by Lexi Blake
O’Donnell chuckled and crossed over to the locker assigned to him. “Yeah, you got no idea, boyo. And you’re not going to listen to a bloody word I say, are ya?”
Ten turned back to his locker, this time avoiding the mirror on the inner door. Why had Tag put those there? Were all his Doms prima donna divas who needed to check that their guyliner was on properly? He pulled out his shirt, shoving his arms in. “You don’t know the op so I think I’ll keep my own counsel.”
“I might not know the op but I know what it feels like to hate meself for what I’m doing to a woman I care about.”
“Faith is simply the target. Actually, she’s not even the target. She’s the means to get to the target.”
“That’s very Agency of you, Ten. Did they teach you that dialogue? Because it’s all a piece of shit. You like the girl.”
He wished O’Donnell would go away. “She’s a likable woman. I’m still not sure she isn’t involved in her father’s business.” Bullshit. That was complete and utter bullshit. This was a woman who had given medical aid to the asshole who had assaulted her. She’d tended to wounds she’d inflicted, but he really thought she was running around selling out soldiers?
He wanted to follow his instincts. Everything he knew told him Faith was innocent. The trouble was, his instincts had been wrong before. Very wrong.
“Does it matter if she is?” O’Donnell’s voice had gone a bit softer and had an almost nauseating sympathy to it.
Why? Why is it nauseating for a friend to feel for you? Jamie’s voice was back. He really hoped Ferguson never found out that Ten’s dead brother from another mother talked to him.
Was O’Donnell his friend? “Of course it matters. If she’s involved with her father’s business, then she’s responsible for my brother’s death.”
And that isn’t a world you want to live in so it’s not true.
So said the dead guy. Unfortunately, Ten knew it could be true. And yet he really didn’t want to believe it. If it wasn’t true, she could potentially be in danger. What would she do if she ever discovered her father’s scheme?
What would he do?
“Well, then, I guess I was wrong. You seemed very cozy with her tonight. I thought there might be something there. Sorry. I’m a married man. I want everyone to be as utterly miserable as I am.” It was said with the grin of a man who was far from miserable. Liam O’Donnell was a happy man with a baby boy and a wife he couldn’t take his eyes off of. “I’ll also be glad when this op is over and I get my partner back. Although I’m pretty sure Theo’s turned her into a girl. Ruined a perfectly good drinking buddy. I swear that girl could cuss and drink with the best of them. Now she’s probably going to want to talk about her nails or decorating or something. Still, she’ll probably be more reliable than Boomer.”
“Tag put you with Boomer?” Boomer was a first-rate sniper, but Ten hadn’t hired him for his brains. He was loyal as the day was long, but he wasn’t built for intelligence work.
“Been working a missing persons case. The boy was a fighter. I’ve been posing as Boomer’s trainer to get close to the missing kid’s friends. Turns out he wouldn’t take a dive and the mob took exception.” O’Donnell shook his head. “I hate it when I have to give bad news, but at least they have closure and the bad guys are currently being loved on by even badder guys in the state pen. Boomer was excellent at taking a punch, but I damn near lost him. Wandered away looking for a snack right before the bad shit went down. Came roaring back in with a hot dog in one hand. Let me tell you, don’t come between that kid and his food. It’s lucky those boys made it to prison after what Boomer did to them once they’d made him drop his lunch.”
Ten couldn’t help but smile. He missed his team, but it looked like they were fitting in at McKay-Taggart. Even the ones who hadn’t left the Agency were talking about moving to the private side. “I’m going to have to get a whole new team when I get back. Start from scratch, I guess.”
“You’re going back?”
“Once I’ve proven the man who had me burned is a fraud and gotten rid of the Senator’s inside man, yes, I’ll go back.” If he survived. It was all he knew. It was literally the only job he’d ever been trained for.
“You would go back to a place that didn’t fight for you?”
“It’s not like that. The Agency isn’t good or bad. It simply is. And I always knew no one would fight for me. That’s not how it works.”
“You know, I bless the day I got burned. I wonder how my life would have gone if I hadn’t left G2.” O’Donnell had once been an operative with Irish intelligence. A joint mission with the CIA and MI6 went south and O’Donnell had been on the run for years before the situation had been fixed. On the run? Not so much. He’d found a home with McKay-Taggart.
“We’re not all cut out to be in for the long term.”
“Do you ever wonder if maybe this is a sign that you should get out?”
“And do what?” Ten asked.
“What the rest of us do. We work. We live. We have lives.”
And barbecues and picnics, and they all held hands and ran through fields of daisies. Yeah. “That’s not for me. I’m a lifer. I need a mission.”
O’Donnell’s eyes narrowed. “I’ve got a mission. Don’t think for a second that I don’t have a mission.”
“I’m not talking about temporary assignments. I’m talking about something to focus my life on.”
“So am I. Those temporary assignments, they aren’t missions. They’re work. Just work. My mission is something far greater, something I really would give me life for. My wife. My child and any more we’re blessed with. My friends. Protecting them, being good for them, that’s a mission worth taking.”
It didn’t compute. The words didn’t really make sense to Ten. They sounded like a wave of domesticity. What O’Donnell was talking about wasn’t a mission. It was retirement, and Ten couldn’t do it. Still, when the Irishman closed up his locker, Ten felt the need to keep him talking.
“She wouldn’t believe me.”
O’Donnell shoved his keys in his pocket. “You don’t know until you try.”
“That’s easy for you to say. If I fuck this up, everything falls apart. This isn’t simply about revenge.”
“I know that, Tennessee. I also understand that it was hard for you not to take care of the situation the way you wanted to. Did you think about it?”
“Did I think about murdering the man in his sleep?” A bitter laugh huffed from his throat. “I managed to get into his hotel room. I distracted his bodyguard with a hooker. Those are hard to come by in Saudi. McDonald was staying in a four-star hotel with some of the best security you’ll find, but I got around all of it. I hid in a closet while he held a meeting with a Saudi company interested in buying roads in the US. They come in and turn public roads into tollways. Then the states can use the money for god knows what, the politicians get kickbacks, and taxpaying citizens pay four dollars to drive ten miles to work.”
“Shit, brother. Why is he still breathing?”
“I stood over him after he went to sleep and I slit his throat in my head about fifty times before I walked away because if I don’t find the name of the men he’s working with, then none of it matters.”
“And that’s why she’ll believe you.” O’Donnell put a hand on his shoulder. “You’re not a bad man, Tennessee. You have tunnel vision. I’m working on something in the senator’s background. Something that might bring her to your side.”
“What?” If he had something that could buy Faith’s loyalty, he would take it.
“I’ll send it to Erin when I’m done. It could be nothing, but I don’t think so. Something isn’t right with the investigation of his wife’s death. I don’t like it. I think she knew something and he killed her for it. Faith seems like the kind of woman who would want justice, too. She needs to hear this from you though. If she finds out from anyone else…well, I wish you luck.”
“If I tell her too soon, s
he’ll choose her father and I’ll lose my chance. I have to convince her to go out to the islands a little early. I want to be out of there before he makes it to the party.”
“Because he’ll kill you on sight?”
“I doubt that. He won’t want to dirty his hands, but he could cause me trouble with Faith.” Faith had become the wild card. “I don’t want her hurt.”
O’Donnell shook his head. “There’s no way she doesn’t get hurt. That girl’s in deep with you. It’s going to hurt, but she’ll forgive you more easily if you tell her yourself. Think about it. Don’t walk away from her. She could be good for you, and that’s about all a man can ask out of life.”
“What if I’m not good for her?” He wasn’t good for anyone.
“Then change. Be a man and be good for her. It’s your choice. I know in the past you haven’t had many of those, but this is very much something you decide. And I’m not stupid. You think your chances of actually getting your job back are next to none. You don’t think you’re going to survive this and you’re all right with that. That’s a choice, too, Ten, and you’re making the wrong one. Night.”
O’Donnell stepped out and brushed by Theo, who was walking in. They nodded at each other as they passed.
“Damn, he looked all kinds of serious,” Theo remarked. “Of course you’re probably going to look the same way when I tell you what I have to tell you.”
His blood went slightly cold. “What do you have to tell me?”
Theo pointed. “Yep. I was right. All kinds of serious.”
“I’m going to seriously set you on your ass if you don’t start talking.” Was it about Faith? Had they found something bad about Faith?
He didn’t want to hear it.
“Someone broke into my place tonight.”
He was oddly relieved. For a moment he’d had visions of Faith telling Erin she knew all about her dad’s plans and hey, wouldn’t she like to be a part of an evil army, too? Stupid, but he couldn’t help it. “Did you catch them?”
“The security cameras did. Whoever it was they were good and very fast. They were in and out before the police or Hutch could get there. I didn’t want to go screaming out in case you planned on keeping Faith out of the loop. Again.”
The youngest Taggart was also the most judgmental. “You know why I told her it was over.”
“Yes, so she’ll act normally, and by normally you mean commit some kind of crime.”
“Could you please tell me about the break-in?” The tiniest Tag’s discipline had gone to shit since he’d started working for his brother.
“From what I can tell from the cameras, he knew what he was looking for. He entered through the backdoor—which will be getting a serious upgrade tomorrow—and went straight for the bedrooms. He glanced around the master and then headed for the one Faith had been using. When he realized she’d packed up, he left in a hurry, tried to cover his tracks. I doubt we’ll find any evidence. He was wearing a ski mask and gloves. I’m thinking about getting a dog. A nice sweet puppy who’ll tear off the balls of anyone who breaks into my house. Erin could have been there.”
“And she would have taken the balls off the guy,” Ten pointed out. “Shit. I have to go through Faith’s things. She’s got something someone wants. I’ll need Erin to distract her.”
“They’re supposed to go to lunch in a few days with Phoebe. They’re planning some kind of shopping trip.”
Ten felt his brow rise. “With my sister?”
Theo grinned. “Yes, with your super-supportive sister. I think you’ll find she’s Team Faith all the way. Also, who’s Dawn? Because she said after someone named Dawn, Faith was an angel sent from heaven.”
He felt himself flush. “Dawn was a double agent who lived with me for a year and then sold me out to a terrorist cell who tortured and nearly killed me.”
Theo gave him a thumbs-up. “You’re totally doing better this time, boss. And it’s cool. I’ll come by at some point and you can distract Faith so I can go through her bags. Plausible deniability if we get caught.”
And an excuse to beat the shit out of Theo. If Faith caught Theo going through her bag, Ten would be forced to kick his ass. It would be part of his cover. A really fun part of his cover.
Theo frowned. “I don’t like the look on your face.”
Which proved he wasn’t a dumb shit. “Don’t worry about it. I like this plan. You check her purse before they go and then we’ll go through her bag and laptop while they’re at lunch later in the week. I want to figure out what she has and why they want it. I want this over with before we head to the Caymans.”
“Erin is going to start softening her up for leaving a little early,” Theo said as he opened his locker.
“I know she doesn’t like doing it, but it really is for Faith’s protection.” He suddenly felt the need to make Theo understand. It was unsettling, but he couldn’t not follow it. “I’m going to take care of Faith. I’m going to try to take care of her even after the op is over.”
Theo’s eyes went wide. “Seriously?”
Ten nodded. “I said I would try. I didn’t say she would let me. I’m going to have to play it very carefully. It’s why it would be best if we could get in and then find a reason to get out before her father gets to the island. I might have a shot at protecting her from the fallout if I can ease her into the truth.”
O’Donnell was wrong. If he told her now, he would lose her, but once she saw what her father was involved in, she wouldn’t have a choice but to turn to him, and by the time she found out who he really was, she would be so tied to him there wouldn’t be anywhere to go.
It might work. It would require a lot of deception, but it was all meant to protect her—from her father, from pain.
“I’ll help you anyway I can,” Theo promised.
Ten believed him. God, working at McKay-Taggart was making him soft, but he really did believe Theo.
He walked out of the locker room to find Faith laughing with Phoebe.
Soft. He was really going to have to deal with that.
CHAPTER TEN
“I like shoes,” Erin argued over her enchiladas. There was a massive margarita in front of her.
“No,” Phoebe shot back with a grin. “You like boots, and not the cute kind. You like combat boots. The salesperson at Nordstrom nearly cried when she saw what you’re wearing.”
Faith found herself smiling. She’d never been the girliest of girls, but she seemed to fit in with Erin and Phoebe. They weren’t ones to spend all their time talking about Hollywood stars and their sex lives or makeup. Even this shoe conversation was more about teasing Erin than it was really discussing the latest Prada line.
It was good to fit into a group in the real world. Sometimes it felt like she’d been through too much, seen too much to ever really belong in nice places where bad things rarely happened to good people.
“I’m with Erin. I like my boots. I prefer sneakers, but I learned really fast not to wear them in the jungle. They’re too easy for snakes to bite through.” Faith felt herself flush. This was why she didn’t fit into polite feminine circles.
“Yeah, those suckers have some serious fangs, but I’m still thinking the hooded vipers we had all over the bases in Iraq win the nasty reptile war. I’ve never seen so many Special Forces dudes cry like girls,” Erin said, sitting back.
“I think you two are wimps. I’ve worked intelligence my whole life. Did they give me body armor? No. They gave me a Victoria’s Secret pushup bra. Try stopping a bullet with that. No boots for Phoebe. No. Learn how to run for your life down the streets of Beijing with four operatives shooting at you while you’re wearing five-inch Chanel heels. Seriously though, if you have to choose, those Chanels were really comfy. And you haven’t lived until you’ve seen some of the bugs in Southeast Asia. Ewww.”
There was a reason she fit with these women. They’d asked about her work and hadn’t flinched when she talked about blood and gore. It was kind of their w
orld, too, though they seemed to have come out on the other side of the truly dangerous stuff. Faith caught sight of Phoebe’s husband sitting at the bar, slowly nursing a single beer while he watched the baseball game on the TV. He’d been the perfect chauffeur, polite, respectful, quiet, but it was easy to see the way his eyes would shift to his wife and slowly heat. Jesse Murdoch looked like a happy man. But apparently he was the type of man who believed women who intended to drink multiple margaritas and shop needed a driver.
She rather thought Ten, Theo, and Jesse had drawn straws over who got the duty. These were “protect the women” kind of men. Living with Ten had proven that to her. She’d never had a boyfriend who was as thoughtful and protective as Tennessee Graham. He was working from home while she was here, but he took time to spend with her. He cooked breakfast every morning and dinner in the evenings. He tended to take her out for lunch or she would make sandwiches and they would sit at the bistro table on the balcony of his small, neatly kept condo.
Her days were spent relaxing, catching up on movies and TV shows she enjoyed and reading books. So many books.
The nights were all about him. There was one moment every day when Ten Graham turned into Master T. He would walk into the living room and the look in his eyes would let her know it was time. She would sink to her knees in front of him and oh, how they would play.
He would tie her up and spank her until she was hot and ready and then he would tease and taunt her in the most delicious ways before making good on the promises of his crop and cane and fingers and mouth.
Still, she felt an odd distance from him. She couldn’t complain. He was the most extraordinary lover she’d ever had, but there was a distance she couldn’t quite overcome no matter how many times he made her scream.
Not since that first morning when she’d woken up and he was wrapped around her had she felt so close to him in bed. It gave her a restless feeling, but she might have to admit that despite having the time of her life with him, he wasn’t the magical one. She would miss him, but she knew what she needed and that was a real connection to a man, a feeling that she was needed for more than sex and submission.