by Lexi Blake
He owed Ian, but he owed his group, too. Ian had brought in Alex and Li to back him up. Hutch and Michael were Case’s closest advisors.
“You are not going to lose me.” He looked over at Fain. Sometimes life threw him curve balls and sometimes those freaking curve balls ended up being necessary.
He couldn’t risk going in alone. Not if someone was after Mia. Michael was out of commission. He needed Fain.
“If you turn out to be untrustworthy, I need you to understand that I will skin you alive and turn you into a rug for my office and I will let my dogs piss on you. I don’t have dogs right now, but I’m going to get some if you betray me. Am I understood?”
“I get you.” Fain was so earnest Case was worried he might break into song. “And I want in. I take my job seriously. I know I work for someone your brother doesn’t like, but they weren’t freaking hiring at McKay-Taggart. Do you know how long it’s been since I had a team I could count on? I’m not going to let you down. Now tell me we’re going after The Collective. I lost a friend in Africa during a skirmish that I believe was caused not by the locals but by The Collective over diamond mining.”
“A mercenary?”
“No. He was my brother and he was on a black ops team. So tell me I get to have some part in taking those fuckers down.”
“We’re not going after The Collective. Not directly,” he admitted. “We’re going after my brother.”
Hutch’s mouth dropped open. “What? Theo’s dead…fuck. She saved him. McDonald saved him and she took him and that’s why we never found his body.”
“Are you kidding me?” Michael asked. “He’s been with her all this time. What has she done to him? Does Ian know?”
“Of course. He’s known for a while and you have to understand why he’s kept it quiet.” He wasn’t going to throw his brother under the bus. Ian had made the right call. Case was making the only one he could. The intel was too important. Ian had said the information was on a need-to-know basis. Case needed them to know. “I’ll give you all the information you need, but you have to promise me now that the fact that Theo’s alive doesn’t get back to the rest of the team.”
“Erin would be devastated if she lost him twice,” Michael said.
“Or she would fly in after him and she could die and they would both be gone.” Hutch sank back into his seat. “I saw her that night. If she could have, she would have taken his place. She would have gone with him. Brody carried her out or she would have stayed with Theo. She wouldn’t leave him.”
A lot had changed in the months since Theo’s death. He didn’t think Erin would rush out. Case kept the secret from her for a different reason. “She’s a mom now. I don’t think she would be reckless with her life because of TJ, but I can’t let her feel the pain I feel every single day. I know he’s out there and I can’t help him. If I can spare Erin that pain, I’m going to and I’m asking you to as well.”
“I’m with you,” Michael promised.
Hutch nodded. “I can keep a secret.”
He was tougher than he seemed. “Good. Fain?”
“I don’t know her so I think we’re good,” Fain explained.
“I was talking about your boss.” Guy Ferland had some issues with Big Tag.
“He has zero need to know. He’s actually a dick and when I find another job, I’ll leave. Like I said, I’m really just looking for a team.” Fain looked back at Mia. “What role do you play in this?”
Mia shrugged and walked back into the cabin. She left the door open as she sat back down in the pilot’s seat. “I’m just the girl who got a good lead.”
He’d been wondering about this, too. “So you got a lead on my brother. Who was supposed to be dead. And this Tony person just up and knew you were the person to come to. Even though we don’t have connection on paper, he came to you. About my brother, who is supposed to be dead.”
Michael frowned. “That does seem fishy.”
Not for the same reasons. Michael was going the paranoid route. He knew his partner. Michael was wondering now if this wasn’t some kind of ploy to get them all at some place at some prescribed time where Mia would pull a surprise dick move on them.
He knew this had nothing to do with betrayal and everything to do with the fact that Mia didn’t give up on the things she wanted.
And she wanted him.
“I guess I was lucky,” she said primly.
“I think Mia was looking for any way to get into Case’s panties,” Hutch said enthusiastically. The boy was an optimist.
Mia turned in her chair, her cheeks a perfectly cute shade of pink. “I was intrigued by the story and I looked into it. I knew about The Collective because they approached my brother and Riley and I quickly figured out Hope McDonald was not only The Collective’s personal Dr. Frankenstein, but also the person most likely at fault for Theo’s death. I wanted to find her.”
“For justice.” Yeah, that was a lie, but if she was embarrassed, he would let her get away with it.
“For you,” she said quietly.
Because Mia didn’t prevaricate or hide even when she was embarrassed. He gave her what he hoped was a warm smile of encouragement. “Tell me how all this went down. How do you know this Tony guy?”
Her shoulders straightened again and she was right back to vivacious. “I met him when I was working this story on human trafficking in South America. He was looking for the daughter of some friend of his and I agreed to be bait for the men who had taken her. It was all very Liam Neeson and stuff.”
She was going to give him a heart attack. He could see it. She would be sitting there in a dive bar, probably wearing a dress that showed off her breasts. She would look like a big old blonde, suck-me, fuck-me cupcake, and when the bad guys showed up she’d probably have interview questions for them.
Hello, Mr. Sex Trafficker. Could you explain how you choose the girls you turn into sex slaves?
“Is he okay?” Mia was staring at him but talking to Michael.
“He’s envisioning you in a hellhole brothel and thinking about how he can punish you for putting yourself out there as bait.” Michael knew him well.
“He can’t spank me for that. He didn’t even know me at the time,” she said with a grin. “So I’d done that tiny didn’t-even-get-me-thrown-in-a-brothel favor for Tony. He gave me a number to call him and when I needed a favor, I dialed him up.”
“What exactly did you ask him for?” Case had to move past the idea of her being used as bait. Maybe he would take that discussion up with the mysterious Tony.
“He’s a pretty well-connected guy from what I understand. After I had someone hack into the CIA database to download the files on what happened on Grand Cayman, I got to thinking…”
“You did what?” It just got worse. The longer she talked the more trouble she got into.
“It wasn’t a big deal. From what I can tell, the CIA has no idea and I only took one little bitty file.”
Hutch was holding up his hands. “It was not me. Absolutely not me.”
Mia shook her head. “It wasn’t him. I paid a very nice hacker a lot of money. I don’t usually like to break the law, but Case wasn’t very forthcoming and honestly, I needed leverage to get back into his life. He was being an asshole at the time. I thought if I could find the one thing he wanted, he might give me a second chance. After talking to his brother and eavesdropping on a bunch of meetings between Ian and Drew, I decided to find Hope McDonald myself.”
“You did…” There would be time enough to explain the new rules of engagement to her. If they were together, and he was beginning to believe he might do the world a favor by taking responsibility for her, she was going to learn that eavesdropping and turning herself into bait for criminals and hacking into systems that would get most people put in jail were all activities that were now off limits. “You went looking for Hope and not Theo.”
“I didn’t know he was alive,” she explained, her hands in her lap and her voice solemn. “Th
e minute I did, I got to you as fast as I could. If I’d overheard about Theo, I would have been on your doorstep. I’m afraid despite the fact that you’re an asshole, I would have given my loyalty to you.”
Fuck. He’d been so stupid. “I promise I’ll make up for being an asshole. I’ve got a lot of practice.”
“Lots,” Hutch agreed. “So much practice.”
“So how did you find out Theo Taggart was alive?” Fain’s tone was flat, letting Case know how little he enjoyed the more personal parts of their conversation.
“I found out about the memory drugs Hope McDonald was using,” Mia continued. “I read about it and then my brother Riley and I went through a bunch of holdings and properties that were connected to Kronberg Pharmaceuticals.”
“We did that, too,” Case admitted. “Liam thought they were based in Argentina for a while, but when he finally made it on the island where the base was, they were gone.”
Mia looked at him while she explained. “They don’t stay in one place for very long. I believe they originally were being funded by Kronberg, but at some point they cut ties with her. Likely around the time the Agency got interested in her. I’ve tracked her to three places in South America, each successively worse. She was hurting for cash. And that was when I heard about the Gringos.”
“The Gringos? The bank robbers?” Fain asked.
“I’ve never heard of them,” Case had to admit.
“I read a story about them. I try to keep up on international issues.” Fain leaned forward. “They’re a small group of bank robbers who’ve hit four banks so far. They’re quick and clean. The one time they met resistance, they put it down without killing anyone. They’re known for being almost military in their precision and they speak English to each other.”
He knew a lot about a group of South American bank robbers.
“I asked Tony what he knew and he hadn’t heard much. Then they hit bank number five in Cartagena. Tony knew I was interested in the Gringos so he tapped into the police network and found the photos from the CCTV cameras.” Mia looked to Case to continue the story.
He was kind of in awe of the way her brain worked. He was a soldier. He tended to follow orders or instincts. He’d been trained by Ten to see past the words in a report and to evaluate motivations, but she thought ahead of such things. She was like Liam. She had instincts he didn’t understand.
She was the brains and he was the brawn. He kind of liked that.
“At one point one of the three bank robbers takes off his mask and looks up at the camera.” He glanced back at Michael. “It was Theo.”
“Why would Theo not just get away?” Michael asked, obviously confused.
“It’s the drug.” Case had studied up on everything written about the time dilation drug Hope McDonald had been working on. According to Ten, it short circuited the neurons in the brain to make minutes feel like hours, and it also made whoever took it very susceptible to suggestion. It was how Hope was controlling his brother. “Ten struggled with it after a single dose. I can’t imagine what Theo’s been through. I only know that in that one moment, he knew he had to try to get a message out. He knew he had to do something. He might have sunk back into whatever persona Hope McDonald has trained him to have, but he was defying her then. He was telling me to come and get him.”
And Mia had brought him the message.
“So we’re going to talk to this Tony guy?” Hutch yawned. It was easy to see that explaining the truth had seriously calmed him down. “The one Ten said was such a pain in his ass.”
“This guy is CIA?” Fain asked.
“Ex.” He wished he could talk to Ten, but Ten wouldn’t listen to Mia. He would immediately call Ian. But damn he wished he could call him. Ten could tell him how to deal with Tony Santos. Hell, Ten might be able to tell him how to handle Mia because it was suddenly so important to handle Mia. She was important. “He left the Agency a couple of years ago according to what Hutch discovered.”
“He was unstable,” Hutch continued. “From what I can tell, a few years back he was captured by MSS and the CIA disavowed all knowledge of him. He spent a year in a Beijing prison before he managed to get out. I suspect Ten had something to do with that.”
Case wasn’t surprised. As much as Ten loved subterfuge, he cared more for his men. He would have worked hard to get his guy out, but things got complicated in a place like China when he couldn’t depend on the State Department.
Sometimes he was damn happy he’d gotten out when he did. He could have been that operative left behind by his country. He could have been asked to do things for his country no one should have to do. Working for Big Tag was simpler. His brother tried always to do the right thing, the honorable thing. Even when he had to make a hard call, he tried to mitigate the damages.
“Tony left the Agency and started to do odd jobs, as he called it,” Mia explained. “He moved to South America and that’s where I met him. He’s a hard guy to pin down, but he owes me a favor. He’s been following the case but he won’t talk unless it’s in person.”
In person and with Mia.
He needed to know everything he could about Tony Santos.
“He won’t talk to us,” Case explained. “Only Mia.”
“That’s why you won’t tell Ian,” Michael surmised. “He wouldn’t accept it. He would try to catch the fucker and make him talk. Ian doesn’t know Mia. He wouldn’t trust her to get the intel.”
Yes, that was the problem. “We have to watch her but give her enough room that Tony doesn’t get spooked. If we don’t, we could lose Theo.”
Michael nodded. “I’m in. And by I’m in I mean I’m out because I won’t be able to walk for a couple of days. I’ll hole up and run communications with Hutch. You’ll take Fain as your backup and if he gets you killed…”
Fain held up a hand. “You’ll horrifically murder me and do something vile with my corpse. Yeah, I get that. I’ll make sure Taggart comes out of it alive.”
“And I’ll find everything I possibly can on Santos. I won’t let it slip through the cracks, Case. You’ll see. I’ll be as good as Adam and I’ll keep my mouth shut,” Hutch said. “Until we get back to Dallas. Tell me we’ll bring Big Tag in then because if we don’t he really will kill me and do something horrible with my corpse. He promises like three times a day.”
“We’ll call him before we even leave here.” Case didn’t want to leave Ian out a second longer than he had to. He would turn the entire mission over to his brother because Ian was the best. Ian was Theo’s best shot and he wouldn’t give Theo any less. There was no ego in Case when it came to a mission. He only wanted it to succeed and this one more than ever.
“We touch down in two hours and then we head to the hotel,” Mia said with a reassuring smile. “I’ve got us a couple of rooms and I’ll find a private doctor.”
Case looked at Hutch, giving him a stare he should understand.
Hutch nodded and immediately got up. “There’s a SAT connection in the office. I’ll find something suitably off the beaten track. I’ve got extra ID for my team.”
“I’ve got my own,” Fain pointed out. “What can I say? I’m a Boy Scout. I’m always prepared.”
Mia looked back at him, suspicion plain on her face. “What do you mean ‘off the beaten track’? I’ve got us rooms at the Four Seasons. A suite of rooms to be precise. I’ll get a couple more so we can all be comfortable.”
Yes, a suite where there would likely be a bunch of very well-dressed kidnappers waiting for her sweet ass. “Cancel those reservations. We’re doing this my way from now on, princess.”
“But I had a massage scheduled,” she said, her eyes wide.
He would totally give her a massage. With his dick. From the inside out. He smiled and sat back, enjoying how worried she looked.
“I’m not going to like your way, am I, Case?”
He was going to make sure she liked his way a lot. The hotel, on the other hand, would probably horrify her.
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CHAPTER FIVE
Mia looked at the sad little motel with a sigh. Her suite at the Four Seasons would have been in the heart of Cartagena, with its gorgeous Colonial era buildings and historical sites. This place was a one-story dump that might serve as a set for a horror movie. Specifically the ones where the dumbass American tourists got chopped up and didn’t even get to have sex first.
At least she was on the beach.
“This place isn’t even on the Internet,” Hutch said as though completely proud of himself for finding a motel that looked as though fifty murders occurred in it every day. He sat in the back seat of the SUV that had been waiting for them at the airport. Also Hutch’s idea. She’d had a limo waiting for her and Case that Hutch had nixed.
All her romantic plans trashed because of stupid kidnappers.
She’d told herself at the time that it was nothing more than a mission to save Case’s brother. That she owed her friends this. Now she could look back and see that she’d been using it as an excuse to get close to him.
What kind of woman did that make her?
“I got a recommendation from a friend,” Hutch continued. “He says this place takes cash and asks no questions. But also is fairly clean. I can get a good signal from the rooms I reserved. I called in at the airport and they’re holding three west-facing rooms for us. Apparently that’s where I can get the best SAT signal.”
Hutch was worried about satellite and cell phone signals. She was worried about disease and bugs.
And Case. She was about to be alone in a room with Case because he’d explained that there was no way she was sleeping on her own.
Would she sleep? Or would she finally get in that cowboy’s boxers?
Now that the moment was here, she was a little nervous. A lot nervous. Case was more than a good lay and despite the fact that they seemed to be getting along, they had a lot to talk about.
Shouldn’t they talk? It had seemed so easy when he was kissing her on the plane and touching her and making her crazy with his mouth. But now, after what they’d been through, shouldn’t they have a conversation?
