by Lexi Blake
Well, it was good to know the juvenile pranks weren’t limited to the London office.
“That’s a good idea,” Tucker piped up. “I need to write that down. I’m always looking for ways to liven up a party, if you know what I mean.”
Sadie’s green eyes rolled and it was easy to see she dismissed the man no matter how nice his abdominal muscles were. If only all young ladies were as practical as Sadie. “Oh, thank god. Macon Miles, you are a life saver.” She glanced back as she moved from behind her desk to greet the man who walked into the office carrying a box. “Mr. O’Donnell is in his office. Give me a sec and I’ll let him know you’re here.”
Adam Miles seemed to realize Brody was there. He smiled and held out a hand. “Carter. Hey, man, what’s got you…” His face fell before Brody could even grasp his hand. “Oh, shit. This is better drama than I had planned. I’ll take you back to Li’s office myself.”
“I’ll hang out here,” Tucker offered.
He wasn’t sure that was the best idea. Tucker would annoy the hell out of Sadie, but he might learn a lesson. The women of McKay-Taggart could handle themselves, and it looked like Grace’s niece was no different. If Tucker found himself with his balls being handed back to him, he would learn a lesson in dealing with the fairer sex. “Don’t go too far. We’ll be leaving soon.”
He started to follow Adam down the hall, his brain making plans. He would need an office and a hotel room. Not in that order. He would pray Tucker didn’t irritate Sadie so much she put them in a rattrap. Or should he try to stay with Steph and Nate?
That would be hell on earth, but after the conversation with the man who had Steph’s phone, he knew damn well she shouldn’t be left alone.
“You know anything about what’s happening with Steph?” Brody asked Miles.
“I know I’m deeply interested in what happens in the next few minutes,” Miles replied. “And I have talked to her. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have a security camera at her clinic. I’m going to have to see if there’s anything on the road that leads up to the clinic that I can use. This isn’t London. I’m not optimistic.”
He wasn’t either. If they’d been talking about a hospital in a city, they would already have a dossier on the man and could have gotten full police aid. “Have you run his name through Interpol?”
“No name,” Miles replied, turning down the hallway that led to the offices with the big, gorgeous windows. O’Donnell was a founding member of the company and it looked like he’d moved up in the world. “I’ve had her looking through pictures of known mercenaries and players in that part of the world. We haven’t come up with anything yet. So it’s been a while since you’ve seen her, huh?”
“Not since we finished up and got Theo back. No reason to,” he replied, hearing the defensiveness in his own tone. He lightened up. Miles was a known gossip. Almost as bad as Big Tag. “She’s a nice lady. We got to be friends. Hate to think she’s in trouble.”
“Friends? Okay,” Miles replied. “I hope you’re still friends. That makes things easier.”
He wasn’t sure they would ever be friends again, but that was his fault. He’d fucked up that night. He’d given in when he’d known he shouldn’t. “You know anything about this Nate fella she’s taken up with?”
Miles stopped, turning in the middle of the hall. “Nate fella?”
He’d stepped in it, but damn it all he wanted to know. “I heard she brought her new man along with her. Just wondering if he’s trouble or not. Do we know anything about the bloke?”
Miles stared at him like he’d grown another bloody head. “He’s very attached to her. Super attached. He might have cried a bit when she left the room.”
Brody bit back a groan. She’d gone for someone super whiny? What the hell? And it had only been a bloody year and she’d already found herself some clinging vine of a man. He should have known. “They meet in Sierra Leone?”
“Yeah, about two months ago,” Miles replied. “Maybe two and half, but it’s hard to believe. I was thinking more like six to nine months, if you know what I mean.”
He didn’t, but he wasn’t going to stop asking questions to try to figure out Miles’s odd brain. So Steph and Nate had only been together for two months, but he’d fled the country with her? Only two months with this man and she was in trouble. It made Brody eager to check him out. “So this Nate fella is here?”
“Oh, yeah. Last I checked he was flirting like a pro with a couple of babes. She should watch out for that one.” Miles turned and strode down the hall. “I think he’s a player of the highest order.”
Brody felt his blood start to boil. “He’s doing this out in the open?”
“Oh, I’m pretty sure he’s loving the attention.” Miles stopped in front of Li’s door and gave it a brisk knock. “Li, you have company.”
Maybe this wouldn’t go well for Nate What’s His Name. Did the bugger think the minute Steph left a room he could go from crybaby to some kind of player lothario? He would find out pretty quickly the woman wasn’t without protection, and here was the perfect man to talk to.
Brody strode into the room. “Miles tells me her boyfriend is hitting on everything in a skirt and you’re sitting in here? I thought you were going to protect her.”
O’Donnell sat behind his desk, one dark brow arching over his eyes. “And I thought you were going to stay the hell away from her. Shouldn’t you be back in London?”
“It’s a damn good thing I’m not since it seems to me you’re not taking care of business.”
O’Donnell looked over at Miles. “So young Nathan is hitting on women, is he?”
Miles gave him a sunny smile. “He likes ’em young, too.”
O’Donnell shook his head. “You’re a bastard, Adam.”
Miles shrugged. “It’s a talent. I have to practice or I’ll lose it and become all sullen and mopey like Jake. There’s only room for one brooder in our threesome. So he’s in the dark, huh?”
“This is not entertainment, Adam,” O’Donnell warned.
“Bloody oath, it ain’t. That girl needs someone stable,” Brody said. “She needs someone who can take care of her since she’s determined to sacrifice herself to the rest of the world. Where is he? I think I should talk to the bastard.”
“Use small words,” Adam advised. “He’s not very well educated. You know the type. Born big on muscles, little on brains.”
What the fuck was going on? “I want to see Steph and this Nate person. Now.”
O’Donnell held up a hand. “Calm down, Brody. I think everything is all right. Chelsea hasn’t found anything on the Dark Web. I think Steph might have jumped the gun running the way she did. I think she was in a situation where she got scared and she took this arsehole too seriously. As far as we can tell he tried to get her to correct his mistake. He was probably afraid if the man died, he would get in trouble, and he likely will. I’ve got a call in to local law enforcement. They’re going to look into it, but I think it’s safe to say she’s going to be okay. But you do need to talk to her.”
“I thought you were going to murder me.”
“That was before I realized you’re just a dumbass who can’t accept the inevitable. Think about it, man. How long did it take you to get on a plane? It’s only been ten or eleven hours since we talked. The flight itself is eight. That’s not the actions of a man who doesn’t care about a woman. Did you take the time to pack?”
Barely, but Li was wrong about one thing. “I don’t care what you think you know, the man who wants her dead is real. I talked to the bastard. He told me he was going to kill her and her boyfriend. He was serious, Li. He’s coming after her.”
Liam stood up. “I think she’s with Charlotte. Let’s go find her. She needs to be the one to explain to you about Nathan. And then I want you to tell me absolutely everything you know.”
Brody followed, ready to face her.
Chapter Three
Steph stopped at the door to what seemed to be
a full-on gym, glancing around the room and praying she wasn’t drooling.
The room was filled with gorgeous, muscular men working out, several of them without their shirts on.
She’d wondered why the outer office had been completely deserted. There had been plenty of desks, but Charlotte had mentioned that most of the men who worked for this particular division of McKay-Taggart didn’t like to be tied down to desks. In deference to their unique natures, Ian had let them put two of the large conference spaces together for a gym.
“It keeps them close to the office,” Charlotte explained. “There’s also a room with a massive TV and a shocking assortment of video game systems. We’ve found if we don’t keep them engaged, they wander off.”
Beautiful, sexy men with distraction issues. “And you want one of them to watch over me? Should I worry about shiny objects?”
Charlotte laughed. “Not at all. They’re focused when they work. You have to understand some of these guys take on a single client for long stretches of time. They eat, work, sleep when the client does. It’s very involved. It’s why they don’t want to be tied to a desk when they aren’t on assignment. And this is what they do every afternoon.”
“I thought I would find you down here, baby,” a deep voice said.
She turned and Ian Taggart walked through the door. He was so close on their heels she wondered if he’d found out where they were going and run to catch up with them.
If it bothered Charlotte Taggart, Steph couldn’t tell. The woman merely grinned up at her massive husband. “You know I try not to miss the afternoon show.”
Taggart made a vomiting sound, but then sighed. “You should be glad I got my fix.” Taggart winked down at her and held up what looked like a yellow piece of cake, or perhaps a kind of lemony brownie. “Stephanie, this is what I like to call the full douche.”
“Excuse me?” He couldn’t have said what she’d thought he said.
“Yeah, you know how a group of dogs is called a pack and a bunch of crows is called a murder. A big group of bodyguards is called a douche,” Taggart proclaimed. “Idiots, every single one of them. I have no idea why I hired them.”
“You hired them because they’re the best,” Charlotte explained with a long sigh. “And now we have to pick a couple for Steph.”
“You know I could have called them into a meeting,” Taggart explained. “They are sometimes allowed to come upstairs to the big kids table, but only if they wear clothes like normal people. Blade! What the fuck is wrong with your pants? They’re supposed to be around your waist not barely hugging your ass cheeks, you douche.”
A tall, lean god of a man dropped from the bar thingee where he’d been pulling up his muscled body and then lowering it back down. And then pulling it back up and lowering it down. It was hypnotizing. She could watch that all damn day. But now the man turned, putting his hands on his hips. Taggart was right. They did ride low on his hips, showing off those gorgeous notches. She hadn’t seen notches like that on a man since…
Well, not since the night with Brody.
The man named Blade frowned his boss’s way. “There’s nothing wrong with my pants, Tag. If you want to wear those grandpa khakis around your man nipples, then good for you, but I’m not eighty-two.”
Steph waited for Tag to explode but he merely grinned, the expression making him look younger and far less scary than normal. “That’s right. I totally hired him because he’s a massive asshole. His name is Riley Blade. Yeah, I know it sounds ridiculous but someone put those two names together.”
“Yes, my mother,” Blade shot back with a roll of his dark eyes. He stepped forward, wiping off his hand with a towel before offering it to her. “You must be Dr. Gibson. It’s a pleasure to meet you. Liam called up earlier and told us all to be prepared to take shifts working with you.”
She shook his hand. “I appreciate it very much.”
“Blade is used to protecting Hollywood stars,” Charlotte pointed out. “He worked with Lyle Tarpin on his last action/adventure flick. It was exciting.”
“Not as exciting as I would have liked,” Blade said with a frown. “And I was a consultant on that, not a bodyguard. I got to tell them all the ways they were fucking up and they still did everything I told them not to do. Now I’m here and I take shit from this guy. But seriously, we all know what you did for Theo. He’s one of the good Taggarts. We’re all happy to help you out.”
“Good Taggarts? What does that mean?” Big Tag asked.
A massive man sat up on the bench press. He had dark, close-cropped hair. “It means he’s the least assholey Taggart, though I have a fondness for Sean. Any man who can make a brisket the way he does can be a complete dick and still a good guy in my book.”
“Well, all I know is I’m thrilled you decided to cut that hair off,” Taggart announced. “He used to have hair down to his shoulders. It took forever to get him to do anything because he had to curl his hair and shit.”
Charlotte slapped a hand on her husband’s chest. “Stop being such a dick.” Her face softened as she looked back at the man. “How are you, Remy?” She leaned over to Steph. “He had surgery to correct a few issues with the metal plate he has covering his brain. It’s an injury he received while serving his country. My husband should be polite about it.”
“I’m good. No complications from the surgery and my hair is growing back in nicely. I’ll be curling it again soon.” He stood and he had to be six and a half feet. Almost as tall as Brody. She barely reached the middle of his chest. He smiled down at her, charm pouring off him. “I’m Remy Guidry. I run this group of crazies. How you doing, chère?”
Oh, that accent. Pure Cajun. It made her think it had been too long since she’d even thought about sex.
“She’s doing great. She’s got a two month old,” Ian pointed out.
“Yes, I heard, and no man,” Remy replied with ease. “My own momma was a single mother. Brave and beautiful women. I will try to make your time with me as comfortable as possible. I know you’ve recently given birth to that beautiful boy of yours. I’ll make sure to take it easy. When it comes to the physical stuff.”
Wow. There it was. She’d kind of thought all those female instincts in her had died somewhere in the middle of her third trimester, but they were flaring back to life now. Was he saying what she thought he was saying?
Not that she would. She wasn’t going to keep her bodyguard so close he would be in bed with her. Though it would make it easier for him to keep track of her…
Nope. Not going there. Never ever again.
Was she going to be a nun for the rest of her life? Did she have to martyr herself because she’d made a mistake? At least this time the mistake had given her the gift of Nathan.
“You do understand that Li considers her something of a kid sister, right?” Ian asked.
Remy actually took a step back and slapped Riley Blade on the shoulder. “I think this is a job for you and Burke.”
Charlotte leaned over. “Everyone’s scared of Li.”
“It’s starting to get annoying,” Ian admitted. “I’m way scarier than Li.”
Blade shook his head. “I worked a protective detail for Serena Dean-Miles at a book convention. She’s got a few crazy fans. Avery O’Donnell is her personal assistant. Jake Dean simply shook my hand, told me to take care of his girl. Adam gave me some pointers. Liam took me aside and explained that if anything happened to either of those women he would kill me, but not right away. He promised to take me somewhere and slowly feed me to a group of mangy dogs he intended to recruit off the street, but he would make sure I was alive as long as possible so I could enjoy my hideous death. He went into great detail about all of it.”
“He said that?” She couldn’t imagine it. Liam was always nice. Not always. Yeah, okay, she could see him saying that. “Well, I’m sure he didn’t mean it. You know, it’s like the dad who cleans his guns while his daughter’s date shows up.”
“I would never show tha
t little fucker what caliber of weapons are coming his way,” Ian announced. “I will show him the report I have on him, his parents, all those fucker friends of his, and how I can find him anywhere he goes. And Li’s totally serious. He’s got a notebook filled with all the ways he can get away with murder. Serena’s been trying to get her hands on it for years, but he thinks he’s going to need it in the end. Probably for Guidry.”
A chuckle came from a man in the back. Like his cohorts, he was gorgeous. Steph put his age at roughly thirty. Dark hair and deep blue eyes that seemed built to catch the stare of any woman around. “Definitely Guidry. But he should hurry. I’m fairly certain one of his women is going to take him out first.”
The big Cajun rolled his eyes. “That will be the day.”
“Nope, it’s definitely going to be one of his one-night stands,” the man in the back replied. “We voted him the bodyguard most likely to be the subject of a Dateline episode. Hey, Taggart, those lemon bars? Why don’t you share?”
Taggart’s face went a mottled red and he clutched the box close. “Not on your life. These are mine, Landon. You shouldn’t have carbs at all. You think I don’t see that pudgy midsection you’re getting. Go back to working out.”
Landon rolled those gorgeous blue eyes and stood, proving there was absolutely nothing pudgy about him. He strode forward, offering her a hand. “I’m Shane Landon. Former LAPD. I left LaLa land like Riley here for the land of heat and sarcasm. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Doc. You are looking gorgeous as usual, Mrs. Taggart.”
Charlotte gave him a dazzling smile. “Thank you. I try, you know.” She looked back at her husband. “So when they try to steal your lemon bars, you defend them to the death, but your wife gets nothing?”
He clutched the box. “The lemon bars are completely defenseless. You are not. I trust you, baby. Any one of these guys tries something on you, you’ll take ’em out. And I’ll protect the lemon bars.”
Charlotte groaned and faced Steph again. “The only two missing today are Wade Rycroft and Declan Burke. They both have assignments this afternoon, but you’ll meet them at some point. As long as you’re in Dallas, we’ll have everyone taking shifts.” She glanced down at her watch. “I’ve got a meeting in ten minutes. Remy, can you go over protocols with Dr. Gibson? Li wants someone with her when she’s not in the building. She’s staying at Li and Avery’s.”