You_Only_Love_Twice_ARE

by Lexi Blake

  Where was Phoebe? There was a knot in his gut that wouldn’t go away. Simon had knocked his comm unit to the concrete when he’d tackled him and it wasn’t working now. He couldn’t hear anything. He could only watch Simon wince when someone screamed in his ear. It was the only indication he had that anything was happening at all.

  “Damn it.” Simon touched his earpiece. “Yes, I’m ready.” He turned to Jesse. “I’m going to start the engine. You be ready to shut the doors and hop in. We’re leaving ASAP.”

  Shit. There was only one real reason for that. Moving too fast could bring unwanted attention. “Who called the cops?”

  Simon moved to the driver’s side door. “Apparently your girl has everyone in the hotel thinking she and Jake are having a domestic dispute. Several of the guests have called the police and security is looking for them, but the security cameras are all down so they’re having to do a floor by floor search.”

  “Do they have the package?” He couldn’t believe he was calling Phoebe “the package,” but he’d been emotional enough today. Now it was time to go cold.

  She’d betrayed them all. He had to view her as the enemy. That was good. Enemy combatant. That’s what she was and nothing more. She was just one more bad guy in a long line of them.

  “Yes. They’ll be here any second. Be ready.” Simon slipped into the driver’s seat and Jesse heard the engine come on. All around him people bustled, going about their lives and jobs. Dallas was a busy city and this was one of the busiest streets for pedestrian traffic, yet almost no one looked up at him. Even the valet stood at his station, staring down at his phone. The van was a defense in and of itself. It was nondescript and looked like a service vehicle, so no one tended to notice.

  Rather like him. He was a grunt and no one noticed him except Phoebe.

  Oh, he could find a woman for the evening. That wasn’t a problem. There were plenty of pretty subs at Sanctum who would have sex with him, but he thought Phoebe had really seen him.

  The doors to the hotel lobby opened and Big Tag strode out with Jake Dean at his side. Jake had his head down, his eyes covered in a pair of mirrored aviators and his right arm cradled against his chest. They walked past the valet, who looked up briefly and then got back to checking his e-mail or texting his girlfriend or whatever the hell he was doing.

  “Your girl seriously fucked up my arm and I’m pissed. This is my fucking dominant hand,” Jake complained under his breath.

  Tag chuckled. “He’s gotten soft in his old age.”

  “I still got this one, Tag.” He used his left hand to shoot Tag the finger before climbing into the passenger seat.

  “Where is she?” The question was out of his mouth before he could stop it.

  “Adam and Alex are bringing her out,” Tag said quietly as he looked up at the buildings around them. “Why don’t you get into the van?”

  He didn’t want to get in the van. He wanted answers. “Who is she working for?”

  “I don’t know. I do know that if you don’t get in the fucking van, you won’t be working for me. There they are. Move it. She said there could be a secondary,” Tag growled.

  The service doors opened and Adam walked out followed by Alex, who was pushing a large laundry bin.

  Phoebe was in that bin. God, if she was in that bin and it wasn’t moving then they’d knocked her out or drugged her.

  A secondary? Shit. She said there had been a secondary sniper and he might still be around. Someone was serious about wanting him gone.

  He let that knowledge settle in his mind.

  Jesse moved to the back of the van and got in. Alex pushed the bin to the van and tilted it forward.

  There was Phoebe, her body completely slack. There was a black wig on her head. It was short and curled at her jawline. She’d put some makeup on, and for a second he thought maybe they’d gotten the wrong woman. She looked so different from the Phoebe whose hand he held. She had dark hair, but it was threaded through with reds and golds and there was so much of it. She usually put it in a ponytail or a bun, but when she let it loose it seemed to go everywhere. She certainly wasn’t this polished, professional-looking woman.

  “Jesse, we’ve got incoming,” Tag reminded him.

  The cops. He could hear the wail of sirens in the background now. He reached in and grabbed her, hauling her into the van. Tag reached down again and came up with what looked like a suitcase and Phoebe’s purse. The gun was likely in that case. They wouldn’t leave evidence behind.

  Tag, Alex, and Adam were in the back of the van in a heartbeat, abandoning the bin to the street. The minute the doors were closed, Simon took off.

  And he was left holding the woman who had tried to assassinate him.

  “Adam?” Ian asked.

  Adam needed no prompting. He opened his laptop and looked up with a smirk. “We’re good. I took out all the hotel’s CCTV cameras. Luckily Dallas is behind the times on security cams. No one is going to pick us up on a camera. They’ll have to go off eyewitnesses and since no one was actually hurt, they’ll dump it the minute something more exciting comes along. I’ve already texted Derek. He’ll handle it.”

  There was a moment of silence before Ian turned to Jesse.

  “Do I need to say it?” Tag asked, his jaw clenched so he spoke through his teeth.

  “I’m fired.” He was surprised he’d lasted so long anyway. He knew he should put her on the floorboard, but it probably wasn’t clean down there and Phoebe was always very neat. He couldn’t stand the thought of her body lying there. So he hauled her into his lap and tried to look like he didn’t give a shit.

  “No, you dumbass. I can’t fire you because you would be dead in like fifteen fucking minutes. What the fuck was that? Which Army did you serve in, son, because it sure as fuck wasn’t the one I did. My goddamn COs taught me not to walk into the freaking bullet.”

  And Tag was off. He was yelling and cussing and there was a certain comfort in it. Big Tag only got quiet when he didn’t care anymore. Jesse had scared the hell out of him and this was his punishment. He would take it.

  There was a lull in the yelling and he looked up. Everyone was staring at him so he supposed it was time to say something. “I’m really sorry.”

  “Sorry? You’re fucking sorry? You would have been fucking dead.” Tag was off again.

  Jesse looked down at the woman in his lap. Her wig slipped and he could see that she’d put her hair in something that kept it close to her head. He didn’t like it. She was prettier without the makeup and the shiny black hair. He wasn’t sure why, but he needed to see her real hair. He slid his hands over her hairline, sliding the wig and the little cap off. Her hair immediately flowered out like it had been desperate to get away from the confines of the wig. Her hair tumbled over his arm. Her face turned up and he could see she wasn’t completely out. Her eyes opened slightly and she looked like a sleepy kitten.

  “Jesse. My Jesse. Good dream.” She curved into him, rubbing her cheek against his chest. She moaned. “He’s so loud.”

  He couldn’t help but chuckle because Tag really was loud.

  Her eyes closed again and the van got quiet. Suddenly Jesse could feel three pairs of eyes on him.

  “She’s an operative, Jesse,” Adam said quietly. “Very well trained.”

  “She nearly killed me,” Jake complained.

  Tag shook his head. “It’s not even broken. Fatherhood made Dean grow a pussy.”

  Phoebe frowned, her eyes glassy. “Pussies aren’t weak. I’d like to see Tag shove a baby out of his penis.”

  He’d never seen her drunk. She wouldn’t ever have more than one margarita or glass of wine. She seemed like a fun drunk.

  Adam laughed and shook his head when Tag sent him a forbidding look. “Sorry, Tag. She’s got a point.”

  “She should be out,” Tag complained. “You didn’t dose her properly.”

  “I gave her enough to put down a freaking horse,” Adam replied. “Which means she’s l
ikely been taught to counter the effects, and we all know that’s what the pros do.”

  “She’s involved in something we don’t understand,” Alex said, sympathy in his eyes. “You can’t pretend she’s Phoebe Graham anymore. You have to change your thinking about her. She isn’t the woman you care about. That woman doesn’t exist.”

  “And you’re a goddamn idiot for thinking she did,” Tag said.

  Phoebe’s legs started moving. Her head came up slightly and her eyes were about half open. “Fuck you, Tag. He’s not dumb…not stupid. You stupid. Dumbass.”

  She sounded so drunk and yet the words were sweet to Jesse. Maybe he was stupid, but she was drugged. She didn’t have any defenses but she was defending him. What was he supposed to do with that?

  He’d heard her yelling at him. He’d heard her telling him to get down.

  What the fuck was he supposed to believe?

  He couldn’t help himself. His arms tightened around her.

  Tag’s eyes closed and there was no way to miss how his fists clenched. “You know I don’t think you’re stupid, right?”

  He knew it on an intellectual level. “Sure.”

  Taggart ran a frustrated hand through his head. “Damn it, Jesse. I think everyone’s a dumbass. Ask Adam.”

  “He’s an asshole,” Adam agreed. “He’s kind of a bully, but the dumb kind who pays really well and watches your back when you need it. I still fucking hate him. And love him. At the end of the day, he’s my brother. My brother whose shampoo I will change for Nair when he expects it least.”

  Tag sighed and ignored Adam. “My point is, you don’t get to do what you did. Goddamn it, Jesse, you practically begged her to shoot you.”

  “And she didn’t.” She’d yelled something at him. She’d run from her room and he hadn’t noticed a gun in her hand. He’d glimpsed her before Simon had used his massive British body to tackle him down to the concrete.

  “Well, we had broken into her room by then,” Alex pointed out. “She used her placement on the balcony to get away from us.”

  Who did she work for? His brain worked overtime, but he could really only come up with one person. She would want to get away so she didn’t have to admit why she was here. He couldn’t imagine Phoebe working for The Collective. She wasn’t the type to do something bad for a mere paycheck. He’d watched her babysit. When she picked up Carys or Tristan, she glowed in a way a woman who was doing it for underlying reasons never could. She kissed and loved those babies. She sang to them and held them close and when she thought no one could hear her, she prayed for one of her own. He’d caught her walking out of Aidan O’Donnell’s room with tears in her eyes. It was always there, that deep well of pain he understood so well.

  She didn’t work for a paycheck. She worked for a cause.

  “She works for Ten.” He smoothed back her hair and noticed the blood on her shins. Her skirt had hiked up and he saw gashes on her knees and the lower part of her legs. “Think about it for a second and it makes sense. He’s always hated me. She tried to run? Is that why her knees are banged up?”

  Tag’s eyes flared. “No. Ten wouldn’t.”

  Alex sat back. “I don’t know. It kind of makes sense.”

  “If Phoebe belongs to him, then he’s hidden it from Chelsea,” Simon pointed out. “Though honestly, the fact that we imbedded Chelsea with his group should lend a certain credence to him putting a spy in ours. Think about it. She’s smart. She’s American and educated and we can’t break her cover. That means some serious backing.”

  Jesse knew truth when it struck him in the forehead. Phoebe moved again. This time she jerked like she was having a bad dream. He cuddled her close, trying to calm her. “She’s Agency. You can’t hurt her, Tag.”

  A certain peace fell over him. Tag couldn’t shoot her and dump her body somewhere. Jesse didn’t doubt for a second if he found out she was a Collective agent who could hurt them all that Tag would do exactly that. Tag could pull the trigger and not feel a moment’s regret when it came to protecting his crew. But if Phoebe was Agency, she had a level of protection around her.

  “Why the fuck would Ten imbed a long-term operative?” Tag let his head fall back, his eyes closing in obvious weariness.

  “Me. He wanted to watch me.” There was no real reason to watch Taggart, and Phoebe hadn’t honed in on anyone except Jesse. “He wanted to see if they turned me. No one believes I made it out whole. I didn’t.”

  “You’re not a traitor,” Simon said as he turned on to the freeway. He would drive for a while before heading to the office again. “The Army cleared you.”

  “The Army got rid of me. An honorable discharge on the basis of mental capacity doesn’t mean they believed me. It means they didn’t want to deal with me anymore.”

  “Jesse, no one here believes you had anything to do with the deaths of the members of your unit. No one,” Alex said in a fervent voice.

  He looked down at Phoebe. She sighed as she nuzzled his neck. Now she got affectionate. Story of his life. “She does and so does Tennessee Smith. Hell, so much of those months are a jumble in my head, I don’t even know.”

  Part of his torture had been using hallucinogenic drugs that put him into a dreamlike state. When he would wake up, his chief tormentor would try to convince him he’d done all manner of hideous crimes. He’d woken up next to a girl one morning, her throat cut and her eyes open.

  Only through working with Kai Ferguson had he come to accept that he hadn’t killed her. Through hypnosis therapy he’d been able to remember the truth. She’d been dead when they’d placed her in the room. Somewhere in the daze of drugs they’d given him, he’d been able to remember the door opening.

  This is a gift for you, my dog.

  He felt the edges of his vision start to go dim, the way it always did when he had an episode.

  “Jesse?”

  Phoebe’s voice brought him back from the edge. He took a deep breath and let go. He wasn’t going to freak out. He didn’t have to listen to that voice. He could listen to his own. Calm. Patient. He could be the man he wanted to be. “Yes, sweetheart?”

  The man he wanted to be was good, even to his enemies. But damn, she didn’t feel like an enemy cuddled so close to him.

  Her eyes were dazed, and it was so obvious she was fighting the drug with everything she had. “You need to hide. Don’t know who the order came from. Promise me you’ll hide.”

  “Who are you working for?” Tag asked.

  The interrogation wasn’t starting now. No way. “Back off, Ian. I get why you drugged her, but you’re not going to use it to manipulate her. I won’t fucking have it. If this is how you do business, then you should let me out here and now and I’ll take her with me. She’s my problem. Mine.”

  Taggart sighed. “No one lets me torture anyone anymore. Fine. We’ll wait until she’s awake. And I can figure out if she’s one of Ten’s really fast.” He slid his finger across the face of his cell and put it to his ear. “Hey, Ten. I have a serious problem. I need to borrow Chelsea. Yeah, Adam’s getting his hair done. I need her to find out all she can about Phoebe Graham. Yes, my accountant. I’ve got her in custody. That’s really not your business. It’s got nothing to do with the Agency. This is personal and I’ll handle it. She won’t be a problem after today. Sure. Thanks.” He hung up. “She’s not Ten’s. He would have fessed up because the last thing he’s going to want is me looking into her background. Ten knows when to fold his cards and he didn’t.”

  Jesse wasn’t so sure.

  “Am I going to Sanctum, boss?” Simon asked.

  Tag let his head hit the side of the van a couple of times. “Damn it, no. We can’t go to Sanctum. The cleaning crew is there and they would definitely have questions. Besides, Charlie texted me. She ate all the ice cream. We have to pick some up for the shower.”

  “Are you serious?” Jake asked. “We’ve kind of got a situation here.”

  “And my pregnant wife running out of ice cream i
s a situation, too. We can sneak her up the back and question her in my office. Once the women leave, we can move her until Chelsea comes up with something. The good news is now she can freely use Agency resources, and we should have a real name soon.”

  Would Ten leave his agent behind if she was compromised?

  Phoebe’s eyes fluttered open. “Jesse, I’m scared. Jamie died.”

  Who the hell was Jamie? “Hush, sweetheart. There’s no reason to be scared. Sleep it off. I promise no one’s going to hurt you.”

  “Jamie died. Can’t lose you, too.” She closed her eyes and went still.

  Who was Jamie and did it even matter?

  “I’m not going to hurt her,” Tag said quietly. “But we need to find the truth. This is your op, Jesse. You call the shots. Don’t fuck it up.”

  As the van moved down the freeway, Jesse prayed he wouldn’t.

  CHAPTER THREE

  Phoebe came awake slowly to the sound of screaming. Someone wasn’t happy. It sounded far away, like there was a door or two in between her and the source of the shouts. Female. The voice she heard was definitely female and definitely pissed.

  She kept her eyes closed because she knew she’d been drugged. Likely with a sedative that also erased short-term memory because she couldn’t remember what had happened.

  Jesse. She’d gotten a kill order on Jesse. She remembered that. She knew she hadn’t gone through with it. And then she’d run. It came back in bits and pieces and then she’d felt safe and secure.

  That had to be a dream.

  “Did you really think I wouldn’t notice you bringing a prisoner up the service entrance? Who do you think I am? I might be pregnant, but my instincts are still good. You thought Eve’s baby shower was the best time to interrogate a suspect? Are you kidding me?”

  Ah, Charlotte Taggart, and she only ever screamed at one person that way. Ian. Shit. She was back at the office. They’d managed to get her from the hotel all the way back to the office. Everyone knew she’d betrayed them.