The door behind him opened and he didn't need to turn around to know it was his angel. The fresh scent of her shampoo and body soap hit him and he felt a stirring in his groin. Damn, the woman made it hard for him to think about anything but sex when she was near him. She walked down two steps, and plopped her sweet ass on the top stair next to him. "It's beautiful up here."
Ian put his arm around her and tucked her close to his body with her head resting on his shoulder. "It certainly is. I wish I could get up here more often for pleasure instead of business. If you hadn't noticed, the compound is kind of lacking in its landscaping within the fence lines."
She giggled. "I did kinda notice. Will you retire up here someday?"
"Maybe," he mused with a shrug of his unoccupied shoulder. "Or maybe I'll buy a small island in the Caribbean...my little oasis in the middle of nowhere. Wherever I end up, there has to be water somewhere, whether it's a lake or the ocean."
They sat in silence for a few minutes before the door behind them opened again and Carter walked out then down the steps to the gravel below, turning so he could face the couple. He'd changed out of his cargo pants and now wore a faded pair of jeans, a clean T-shirt and his combat boots. Ian gave Angie a squeeze. "Angie, Carter. Carter, Angie.
The spy held out his hand to her. "He speaks so eloquently sometimes, doesn't he?"
She laughed and shook his hand. "Yes he does, but I don't mind. It's nice to meet you."
"It's nice to meet you too, sweetheart, but I wish it was under better circumstances." Ian had told her about Carter's presence in the house and why the man was here while he'd washed her hair in the shower. "Sorry I didn't have a chance to meet you at the club the other night, but I found myself...occupied...longer than I expected. I would've liked to have watched your first public scene because I heard it was fantastic and had a happy ending."
Angie dipped her head and blushed while both men laughed. She didn't know why she turned so red now when being spanked and brought to an intense orgasm in front of audience hadn't embarrassed her at all at the time. Carter gave her a teasing wink and she shook her head, smiling at his teasing. She didn't have to ask what had kept him 'occupied' at the time because Kristen had filled her in. Carter had joined the engaged couple for a repeat threesome, and for her second introduction to the good-looking Dom, Kristen hadn't been wearing a blindfold. There also hadn't been any time constraints which they'd had during their first tryst, so the three of them had been in one of the private playrooms for a few hours. Her friend didn't give her many details but having read romances with ménages before, Angie didn't need a picture painted for her.
While she wasn't interested in experiencing a threesome for herself, she had no problem with anyone else having one. She barely survived the intense orgasms Ian gave her on a regular basis these days, and there was no way she could handle two men at once. Ian had been happy to see ménages were one of her hard limit list she'd given him. He'd told her he'd been a third once, in his early days of being a Dom. And while it had been a great experience, he found he didn't like sharing his women, unlike his brother and some of their friends.
Angie got to her feet. "I was going to make myself a sandwich. Is anyone else hungry?" When both men said 'yes, please,' she looked at Carter. "I know what he wants, but what would you like to eat?"
With a broad grin, he wiggled his eyebrows, and she laughed at his playfulness while Ian growled. "All right, since Ian's going to deck me if I say anything sexual, I'll take whatever you're making for him but no mayo, please. I hate the stuff."
"No mayo, no problem." She ran her hand through Ian's short hair as she climbed the two steps back onto the porch, then went inside to make them lunch.
Ian growled again as Carter's blatant gaze stayed glued to Angie's ass until she disappeared into the house. "Really, asshole?"
The spy shrugged his shoulders than sat down next to Ian. "What? Like you've said many times in the past, 'just because I can't touch, doesn't mean I can't look’. Too bad you're not into threesomes because that is one beautiful backside, my friend, and I'd have to be six feet under not to appreciate it." He glanced sideways at the man who was still glaring at him and let out a snort. "So, she's the one, huh?"
Ian's eyes narrowed even further. Before he could respond, his phone chimed with an alert. A vehicle had activated a sensor when it turned up the road leading to the house. A second later, he received a text from Jake letting him know it was them coming up the hill. He glared at Carter again. "The one...what?"
"The one who's going to make you forget you ever had a bitch of a fiancée who fucked you over. It's about fucking time."
"Fuck you, asshole," Ian scoffed. "You know I'm never going down that road again."
"Ha! You keep telling yourself that, dude, but from where I stand, you're not only heading down a road, but you're heading down the right road. And here I thought you were going to wallow in sorrow for the rest of your life because the woman you weren't supposed to spend it with walked out on you. Did you ever think the reason it happened is making your lunch right now and has a very nice ass?"
Before Ian could tell Carter to fuck off again, the team's SUV pulled into the driveway with Brody at the wheel and Jake in the front passenger seat. The vehicle parked and when the front doors opened, so did the rear passenger door and a clean-shaven but tired looking Athos climbed out of the vehicle. The two men on the steps stood and approached the trio. As Carter shook hands with the DEA agent, commenting on his de-whiskered face, Ian eyed his teammates. "How'd everything go?"
"Good," Brody told him. "No trackers, no worries."
Ian nodded at the geek, who headed toward the house. As he reached the top of the porch stairs, Angie burst out the door and ran down the steps toward the car...toward her best friend and jumped into his waiting arms. Ian's heart squeezed and fists clenched as he watched his woman hug another man as tight as she could. Grinding his teeth, he forced himself not to beat his chest and yank her out of Athos' embrace like the caveman in him wanted to do.
Next to him, Carter said in a low, amused voice which no one else could hear, "Uh-huh. Keep telling yourself she's not the one, Boss-man. Maybe someday you can convince yourself, but I doubt it."
* * *
Ten minutes later, Angie handed a plate with a heaping sandwich on rye bread to Ian and another one to Carter then got busy making sandwiches for Jimmy and herself. Jake stood on the opposite side of the kitchen island throwing together a similar lunch for himself and Brody. Egghead was upstairs in the den tracking down some information they needed concerning several agents from the DEA's Atlanta office, including Agents Jackson and Holstein. Athos confirmed their identities from the surveillance photos Brody had printed out.
When they were done making the sandwiches, Jake ran Brody's lunch up to the war-room before joining Angie and the rest of them at the large dining table. Angie noticed as she sat down that Ian hadn't touched his sandwich yet. She smiled to herself when she saw he didn't pick it up until after he watched her take a bit of her own. He'd waited until he was sure she was going to eat as well. Since she realized he was always putting her welfare before his own, she noticed a lot more of the little things he did and loved how they made her feel. The man may not be a romantic in the traditional sense, but he was a romantic in his own way.
While they all ate, Athos filled Ian and Carter in with what he'd told the others on the way back to the house. "Things seemed fine the first two weeks. I was using contacts I'd made a few years ago to work my way under. I got lucky. Met up with a guy who only knew my cover and he vouched for me. A local cop on the take ran me for the boss, found my established arrest record and I was in. Did some small time runs right off the bat. They had a few run-ins with the cops and local gangs recently so they were down a few guys, otherwise I don't think I would've gotten in so fast. Yesterday morning I was doing some snooping around and overheard a big shipment was coming in next Monday through the Gulf of Mexico from Columbia's
Diaz cartel..."
"Ah shit, man," Carter interrupted dropping his half-eaten sandwich back on his plate. He glanced knowingly at Ian, who was pissed as all hell the Diaz cartel was involved in this mess. "Emmanuel is behind all this? Damn, when you step in it, you really step in it, A-man."
Athos dragged a hand down his face in frustration. "Don't I know it. Aaron, the agent who I replaced, suspected that's where the trail ended, but I don't think Diaz was behind the hit on him and his family. I think it came from lower down the food chain with inside help from the DEA." He looked at the government spy. "You know there's dirt in every agency and mine has its fair share."
"How'd you find out you were blown?" Ian was trying to think past the cartel's involvement and his fear for Angie. His SEAL Team Four had been involved in investigating and eventually killing Emmanuel's brother, Ernesto, several years earlier. Not only was the cartel involved in drugs, they also at the time had a thriving sex trade and arms trade which Emmanuel was working hard to reestablish after his brother's death.
"Same conversation. After I overheard the details, the head honcho of New Orleans' drug trade, Manny Melendez, got a phone call from someone. Next thing I knew, he was ordering the hit on me and telling whoever was on the phone to find out my weaknesses. I got out of there as fast as I could and called you." Angie was sitting silently between him and Ian and he reached over, taking her hand. His eyes filled with deep regret. "I'm so sorry, baby. You know I'd never do anything which would result in you getting hurt. I've always taken precautions to keep you safe."
Ian didn't know who was surprised more, him or Athos, when Angie tore her hand free from her best friend's grip and stood while glaring at him. "Really, Jimmy? If that was true then I wouldn't have had two crooked DEA agents knocking on my door wanting to kidnap me and probably kill me. I wouldn't be running for my life and the lives of these men," she gestured around the table, "wouldn't be in danger because they were protecting me."
Athos got up from his seat and so did Ian, but neither man could get a word in because the woman was on a roll now, yelling and pointing her finger at her friend's nose. "I wouldn't be hiding out up here and worrying you might be dead somewhere. And don't think I forgot about you telling them to bug my house and put cameras in." She huffed and crossed her arms. "I don't even know how this whole mess is going to end. Am I going to be running for the rest of my life until one of those bastards catch up to me? Will I ever be able go home again? Will I..."
"Ang, stop yelling. Calm down and sit down."
As soon as the growled orders were out of Athos' mouth, Ian knew things were going to get worse from the look on Angie's face. He was just glad her ire had another target this time. She snarled at her friend, her hands clenched in rage. "Don't tell me what to do, and you don't get to pull that dominant crap on me because I get more than enough from Ian."
She turned on her heel and stormed out the front door while Athos glared at Ian who gave it right back to him in spades. "Is she fucking kidding me? I told you to watch over her and keep her safe, not fuck her and get her involved in your god-damned kink. And yeah, I know all about your fucking sex club, asshole, and you're not fucking taking her there."
While Ian tried to keep himself from punching the guy, the other two men stood from the table and started walking out the door after the very pissed off-woman. Jake glanced over his shoulder. "We'll go and keep an eye on Angie. Just don't kill each other until after we take care of the main objective, all right?"
Neither man answered him because it'd been a rhetorical question. Instead they stared each other down and Ian was astounded when Athos broke eye contact first, sighing in frustration and running his fingers through his hair. "Fuck. Sorry. You can kick my ass later. I have no say about who she dates or what you two do. I just want her to be happy and safe. If you're the man to do that then..."
Athos left the rest of the sentence go unsaid and Ian could see the defeat in his expression. He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the dining table where the remnants of everyone's lunch still sat. He studied the other man for a minute. "Does she know?"
Athos looked at him in confusion. "Does she know...what?"
"That you're in love with her?"
The question was obviously the last thing Athos expected him to ask. Mirroring Ian's stance, he leaned against the back of the couch and stared at something over Ian's shoulder. "To love someone the way she deserves, you have to have not only a heart but a soul as well. I lost both of those a long time ago. I've been trying to get even for my mother and sister's deaths for so long..." He shook his head sadly. "I have nothing left to give her, which is why I stay away from her as much as I can, yet still hold on because she's all I've got."
He paused and regarded Ian a moment. "So, right back at you, Sawyer. Does she know you're in love with her? Because I'm not blind either, man."
Before Ian could respond, although he wasn't sure what his answer would've been, Brody came barreling down the stairs from the den with his laptop in hand. He placed it on the dining table so both men could see the screen. "We've got big trouble."
Chapter 17
Ian and Athos closed in on the table to read the news brief from Atlanta's CBS website and both started cursing. Athos' handler, Arthur Giles, Special Agent in Charge of the Atlanta DEA office, had been killed in a drive-by shooting. He had been gunned down as he got out of his car at his home on the outskirts of the city a quarter after seven last night. There were no reported suspects, but the police and feds were looking at a local gang of drug runners.
"Fuck! God-damn it!" Athos plunged both hands through his hair again and spun around looking for something to vent his anger on. Not finding anything other than a wall, he punched it and the pain didn't even register as his knuckles began to swell. "His daughter had his first grandchild a month ago. And now he's dead because of my fucking need to get even with those bastards."
"You don't know that for sure." Ian's didn't believe his own words but he needed to calm the man down. Athos rounded on him, getting in his face but he didn't back down.
"Don't I? Come on, Sawyer, don't fucking patronize me. You know how this fucking goes. They're cleaning house after the cartel found two DEA agents from the same office had infiltrated them. Someone found out who our fucking handler was and put a stop to any more interference from him. No one from Atlanta was supposed to know where Artie sent us. Fuck, no one in Atlanta was even supposed to know who the hell Aaron was."
Ian didn't say anything more because they both knew the likelihood of Athos being wrong was very slim. There were very few coincidences in their line of work, and he doubted this was one of them. Carter had heard the commotion and came back inside to see what was wrong. Ian pointed to the still open laptop and the operative walked over to read it, adding his own curses to the ones they'd spouted out earlier. He pinned the DEA agent with a understanding stare, having overheard his last rant. "Don't beat yourself up, A-man. If you didn't volunteer, Artie would've sent in someone else and the result would've been the same. Put the blame where it belongs–on the dirty agents and cartel." He paused and let his words sink in to the man's brain. "Artie was the only one who knew you went under, wasn't he?"
The agitated man nodded. It meant he had no one left he could trust in his own department. They knew two of his fellow agents were dirty and had no idea who else at the Atlanta office was on the take. He couldn't risk contacting anyone until he knew for sure it was safe. For now, Carter and the Trident team were his only backup.
Ian arched an eyebrow at Carter. "Where's Angie?"
"She took a walk with Jake. She's still pissed off and I wasn't stupid enough to stay in the line of fire. That woman is a firecracker when she’s pissed."
Brody had been quiet since he first came down and now took a deep breath. "Okay, so where do we go from here? Athos has no backup from his agency. His handler is dead. We can't take out the whole New Orleans cartel without starting an all-out war or get
ting ourselves life in prison or worse. Angie's still in danger. Did I miss anything?"
"Nope and thanks for stating the obvious, Egghead."
"No problem, Carter. Glad I could help keep you in the loop." Turning his sarcasm off, he asked, "Now does someone have a plan?"
While they all stayed silent, trying to think of a way out of this horror story they'd found themselves in, Ian's phone rang. Glancing at the screen, he saw it was the back-up phone his brother kept in his car. "Hey, Dev, what's up?"
"Jenn's been kidnapped!"
Ian stiffened in shock, not believing what Devon had just blurted out. Panic assaulted him. "What do you mean, Jenn's been kidnapped?"
The other three men froze in place as well, wide eyes searching Ian's pale face as if it held all the answers to their questions. He punched the speaker button and set the phone down on the table so they could all gather around. His brother's frantic voice came through loud and clear. "Henderson called. I put him and his partner on Jenn just in case. They were pulled over by an unmarked car while driving her to the college. From the description he gave me before I lost him, it sounds like it was the two agents who tried to get Angie. Henderson took a bullet to the chest and his partner was shot in the head. I think Henderson passed out but the line is still open–it's why I'm on the backup. I'm on the way to the scene now and just heard the cops and paramedics arrive."
"Was Jenn hurt?"
"I don't know, Ian. All I know is she’s gone. I'm about five minutes away. I'll call you back as soon as I know anything. Marco called about fifteen minutes ago and said they landed and are on the road."
"I'll call them and have them turn around then make sure CC's ready to take off again. Keep me posted." Ian disconnected the phone.
"Don't turn them around." They all turned toward Brody who was rushing up the stairs to get his gear from the den. He raised his voice so he could be heard without stopping. "If they've been on the road for thirty minutes, we can have CC do a quick hop to the airport in Ashville. It's about halfway between us. We can meet them there and it'll save us some time."
His Angel: Trident Security Book 2 Page 20