by Lexi Blake
Owen whistled. “Damn me, but the Russian has a point. Put like that it doesn’t look good. And the boy hasn’t called anyone?”
They were wrong. They had to be. “He’s having trouble with the fact that he was taken by a crazy lady and tortured. He needs time and space. He wouldn’t do this and no amount of money would make Greg Hutchins betray his team.”
“Of course,” Nick said dismissively. “You would know better than I.”
Nick and Owen exchanged a look that told Theo they wouldn’t let this go easily.
“He’s out there and he’s looking for her,” Theo insisted. Nothing else would make sense.
The car made one last turn as silence fell. Up ahead, Theo could see a door opening.
It looked like they’d arrived.
Twenty minutes and three layers of security later, Theo held his hand out as Damon Knight entered the room. The big Brit was wearing a T-shirt over a pair of leather pants, his dark hair slicked back.
“Damon, thanks for having us.” He’d been told he’d met the man in front of him many times. He went over everything he knew in his head. Knight had been a commando, winning the Victoria Cross at one point. He’d joined MI6 until a heart condition had sidelined him. His wife was named Penelope and they had a son who was slightly older than TJ.
Where was his son now? Was he cuddled against his mother being rocked to sleep? Was she thinking about how angry she was with his father?
Knight shook his hand and nodded toward the elevator doors. “Not a problem, Taggart. You’re more than welcome. I would give you a full tour, but The Garden is open this evening and I have to get back. Nick can show you to your room. We have to go through the dungeon to get to the lifts that take you to the residential part of the building. The only access points are here in the garage and the street level door. Both have guards twenty-four seven. They will ask to see your identification even if they’ve seen you walk in the building every day for ten years. I still show ID when I enter so if I hear you complaining, there’ll be a nice thrashing for you. I run a tight ship.”
“That’s why we’re here.” Theo followed him into the elevator. The garage was utilitarian, but the elevator was anything but. It was lush and elegant, with shiny gold fixtures like something out of an old Hollywood movie.
“Can I ask what’s the point of the guards checking ID on people they know?” Robert stepped into the big elevator beside him.
It easily held all five large men. Unlike that tiny lift in the hotel in Frankfurt. He and Erin had barely fit, their bodies pressing against each other. Her breasts had brushed against his chest and he could feel her nipples tightening. He’d known in that moment that he would have her and damn soon.
Another memory. They’d started coming more often in the last few days. He’d recalled the day his father had walked out and had a vision of his mother crying while Case had stood stoically beside her. He’d had a flash of looking back at the trailer they’d grown up in and knowing he wasn’t ever coming back.
Mostly though he had visions of her. Always her. Erin was going to be the ghost who haunted him the rest of his days.
“If you’re being watched or forced to do something, you show your ID and ask the question ‘how are your kids today,’” Knight explained. “It’s another layer of protection. If you ask the question, an alert will go out to everyone and we’ll quietly figure out what’s happening.”
“It’s a normal question to ask,” Owen continued. “One that won’t raise eyebrows, and we deal with things quietly so we don’t tip anyone off. One of the easiest ways to hurt an operative is to take a loved one and force the operative to do the kidnapper’s bidding. We’ve got protocols for almost everything. Except the zombie apocalypse and I think that’s an oversight.”
Knight groaned as the elevator doors opened again. “The only protocol I’ll need is for someone to shoot me. I don’t want to live in such unsanitary conditions. Nick, if you’ll show our guests to their room. Normally you wouldn’t be allowed to walk across the dungeon floor in street clothes, but I have to make an exception tonight. You’re going to share a room on the fifth floor. We have another refugee we’re protecting, so I’m short on guest rooms. My whole team lives in the building. I had the fourth and fifth floors redone as flats. I’m on the sixth and the lower floors are our offices. Obviously the ground floor is The Garden. You have the same rights at The Garden as you’ve been given at Sanctum. Robert, stay with someone who has Master rights when you’re in the dungeon. You can take classes while you’re here. I left a schedule in your room.”
Robert’s eyes were wide as he stepped out into the dungeon.
Dungeon was an odd word. Its name was much better. Garden. The whole center of the building was hollowed out, the floors above overlooking the magnificent courtyard. Night blooming flowers scented the air and the walls were covered in deep green ivy and winding plants.
Industrial music thudded softly through the building, and when he looked up he could see the sky.
“This place is incredible,” Robert said, obviously in awe.
“We like it.” A petite woman strode forward wearing a lovely blue corset and a teeny-tiny skirt. No shoes. Submissive. Curly blonde hair brushed her shoulders, and she had the sweetest smile for Knight. “Hello, Master. I missed you.”
He grinned down at her. “I was only gone for a moment, love, but I missed you, too. Is our wild thing down for the night?”
“He’s sleeping peacefully and Clarissa is watching over the children tonight. Her Dom is out of town so she doesn’t mind playing nanny this weekend.” Penelope Knight barely reached her husband’s shoulders, but it didn’t matter. He leaned over to kiss her.
“Then let’s play, love. It’s been so long.” His hands went to her face, cupping her cheeks before he kissed her again. He pulled his shirt over his head and looked back at Theo. “If you need anything…don’t bloody need anything until tomorrow.”
So the man was planning on getting some. Awesome. The party would be going on down here and he would be up in a tiny apartment with Robert. Exactly where he’d been before. Hiding. Away from her. Essentially alone.
He glanced out over the dungeon. There was a bar to his right. That would be where all his free time was spent. Yeah for him.
“Come along, Taggart.” Nick nodded toward another elevator across the dungeon floor. “Tomorrow morning we have a meeting scheduled. We’re getting the Dallas office wired in so you’ll want to get some sleep.”
“I would rather take a look at the files you’ve got here.” He wouldn’t sleep at all. He’d sit up all night going back and forth between knowing he’d done the right thing and calling Ian to ask for her contact information. It would be better to drown himself in work.
Owen clapped his hands together with obvious relish. “You lads can work all you like. I’m going to change and have some fun this evening. I’ve heard the new girl needs some stress relief. I’ll be happy to oblige her. What was her name again? She’s stayed in her room most of the time.”
Nick’s lips curved up slightly. “I believe she told us to call her Red on the dungeon floor.”
Theo stopped. “What did you say?”
“I said you were a stupid man. Your woman is not,” Nick replied. “I am sorry. She’s not yours, of course. Don’t worry about it. You do your thing and we’ll take care of Red. I believe I’ll change into my leathers as well. Your room is the fourth on the left. The key is in the lock and someone will bring up your things. Good evening, gentlemen.”
He stepped in front of Nick, stopping him in his tracks. “Are you telling me Erin’s here? In this building? She’s somewhere in this building with our son?”
Robert put a hand on his shoulder. “Uh, I think he meant she’s here in the dungeon. Damn. She looks good.”
He followed Robert’s line of vision and realized his work for the night was far from over.
* * * *
“Are you nervous?” Faith asked
as they walked through the dressing room and out into the dungeon.
Erin breathed it in. She loved Sanctum, but The Garden was a rich experience. She loved the smells. Jasmine and leather and the underlying hint of sex. Sanctum was so modern, with its colorful lighting and industrial feel, while The Garden was pure theater. Like she was walking into an ancient forest. There was something primal about the place. She would love to play out a scene with Theo here. She could be the warrior princess and he her enemy. Their battle would end in the sweetest way, but not before he tormented her with his hands and mouth and cock.
Somehow she didn’t think that would be the way she ended her evening.
“I’m not nervous, but I’m also not looking forward to the coming confrontation. Nick promised he wouldn’t say anything until it was obvious. There’s a part of me that hopes like hell that will be tomorrow morning at the conference.” It might be easier to face Theo there.
Faith wrinkled her nose. “Coward. You know you want him to walk in and immediately see you and fall to his knees.”
“The problem is I’m pretty sure he won’t be doing that. He’s going to be angry with me.”
Faith stepped out onto the path that led to the scene spaces. They were cleverly hidden all over the garden. In between the trees and vines there were benches and sawhorses and St. Andrew’s Crosses. “There’s angry and then there’s angry. I think he’s going to be the latter. I can’t imagine he hasn’t missed you.”
“He hasn’t called or asked where Ian sent me.” That hurt most of all. “He hasn’t asked about me or TJ.”
Faith reached for her hand. It was something Erin had gotten used to. Faith was a huggy friend. At first it had been a real struggle, and now she was used to it, Faith’s easy affection becoming something she’d come to rely on. “He needs time. I know it feels like it’s been forever, but it’s only been a few weeks. And you said he was ready to move in with you. That was a huge step for him. He was trying.”
“Yes until…” She let it go. It wasn’t Faith’s fault that her sister was a ho-bag.
“Until Hope reared her ugly head.” Faith lost a little color but squeezed her hand. “Have I apologized for how awful my family is lately?”
She’d been so happy when she’d gotten to London and discovered Faith here. Faith was in between jobs and planning to move to Dallas in the next few months, but her husband was working somewhere in Europe. She was staying at The Garden where he could visit easily, and it was so good to have a friend here. Erin liked the women on the London team, but Faith was special to her. Faith was the first female she’d ever felt totally comfortable with, the first she’d allowed to get truly close to her.
“You don’t have to.” She wasn’t about to make Faith feel bad for something she’d had no real part in. The minute Faith had realized what her father and sister were doing, she’d worked to try to help Erin and Theo fix things. She’d tried so hard to save Theo when he’d been shot. Faith had been the one to get her to break on that horrible night. Faith had been the one to hold her while she wailed out her pain. She loved Faith. “You are not your sister. But I do have some questions for you.”
“Anything.”
She meant that. Faith would tell her anything if she thought it would help. “Robert mentioned something to me. He thinks your sister hates me. He thinks that’s why she truly wants Theo. Did you ever talk about me to her?”
Faith moved into the bar area and sat down on one of the settees. “I did. She called quite often when I was in Liberia. Now I know she was looking for information on what was happening since she’d switched my drugs with her own, but at the time I thought it meant we were closer.”
“I thought you were fairly close.” She settled on the settee beside Faith, deeply aware she wasn’t wearing a collar. The Doms would be polite, but it was so much easier when she’d worn Theo’s collar. It was upstairs with the rest of her precious possessions. She’d packed light, but hadn’t been able to leave behind a few items, including the delicate silver collar Theo had offered her that first night in Africa when they’d been exhausted and anxious about the new op. It was all for show, he’d said, but the fire in his eyes and the satisfied way he’d looked at her after he’d clasped it around her neck had told her differently.
Faith shook her head. “No. We weren’t close, even when we were young. We went to different schools after elementary. She was four years older than me so we didn’t spend a lot of time together. After she showed her true brilliance, father sent her to school in Europe, a specialized math and science program. She was the youngest one there.”
She would have felt isolated and alone, the youngest, likely one of few Americans. Had that been the place her psychosis was born? Or had its impetus begun the moment she’d been conceived, something warping in the womb? “So Robert’s grasping at straws.”
“I don’t know that I would say that exactly.” Faith shifted, drawing her legs up so she looked as modest as a woman in a thong could look. “When she would come back, she would get a bit clingy. Father said it was because she missed her family. I think it’s because somewhere along the line, she decided we belonged to her. Not in a nice way, but in an overly possessive, arrogant fashion. She was taught that she was better than anyone else, that her brain put her above the rest of us. She came to think she was above the law, above morality. If she was doing it, it must be right.”
It made sense. Eve had labeled Hope McDonald a sociopath, incapable of true empathy. She was highly intelligent so she could fake it, but there was no feeling inside the woman for anyone but herself. She would view the world and other humans as nothing but useful objects. “Your father used that moral flexibility to insinuate himself into The Collective.”
“Yes, that’s what Ten’s figured out,” Faith agreed. “My father knew about The Collective, but he didn’t have any real power in the organization until Hope started working for Kronberg. That was when he met the real power players. Hope wouldn’t care as long as someone was funding her and leaving her alone.”
“So why Theo? He’s a beautiful man, but surely she’s been around handsome men before. When I put aside my rage at her and look at her objectively, she’s quite lovely, and she was very wealthy. If she wanted a boy toy, she should have been able to find one.”
Faith sighed and sat back. “Robert’s right. I didn’t think about it at the time, but her curiosity started after I told her about you. I didn’t exactly mention Theo as anything but your boyfriend. I talked about you a lot though. You were the first friend I’d made in a long time.”
She felt the same. “Do you believe she targeted Theo to take him away from me? To punish me for taking you away from her?”
“I think she seized an opportunity,” Faith allowed. “I think she found a way to hurt both of us and she took it. She knew how much you both meant to me and she didn’t bother to tell me Theo was alive. She wanted me to hurt. She wanted you to hurt. And somewhere deep down, she thought if Theo was my friend and your lover, then he must be the best. So she took him for herself.”
“I wish I knew everything she did to him.” It haunted her at night. “So much of his tenderness is gone. All that seems to be left is the Dom, and that’s not how Theo was. Sometimes I see a glimpse, but when I try to catch him, he slips through my fingers.”
Faith reached out, touching her hand. “He’s still there somewhere. I think his memory will come back in fits and starts. You said he was already getting flashes. The first version of her drug didn’t work on everyone the way it did Robert. Brain chemistry is an odd thing. It’s why we need different drugs for the same use. Ten thinks she’s working on a second version of the drug, one specifically made to work on a brain like Theo’s. If she ever gets her hands on him again, I believe she intends to wipe his memory completely and rebuild him as her mate.”
“And why would she take my son’s DNA?”
Faith went a little pale, even in the low light. “DNA is a useful thing to a doct
or. It might be she wants to see how much of Theo is in TJ, what genes she can isolate as pure Taggart. Or she did it to split the two of you up. She could be ensuring that TJ is Theo’s so she could use him as leverage. My sister is capable of anything.”
Yes, that was something Erin knew well. She had to think on it. Being out of her home allowed her to focus solely on the problem at hand. Though her mind constantly went back to Theo, but then he was the problem. He should have sat down with her and worked through how to deal with McDonald, but he’d behaved exactly as she’d expected. He’d woken up and immediately asked for his brother. She’d found herself packed up and on her way with TJ a few hours later.
Of course, she would have fought if she’d thought it would make a difference.
“Are you going to play tonight?” Faith asked, her voice uncertain.
Erin leaned back. She should relax while she could. “I’m pretty tense. I could use a session. It’s not like I’m cheating. He’s the one who sent me away.”
“I doubt he thought you would come here. I’m sure he believes you’ll only be separated for a brief time.”
“He was in full-on martyr mode.” It wasn’t his best look and she couldn’t blame that on his torture. He’d been willing to throw himself on his sword for his loved ones long before he’d met the doctor. “He told me I shouldn’t come out of hiding until McDonald was dead and that could take years. He didn’t even seem all that sad about it.”
In fact, he’d seemed more focused and level than in the weeks he’d been home. He wanted to go after Hope McDonald more than he wanted to stay with her. Vengeance was more important to Theo than their family. Yes, she’d thought about that for a solid week as well.
She had some decisions to make but so much would be determined in the morning. Tomorrow morning he would find her sitting in the conference room and she would know how he truly felt. He would be cold or hot. Anger wasn’t in question. He would be angry that she’d ruined his plans. The question was which Taggart temper would show. If he was cold, she would have her answer.
