You Only Love Twice (13 page)

That wasn’t the way McKay-Taggart worked.

“A drill? Are you fucking kidding me?” Dean glared at Ten.

“If you think you can cover this up, you’re wrong.” Adam
Miles was already on his computer.

Taggart held a hand up. “Out. Everyone. Now.”

“I’m not going anywhere until I get an explanation.” Simon
didn’t move from his chair.

“You’ll get explanations later. I promise,” Ian said. “Just
give us the room. I will handle the situation.”

Slowly, they all got up. Jesse figured he was the only one
who was happy this clusterfuck seemed to be over. He started to move, but Tag
held a hand out.

“Not you, Jesse. You and Phoebe stay.” Tag looked up at his
partner. “Alex, could you make sure no one disturbs us?”

The door closed and he was left alone with Tag, Ten, and
Phoebe.

Naturally he was the one who got to stay. “I told you
there’s no need. I’m leaving on the first plane out of here. I don’t give a
flying fuck what kind of mistakes were made. If Ten’s worried I’ll sue the
Agency or something, he can bite my ass.”

“I didn’t send the kill order,” Ten said.

“I get that it was a mistake.” He was tired and just wanted
to get out of here.

Phoebe turned her face up to him. “It wasn’t a mistake. I
know what I saw. Who has the phone?”

“Adam,” Tag replied. “He’s going to fill in the rest of the
team. He’s working with Chelsea—who was planted in your organization for just
this reason.”

Ten slammed a hand down and then winced. “Motherfucking
shitty day.”

Shit. There was something he hadn’t mentioned, hadn’t really
even thought about. Damn it. He was the Boomer. He was the dumbass. “They sent
me a text. I wasn’t in that alley by coincidence. Simon and I were supposed to
wait outside the hotel.”

“Yeah, I was going to talk to you about that, dumb…” Tag
began and then Phoebe leaned forward. “I mean we should have a discussion where
I remind you that I am actually the boss and you should follow my orders.”

Phoebe sat back.

“Dumbass.”

When Phoebe started this time, Jesse held a hand out to stay
whatever she was about to say. “It was a stupid move and Tag calling me a
dumbass is the equivalent of him saying he gives a shit.”

“About a dumbass.” Tag pointed at him. “You could have been
killed. She could have shot you right there. We would have watched you die.”

“I’m sorry, boss.” He knew what that felt like. He wouldn’t
wish it on his worst enemy, much less a man he respected and loved like a
brother. “I lost my head.”

“What did the text say?” Tag asked.

Jesse handed Ian his phone, letting him read it for himself.

“Who sent you the text?” Phoebe had turned again, concern on
her pretty face.

“I suppose the person who wanted you to kill me.” And that
meant there was no question about it.

There was a traitor on Ten’s team, and he was gunning for
Jesse.

Phoebe couldn’t help but stare as she sat in the bar of
Sanctum. Not that there was much to stare at. The club was closed at this time
of day, but she’d been told there were a couple of employees working. It was a
good time to take in the place she’d wondered about for so long. Taggart
sometimes had meetings here, but only with the core team. She’d been invited to
come to the club once, but she’d passed on the invitation.

She’d been too scared to come. At first she’d been scared
because she didn’t understand and then she’d understood far too well and the
idea of seeing Jesse in leathers was too tempting.

She didn’t have a choice now. She was staying at Sanctum for
the next few days and she wasn’t staying alone.

“Do you need a drink?” Ten asked as he eased down onto the
sofa. Only the tightening of his eyes betrayed the pain he must have been
feeling. Taggart had done a number on him, but then he’d gotten some good licks
in on Taggart.

“I think I need all my faculties around me. I wasn’t
expecting to be turned into bait today.” Hell, she hadn’t been expecting any of
this. Her plans this morning had been to finish up the quarterly taxes, wince
when she showed Ian how much he owed on quarterly taxes, secretly giggle
because it was fun to watch the big guy explode, go to the baby shower and
watch as Eve opened the bouncy seat she’d bought at Target for little Cooper.
She hadn’t had any idea her whole world was going to blow up in her face, but
then it wasn’t the first time that had happened. She hadn’t expected Jamie to
die in a hellhole thousands of miles away from her.

“If you’re nervous about the plan, we can come up with
something else,” Ten offered.

“It’s a good plan.” She’d come up with part of it herself.

“It’s a desperate plan. I still can’t believe one of them is
a traitor. I chose every single one of those men.”

She felt for her brother, but she couldn’t fool herself.
“Someone sent that message to Jesse and they knew the number to my private
line. They knew what to say and they knew how to prep that room. What did you
find out about whoever booked the room?”

“According to Chelsea, it was done on a stolen credit card
over the Internet. The concierge took the case from a delivery service—also
paid for by the stolen card—and he had instructions to set the case on the bed
as a little gift for the man’s wife.”

The traitor never had to even enter the hotel, so they
wouldn’t have any CCTV footage. Thank you, Internet. “Any word on the phone
used to text Jesse? Wait. Let me guess. It was a burner.”

“Purchased with cash and no longer in use. You sure you
don’t need a drink?”

She shook her head. “Not now.”

“Phoebe, that was my very special way of saying I need a
drink and I don’t think I’ll make it to the bar.”

“Stubborn.” She got to her feet and quickly found where they
hid the good stuff. Glenlivet, old enough to do anything it damn well pleased.
She poured two fingers into a Scotch glass and then added another two because
her brother wasn’t going to the doctor anytime soon. “Are you sure we shouldn’t
call a medic in?”

“Nah. Bear was the medic on his SEAL team. He patched me up.
I’m fine. Damn Taggart got the jump on me. I’m getting old.”

And there was a reason he didn’t go into the field anymore.
His body had taken enough damage to kill most men. He never talked about it,
but she and Jamie had been at his side after a mission in South America had
gone south. They’d helped him recover from numerous surgeries, including the
metal plate he now had in his head. She hated to think how close she’d come to
losing him. Which was the only reason she was still talking to him now. “That
was not the smartest move. Taggart wouldn’t have killed me.”

He took a long swig of Scotch. “When he said you wouldn’t be
a problem anymore, all I could think about was him tossing your body in a
dumpster. I got a little upset.”

“A little?” He’d risked everything he’d ever worked for. If
Taggart wanted to he could cause Ten no end of grief. Luckily, he was more
worried about Jesse than he was angry about what Ten had done, and if her
brother had really thought about the situation for two seconds, he would have
known it.

“Fine. A lot.” He sat back, regarding her seriously. “Did
you really take the bobble heads up to McKay-Taggart? I thought they were in
storage. I packed them up when I packed up your house.”

God, she’d hoped he’d forgotten that little tidbit of
information. “I changed my mind the night before. I just needed them close.”

Every time she looked at them she remembered how she’d
laughed when Jamie had given her the first one for Christmas the year she
turned seventeen. He’d bought them for her every birthday and Christmas until
she had a complete set. They would laugh and have little races to see whose
head bobbled the fastest, and then they would go back to reading because of all
the books she’d read, Harry Potter had been her favorite. Jamie had read them
after he realized how much she loved them. Those stories had become the first
way they had really communicated.

“Are you sleeping with Jesse Murdoch?”

Her heart twisted at the hardness in Ten’s voice. “No.”

“But you want to.”

“I’m not going to.” She was tired and it was hours before
she could do anything about it. She wondered if she could even sleep with Jesse
in the same room. It was part of their “cover” that they stay together. “I
understand why we’re playing things the way we are, but nothing is going to
change. We’re pretending to be lovers. Nothing more. Did your men buy it?”

“It doesn’t matter. I told them we’re out of it, that you
decided to stay on at McKay-Taggart with your boyfriend and Taggart is stashing
you here until he can find the assassin. They now understand that it wasn’t a
drill and there was no misunderstanding. They definitely got the point that
Taggart is going to find the assassin.”

“So it’s safe to say that if this person is really hell-bent
on killing Jesse, they’ll pick up the pace.”

“And they’ll know exactly where he is and who he’s with. I
suspect they’ll underestimate you. All of my men now have tails. The minute one
makes a move, we’ll be on them.” A long moment passed with Ten taking one drink
and then another. “You know you can’t stay alone forever, Phoebe.”

“It’s too soon.” Her stomach knotted. She wasn’t ready to
talk about this.

“It’s been two years.” Ten wouldn’t let it go. “Do you think
Jamie would want you to be alone for the rest of your life?”

“I think it doesn’t matter because I’m not sleeping with
Jesse.”

“But you want to.” He said it more softly this time.

“Damn it, Tennessee. What do you want me to say? I like the
man. I think we were wrong about him. In all the time I’ve watched him he
hasn’t done anything suspicious.”

“He talks in his sleep. A whole lot of Farsi. He talks about
the man he called the Caliph.”

“And what does he say? Does he pledge his will to him?”

A sharp shake of Ten’s head was answer enough.

“He’s scared of the man.” If there was one thing she knew it
was that Jesse hated the man who had tortured him.

“He’s angry, too,” Ten conceded.

“Has he done or said one thing in all the time you’ve
watched him that made you believe he’s some kind of sleeper?”

“I think that sleepers are asleep until someone wants them
to wake up. That’s why they work so well. They can stay inactive for years,”
Ten said ominously. “I worry someone is going to wake that boy up and we won’t
know how to deal with him. You won’t be able to handle him. You’ll be right
there in the line of fire.”

She couldn’t help but think about how Jesse had calmed down
at the sound of her voice. He hadn’t once threatened her even when he was in
that state. He’d been protective. “He won’t hurt me.”

Ten stared ahead. “Nah, this is my fault. I made a mistake
sending you in. It was a stupid idea. I should have given you a team and
settled you in at Langley. You would have been safe there.”

She couldn’t let him go on feeling guilty about assigning
her to McKay-Taggart. It was time to confess. “I wouldn’t have been okay at
Langley. I wouldn’t have taken on a team. No matter how it turned out, this was
the right assignment at the right time.”

“You would have settled in.”

“I thought about killing myself.”

The room seemed to stop. She’d never said the words out
loud, never told a single soul, but now it weighed on her.

“What? What are you talking about?”

“After you brought Jamie’s body back, I couldn’t breathe. I
couldn’t sleep. I didn’t want to eat. I thought I had accepted that he was
dead, but until you brought his body home, I think there was a part of me that
was waiting for a miracle. It might have seemed like I threw myself into work, but
my mind was always on him. When you came home with him, I couldn’t even hope
anymore. Right before the funeral the doctor gave me some sedatives and I
counted them out. I sat there and I counted out all of them, trying to decide
the right dosage. It’s hard because if you take way too many, you can throw
them back up, and then it’s all for nothing. I needed just the right amount so
I could be wherever Jamie was. That’s the worst part you know. Not knowing
where he is.”

“You did not.” Ten’s jaw had tensed and she could see the
sheen of tears in his eyes. “Tell me you didn’t try that.”

“I thought about it, and then I decided to honor you and
wait until after the funeral.”

“But that was when we decided to send you in.”

She smiled just the tiniest bit. “Yes. You gave me something
to do, something about Jamie. I wouldn’t have taken on a team. I would have
pled off and then I would have done what I needed to do. But you gave me a way
to avenge my husband and that saved my life, Ten. And then I got to be Phoebe Graham.
I liked being that Phoebe, and suddenly I realized that avenging Jamie wouldn’t
bring him back. Slowly I started to really like the people around me, and I
knew that revenge on Jesse Murdoch was stupid because he was innocent. He
needed protection, not surveillance.”

Ten drained the Scotch. “I’m going to need another.”

She reached out and covered her brother’s hand with hers.
“You saved me, Ten. I know it might have ended up costing you your relationship
with Taggart, but you saved me.”

“Tag and I have an understanding.” His hand turned over and
grasped hers. “I tell him everything and he only gets to punch the shit out of
me ten more times. He’s holding them in his back pocket for when he needs to
let off some steam.”

She didn’t like the idea of Taggart jumping her brother.
“No.”

Ten shook his head. “It’s fine. No broken bones. That’s our
only rule. You stay out of this. You let me handle Tag the way I need to. I
made mistakes. Big mistakes.”

“You made them for your family.” She’d caused him to make some
of those errors.

“And he’s protecting his. Speaking of the devil.” Ten nodded
as Taggart stalked into the room. He was carrying a duffel bag of some kind and
there was a grim look on his face. “Nice place you’ve got here, Tag.”

“You motherfucker. You got into my Scotch.”

Ten immediately shot him the finger. “I need more. My spleen
hurts, damn it.”

“Pussy.” But it was said in that guy way that seemed almost
affectionate. He took the empty glass from Ten and stepped over to the bar.
“And that’s not the good stuff. That’s a twenty-five. I’ve got the fifty
hidden. I think we could both use middle-aged Scotch. Phoebe, could you join
me? I’d like to go over the rules of the club with you.”

There were rules? She thought the only rule was to not let
Jesse get horribly murdered. She glanced at Ten, who nodded and then joined
Taggart at the bar.

“So I take it the crying every time I came close was a
protective measure,” he began.

No one said he was a dummy. “It was a way to make sure you
didn’t spend too much time with me. If you had spent any real time with me, you
likely would have seen more than I wanted you to. I quickly figured out you’re
an intolerant bastard. A couple of hysterical fits of tears and a dash of drama
and you didn’t want to be in the same room with me.”

“Nice play. It won’t work on me again. So, what’s your
poison? Don’t tell me you don’t have one because all spies drink. It’s a rule.”

“Vodka tonic.” If she was going to have some kind of
discussion with Big Tag, maybe she did need something.

“I thought you were more a margarita girl.”

So Jesse had talked about her. “Phoebe Graham drinks
margaritas and piña coladas. Phoebe Grant drinks vodka.”

A single brow arched over his stark blue eyes. The man could
really convey serious judgment with that one brow. “Damn, you’re going to hurt
Jesse’s feelings.”

“I think I already did that.”