Dominance Never Dies (Masters and Mercenaries Book 11)

by Lexi Blake

  She said it over and over, as though she needed to say it to believe it.

  “He is alive, but she’s been using her drugs on him,” Ian pointed out. “The same ones she used on Ten. Do you understand what that means, Erin?”

  Her head nodded, her hands still shaking. “The memory drugs? She’s playing with his memory. That’s why he hasn’t gotten away. My Theo would get away.”

  “He didn’t know me when I caught up to him,” Case admitted. She was handling this better than he’d thought. Or was she? He was shitty at reading women. Mia proved that. If Mia was here, she would deal with the emotional stuff. She would know what to do.

  Ian stepped in, grabbing a cup and pouring the lemonade. “I’ll let you see all the reports. Li is the one who’s taken point.”

  “Of course he has. I fucking love that Irishman.” Erin turned serious eyes Case’s way. “You said he didn’t recognize you. Did you talk to him? How did he look? Was he healthy?”

  She would read every report. Case was sure of that, but he was also certain she would need to hear it from him. “Very healthy.”

  “But his aim has turned to shit,” Ian added. “He tried to kill Case. Only managed to clip him. When he comes back I’ll have to send him through BUD/s again. Do you think the Navy will let me do that?”

  “He shot you?” Erin’s eyes went wide.

  Did Ian have to mention that part? What the fuck was wrong with him? “He pulled his shot. He wasn’t trying to kill me. When he had the chance to kill Mia, he didn’t take it either.”

  Erin walked around the island and slapped a hand to his chest. “Theo shot you because he knows you’re a dumbass, too.”

  He was still recovering from that particular injury. He groaned, but put a hand up to hold hers to his chest. “He was alive, Erin. He was so close and I lost him. That’s what Mia and I fought over. He took Mia. He and his little group. He’s not the only one she’s experimenting on. Theo took Mia and then got away through a secret door. She let him go. She lied to me and Theo got away. I’m so sorry.”

  Erin nodded and stepped back, looking over to Ian. “So basically Mia got caught during the op. Dumbass here ran in and got himself shot by my memory deprived but ridiculously hot boy. My man still has enough Theo left in him that he wouldn’t kill Mia, but he very likely threatened Dumbass. Mia loves Dumbass and didn’t want Dumbass to die, so she protected him. When Dumbass found out, he screwed everything up with her.”

  Ian shook his head, obviously impressed. “She really is the smartest operative I have. And to think I hired her as muscle.”

  “Mia let Theo go.” Was he so wrong on this?

  Erin wiped her eyes. “She saved you and him. Because he can live with shooting you. He could never live with killing you. Mia talked to him?”

  He hadn’t thought about that. He’d been so sure that he could have handled the situation. What if the roles had been reversed? What if it had been him on that floor and someone after Mia? “Yes. She said he recognized her lotion or something.”

  A brilliant smile crossed Erin’s face. “Milk and honey. He bought it for me as a gift. He said I was the promised land and I should smell like it. He’s alive. Theo’s alive.”

  There were a few things she wasn’t thinking about. “He’s alive, but he’s not in Colombia anymore. We don’t know where he is.”

  “But he’s alive,” Erin said through her tears. “So suck it up. He’s alive and we’re going to find him.”

  “Erin,” Ian began.

  She put a hand up to stop him. “No. You’re not leaving me out. I get why you’ve done it up until now and that’s the only reason I’m not grabbing Bertha and using your massive body as target practice.”

  Bertha was Erin’s precious Berretta M9. Ian’s lips curved up slightly. “I appreciate that.”

  Erin wasn’t finished. “And don’t think I’m going to strap on and go after him myself. I have to think about my son. I can’t risk my son’s welfare. But I will be involved. You’re right. I am the smartest operative you have and I know that woman. I’ve killed her a thousand times in my head, but more than that, I’ve dreamed of how I would catch her. I’ve come up with a million ways to ensnare that particular fly in my web.”

  “We’re going to look for him,” Case promised. “We’ve got every intelligence agency who owes us looking.”

  Erin threw Ian a look. “Is he really that naïve? Or does the drug not work?”

  “The drug works,” Ian replied. “It’s even worse than you think though. Apparently McDonald’s run afoul of her former employers. Even The Collective is after her. I haven’t talked to him about it because he’s had enough to deal with.”

  “What?” He hated feeling like he was the stupidest person in the room.

  “Everyone will be looking for Hope McDonald,” Erin said quietly. “Everyone. If Ian’s been using contacts, they’ve been using him, too. That drug can be a weapon. Her conditioning techniques can be used to build operatives from the ground up. Theo is so strong. If he could, he would have found a way to come home. She’s broken a piece of him, the piece that was loyal to his family. Do you understand how valuable that could be to a government? She can suppress his memories and give him new ones. The Agency will want that drug. So will every government that hears about it. So will every terrorist group. Imagine being able to wipe the minds of a thousand men and convince them they want to blow up a building. Men who fit no profile. Women. Children. We wouldn’t see them coming. True sleeper agents. Any agency who says they’ll help us is lying. They’ll tell us what we want to hear and then follow us to the prize. The prize is Hope and her research but if they can’t get her, they’ll take Theo. They’ll study him and try to figure out how she did it. We can’t trust anyone. Anyone.”

  “What do you know about the man who left with Mia?” Ian asked.

  “You let her leave with another man?” Erin shook her head. “What the hell kind of Taggart are you?”

  “She needed a bodyguard.” The nature of her brother’s wealth and influence guaranteed that. Her high-risk job doubled the need. “Hutch checked him out. Beyond being a massive douchebag and working for Ferland, he was okay.”

  “I’ll have Adam look into him, too. And Mia’s informant. I’m trying to leave Chelsea out of this. You understand what could happen to her if she’s caught feeding us information,” Ian said.

  Treason. Chelsea Weston worked for the CIA.

  Erin nodded. “She could be arrested.”

  “Or any of the other nasty stuff the CIA can do to an employee.” Case hadn’t even thought about that. “So the Agency will be watching us.”

  “Everyone will be watching us,” Ian corrected. “The Agency, the NSA, hell, I’ve heard a rumor there’s a fucking Magellan Billet agent searching for Hope McDonald. They’re the worst of the worst. Lawyers with guns. Makes me want to shoot myself. God, I hope it’s the old dude and not the one who looks like Ten. He’s obnoxious.”

  “But Theo’s alive.” Erin stood in the middle of her kitchen, tears pouring down her face. “Let them come after us. It doesn’t matter because Theo’s alive.”

  Mia had been right. Erin wasn’t tortured with thoughts of what was happening to Theo. Oh, that might come later, but the joy and light in her eyes…that was worth it. This was her life. Theo was her life. She deserved to wish and pray and work for his return.

  “I need to see my son.” Erin walked to the door. “Talk some sense into that one. I’ll work on it from my end.”

  “What is that supposed to mean?” Case asked as he was left alone with Ian.

  “It means she’s going to meddle in your relationship and she wants me to do it, too.” He sighed as he opened the fridge and grabbed one of the beers he’d brought in with him. He flipped the top and poured it in with his lemonade. “I’ll do it because I owe her one.”

  “You’ll do it because you’re a shockingly gossipy old maid.”

  Ian didn’t argue. He merely st
ared Case’s way. “You fucked up with Mia. You should have done as I asked, taken a break and then dealt with her fairly. You went in half-cocked and now she won’t talk to you. Have you considered the fact that she brought you valuable information, information that got us closer to Theo than I could have imagined? Have you considered the fact that she might get more intel and not bother to send it our way because she’s pissed at you?”

  “Mia would never do that.” If Santos contacted her, she would call him. Maybe not him, but she would call Ian or Sean. “She would give us everything she had even if it hurt her to see me.”

  Ian pointed at him. “Finally you speak some fucking sense. Mia did what Charlie would have done if she’d truly believed I could die. She did what I would have done if I thought Charlie was in danger.”

  “She won’t talk to me.” A sick feeling opened in the pit of his stomach. This wasn’t some childish argument they were in. He’d fucked up. He’d made her feel like she didn’t matter.

  “Give her time. And don’t you ever fucking run off on an op without telling me again.”

  He’d waited for this dressing down. “I understand.”

  “No, I don’t think you understand at all, Case. Why the hell would you do that?”

  How to explain to Ian? He should know. “You wouldn’t have let me go. I know that’s a horrible excuse, but I wanted to get out there and prove myself. I wanted to find Theo. I wanted to prove to you I could lead.”

  “What?” Ian was staring at him like he’d grown a couple of horns.

  He’d avoided his brother for this very reason. He hadn’t wanted to admit that he wasn’t good enough. “Look, I know what you think of me. I get it. Theo was the smart one. Theo was the one you were grooming for leadership. I’m okay with that most of the time. It was stupid. I wanted to prove I could lead, too.”

  Ian stepped up to him, his eyes going fierce. “If you weren’t still recovering I would punch you, you dumb asshole. I sent Theo out on what I thought was a fairly simple operation as the lead because he needed seasoning. He needed experience. I knew he was in love with Erin and he wasn’t strong enough for her then. Not really. He needed to toughen up or it wouldn’t work. He wouldn’t be able to accept the fact that she was a stronger leader than he was so I was going to turn him into one. I didn’t have to do that with you. You walked in here as one of the strongest, most stable operatives I’ve ever seen. I didn’t coddle you because you never needed it.”

  “What?”

  Ian put a hand on Case’s shoulder. “I didn’t pay attention to you because I knew you would be okay. Well, until you went batshit over a woman. I kind of hoped you wouldn’t do that but then Mia walked in and it was inevitable. Hutch wasn’t your fault. I would have done the same thing. I would have made the same calls. Hutch got caught because he wasn’t paying attention to his surroundings. I’ve seen the tape. You’ve seen it. He was in a hurry and he didn’t even lock the door behind him. He was trained better than that.”

  “He asked me to call off the op. He knew something was wrong.”

  “And do you know what I would have told him? I would have told him to suck it up and do his job. He has always cut corners and none of us kicked his ass for it. I would feel the exact same guilt you feel right now. That’s what it means to be a leader. You make the hard calls. Tell me what Theo did wrong in the Caymans. Tell me what you would have done.”

  He’d thought it through a million times. “He should have called in. The parameters of his mission changed. It was his duty to inform his CO of the changes and await instructions.”

  “And if I’d told you to leave Ten behind?”

  Again, nothing he hadn’t considered over and over again when he couldn’t sleep. “I would have gathered my team, come home, and begun operations to rescue Ten from MSS. We were outnumbered, outgunned, and going in blind. I wouldn’t have risked my team. But isn’t that exactly what I did? Isn’t that why I lost Hutch?”

  “It’s different. You made a call that would have gotten you the information you needed, with minimal risk. Ten made the right call originally. It was Theo who screwed up and didn’t listen to Erin. If I’d been in your place, I would have done the same thing. Sometimes we make the right calls and everything still goes to shit. Never for a minute think I don’t trust you. The only mistake you made was not calling me and that was made because you were trying to chase down your girl. Don’t do it again. Making the mistake. Not chasing down your girl. I’m afraid she’s going to be pretty hard to convince this time. You were a dick. You have to lose the short fuse, my brother. I know. I had to do the same damn thing.”

  Ian didn’t hate him. Ian wasn’t sidelining him. Now that he thought past his own insecurity he could see how Ian had trusted him—with clients, with ops, with his family.

  He’d been fumbling without Theo to back him up, but he had value too.

  “How do I fix things with Mia?” He wanted to. He wanted her.

  “First you answer this question. Who comes first—Mia or Theo?”

  It was the question he didn’t want to have to answer. It was exactly why he’d decided to send Mia away. “That’s not fair.”

  Ian wasn’t backing down. “No, it isn’t, but it’s true and it’s right. Who comes first?”

  “Mia.” Always Mia. If he was going to be her man, he had to put her first. She had to come before brotherhood, before friendship, before conscience. “But Ian, I’m not some rich boy who can give her everything. We come from two different worlds.”

  Cool blue eyes rolled. “You two need to talk because you don’t know her at all.”

  “Of course I do.” He knew her more intimately than any other woman on the planet.

  “Then you know about her childhood? You know that after her parents died the family was split up. The older boys went to a group home. She and Bran were placed with a family, but at some point, Bran ran away, taking her with him. That was when they decided to split up her and Bran. He went through home after home. Mia ended up with a couple of chicks who adopted her. One was a doctor. The other stayed at home and raised Mia. She lived a middle-class existence for most of her life. Drew and the boys were dirt poor. His money wasn’t inherited. He earned every penny with blood and sweat and his brilliant, annoying brain.”

  “She never mentioned anything but that her parents died.” Likely because he hadn’t invited the conversation. How many times had he called her entitled? How many times had he claimed she was nothing but a rich girl?

  Even rich girls had their problems, had pasts, had needs.

  “Give Drew a pass. I know you think he’s an asshole, but he’s got his reasons. I’m not only running background checks and gathering intelligence on his business rivals, I’ve been training him and his brothers. Self-defense. Offense. They’re going into something dangerous.”

  And Mia would be with her brothers. “I know he hates me, but I can teach them all a thing or two.”

  Ian nodded. “Then I’ll let you work with me. The only person Drew Lawless hates more than you right now is a man named Steven Castalano. Help him take the fucker down and maybe he won’t shoot you. In the meantime, give Mia some space. Maybe send her some flowers or something. Girls like flowers.”

  Mia might like flowers but there was something she liked even more. Mia liked intel. Mia liked information that led her to a great story. Maybe there was more than one way to apologize. Maybe it was time he started loving her for exactly who she was. Crazy. Smart. Competent. Loyal.

  “I have to get her back.” He had a lot to do. He had to get his girl back and find his brother.

  Maybe they weren’t two different ops at all.

  “I think you do. I think if you let that one go, you’ll regret it for the rest of your life. The bad news is you got the Taggart temper. We’re kind of assholes sometimes. The good news is we tend to have ridiculously good taste in women. Now let’s go and deal with the fallout because Grace had no idea Theo was alive and she’s going t
o want someone’s balls for keeping secrets. I’m nominating Sean. Charlie’s already talking about more kids so I need to keep my balls intact.”

  He followed his brother out, his mind on Mia.

  A few hours later, Case locked the door, closing out the rest of the world before setting the alarm.

  Hope McDonald was still out there. They couldn’t risk her coming after Erin. Especially not now that she knew the Taggarts had figured out Theo was alive. One of the plans to come out of the evening had been moving Case in. They’d talked about taking turns, but it made more sense for Case to watch over her. If he went out of town, she would be assigned a guard. TJ would come to work with her after her maternity leave.

  She’d been surprisingly all right with it.

  He walked back into the living room. It was empty. He could hear Erin talking softly. She must be down the hall, in TJs room. He began to wander that way, worried about her.

  She’d been sedate most of the evening, talking in logical tones, asking all the right questions.

  It wasn’t what he’d expected. She’d teared up in the beginning but she’d been right back to super-tough Erin after that. Grace had cried more than Erin had.

  She was holding it all in and there wasn’t a lot he could do about it. If Theo was here, he would tell him that Erin needed to scene. It was how she’d been able to express emotion, but he couldn’t do it. He wasn’t sure she could anymore either. Erin hadn’t been back to Sanctum once since Theo had died.

  What was he supposed to do? His brother wasn’t here. All the girls had left. Should he talk to Erin? He needed to talk to Erin because they’d candy coated a bunch of stuff and he couldn’t stand the thought of her believing things would be easier than they were really going to be.

  God, he wanted to talk to Mia. If Mia was here, she would know what to do.

  He stood outside the door, looking inside. Erin held TJ in her arms, holding him close to her body.

  “Daddy’s coming home, baby boy. Your daddy is going to come home and we’re going to be a family. I promise you I’ll do everything I can to bring him back to us. Daddy’s coming home.”