by Lexi Blake
Sweet Child o’ Mine
A Masters and Mercenaries Extra
Lexi Blake
Sweet Child o’ Mine
A Masters and Mercenaries extra
Lexi Blake
Published by DLZ Entertainment LLC
Copyright 2015 DLZ Entertainment LLC
Edited by Chloe Vale
McKay-Taggart logo design by Charity Hendry
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights.
This is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination and are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or establishments is solely coincidental.
Dedication
To you. Yes, I’m talking to you, dear reader. This one is all for you with my great thanks for all the support and love. Thank you for sharing this journey with me and I look forward to many more adventures.
Table of Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Epilogue
Chapter One
Ian Taggart frowned as he looked at his childhood friend. Sullivan Roarke had grown up with Ian, Alex, and Sean. He’d worked the same shitty jobs Ian and Alex had worked for the same shitty pay. He’d given Ian some of that pay when Ian had a hard time keeping a roof over his and Sean’s head. Sully had never asked for payback.
Until today.
“So what you’re telling me is this douchebag lets you film his life and people watch it? Like actual living people who breathe and shit.”
Alex, who was sitting beside Sully, groaned. “Ian hasn’t developed tact in the decade or so since you last saw him.”
Sully sat back with a wry smile on his face. “I wouldn’t expect him to. And we don’t call Hoover the douchebag. We like to call him the talent.”
“Which only proves you have no understanding of the word.” Tact was useless in Ian’s mind.
“Perhaps, but I’ve made a lot of money off Kendalmire’s Way. The network recently reupped us for three years. Do you have any idea how unusual that is? I’ve been in this business for a while now and this show is my goldmine. If I can get six or seven years out of this show, I’ll be set for life and I won’t have to do reality shows anymore. I’ll be able to move into scripted TV, which is where I want to be.”
Thank god. He’d worried that Sully had lost his damn mind. “So you don’t particularly want to film douchebag rich kids who think they’re DJs and their blonde model girlfriends, who shop and prove the American education system has completely failed?”
Sully chuckled. “Not particularly, but then I suspect you’ve taken on some jobs that weren’t agreeable for the sake of money.”
Oh, he’d saved a few people who he would rather have strangled. “True.”
“So from what I understand you have to run this by the rest of the team before you take a case?” Sully asked. “I didn’t know that or I wouldn’t have brought Hoover in today.”
Normally, he would present the case to the team and they would decide to take or reject the assignment and who was the best operative to work the case, if they agreed to it. “You didn’t just bring Lord Douche. You brought all his douche minions, too.”
“The good news is apparently none of them eat because Charlotte offered them cookies and they looked at her like she was crazy,” Alex offered. “That’s in your favor, Sully. If any one of them had touched Ian’s cookies, he would have thrown them down an elevator shaft.”
They were his freaking cookies. Sean had recently brought in an assistant pastry chef at his restaurant, Top. Ian was a principle investor so he tended to treat Macon Miles like his own personal bakery. Adam’s baby bro didn’t seem to mind. He’d kept Ian supplied with sweets. Ian was caught in a never-ending cycle of pain. He got nervous about Charlie giving birth and he ate. He got worried that he was going to end up as big as Charlie and with no actual babies coming out of him, so he worked out. He then worried he was working out too much and neglecting Charlie and he reached for the cookies again.
He was going to be so freaking happy when the demons were all born and life could get back to…
Yeah, he wasn’t sure what normal was anymore.
He really wanted one of those cookies followed by a couple of rounds of punching the shit out of someone in the ring he’d set up at the new Sanctum facility. Or he could punch Hoover Kendalmire. That would be fun, too.
“We’re taking the case, Sully,” Alex assured him.
They were. Because he owed Sully for all those precious ten dollar bills he would slip to Sean for school lunches and for showing up with pizza right about the time Ian’s paycheck would run out. “How many times has he been assaulted?”
“Yesterday makes three. It was a really close call. Someone took a shot at him. We have it on camera,” Sully explained.
Ian had already looked over the footage. Hoover and his model girlfriend Brie had been filming their very high-end picnic when someone had taken a shot at Hoover with a high-powered rifle. Unfortunately, they’d only managed to hit the bottle of Cristal that had then splattered all over Brie’s overpriced shirt and she’d thrown a fit. She hadn’t been pissed someone had nearly taken off her boyfriend’s head, but damn she wanted to hurt whoever had ruined her designer wear.
Ian wished whoever had tried to kill the fucker had been better at their job. He sighed and leaned forward. “Why don’t you go and join your crazies in the conference room. Alex and I will be right out. I want to take one more look at that footage before we talk to…god, I hate even saying his name…Hoover.”
Sully stood. “Yeah, his parents had more money than sense. I often think they named him after the vacuum cleaner, which is oddly appropriate since he sucks the intelligence out of any room he enters. But damn that kid’s got a million-watt smile. And if you can solve this case without Hoover dying, I can use all of this as a storyline for next season. If the kid dies, so does the show. But you aren’t going to let that happen. I know you, Ian. You’re going to solve this in no time.”
Sully was smiling as he left the office. At least someone was happy.
“I say we set Si and Jesse up on this case,” Alex said. “Phoebe and Chelsea won’t mind a couple of months in LA. I’ll estimate the project at roughly six to eight weeks. We’ll need to interview everyone involved and get a feel for what the victim’s life is like. I’ve already been on the phone with LAPD. Derek has a friend in the Threat Management Unit. They’re overtasked and apparently Brie and Hoover are difficult to deal with. What a surprise.”
Ian flipped a button on his computer and looked over the footage again. The shooter had been roughly five hundred feet away, in a cluster of trees. The shot would have taken off Hoover’s head if he hadn’t caught sight of his reflection in the bottle of champagne. The dumbass actually picked up the bottle and started to admire himself. His narcissism saved his life.
The cops had found the spot where the shooter had likely stood, but they couldn’t determine much. The spot was a hiker paradise. There had been too many footprints to make any kind of guess.
“I’ll talk to them. Maybe we should send one of the new guys, too.” He’d recently set up a close-cover bodyguard unit within McKay-Taggart. His operatives were almost all family men, and that didn’t seem to go well with twenty-four seven close cover. So he’d talked to a friend of Sean’s and allowed him to run his business as a subsidiary of McKay-Taggart. “Do you find any of Fisher’s men annoying? Because I want to set someone annoying on this guy.
Jesse and Si will be too nice. Hey, maybe Chelsea can do some of that rat bastard stuff she used to do to me.”
Like putting him on a no-fly list and subjecting him to body cavity searches for months when he flew. It had been a complete dick move and one he respected. He didn’t fuck with his sister-in-law much anymore. She was mean and he could understand that.
Charlie could be mean, too, but when she was he would spank her sweet ass and show her who was boss. Well, she was boss and he damn well knew it, but in the bedroom there was no question who topped who.
God, he wanted to top her. Lately, he was too worried to. He looked at that big belly of hers and worried things were going to change again.
“Stop.”
Ian looked up. “What?”
“You’ve got your ‘worried dad’ face on.”
“I do not have one of those.”
“You do. It’s a little like your ‘I’m going to murder someone’ face but slightly less happy. You’re going to be fine, Ian.”
He hated this. Hated all this touchy-feely shit. Still… Alex was kind of his go-to guy. If he couldn’t talk to Alex, he couldn’t talk to anyone. “I have no idea how to raise girls. Why couldn’t they have had penises? I know what to do with a boy. Shove ’em out in the backyard and let them free range for a few years. They’ll build their own cabins and become self-sufficient. I don’t think I can do that with girls. Speaking of complaints. Why two? One I could maybe handle, but now it’s a freaking girl gang at my house. Do you think they’re pulling a fast one on dear old dad? Maybe they’re hiding their penises and laughing their asses off in utero.”
Alex laughed, the sound lightening the mood. “This has been a fun nine months for me, brother. I can’t wait for the rest because there are no penises and that gang of girls is going to be so much fun for me to watch when they get to be teens.”
Ian shuddered. He didn’t want to think about teens.
Alex leaned forward, that sensitive I’m-about-to-give-you-words-of-wisdom-because-I-watched-a-lot-of-Oprah-in-my-time look on his face. “You’re going to be fine, Ian. I know you think because your dad walked out that you won’t know what to do, but Sean would disagree. Sean would tell you you’ve already been a great dad. There’s only one rule.”
“Don’t kill the children. Charlie already made me promise.” He didn’t like the fact that Alex was right. Or that the idea of Sean thinking he was going to be good at the father thing made him a little soft on the inside.
Alex rolled his eyes. “God, you’re a pain in the ass.”
“What?” He wanted to know. “What’s the one rule?”
“Be there. And let me tell you, Ian Taggart’s got that one down. So relax. You’re going to be a pro at this in no time. And I think you’re going to look good in the pink sling Eve bought you.”
“Oh, that was so not Eve, asshole.” The baby shower had been a revelation. So much fucking pink.
Alex gave him a shit-eating grin. “I laughed the whole time I was buying it. I tried to find a place that would bedazzle the fucker, but Eve wouldn’t let me.”
Ian stood. “You know what, I’m going to make that shit manly. You think I won’t wear a pink sling? I will rock that motherfucker.”
“If anyone can, it’s you,” Alex conceded. He grabbed his laptop. Alex would deal with setting up the project files and all the administrative stuff that came with a new case. He’d backed off of active duty since he and Eve had adopted a baby boy named Cooper.
Who would one day likely turn that innocent gaze of his on Ian’s daughters.
“You tell your boy to keep his hands to himself.”
“Oh god. I hadn’t even thought about that. You’re going to be that dad. You know the one who thinks his girls are perfect angels and all the boys around them are the devil? Can we wait until they’re born before you accuse Coop of trying something with them?”
Ian kind of thought Cooper eyed Charlie’s baby bump as though he knew something good was going to come out of there. “You’re wrong. I know my girls won’t be angels, and that’s why I intend to keep an eye on them at all times. And they’re going to look like Charlie so they’ll be gorgeous. No doubt about it. Those girls are going to be trouble.”
He followed Alex out into the hallway. It was so weird to walk this hallway now. At one point the floor had been damn near empty. They’d really only needed reception, the main conference room, and seven offices, though when they’d first begun, Ian had claimed they only really needed six because Adam was so far up Jake’s butt they should share one.
He still loved giving Adam shit. It was one of the constants in his life.
Back in the beginning they’d closed off half the floor and now he was thinking about buying the floor below him if he could convince those damn lawyers to move out. The back conference room had been turned into a daycare center. Charlie now occupied a corner office where she helped Alex with the administrative stuff and was the chief liaison with clients and the outside world. They’d lost Sean to the culinary arts and the world was a better place for it, but somewhere along the way they’d picked up Simon, Jesse, Phoebe, Erin, and now even damn Tennessee Smith had an office, though he’d put Ten in the back next to the babies so he didn’t think this was a forever thing.
He was a little scared he was going to end up with all of Ten’s former team on the payroll. Since Ten had been disavowed by the CIA for getting too close to a dirty politician, his old team was slowly working their way out and they all ended up at Ian’s office with their hands out. He would send the fuckers away but Charlie kept putting them on the payroll.
“Boss, you can’t be serious.” One of the newbies was marching down the hall, her red hair flying behind her and a look of righteous fury on her face. Yeah, Erin had obviously gotten her new assignment.
“I’m never serious,” he replied. God, he loved parts of his job, and fucking with his employees was one of them.
Especially when he fucked with them for their own damn good.
She breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank god. I was hoping it was a joke.”
Alex never fucked with anyone. He was practically Captain America. “It’s not a joke, Erin. You can pick up your tickets with Grace. You and Theo are set to fly out early Thursday. You have a meeting with the security head of the hospital on Monday, so rest up. It’s a long flight and you’ve got a half a day’s layover in Frankfurt. Grace gave you a nice long layover so you don’t miss that flight to Monrovia. Also, since your cover is that you’re an ex-military, down-on-her-luck girl looking for work, we put you in coach. I’m really sorry.”
Ian snorted. Damn, maybe Alex did fuck with the employees. That flight to Liberia was a killer. “But we made sure Theo’s got the seat right beside you. After all, a Master always looks after his precious submissive.”
Erin’s face went a bright red that could have been anger, but unfortunately her T-shirt was thin and that showed the truth. Poor girl’s nipples had gone rock hard and it wasn’t cold in the building.
Really, he should get extra for playing cupid to the clueless.
“Send someone else with me,” she said, her shoulders straight and her feet planted like she was standing at attention. You could take the girl out of the Army, but Erin hadn’t yet figured out how to get the Army out of the girl. “Send me in with Chase or Hutch or Michael Malone. I understand that I’m the only female operative who can handle this mission. Hell, I believe in this mission. I want to take out Senator McDonald as much as anyone, but I don’t think Theo is ready.”
Was that how she was going? “In what way? Is his SEAL training not sufficient? Was his time as a CIA operative too short for your liking? Or is there something else you would like to tell me? Has he harassed you?”
He hadn’t considered that. Theo had been attracted to Erin from the moment he met her. There was sexual chemistry between them, but also his half-brother seemed genuinely fond of her. He tried his damnedest to take care of Erin, though it was
obvious she was scared of Theo. But if Theo had been doing something he shouldn’t, Tag would shut that shit down, brother or no.
Erin’s eyes slid away. “No, Sir. You know he’s actually very kind. I don’t know how to handle it. I would be more comfortable with Hutch.”
Because Hutch treated her like one of the guys. “Hutch is incapable of looking like he’s in love with you and he has zero training in D/s. Faith McDonald has been in the lifestyle for longer than you have.”
“Longer than Theo, too.” It was obvious Erin wasn’t giving up.
“But Theo has been training day and night.” Theo seemed to have figured out what Erin needed, and he was trying hard to be able to give it to her. He’d been working with Ten under Tag and Alex’s tutelage, and he’d come a long way. His brother was more than ready for this assignment. He was the best man for the job. Tag liked to fuck with his employees, but he took his business seriously. “Theo is perfectly prepared for this mission and you’re the right operative to get close to Faith McDonald. You’ll be her personal bodyguard and you can bond over giggling and tea and whatever girls bond over.”
Erin flipped him off. It was a good sign. He suspected she had some serious shit in her background having to do with authority figures. Flipping the boss the bird meant she was comfortable he wasn’t going to hurt her. Now she simply had to figure out Theo wouldn’t either. “I’ll take care of Faith. I actually kind of admire her. She’s smart and seems to be trying to do good in the world.”
Unfortunately, her father was an evil fuck who sold out servicemen for a buck and made his fortune off keeping the wars going. Faith McDonald could be Mother Teresa and he would still use her to take down her father. “Don’t go into this expecting a lifetime friendship. She’s the target. Talk to her. Convince her to come to Dallas with you so she can meet a new Master. She’s single right now, but the word is she always indulges during her off time. Get her back here with you and Ten will handle the rest.”