easier to deal with. She would turn to her lover when the going got rough. Oh, he had no illusions she would choose him over her family, but he might get some play out of her emotional state.
Or he could soak it in and enjoy her for every second they had left. He could bask in her warmth and pretend it was all real since he wouldn’t find anyone like her ever again. He could move her into his place and play house, pretending for the next few weeks that they were exactly what they appeared to be—a couple finding their way, learning each other because they were invested in their relationship.
He could let everyone else worry about recon and intel, and he could spend all his time sinking into her, bonding her to him.
A tempting thought, but he wasn’t the kind of man who let his fellow operatives do all the work.
Don’t trust anyone but your brother and your sister, Tennessee. Not even a partner. Definitely not a woman. It’s fine to enjoy one, but that’s not how your life is going to go. They’ll always turn on you. It’s the way of our world.
His adopted father had practically beaten those words into him. Not physically, but he’d said them enough that they should have been ingrained in Ten’s brain. He was simply far stupider than Franklin Grant gave him credit for.
“Are you with us?” Ferguson asked, his eyes narrowing. “Do you need to talk about something?”
Where the hell was Tag when he needed him? A good punch in the face might force him to focus. This was all Faith’s doing, but he would put it on a proper footing tonight. He would be the Master. “I’m fine. Markovic, did you learn anything?”
The big Russian looked perfectly comfortable in a set of leathers. There was a woman at his feet as well, a lovely brunette. She wore an emerald green corset and killer stilettos. He tried to remember her name. Desiree Brooks. It was a porn star name for an MI6 agent, but according to all the reports on her she was quite deadly. She looked happy to be hanging on to the Russian’s leather-clad leg.
“Is there a reason MI6 is here?” Ten asked.
Theo looked down at the woman. “She’s MI6?”
Markovic shook his head. “She is with us now.”
“I decided it was time to leave the service,” the woman replied in a quiet British accent. Not too upper-crust. There was a bit of the country in her. “I came over to bring the boss some information on a few ops we have running and Nick decided he needed a girl for the night. He’s worried his beauty will drive all the women insane.”
The Russian shrugged. “They have never seen such a man before. I cannot be loving them all, so it’s better they think I am unavailable. As to your problems, I do not believe the assassin was working for the Odessa mafia.”
“What do you mean?” He thought this had been established. He simply wanted to know why they were after Faith.
He’d been almost relieved. If Faith was dirty, he couldn’t really hurt her. If Faith was a criminal, he wouldn’t have her on his conscience for the rest of time.
“My contacts tell me Kozak has not been an active member for a long time. He’s been in hiding and working independently.”
“So he was affiliated with the Ukrainians but the mafia wasn’t paying the bills?” Theo asked.
“That’s what Taggart’s contacts claim as well,” Knight stated. “There’s no order from any of the usual suspects. I can’t find a syndicate that wants her dead. I’m looking into some of her contacts in Africa, but that’s going to take a bit more time.”
“Who would want her dead if she’s not disrupting a criminal practice?” He said the question aloud, but it was more to himself. His mind was whirling, working through the problem. He needed to check into the land her clinic was built on. It was possible someone was trying to eliminate a problem and ease the way for their own profit. Money tended to be at the heart of most crime. Money or passion. “We looked into the ex-boyfriend. Are we sure he’s the only one?”
“She was with him throughout the last part of her residency,” Theo replied. “There were a few lovers while she was in med school according to Erin, but nothing serious. She got into the lifestyle during college and seems to use it almost as stress relief.”
Theo wasn’t telling him anything he didn’t already know. “I’m more interested in her business. This smells like money to me. From what I can tell, Faith hasn’t been very passionate about anything except her job.”
Up to this point. She seemed fairly passionate about him. He couldn’t forget the way she’d come to him the night before, offering affection and kindness.
Shit. He wanted to believe she was real.
“That doesn’t mean someone wasn’t passionate about her,” Penny said.
Now that he could see. He could certainly understand someone getting obsessed with her beauty and grace. “Look into everyone in her background again. And I want a close eye kept on the sister. Do we have eyes on the senator?”
Knight nodded. “One of my men is working with Michael Malone. They’re in DC at the moment, but that could change. The senator has a private jet. It can be difficult to follow him if he decides to leave spontaneously. So far all we’ve got on him is that he visits a woman in a DuPont Circle condo twice a month.”
“So he’s got a mistress.”
Markovic shook his head. “How is this a scandal? Politicians in Russia have many mistresses. It is cold country. Many women are required to keep a man warm.”
“Really?” Desiree said, an elegant eyebrow arching over her right eye.
Markovic put a hand on her head. “It is different here. This is warm country. Only one woman required.”
So they obviously had something going on. Ten didn’t understand it at all. Operatives didn’t have relationships in his world. They were loyal to the mission, to the Agency. Not to each other.
He really wanted to get back to the world he understood. Things were clear at the Agency. Things made sense. He knew his purpose there.
“Besides, we can’t really call her a mistress,” Theo said. “The senator isn’t married. She’s more like a girlfriend. I don’t think we can spin it to hurt him, but I’ve got Michael looking into her. So how do we handle Faith now that we know it’s not the mob after her?”
He’d already dealt with that. “I told her it was safe. I want her to feel comfortable enough to go about her business the way she normally would. I want to see where she goes and what she does.”
But that wasn’t what he’d really done. He’d totally intended to do exactly what he’d said when he’d spoken to her earlier. He’d meant to let her off the leash and see where she led them, but the words that had come out of his mouth hadn’t been the ones he’d meant to speak. He’d told her that despite the fact she was safe, she should stay with Erin and Theo until he could protect her himself. He hadn’t corrected himself.
What the fuck was he thinking?
Theo frowned. “We don’t know that she’s safe. I don’t like this plan, Ten.”
Ten wasn’t used to having his ow
n team question his decision making. Despite the fact that he could easily put Theo’s worries to rest, the idea of telling anyone how he’d screwed up rankled. “You don’t have to like the plan. You merely have to follow it, soldier.”
“I’m not a soldier anymore.” Theo’s eyes had narrowed. God, he looked like his brother, and Ten could remember that same stubborn tone of voice coming out of Tag’s mouth. “You should know I’m going to watch out for her.”
“And you should remember why we’re here. Have you forgotten what her father did to Jesse Murdoch? To my own brother? What he’ll continue to do to our servicemen if we don’t stop him? You might not be a soldier anymore but does that mean you no longer give a shit?”
Theo sighed. “Of course not. I haven’t forgotten anything, but I also don’t think it’s a good idea to leave her unprotected. We don’t know that Kozak was the only one coming after her. He was likely hired, and that means whoever wants her dead can hire someone else.”
At least he could think with something other than his apparently tender heart. “Which is why you shadow her if I can’t. Actually, you and Erin should shadow both of us when we’re together. You might be able to see things I can’t. And that’s all I’ll say on the subject for now. Just get me the information I need, Even Littler Tag.”
He used the nickname the rest of McKay-Taggart had started using to describe the youngest Taggart. It got the rest of the group laughing and let some of the tension out of the room. He didn’t need the rest of the team thinking he and Theo couldn’t get along.
Theo growled. “I hate that. How about Even Younger Tag? That’s more fitting. And trust me, by tomorrow you’ll have more data than you can handle.”
Ten liked data. Data was actually one thing he could handle.
Then he saw something he was fairly certain he couldn’t.
Faith stepped into the bar, her arm through Erin’s as they talked together. Delicious. She looked utterly edible in a scarlet red corset and tiny thong. Fishnet thigh-highs covered her legs and led his eyes down to a truly spectacular pair of fuck-me shoes. Her hair was down, tumbling softly around her shoulders. She’d curled it, giving her glossy waves.
