by Lexi Blake
She blinked back tears and forced herself to hold her head high.
She joined Nick in the elevator. It was a quiet ride.
* * * *
Nick opened the door that led to the lobby with a sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.
He had no idea who the woman walking beside him was.
Hayley had been sweet, kind, nonjudgmental. She’d been the bright light. Even when he hated being paraded in front of Desiree’s relatives like some shock-and-awe campaign against an enemy, he enjoyed the time he spent with Hayley. Seeing her became the only reason to go to any of Des’s family functions at all.
Had five years really changed her? Or had he been duped into believing the sweet exterior?
Well, everyone knew he was stupid when it came to the women of Hayley’s family.
Kayla popped her head out of the reception room. “Hey, is everyone okay? I got a call that you’re going out. You know the big guy is coming back in a few hours. I don’t think he’s alone. He asked me to make sure you, Robert, and Ari are prepared to give a full briefing on the state of our team of lunatics.”
“Ari asked you not to call them that.” He wasn’t in a mood to joke, and damn it, if Damon wasn’t coming back alone that could only mean one thing. Freaking Ian Taggart. The only man in the world who could give him more hell than Damon.
“I should send back those T-shirts then, I guess.” Kay simply shrugged off his dark tone. “All I’m saying is if you’re about to go off on some sex binge, you better make it quick. Damon wants that meeting early tomorrow. I tried to tell him that he’s going to have some righteous jet lag, but he just said some British things about carrying on and stiff upper lips and pip pip and all that. I shut up.”
“Damn it.” Now he had the added problem of needing to work tonight to get that damn briefing finished. “How many Taggarts do I have to deal with?”
They were their own small army when they got together. Each more sarcastic than the next. They were on their way back from Loa Mali, an island country off the coast of India where the youngest Taggart brother had gotten married to the mother of his child. The Taggart children were the only ones he could truly handle. They were all small and sweet and cute, and soon they would begin to talk and probably sound like their fathers…
“It’s just Big Tag and Charlotte. They’re worried about the nice group of men who happened to lose their memories and most of their manners to the crazy doctor lady. Also, I’m sure none of them was military or worked for various government and or criminal organizations. I’m sure they were regular Joes. Tucker was probably a barista or something.”
Perhaps it was all Americans who spoke the language of sarcasm. “I’ll be here in the morning. I need someone to watch after this one while I work. Do we have anyone who can do close cover right now?”
“She needs a bodyguard?” Kay suddenly looked more interested. “Brody’s back. I could assign one of the boys to her. They’re pretty good at following orders when they’re not trying out foods to see what they’re allergic to. That started as a fun game and ended in an EpiPen to Jax’s leg.”
“I’ll stay inside,” Hayley said quietly. “I should be fine. I traveled under a false passport.”
Kay leaned against the registration desk. “Then why were you so freaked out about getting inside? You looked totally paranoid for a chick with nothing to worry about. Also, you wanna explain why Teresa was so sniffly on the com system?”
Nick put out a hand. He did not need Kay to get all high and mighty on her squad horse. Or whatever she would call it. “I’ll handle this.”
“I wasn’t trying to make her feel bad. I simply don’t want to stay here. I want to go to a hotel,” Hayley said, her voice so small.
In the dim light of his office, he hadn’t seen the shadows under her eyes. She looked pale and beyond tired. He sighed. His anger drained away. She was still so young despite all her accomplishments, and to the outside world his lifestyle could be controversial, to say the least. He did owe her and right now that meant putting aside his anger and getting her the rest she needed. He could deal with everything else later. She mattered now.
“I’m taking her to the hotel around the block. Could you have Brody meet me there in ten minutes?” He would rather have Brody than one of the lost boys.
“I’ll let him know,” Kay promised. “And Nick?”
“Yes?”
“I’m so expecting a debrief on this when you get back.”
Because she loved gossip. And because Kayla Summers would never leave him alone in this. She would push and poke at him until he finally spit out what was bothering him. She would pry into his business until he growled and threw up his hands and gave her what she wanted. Kay was the little sister he’d…well, she wasn’t blood, but she was here. “I promise I’ll tell you everything I know and then we can talk about figuring out the problem.”
“So you’re not trying to fly solo on this one?” Kay asked, her brow arched over one eye.
He might have tried, might have played it close to the vest to protect her privacy, but he wouldn’t be able to. It seemed too big, and the truth was Hayley might feel safer if she had another operative on the case. Someone like Kay. “No, I’ll talk to Damon about it when he comes home. We’ll treat it like any other case. I will pay.”
“Nick,” she began.
He put a hand up. He knew damn well how much a full-time bodyguard and investigative services would be, but he didn’t have another option. She couldn’t pay and he wasn’t going to leave her out there to die. “I’ll text you the room number when I get her settled in. She has nothing, Kay. She needs clothes and toiletries.”
“I can get them. I need some cash though,” Hayley began.
He shut her down with a stern glare. “You will stay in the room and with a guard until such time as I decide you’re safe enough to be on your own. And don’t spit bile my way. I owe you a debt. I acknowledge this, but that means I’ll give you my best work. It doesn’t mean that I will coddle you. You asked for my help. Part of that help will be to protect you from yourself.”
She didn’t look at him, merely stared at the floor. “All right. I’ll stay where you put me.”
If only he could believe that. He felt guilty but shoved it aside. He wasn’t the one who had made a massive fuss over nothing. He wasn’t the prude here. He was trying to help her.
She looked so defeated and that damn near killed him.
He opened the door and strode out into the late afternoon air.
It would be better when he turned over the physical portion of guarding her to someone else. Brody and Kay could take shifts.
Unless Damon came back and put them on other assignments.
Would he leave her care to the lost boys? They weren’t bad men. He simply didn’t know any of them well enough to trust them. Hell, they didn’t know themselves. No one had figured out who they had been.
“Can you slow down?”
He stopped and turned. She was struggling to keep up with him. He glanced around. The neighborhood was quiet at this time of day, but it would soon pick up. The businesses around them were beginning to shut down and employees would be running for the Tube or coming up out of it to get to their flats. “I’m trying to get you inside before we get crowds. It’s easier to watch for suspicious people when the streets are empty.”
Not that they were ever truly empty. He glanced up and down the street. This wasn’t a place he felt uncomfortable with. The security staff at The Garden would be watching. There were cameras everywhere, though they were fairly subtle. Once they left the block that housed the club and office, they would be on their own.
This was a bad idea. He could feel it in his gut, but he wasn’t going to fight with her. Once he had her secured, he could put a guard on her, spend his days and nights figuring out which one of Desiree’s never-ending schemes had gotten them into trouble now.
“I’m sorry about pissing off your girlfriend,” sh
e said as she shuffled beside him.
He led her to the corner and waited for the light. Traffic was picking up. “Teresa isn’t my girlfriend.”
She stood beside him, her hands on the straps of her backpack as she stared at the light. “Sorry. I suppose you call her your submissive or something.”
Was she jealous? “Hayley, Teresa works for the club and does some secretarial and assistant work for the company. She isn’t mine. I don’t have a girlfriend and I don’t have a sub. And for the record, if I did have a sub, she would be my girlfriend. I wouldn’t separate the two. I don’t have intimate relations with anyone I work with.”
Her eyebrows rose slightly. “I think Des would disagree.”
“Des is the reason I no longer do that.” The light changed and he nodded her way, beginning to lead her across.
“I didn’t think you did much besides work,” she muttered.
“I spend time in the club. My life has become insular the last few years.” There was a hotel up ahead. He wanted to keep her close enough that he could run if he needed to get to her. “I work. I sleep. I occasionally play at the club, but mostly I drink. If I’m lucky, I meet a woman and spend a few hours with her and I forget. Most nights, I’m not lucky.”
“Nick, I’m sorry.” She reached out for his arm, pulling on his sleeve.
He stopped, not moving under her touch. There was so much pain and anger between them. When he’d held her in his arms, he thought perhaps they’d put it behind them, but their sad history was still here. A wall between them that he wasn’t likely to climb. “I’m sorry, too. I should have known the years wouldn’t change your opinion of me.”
She shook her head. “I’m tired. Can I get some sleep and try to figure out the completely fucked-up web of emotions I have surrounding you? I know you thought of me as some kind of naïve child, but I’m human. I screw up and I say things I don’t truly mean. I need some time to think.”
She needed some space as well. He could see that plainly. He needed it, too. “I’ll settle you in and you can sleep and in the morning, we’ll talk again. We’ll be professional about this.”
He wasn’t so sure he could ever be purely professional about her, but he was going to try. She deserved that. She deserved to find her academic knight in shining armor. Some man who’d never slit a throat or fought for his life. A man who could love her with a whole heart.
She nodded but he could see the way she flushed. “Good. That sounds good. I’ll be better tomorrow. I need a nice meal and a bed. Tomorrow I’ll be myself again.”
He doubted that. She’d lost a lot in the last few years. It couldn’t help but affect her. She’d lost Des and then her father and now her home.
He started to walk toward the hotel. It was a small, family-run hotel, but he knew the man who served as their head of security. At one point he’d worked for MTK. He was a sure thing, and that was why Nick was willing to leave her there. It was a boutique hotel with fewer than eighty rooms.
“So you really live in that place?” Hayley asked as she walked beside him.
“Most of us do. It’s easier this way. We spend most of our time working and often must be away. While I’m gone, someone will take care of my place and handle my mail. I don’t have to worry.” He liked living in The Garden. It wasn’t the way the American division was situated, but it seemed to work for them.
“So everyone’s single?”
“Most of us are. My boss, Damon Knight, has a wife and child. They live on the top floor. His son is very young. I’m sure at some point he’ll have to make some decisions about whether The Garden is a good place to raise children.” He’d overheard Penny Knight talking about finding another home for her growing family. Even with the whole top floor, they were feeling confined when they talked about another child. “So soon it will be more like a dormitory. It’s good to walk downstairs for work and to have a dining room where meals are served. Many, many days, I never leave the building.”
“That sounds horrible,” she said as they reached the alley that was a shortcut to the back of the hotel. “So if you’re not working, you rarely leave? You live in one of the most amazing cities on the planet and you don’t leave your house?”
It wasn’t a house. He had a room in a building that he rarely left. Why should he? What was out in the world for him? Still, seeing it through her eyes made him wonder how pathetic an existence it was. He worked. He drank. He sometimes found a woman to top. Sleep. Start over again in the morning.
“Yes, well, that’s the glamorous life of a spy.” Not that he did much actual spy work anymore. He sometimes helped out MI6 or the Agency when he was asked to.
She stopped in the middle of the alley. “Nick, I truly am sorry. I was mean to say those things.”
Weariness stole over him. Had it really been years since he found any joy in life? Since he woke up excited about the prospects of the day? “It’s all right. It’s not the lifestyle for you.”
He was beginning to wonder if it was for him anymore. Even that part of his life had become rote and predictable. Unchallenging.
“I wouldn’t know. I’ve read about it, but that’s all. It’s unlike me to be so intolerant.”
“I suppose it was a surprise. You always wanted to live a respectable life. This lifestyle, it’s not seen as respectable in most circles.”
“Is the lifestyle why Des told me you weren’t right for me that night?”
He stopped. He hadn’t been aware Des had actually spoken to Hayley that night. He’d packed up as quickly as he could and when he’d come out of the motel room, Des had been waiting in her Benz. “She said I wasn’t right for you?”
She turned to him, the shadows of the buildings around them casting her in a pale light. “She said you weren’t in a good place. Not the place I needed you to be in.” She shook her head. “I’m sorry. I don’t even know why I mentioned it. Are we close?”
Oh, but he so wanted to know what Des had said that night. He had a million questions.
It was the slightest sound that alerted him to the fact that they were no longer alone. Nick turned, expecting to see some hurrying businessman taking a shortcut to get to the Tube station or a lost tourist.
The man who entered the alley didn’t appear lost at all. The gun in his hand rather told Nick he’d found exactly what he was looking for.
With a curse, he threw himself in front of Hayley as the bullets started to fly.
Chapter Three
Hayley slammed against the brick wall, her left side flaring with pain. She managed to not hit her head and was about to explain that situation to Nick, who seemed to have lost his damn mind.
That was when she heard it. A ping and then the sound of metal slamming into metal.
Someone was shooting at her. At them. It wasn’t just her anymore. Now Nicky was here and whoever was shooting wouldn’t care that he wasn’t involved. They wouldn’t stop everything and give him the option to leave.
“Stay still.” Nick pressed her down as though he could shove her between the massive trash bin and the wall.
She felt something wet on her hand. Dark liquid had splashed across her hand and arm.
Blood.
“Oh, my god. I think I’m hit.” She tried to figure out where the bullet had gone in. She’d heard sometimes gunshot victims could go numb and not feel the actual effects until they were out of the situation.
“You’re not. I am. Don’t you dare pass out on me.” Nick cursed and looked around.
She wasn’t going to pass out. She was made of sterner stuff than that. “Where are you hit? How many of them are out there?”
“It’s nothing. It barely grazed me.” Nick held a hand up. “Now, hush.”
Footsteps echoed down the alley. Two, then three. Nick had gone perfectly still. He pressed against her, completely covering her with his body.
“Miss Dalton, it won’t work. I’ve got you in a corner and there’s only one way out,” a deep voice said. He spoke
with an upper-crust British accent. “So if you care at all about your male companion, you’ll come out and get this over with. I would rather bring you in alive, but if you won’t comply, your body will do.”
Nick was bleeding. Nick had been shot. She’d brought this to his doorstep and she didn’t even understand why. Adrenaline raced through her, waking her up and bringing things into focus.
She was tired and scared and tired of being scared and really, really pissed off.
“Who the hell are you and what did I do to get your damn panties in a wad? Did I give your essay on the War of 1812 a bad grade? Because guess what buddy, you probably deserved it,” she shouted before looking at Nick. “How bad is it? Can you still shoot him?”
Nick grimaced, trying to contort his massive body behind the trash bin. “I would if I had a blasted gun. I don’t run around London armed. As I pointed out to you earlier, I don’t tend to run around London much at all.”
Damn it. What the hell kind of spy didn’t walk around armed to the teeth? She looked down and he had a board in his hand.
Gun versus board. She kind of thought she knew how that one would turn out.
“This is your last chance, dear. The people I’m working with want you back in the United States. Do you wonder how they found you so quickly? Your friend was more than willing to give you up. Well, she was once we took a couple of her fingers. I don’t think she’ll be helping out criminals anymore.”
Dodi? They’d found Dodi and now they’d found her. Confusion was a festering pit in her gut. What had she done to deserve this? She knew one thing for sure—she wasn’t getting anyone else killed. It would be better to know why her life seemed to be ending than to watch Nick die and then die herself.
“Let me out.” She tried to stand up.
“Hush.” He crowded her, hunched over but on his feet. “You run the minute I move. You run back to The Garden.”
She couldn’t leave him. No matter what had happened all those years before, she couldn’t run when he was facing down a man with a gun. And if she wasn’t leaving him, then she definitely wasn’t going to curl into a ball of fear.