You_Only_Love_Twice_ARE

by Lexi Blake

  Ten had gone a little pale, but he wasn’t arguing.

  Hutch stood up. “Sir, I request permission to leave.”

  Ten frowned. “Of course. The next plane home will be here in an hour.”

  Theo moved in beside Hutch. “Me, too, sir. But Hutch isn’t talking about leaving the team or the operation.”

  “No, sir,” Hutch agreed. “I’m not going anywhere but downstairs to where that motherfucker is probably eating breakfast. I intend to lop off his dick and shove it down his throat.”

  Theo nodded in agreement. “He sold out Ace. He sold out Murdoch. I don’t know why, and I don’t give a shit. He needs to be brought to justice. One way or another.”

  Ten looked at his men. “Do you understand what this means? What you’re giving up? They won’t let this go lightly. We’ll be disavowed if we go after this man. He’s probably the very one who’s influencing the director to call us back. You don’t understand how bad this could get.”

  “I’m in. So’s Case and so’s Mike and Boomer,” Theo said.

  Hutch nodded. “I’m in and we’ve got Bear and Deke, too. They’re waiting to come over if we need them. Screw the Agency, Ten. We’re your team. We follow you. And hell, if it worked for the damn A-Team, I figure it’s good enough for me. Disavow me.”

  They weren’t alone. Ten wasn’t alone.

  He stepped forward and put his hand out, reaching for Theo, who grasped it. Theo shook Ten’s hand and then Ten hauled him in for a hug. They did the manly back beating thing and then Ten turned and brought Hutch in for the same.

  He took a deep breath when he stepped back and he looked over at Phoebe. “All right, sister. He’s your man. This is your op. What do you want to do?”

  “Erin, I need you to sweet talk Kamdar into lending us one of his men. There’s no way we get close to the senator, but I think Albertson knows everything he does. We need to get him up here and we need to find out what he knows.” She steeled herself. “By any means necessary.”

  “Thank god.” Erin started for the door. “I’ll have that fucker up here before you know. Please let me do irreparable harm to his man parts. It’s been a long time.”

  Theo practically stumbled, trying to run after her. “I’ll just go and make sure she doesn’t need backup.”

  Ten stared after him. “That is the single dumbest boy I’ve ever met. Did he not hear her talk about man parts?”

  Hutch sank back into his chair. “The course of true love never did run smooth, boss. I’ve got a list of properties in the UAE owned by al Fareed Oil and its many, many subsidiaries. Adam’s trying to pull them up on CCTV, but there’s a lot of blind spots.”

  She looked over Hutch’s shoulder. It was a long list. “Dismiss the large buildings. I need something small and possibly deserted. He works in private.” And she was going to have to work the same way. “Simon, could you please set up a room where we can meet with the senator’s aide?”

  Simon stood up and adjusted his tie. “Of course. We’ll use the back bedroom. Have Kamdar’s guards keep the cleaning staff out.” He started to walk away and then turned. “Give me your list of questions, Phoebe. Write it down. You won’t be involved in this.”

  “I will.”

  Ten shook his head. “No. Simon and I will take care of it.” He stepped up and put his hands on her shoulders. “You don’t understand how this can affect you. Murdoch does and he would be the first person to beg one of us to save you from this.”

  “Phoebe, I can’t allow it,” Simon explained. “I know what my partner would want and I know what he would do for me. This isn’t some game. This is torture and pain, and if there was any other way, I would take it because it’s not what humans should do to one another.”

  “He’s right. This is a sacrifice you don’t have to make.” Ten’s face turned grave. “I took these sins on my soul a long time ago. I’m not going to let you do it. Hell, I wouldn’t let Murdoch do it and Simon, you can be in the room, but I’ll handle the actual questioning.”

  “Ten…” Simon began.

  Ten shook his head. “You haven’t done this before. You have to be able to go home to your wife and sleep at night, brother. Hell, I don’t sleep at all anyway.”

  She could see this was a losing battle. “I’ll listen in and feed you questions if you really think I can’t handle it.”

  Ten frowned. “I know you can, but I don’t want you to see me like that. Can you understand?”

  She hugged her brother and wondered how much he’d sacrificed over the years. He was giving up his career, possibly his freedom, for her and Jesse. “I do. I love you, Tennessee.”

  He nodded and he and Simon went back to set up the room.

  Phoebe sat and did the one thing she didn’t want to do. She waited.

  CHAPTER NINETEEN

  Phoebe stared at the clock. Four hours twenty-two minutes. How much had he been forced to endure already? What had he been through in the hours she’d been sitting in this hotel room?

  “Stop thinking about it.” Erin’s head fell back with a groan. She was sitting on the couch, the same place she’d sunk into an hour and a half before.

  Theo stopped his pacing. “How is she supposed to stop thinking about it? I’m not in love with the dude and I’m thinking about it.”

  Kamdar crossed one leg over another and sat back. “I am thinking of this as well. Mr. Murdoch did me great service once. I don’t like the idea that he’s being tormented in a non-sexual fashion.”

  “Yeah, well you would know all about the other,” Theo muttered under his breath.

  Erin brought her head up and sent Theo a glare that could freeze water. “Give the dude a break. He’s now bankrolling this whole enterprise and he put his butt on the line, too.”

  Kamdar looked as innocent as a decadent royal could look. “My buttocks are strong and completely at your disposal, Miss Argent.”

  Erin sighed before turning to Phoebe. “Think about nice things. Get your head out of whatever horror show is playing through it and picture something nice.”

  “I’m not going to be able to think about puppies and babies right now.”

  Erin’s face screwed up in distaste. “Eww. Both of those things poop. I was thinking about what’s going on behind that door. I bet they’ve ripped off his fingernails by now. Maybe waterboarded the fucker. I don’t care what the Agency says. That shit is awful. And beautiful in its own way.”

  Theo shook his head, a look of horror on his face. “What is wrong with you? Were you deprived of love as a child? Did someone drop you on your head and destroy the center of your brain that controls your humanity?”

  If Erin was offended, she didn’t show it. “Nah. I grew up with three brothers and a four-star general father. Ma left when I was two. Hooked up with some academic type. I was the youngest and I was raised by a barbarian horde. Hit the military when I was eighteen and haven’t looked back. Look, some chicks dig rom coms and quilting. I study torture techniques, and that’s why it’s so fucking unfair that I get left out here at the kiddie table.”

  Kamdar leaned toward her. “When we return to my island, I will bring you many men to torture. I will begin with my cousin. He annoys me greatly.”

  “I’m right here, asshole.” Chapal had taken up the cause as well, joining Hutch at the computers.

  “Ignore him. I do. Tell me more about the things you would do to a very, very bad man,” Kamdar said, his voice low. “Go into detail.”

  Theo smiled. “Yeah, Erin. Kamdar there wants you to do bad things to him. From what I hear, he kind of likes a little bite of pain.”

  Well, at least Theo was happy. According to Jesse, Erin was the sub and she was pretty hard-core. The only torture she was into inflicting was on the real bad guys. Otherwise, she wanted to be on the receiving end. Apparently Theo knew it, too.

  “Miss Grant?” Chapal looked up from his system. “I think we have something.”

  Finally. She walked over to where Hutch and C
hapal had lined up a bank of laptops. “What is it?”

  Hutch pointed to his screen. “We found four locations that would work. Two small, unoccupied office buildings and two residences. One of the residences is pretty big though. It’s on the outer edges of the city by the beach.”

  “Could they land a helicopter there?”

  Chapal nodded. “But there is also a helipad at the two office spaces. We have to consider the fact that they sent him on. It’s possible they’ve already smuggled him out of the country and into Saudi. They could drive, though it’s a long way to Riyadh, where they live.”

  The door opened and Ten stepped out. There was no way to miss the blood on his hands and shirt. He was wiping his forearms off as he looked to Phoebe. “I think he’s ready to talk if you want to have a word.”

  She nodded, her heart in her throat. She was trained for this, too.

  She followed Ten into the room and tried not to think about how Albertson’s shirt had been white at one time.

  “Bitch,” he managed between swollen lips. “Do you know what my boss is going to do to you?”

  “Nothing if he wants to continue in his current role.” Phoebe kept her voice calm and even. “I can connect the senator to a group known as The Collective. I can also prove that he sold information about our troops to a man who calls himself the Caliph. If you cooperate, I’ll ensure you’re not prosecuted for high treason. Do you understand what the United States does to traitors? Especially traitors during times of war.”

  It was all a big bluff, but she meant to make that case. Chelsea was pulling documents together, going through payments and looking into the senator’s accounts.

  Albertson’s eyes got wide and she knew she had him. “I didn’t have anything to do with that.”

  “But you know something.”

  He finally nodded.

  Whatever Ten had done had softened him up. “Right now, what I need to know is where the Caliph is.”

  “You’re talking about Hani al Fareed. He’s a crazy motherfucker. He’s insane and he broke our deal. If what Smith says is true, you have to know we didn’t know that fucker was going to take Murdoch. Murdoch was supposed to be dead. When we figured out he wasn’t, he was supposed to go home. The senator pulled some strings and the Agency was supposed to call you fuckers home. It’s your fault. You didn’t follow orders.”

  She ignored all the problems with his argument because only one thing mattered. “Where would al Fareed go?”

  “He’s got a place on the beach, but it’s heavily fortified. I’ve been there. It’s got armed guards all around. I can’t go to jail.” His eyes were glassy when he looked up.

  “What’s he on?”

  Ten’s face was a complete blank. “A little something the boys in R&D cooked up. First I gave him a shit ton of pain and then I gave him something to take it away because we’re friends, right? Aren’t we friends, Dale?”

  The man in the chair nodded. “Good friends. Don’t want to go to jail. If I tell the lady everything, I won’t die here.”

  Ten turned back. “The drugs have the added effect of wiping his short-term memory. He’s going to wake up outside the hotel with zero memory of how he got there. Hutch took care of the cameras so our asses are covered.”

  Her stomach turned and she understood why Ten wouldn’t let her be involved past the actual questioning. This was psychological torture, the very thing that had been done to Jesse. The thing he might be going through now. It was necessary, but it was ugly and she wondered if her brother dreamed about it. A dream where he was the monster.

  “What do you know about al Fareed’s travel plans?” Phoebe asked.

  “He flies. He’s like a bird. Private jet.”

  Simon stood and walked to the door. “I’ll have Hutch look into it.”

  Albertson’s head drooped as though he couldn’t hold it up a moment longer. “You were supposed to go away. Go home. Go home.”

  She stepped away and spoke to her brother in a low voice. “We don’t have the firepower to take on a compound.”

  “We just have to make it seem like we do. In this case, illusion is more important than reality. We need to do what they did. Distract. We need some chaos. I’m more worried about the authorities being called in. We’re not on firm ground here,” Ten said. “We have to move fast and get him out of there and then we have to split up. We can’t go through the airport. They’ll look for us there. We need quick transport out of this country.”

  They would be on the run and because the CIA wouldn’t acknowledge their presence in the country, they would be on their own. They would split up, and she was a little worried she might not see her brother again.

  “Jesse would want you to be safe. Maybe you should go to Loa Mali with Kamdar’s people and wait for us there.”

  The king had already agreed to give them sanctuary. Of course, he’d actually clapped his hands and pronounced the whole thing a party, but it was really sanctuary. But Ten wasn’t getting rid of her until they absolutely had to break up the team. “Jesse can’t always get what he wants. I’m not leaving this country without him. So we better get ready.”

  “Hey, Hutch has something and I was talking to Kamdar about the exit plan. We’ve got everything ready, but he thinks we need to move soon. I agree. The Agency knows where we are. They’ll send someone soon,” Erin said from the doorway. Her eyes lit up. “Oh, he’s so fucked up. Did you break his nose? Can I break some of his fingers?”

  Albertson moaned and started crying.

  “How did you get past Eve?” Ten asked with a shake of his head.

  “Didn’t have to,” Erin replied. “Got past Kai. He likes a little psycho in his chicks, if you know what I mean. And I’m serious. Hutch caught the chopper on a couple of cameras. He’s almost certain it was headed for the beach.”

  Then that was where they were going.

  * * * *

  Jesse let his head fall forward as they took him out of the shackles and began to drag him across the floor. Blood soaked his back. He wasn’t sure how long they’d gone on. Twenty lashes? Fifty? He’d lost count, lost all sense of time. He was fairly certain they’d left him hanging by the shackles for a while.

  He thought they would drop him onto the cot, but they kept going. He forced his head up, his heart threatening to pound through his rib cage. Where were they taking him?

  He was certain they hadn’t left Dubai. He could still hear the ocean and he’d heard someone talking about the conference. They were still close, and if they were close then Phoebe and Si would be looking for him. They would have a chance, but if he got moved to another country… It had taken them months to find him before, and the Caliph would be smarter this time.

  No. Al Fareed. His name was Hani al Fareed and Jesse wasn’t going to give him that power anymore. Like fucking Voldemort.

  Phoebe would be proud of him.

  Power. There was power in knowledge, in intelligence. He was supposed to do that. Gather intelligence. He’d forgotten it the first time. He’d given in to pain and despair, but he was more than just a grunt. He looked down at the floor. Polished marble. Expensive. He was in a residence. There were closed doors to his left and a half wall to his right. Upstairs. At least two floors. He would have to look out that window to figure out how far up he was.

  They walked past a guard who stood by the stairwell, an AK-47 over his shoulder. He was lazy, leaning against the wall and not paying a lick of attention to anything but his phone. Jesse’s bodyguards muttered about it under their breaths, complaining that the guards here in Dubai were slacking.

  He could use that.

  “You need to get this one cleaned up and ready for transport. The boss will be in here soon. We’re leaving for the airport after his speech at the conference, so you need to keep this shit calm for the next few hours,” the larger of the two men said, this time in English.

  He was dragged into a much bigger room, this one painted white. Antiseptic hit his nos
trils and he had another shitty moment.

  There had been a doctor. How could he have forgotten? There was always a trip to the “clinic” after the sessions. Couldn’t have the dog dying, now could they? The Cal…al Fareed would join him and the fucker would talk.

  So much damn talking. Jesse was pretty sure he preferred the whip to having to listen to that fucker talk about how screwed up Western society was.

  “Ah, Mr. Murdoch. Lovely to see you again.” The doctor was a skinny fellow with a receding hairline. He spoke English with a British accent, but Jesse thought he remembered hearing the man was from Pakistan. “It’s been a while since I had a subject. Our Caliph has been playing by the rules since he lost you. Put him on the bed. Facedown. I need to clean those wounds.”

  Jesse groaned as they shoved him onto the medical bed. It was taller than a normal cot and twice as uncomfortable. His body ached, but he knew what was coming would be so much worse.

  Could he do it? Could he run if he had the chance? He wouldn’t let them kill him. He had far too much to live for. This wasn’t some insane suicide mission. He would take the pain if he had to, endure the humiliation, but if he had a shot, he would take that, too.

  The doctor seemed to be preparing some sort of tray, likely filled with shit that would make him howl. “I was surprised you would even place yourself on the same continent as the Caliph. You seemed a bit smarter of a lad.”

  Jesse groaned and pretended to try to move his head. He let it fall back down, a conscious show of weakness. Let them think he couldn’t move, but already he felt adrenaline starting to pump through his system. He’d heard the door close, but not the snick of a lock. He was alone with the doctor.

  “And you’ve lost some of your will.” The doctor clucked like a sad mother hen as he brought the tray over. Jesse could see it sitting almost within grasp of his left hand. There were a few bottles on it, some bandages, and what looked like tape. He caught the gleam of something metal. Scissors for the tape. And naturally there was a hypodermic needle. Narcotics. They loved their narcotics. He couldn’t let them inject him. He would be helpless when they came, unable to signal to his team.