by Blake, Lexi
Ten poured a couple of fingers of what looked like Scotch. “They’ve had a lot of trouble with some of their pipelines overseas. For a while, it looked to be nothing more than the usual mob shit, but I ran across a man in Uzbekistan who claimed that he was working for some corporation. He’d been arrested for trying to blow up some Malone Oil equipment, and he was trying to cut a deal. Funny. That corporation had never heard of him, but two nights later he was found in his very well-guarded cell with three bullets in his torso. I traced those bullets back to a gun purchased by a former MI6 agent. Disavowed, naturally. So I started thinking…”
She rolled her eyes because Ten seemed big on the drama of his job. “It’s The Collective. Everyone knows they were behind the problems with Malone Oil in Russia, though one of the douchebags is trying to get Simon to believe his uncle is involved.”
“David Malone? Nah. They wish. I think they’re going after him hard because they know he would never work with them and he’s got serious ties in the government that they haven’t been able to break through. How much do you personally know about the group?”
Wouldn’t he love to know? She couldn’t give up every card in her hand. Not when they were so early in the game and besides, he was distracting her again. It was Ten’s best play. Disarm with his good looks. Distract with information that wasn’t what she was looking for. “Ian’s been tracking them for months and you know it. The assassin was that complete douchebag Baz Champion, who was also working for The Collective, but he’s dead now. So cut the bull and tell me who the Ian clones are and why they’re working for you.”
Ten frowned. “You’re really no fun to play with. Fine. I recruit from time to time. I decided a few months back to gather together a special team. I usually use whatever Special Forces team happens to be in the area, but I want something different. I want my team. I want a team that’s loyal to me, a team that knows exactly what I want, and I can’t get that from players coming off the bench.”
“So these men belong to you and not the military?”
“Some of them. Some of them I’m merely in talks with. This was supposed to be a boys’ weekend out at the Circle M. We were going to drink some beer, shoot some pool, convince Mike Malone that this is the life for him.”
“And you just happened to be in Texas when I was threatened?” She didn’t buy that for a second.
“I keep my nose to the ground. I will say that I didn’t expect the bomb. Sorry about that. I got my wires crossed. I thought they were recruiting you and I fully intended to not allow that to happen. It looks like they want a little more from you. You want to talk to me about that?”
He was even more maddening than her brother-in-law. At least Ian shot straight. He didn’t send a woman down a thousand tunnels to distract her from the one she wanted. “The Viking Twins? Talk or I won’t.”
Ten sighed as though he hadn’t really expected it to work for long. “I look to find really qualified candidates in Special Forces teams. I found Cason and Theo Taggart finishing up BUD/S training. I’m close friends with a couple of the instructors out there and they bring me in from time to time to get my take on their recruits. I was watching the last days of training and then Case walks up and I swear to god, I thought he was Big Tag. I was introduced to him and I immediately started my research. My buddy who’s an instructor there tells me Case has a fraternal twin brother named Theo and the two were flying through training. Said he’d never seen anything like it. Physically, mentally, they’re so far above the rest it’s ridiculous.”
That sounded like Ian, too. “Are they related to Ian somehow?”
Ten’s eyes narrowed. “Ian ever tell you about his daddy?”
“We’re not exactly close.” They mostly just insulted each other and that was kind of crappy. Her sister loved the big guy and Chelsea couldn’t be bothered to even try to have a relationship with him. Guilt sat in her gut.
“Well, don’t feel bad. He never told me either and we spent some time in foxholes together, if you know what I mean. Big Tag plays things close to the vest. Here’s what I found out. Dale Taggart liked to love ’em and leave ’em. He did a lot of playing around. He married Ian’s mom and seemed to settle down for a time. He walked out but not before he’d already set up another family in Georgia. He was a salesman and traveled a lot. He’d ‘married’ Case and Theo’s mom during his time with Ian’s mom. The old pervert walked away again when Case was sixteen. He died of cancer last year. I’m fairly certain Ian doesn’t know about his brothers or he would have ridden in to save them from my tender care.”
Ian had brothers. They might only be half brothers, but damn they fit the Taggart bill. Hot as hell and just as sarcastic. “He doesn’t know. If he did, he would come after them. Ian believes in two things—the beauty of the power exchange and his family. He takes them both very seriously.”
“And I take my country seriously,” Ten replied. “I need the best team in place to protect my country. I will do whatever it takes to ensure I get those people. And I take care of them. You should definitely know that.”
“How could you not tell him? You’re supposed to be his friend.”
“I have responsibilities that go far beyond friendship, Chelsea. Ian puts that family of strays of his first. I have to put my country first and that means recruiting and training and yes, if I have to, sacrificing this generation’s top talent in an effort to spare all those poor sons of bitches out there from ever having to know what I know.”
“And what do you know, Ten?”
“That life is fragile and we’re all one step away from getting our asses blown up and the world devolving into utter warfare the likes of which no man in history has seen. Do you know how many ways there are for a terrorist to kill a large group of people? Bombs, well planned attacks, biological weapons, economic warfare. Average Joe sitting in his suburban McMansion and planning his Sunday barbecue has no idea that a couple of keystrokes could bring it all down. I do know. I’m the last line of defense. Big Tag can hold his morality around him like a comfy blanket, but I’m the man who has to ensure this country does not fail. And I will take the best and the brightest and I will train them to fight with me. Old man Taggart might have been a nasty bastard but he had good genes. This country needs Case and Theo like they needed Ian and Sean, and I won’t make the same mistakes again. I won’t give them up. Those boys are mine and if Tag wants them, well, he’s going to have a fight on his hands.”
There was zero question in her mind that Tag would have problems with his brothers working for the Agency. Ten would very likely get his fight, but she had other questions. “Why did you save me?”
Ten took a nice drink of that Scotch and seemed comfortable again. “A couple of reasons, darlin’. Like I said, I want the best and the brightest. There’s no one in the world quite like you. No one can play the game the way The Broker can. The way I see it, we can help each other.”
Like she could help him and he could not put her in a torture chamber. She was pretty sure about that subtext. She fell back on Charlotte’s plan. “You know I’m not The Broker. That was Charlotte.”
It rankled a bit, not being able to take credit. There was that little piece of her that wanted credit. She was the best. No one could really touch her when she had a keyboard in front of her, but she was also a little bit of an addict and if she let herself, she would become nothing but a hacker, nothing but a fake name on a screen reaching out to other constructs. She would cease to be Chelsea and be something that lived only in the bottomless web.
Ten wagged a finger her way. “Now, now, let’s not lie and let’s not pretend that I’m dumber than I look. There is no way Charlotte Taggart was The Broker. I know she wants everyone to think she was and on paper, maybe that little story works. But I know her in the real world and she’s not capable. The Broker was cold and calculating. The Broker wasn’t emotional. She played angles and made money and often didn’t care who got hurt. Now that doesn’t sound like Charlot
te to me. Charlotte is too emotional.”
Charlotte was too emotional, too vibrant, too bright to stick to the shadows and do some of the nasty things she’d done. Charlotte didn’t even know everything she’d done.
“Don’t go looking like that,” Ten chided. “You look like I’m insulting you when I’m not. Like I said before. I admire you. I think we’ve got quite a lot in common, you and me.”
Simon had said something to the same effect only hours before and she’d shrugged him off because she knew the truth. There were two worlds out there, Ian’s and Ten’s. Simon believed in doing good and making things right, and that set him firmly in Ian’s world. For all his flaws, Ian tried to do the right things in the right way. He would never sacrifice his men. He would sacrifice himself before he would allow harm to come to his team.
Ten would view himself as the ultimate asset and while he might feel bad, he would do what it took and if that meant sacrificing a pawn, then he would play that game.
Chelsea had played something very similar for years. She’d told herself it was for the good of her and Charlotte, but sometimes she’d done it because it was just fun to watch people jump to her tune. It made her feel powerful, like they could take her legs but she could still beat them. The poor little cripple could make the world go round or she could make it stop on a dime. If she didn’t like someone, she could always fuck with his or her life and make it a living hell for months on end. If she decided she needed a little cash, she could take it. No one would notice. A little here. A little there. She’d done good, too. Hadn’t she?
Didn’t the end justify the means?
It certainly did in Ten’s world, but she thought it wouldn’t in Simon’s. In Simon’s world she was just another criminal.
“Why am I here?” She felt heavier than before, weighed down by everything Ten was saying to her. She was closer to Ten than Simon. She belonged in his world, in the dark.
Simon was the sun and she was going to get so burned.
Ten smiled as though he knew he had her. “You’re here because I want you, Chelsea. I want to take that big brain of yours and use it to protect this country and our allies. I want to give you the life you’ve always wanted—to be valued, to be meaningful. I’m your fairy godmother, Chelsea Dennis. You want unlimited resources, I’ve got ’em. You want free and open access to high-level security. It’s yours, Cinderella. I’m inviting you to the biggest ball of them all.”
He wanted her to join the Agency, to step into the shadows and never come back out again.
“I’m also here because I have a puzzle and I think you’re the one to solve it. I want to know what The Collective is doing and why they want you dead. I’m going to make sure you’re alive at the end of this and I’m damn straight going to make sure you’re working for me.”
Chapter Ten
Simon forced his eyes open, though they seemed so bloody heavy. His whole body seemed weighted down really, and his brain refused to respond to very reasonable requests like what the hell had happened to him? And where was she?
It was that last question that got him moving. Chelsea. He could remember looking up at her and she’d been crying. Something had happened to make her cry.
Don’t you dare die on me, Weston.
The world seemed to rush back in a loud push of sound and light that made his head spin.
Simon sat up and then wished he hadn’t.
“Hey, not so fast,” a familiar voice whispered. “The sedative can make you a little queasy and I think someone sewed up that gash on your arm so you’re probably sore. And keep your voice down. We’re not alone.”
“Jesse?” He turned and sure enough, his vision faded out a bit and his stomach threatened to roll. His left arm ached, but it wasn’t anything he couldn’t deal with. It was definitely the way the world spun that threatened to take him out.
Jesse was suddenly there, easing him back down. “Like I said, you’ll be nauseous for a while.”
At least they hadn’t killed Jesse. Quiet. He had to be quiet. “Where are we? Have you looked for a way out? Where’s Chelsea?”
“Slow down, boss.” The bed dipped as Jesse sat down beside him. “First off, we seem to be in some kind of dormitory. I kept quiet because I’m fairly certain they’re watching us and I didn’t want them to know how fast I metabolize that shit. They’ll double dose me next time.”
“What did they give us? What happened and why can’t I remember?”
“Some kind of sedative. Ketamine, I suspect. It’s easy to get hold of. It’s also got some short-term memory side effects. You might get some flashes, but you won’t remember everything.”
Simon forced himself to take a deep breath. He looked up at Jesse, who seemed clear and perfectly in control. “How are you so unaffected? I saw them shoot you, too.”
“Yeah, well, I’ve been shot up with about every drug you can imagine. I spent a couple of years in a prison where they liked to see just how much we could take. They liked the whole memory problem thing. I woke up once after they’d dosed me with a dead girl in my room. They swore I killed her and raped her. I still don’t know.”
The last thing he needed was Jesse’s PTSD. “You didn’t kill anyone. You wouldn’t kill a woman. They lied to torture you.”
Jesse turned toward him, uncertainty plain on his face. “How can you be so fucking sure?”
It was coming back to him now. Maybe those affects weren’t so bad because he remembered certain things quite vividly. He definitely remembered how terrified he’d been when Chelsea stepped up and talked Jesse down. “I’m sure because you could have killed Chelsea and you didn’t.”
Jesse touched his chest, indicating his T-shirt. “I’ve got blood all over me.”
He stretched, trying to realign his bloody spine. Whoever had captured him hadn’t exactly been gentle. “You don’t remember?”
There was a slow shake of Jesse’s head. “I go black when I get that way. I was worried it was Chelsea’s blood since she wasn’t in here with us. I thought maybe I killed her. I saw Ian. I thought Ian was planning on killing me. I was kind of surprised to wake up.”
Jesse was not a “glass is half full” sort of bloke. “I don’t think that was actually Big Tag. Something’s off. As for Chelsea, relax. The blood isn’t hers. The last time I saw her she was quite fit. It belongs to the man who attacked you. You took him down quite viciously.”
“And then I went after someone else, didn’t I?”
Talking was helping to focus him. He tried sitting up again. His eyes were starting to clear. He saw plain oak paneling and a single, small window in front of him. It was covered with an opaque shade, but from the amount of light getting in, he would certainly think they had only been out for an hour or two. The light was strong. Midday or early afternoon almost certainly. He stood up and stretched again, shrugging out of his jacket. “You started to, but Chelsea got in your way.”
Jesse was on his feet as well. “Did you stop her?”
“Have you ever tried to stop her? She’s quite stubborn.” He looked around. The space was small, with only two cots and one door in. He was going to have to take a look out that window to try to figure out where they were. “She had a theory. She thought you would likely attack any man who stepped into your territory, but she was fairly certain you wouldn’t hurt her.”
Jesse’s fists clenched at his sides. “How the hell could she know that? No one should be around me when I’m like that.”
This place looked vaguely familiar. Simon glanced around again, his brain finally starting to really function. “She was right. You came down when she talked to you. The minute you realized she was a female, you stood down. You could be high as a kite and you wouldn’t hurt a woman, Jesse. They killed that girl and left her for you to find. It was one more way to break you down.”
“Sometimes I wished they’d just killed me with the rest of my team,” Jesse muttered under his breath.
And there was his survivor
guilt. It didn’t surprise Simon in the least. Had he gone through what Jesse had, he was certain he would think the same way. In the beginning, he’d thought Ian had paired him with Jesse because they were the two he didn’t trust. He’d come to realize the boss had paired him with Jesse because he was the most patient of the team. Li would tell him to shut up and drink it off like a man. Ian would have killed him a long time ago. Alex would talk him to death. Jesse needed to be needed, and Simon understood that.
“Well, I’m glad you didn’t. If you weren’t here, I’d be stuck with Li and I can’t stand that Irish bastard.” This place reminded him of somewhere. The wood paneling was reminiscent of the outer buildings at the Circle M.
“You really think I didn’t kill that girl?”
He didn’t think it. He was sure of it. “You can leave that off your list of sins and help me figure out how we’re going to get out of here. We need to figure out where they’ve taken Chelsea. I take it since we’re talking that you’ve checked the room for bugs.”
Jesse stood a bit taller. “No bugs. I checked. I tried to stay pretty still when they dumped us in here, but I’ve checked the room since then.”
“How bloody long was I out?” It unnerved him a bit that Jesse had shaken off the effects so much faster than he had. The floor under his feet was linoleum. A rusty color. Yes, that seemed familiar, too.
“Probably two hours.” Jesse moved quietly across the floor. “I woke up in the trunk of an Explorer. The men are military. No doubt in my mind. Special Forces and American. We were on the highway for a long time, and then we turned up a paved road and finally we hit dirt. It was about ten minutes from the paved road out to here. There’s one man on the door, and he’s supposed to call HQ when we wake up. And there are a lot of cows. When the winds blow the wrong way, it smells terrible. Why would they take us someplace where there are so many cows?”