by Lexi Blake
Well, there was some chaos Erin knew about personally. “I think Theo’s going to move back in.”
Phoebe sat back. “Are you happy about that?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
Phoebe held a hand out. “I’m not being mean, just cautious. As a woman who is married to a man who goes nuts from time to time and literally tears throats out, I have to worry that Theo’s only been home for a few weeks.”
Jesse Murdoch had been held and tortured for months. He’d watched his friends die. He’d been a mess when he’d come out. Still, not everyone reacted the same way. “I don’t know that Theo ever felt truly alone. He had Robert.”
“He’s a weird one.”
Phoebe had worked for the CIA for a very long time. She’d been so good at her job, she’d managed to fool Big Tag for years. Erin was interested in anything she had to say. “What do you think of Robert?”
“I think he’s hiding something, but that doesn’t mean he’s a bad guy. I do think he knows more than he’s been willing to tell us.”
She worried about how much hold Robert seemed to have over Theo. “I don’t know. I haven’t talked to him much, but he seems to handle things better than Theo.”
“That’s why I think he’s hiding something. And the fact that we can’t figure out who he is makes me worry. Someone should have been looking for him somewhere. There’s always a record. We figured out who Victor was.”
The third and most vicious of the men McDonald had kidnapped had been a third-rate thug according to his police records. She’d taken him from a prison in Cambodia where he’d been caught for drug trafficking. As far as she could tell, McDonald had purchased him from corrupt guards. Erin had managed to track the man named Vince Costman back to Omaha and his shitty childhood in and out of juvie.
Robert would be someone Hope would have come in contact with, his name somewhat similar to his real name. She’d come up with nothing so far. No visual recognition software. Nothing on AFIS. Nothing anywhere that she could tell. Robert didn’t exist.
And that made her nervous as hell.
“Is there any way he was Agency?” It was the only thing she could think of. He was some kind of spy who’d had his existence erased.
Phoebe’s leg bounced, a sure sign she was thinking. “I’ve worked every angle I could to try to figure that out. Ten tried as well. I have to believe that if Chelsea couldn’t figure it out, he’s not one of ours.”
Chelsea Weston was Charlotte’s sister, and she worked as one of the brains of the Agency. She would tell them if she could. Erin had to think it meant Robert was a serious mystery.
“Keep looking. He can’t be no one.”
Phoebe nodded. “I will, but you’re naïve if you think he can’t be no one. When I say he’s not one of ours, I only mean he’s not an operative the way we would understand. Kayla Summers wouldn’t have shown up as one of ours.”
Kay had been a double, recruited by Ten Smith to take her twin sister’s place as a Chinese operative. She’d recently left the service and come to work for McKay-Taggart London. “But she would have shown up as a missing UCLA student.”
Phoebe’s left shoulder moved up and down in a negligent shrug. “If the Agency wanted her to. Otherwise, she wouldn’t exist. I wonder if he wasn’t a deep cover operative. That could explain why we can’t find him. Or he worked for a criminal organization that could make him disappear. I know of some who could manage it.”
She’d thought of that, too, but she’d never seen Robert in the field. She hadn’t been there when the team had taken Theo back. She’d been told Robert allowed himself to be taken fairly easily, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t fight. It merely meant he was smart enough to know when not to.
“I’ll keep looking, but as to your original question, I think it’s the chance I have at getting him back. I think Theo needs to be surrounded by us if we’re going to have any kind of a chance. I’m hoping sex might work.”
Phoebe’s lips curved up in a smile. “Well, he is a man.”
He was a man who only seemed to be interested in her. It gave her great hope. She’d watched him carefully the night before, and he hadn’t had eyes for anyone but her. Not once had he looked at another sub, and there had been so many beautiful ones.
“He seems to want me.”
“Of course he does. He always did.” Phoebe huffed as though irritated. It was one of the reasons they were friends. Phoebe rarely prevaricated. She let Erin know how she felt. “Are you seriously dipping back into your old insecurities about him? Because he loved you, Erin. He adored you. I watched it happen.”
It was hard to think about it sometimes, how well he’d loved her, how much he’d loved her. It was everything she was fighting to get back. He’d worked so hard for her. Didn’t she owe him the same?
“I’m trying to be patient. It’s why I let him sleep in today. He showed up at Li’s last night and asked to sleep with me.”
“He wanted to sleep with you after everything you’d been through?”
“He wanted to make sure I was okay. He was a dick at first and then he came through. He held me and let me cry. He felt like Theo again. And then around four in the morning he woke up screaming something about murdering me.” She sighed. “It was all super dramatic. He was obviously freaked out so I told him to get his panties out of the wad they were in and go back to sleep.”
Phoebe laughed. “That is the most Erin thing I’ve heard in a long time. You have no idea how happy I am to hear that.”
“Do you think that’s why Theo’s been so distant? Ian and Case do. They think he doesn’t recognize me anymore.”
“Well, he has the whole memory-wipe thing.”
Phoebe could do some of her own damage on the sarcasm scale. Erin rolled her eyes. “Believe me, I know. Do you know the one thing I think he does remember? Taylor Swift. I caught him blasting freaking Taylor Swift two days ago, so his girl-power ballad love is alive and kicking. I thought about smacking him in the face and putting on some Five Finger Death Punch and begging him to act like a man.”
She made a face but she’d taken to listening to the singer because Theo had a love for her music Erin didn’t understand. Except the time he’d sung to her. Something about belonging with him. He’d taken her teasing and turned it around on her, and she’d found herself under him, holding on while he made love to her.
“Hey, I realized one of the preprogrammed channels in Jesse’s truck is the love song station. He tried to convince me that it was the dealership that had programmed it in, but I know a man who listens to Celine Dion when I see him,” Phoebe said with a shake of her head. “So you’re going to let Theo back in?”
It was everything she wanted. Theo back in her life, back in her bed. “I’m going to take it slow and easy. We’ll play at the club and figure out the home situation as we go. I’m not going to smother him the way I did when he first came home. That did not work.”
“Jesse told me he seemed like he was trying to distance. I guess I can understand that in a way. It must be weird to walk around and everyone knows who you are but you have no idea. He can’t know who he loved or hated, who was kind to him or played him for a fool.”
That was her real fear. “I worry he thinks I’m lying to him.”
“About your relationship?” Phoebe asked.
Erin shrugged. “He can’t remember how we fell in love. He comes home and sees me. I’m older than him, harder. I’m not anyone’s idea of the perfect girlfriend. He might think he made a mistake and knocked up someone he never intended to spend his life with.”
Phoebe whistled at that statement. “I wouldn’t tell Theo that. Not in the club at least. Damn. We need to work on your self-esteem. I know I haven’t been here at the office, but I have been at a couple of parties and family gatherings and Theo can’t take his eyes off you. When you’re not looking, he watches you, and it’s not in a ‘what the hell was I thinking’ way. It’s in a ‘how do I get my hands on th
at’ way.”
Erin felt her mood lift a bit. “Yeah, he got his hands on me last night and it was every bit as good as it ever was.” She took a long breath and banished her insecurities. Theo didn’t need them. He needed her strength. “So I’m going to give him his space and take what he offers. I’m going to let him get to know TJ and not flip out on him.”
Her cell trilled. She glanced down. Unknown number. She thought about ignoring it, but Hutch was still out there. She also had a couple of contacts who might want to stay off the grid.
Phoebe stood up. “Don’t let me keep you. Lunch tomorrow?”
Erin nodded. It was good to have Phoebe back. She liked Charlotte and the others, but somehow she’d clicked with Phoebe once the former CIA agent had gotten out of scared-of-her-own-shadow mode. It hadn’t hurt that Phoebe had shown up when she’d come back from the Caymans and sat with her, told her how she’d felt when she’d lost her first husband. Phoebe had understood. “Absolutely.” She flicked her finger over the screen and touched the speaker option. “This is Erin.”
“Hello, Erin. It’s been a long time,” a smooth voice said.
Phoebe stopped in the doorway, turning around.
Erin frowned. “Who is this?”
“You know who this is. You have something of mine.”
Phoebe’s eyes went wide and she mouthed, “McDonald?”
Holy shit. Hope McDonald was on the line. That bitch had the nerve to call her? “Dr. McDonald, do you have any idea what I plan to do to you when I find you? And he was always mine.”
Phoebe had disappeared down the hall. Likely running for Adam’s office. It was a cell so she wasn’t sure what Adam could do, but he would try.
“I’m sure you would love that,” McDonald said over the line. “Tell me something. Is he all right? How is he handling withdrawing from his regimen?”
“His regimen of drugs and torture?” She was a crazy bitch. The woman sounded almost sincere. “How is he handling no longer being beaten and having his flesh carved like he was a fucking side of beef?”
“That wasn’t me,” McDonald replied quickly. “That was Tony and I made a huge mistake bringing him in. I met him through my father’s connections and he seemed like a reasonable man. I didn’t understand what he was doing to my boys until much later. I suppose I should thank you for taking care of Tony for me. I believe he intended to take over my organization once the work was complete. You can’t trust anyone these days.”
“First World problems, lady. Why are you calling me?”
Adam showed up in the doorway. He stepped inside quietly and looked down at the cell phone.
“Tell Mr. Miles that this is a burner phone and I’ll chuck it the minute we hang up. He won’t find anything at all.”
Erin felt the hairs on her arms stand up. She looked up at Adam.
He immediately shut her laptop.
“Well, what fun is that?” McDonald sounded like she was pouting. “I called because I wanted to know if Theo is all right. Is he eating properly? Is he being taken care of?”
“You have no right to ask me anything about him. You did this to him.”
“I saved him. He’s alive because of me and that’s why he belongs to me and always will. All you could do was hold his hand and cry while he died. I brought him back. I did that.”
“You’re the reason he died in the first place. You and your father. If you’re expecting some kind of a thank you note, well, I don’t know where to send it. Why don’t you give me an address and I’ll send you a cookie bouquet.” A poisoned, make her wretch and contort before it finally stopped her cold heart cookie bouquet. She was sure one of the Top guys could come up with something. The special ingredient would be arsenic.
“Oh, you and your sarcasm,” McDonald shot back. “You know it really is the lowest form of humor, but then you never were the smartest brick in the box, were you? Didn’t even go to college if I recall.”
Erin couldn’t care less about the insults. “Oddly, it didn’t hold me back and it won’t save you.”
“Oh, I think it will. You see, I’m going to get my boy back and there won’t be anything you can do about it. I’ll prove that you’re a slut, too. I doubt that kid is Theo’s. He’s too smart to end up with a child with you.”
“Is that why you sent your man into my house last night?” Erin asked. “You want to run a paternity test?”
“If he is Theo’s son, then I’ll come back for him. I wouldn’t want to separate father and child even if the mother is inadequate. If the boy has Theo’s genes, he could be used as a control mechanism. I had thought that having brothers would settle him, but Theo obviously needs more. He needs to feel like he has a family around him. Perhaps his child will work where brothers did not. Especially if he looks like Theo. I think the Taggart genes run true. From what I can tell from the photographs, the boy seems to have avoided that brassy hair of yours. ”
Something about the words made Erin pause. What had she said? She would come back for TJ? Not come for him and Theo. Come back for TJ. “What have you done?”
Ian showed up in the doorway, Charlotte right behind him.
There was a smug satisfaction in McDonald’s voice as she spoke. “I told you. I’m getting my boy back. Theo is mine. He belongs with his family and he’s coming home today. By tomorrow he won’t even remember you exist. If that brat of yours turns out to be his, I’ll convince him the baby is ours. It’s what I needed, Erin. I needed something to bond us together. Thank you.”
“I’m going to rip your heart straight out of your chest and feed it to you.” Rage pounded through her, but there was something even more urgent rising in her. Pure fear.
She was here. If not McDonald in actual presence, then her people were here, and there would be only one thing they would want to do.
She hung up. There was no more talking. “Where’s Theo? We have to find Theo.”
Ian had already turned and was running down the hall. Erin followed.
There was no way she was letting Theo go ever again.
CHAPTER TWELVE
Theo punched out at the first man, panic threatening to take over. His fist connected and pain flared but all he could think about was running. He was surrounded, but that didn’t mean a thing if a man was trained.
He kicked back, knowing how they would come at him.
One at his six. His foot connected, sending the man back with an audible woof.
One at his nine. He shoved his elbow back, cracking at the asshole’s jaw. That hurt, but there was zero time for pain. He’d made a gateway for himself, a path to get the fuck out of here.
He knew the drill. It was a public place. They wouldn’t fire weapons here. Couldn’t. Mother wouldn’t allow it. Civilian deaths equaled scrutiny. All he had to do was get away and everything would be fine. He had to be faster and get back to base. He glanced over and Robert was being led away from the food trucks.
Shit. Robert struggled, but three men surrounded him. The crowd was staring as though sensing something wrong was happening around them.
He needed to run, but he couldn’t leave Robert behind. Already Robert was craning his head, looking around, and then he heard it.
“Run, Theo! Run!”
The fact that he hadn’t called him back, had ordered him to get the hell out of here, made him stop. He couldn’t let them take Robert. Robert needed him.
“Hey, stop fighting, Tomas.” The first asshole had recovered and seemed to be the team spokesperson. “There’s nothing to fight about. We’re here to take you home.”
“I am home.”
“Mother told us you might think that.” He nodded as the rest moved back in behind him. They would try again.
They would fail.
He wasn’t being taken back. He wasn’t forgetting her again. Never again.
“I’m going to scream if you don’t let Robert go.” Privacy was tantamount in their world. Never scream. Never let anyone know something was wrong.
Keep it in the family no matter what. Those rules had been drilled into him.
Beaten into him was more like it. It was time to break them.
He glanced around, hoping to see some DPD hanging out. They moved through the community, sharing in the afternoons and ready to jump in when they needed to. He didn’t see a single familiar uniform.
That didn’t mean the police couldn’t be there. The men Mother had sent would have to get him to a car and they weren’t close to a lot. They would have to get him back to the DMA or perhaps they had valeted at Savor. He wasn’t going to go peacefully, so good luck to them. Someone would call the police.
Up ahead of him Robert threw a punch and lurched to get out of the tight circle they had him in.
Four and three. Seven other “brothers.” Doctor McDonald had fucked up seven other men’s lives. They weren’t the enemy. She was. He couldn’t kill any of these men. They had families, lives they could go back to. Some of them probably had children.
Like him.
The dark-haired man in front of him nodded toward his right hand. “I won’t leave you out here, brother. We’re all dedicated to bringing you and Robert home.”
There was a hypodermic needle in his hand.
So that was their game.
He wasn’t going down. “Come near me and I will end you. She’s lying to you. She’s a psychopath who’s taken your memories and your lives.”
“She told us you’ve been compromised,” the one to his right said. “You need to come home so you can see the truth.”
Robert was struggling. Were they dosing him up right now?
It was time to get this shit done. He kicked out again, catching the dude with the needle in the gut. They were hesitant and that could be his saving grace.
Had she told them not to hurt him?
He was her golden boy, after all. He was the one she wanted above all others, the one she touched at night, trying to find a connection with.
He ran for Robert. “Call the police!”
