You Only Love Twice (3 page)

He slapped at the side of his head, trying to get that voice
out.

“Damn it.” Tag was on his feet. “Get Eve in here.”

“Don’t. He’s fine.” Simon sat down in the chair beside him.
“You’re hearing it again, but you’re not there, Jesse. It’s all right. I was
thinking about seeing that new comic book movie this weekend. What was it? I
think the lead is called Thorp or something.”

“He’s Thor.” Jesse breathed a sigh of relief as the voice
faded and he was solidly back in the now where Simon often purposefully screwed
up the names of comic book characters so Jesse would correct him. Shortly after
they
’d been paired up
, his very staid and British
partner had professed a deep and utterly false love of all things comic book
and they’d started going to the movies or to comic book stores. Simon looked so
out of place, but it had gone a long way to build trust between them. Simon
Weston had been the first person since Iraq to sacrifice for Jesse Murdoch.

“And it isn’t a Thor movie this week. It’s a new Avengers.
Thor’s just in it.” Somehow talking about something normal always seemed to
bring him back.

“Well, Chelsea’s very excited,” Simon allowed.

Chelsea was an out-and-out dweeb, and Jesse loved her like a
sister. He turned to Simon. “Chelsea thinks Phoebe’s bad?”

God, he sounded like a kid begging someone to tell him the
world wasn’t so evil.

“Chelsea thinks she’s certainly not what she says she is,”
Simon explained. “But then she also made me promise to remind you that because
something isn’t what it seems, doesn’t mean it’s necessarily bad. Please tell
her I followed instructions. She was very specific.”

He couldn’t believe it. It wasn’t true. He took a deep
breath. There came a time when a man had to choose. He chose her. He loved this
group, but he was falling in love with her. Maybe Chelsea was trying to tell
him something. Maybe she was trying to tell him that the time had come to trust
his instincts and his instinct was to protect and love Phoebe Graham.

“She’s not a spy.”

Tag’s head fell back and he groaned.

He was going to lose his job, but he had to do what was
right. He knew how it felt to be falsely accused. He knew how it felt to have
absolutely no one in the world who had his back. He’d gone back to his hometown
and they’d turned on him.

He wasn’t going to leave her alone.

His phone buzzed. Text. He thought about ignoring it since
almost everyone who would text him was in this room, but as his friends started
arguing, he decided it was a good way to not have to listen for a moment.

He didn’t recognize the number.

If you want to know the truth, meet me in the walkway
between Elm and Main Street. 10 minutes. If you aren’t there, I won’t bother
you again.

The truth? The truth about what? He didn’t have time to deal
with any mystery text. He needed to deal with Phoebe.

The door to the conference room slammed open and Liam
O’Donnell strode through followed by his new partner. Erin Argent was the
newbie at McKay-Taggart, but Jesse was pretty sure she already fit in better
than he did. Tag sent her out into the field without a qualm. She’d already run
an op on her own, taking down a ring of corporate spies with the ease of a
woman who had spent half her life in the military, and not at the grunt level
Jesse had been at.

“She’s on the move,” Liam said, his voice tight. He was
carrying a shoulder holster complete with a SIG Sauer that he handed over to
Tag.

“She walked out of here about three minutes ago,” Erin
explained. There was no way to miss the anticipation in the woman’s voice. Erin
was a full-on adrenaline junkie. The minute an op was over, she requested
another one. While the rest of McKay-Taggart seemed to be settling down and
having babies and buying houses, Erin spent her off time base jumping.

He didn’t like the thought of someone as competent as Erin
going after Phoebe. Phoebe was an accountant. She had no idea how to handle
seasoned operatives.

Jesse stood up. Something was going on. If his apartment
was bugged
, then someone was watching him, but he couldn’t
accept that it was Phoebe. Maybe it had something to do with that text. He knew
he should say something about it, but the situation with Phoebe took
precedence. “Fine, I’ll follow her myself. This is stupid. She’s probably going
out to pick up something for the party.”

“I don’t think so,” Li said. “She told Grace they had everything
ready and then she slipped out.”

“She was actively trying to not be seen.” Erin grinned a
little. She had a wealth of fiery red hair she kept in a neat ponytail and
freckles across the bridge of her nose that proved all that red was natural.

He wasn’t sure Erin didn’t have an overactive imagination.
She seemed to fit right in with Tag and O’Donnell. She went to the worst
possible case scenario just like Tag and she could down beer like O’Donnell,
though he’d slowed down since having a son.

“I’m going to follow her.” Jesse was sick of this shit. He
was sick of feeling like the only person left out of the joke.

“Adam and Jake are tailing her.” Ian looked down at his
phone. “They’ve got her. She walked into that fast food place up the street two
minutes ago.”

“See. She’s guilty of being hungry and not wanting a salad.”
They were all paranoid.

Tag pocketed his phone and nodded to Li and Erin. “Li, would
you please set up a nice place where we can spend some time talking to our
accountant?”

“You’re setting up a fucking interrogation room?” It
wouldn’t be comfortable. It would be a room where Tag would hold her until he
got the answers he wanted. Tag would scare the shit out of her. Phoebe already
got nervous around the man. This would send her over the edge.

Tag turned his way, and this wasn’t his friend. This was his
boss, his CO. “You will stand down, Murdoch, or I swear I will have you in
lock-down until this is over. If you can’t handle this, tell me now and I’ll
make sure you don’t move an inch out of this room until this is all over.”

He couldn’t let that happen. “I’m cool.”

“I seriously doubt that,” Tag said. “You can observe, but
nothing more. This is not your op. Simon, you keep a leash on him. He watches
from a distance. Is that understood?”

“Yes, boss.” Simon put his suit coat back on. “We need to
hurry if we’re going to catch her. Tell Adam to keep close watch. I used to use
public loos to change clothes and lose a tail.”

Tag slipped the shoulder holster over his massive form and
checked the clip on the SIG before holstering the gun. “Alex, you don’t have to
go. Eve will likely kick your ass if you miss the shower, so please feel free
to coo over baby gifts while the rest of us take care of business.”

McKay sent his best friend a happy middle finger. “Fuck you,
Ian. I’m not staying here and might I say, I can’t fucking wait for Charlotte
to have that baby so you can join the rest of us.” He turned to Erin. “Let me
borrow your piece.”

“I swear I will beat the shit out of you if you hurt her,
McKay.” Erin seemed unnaturally affectionate toward her Berretta M9 which she’d
named Bertha. Jesse really thought it looked more like an Agnes. She handed the
gun over, handle first. “I don’t see why I’m stuck here. She knows me the
least. It would be very simple for me to take her out. I promise I won’t even
feel bad about it. All that weak shit gets to me. I believe in Darwin, so I
could shoot her very easily.”

And he was so done with her. “You shoot her and we’ll have a
fucking problem, Erin.”

“Is that right, Murdoch?” She got right in his face. “You
think you can take me?”

He felt his blood pressure rise, his hands turn to fists. He
didn’t fight with women, but then Erin liked to play with the boys. If she
threatened Phoebe, she would find out that he could put her on her ass. “I know
I can.”

“Down, both of you.” Tag turned to his latest hire. “Look,
Xena, I know you want to prove you’re some kind of female warrior or some shit
but that dude right there occasionally loses his damn mind and rips people’s
throats out with his bare teeth, so back the fuck off him.”

Erin looked him over. “Actually that kind of makes me like
him more. Fine. I won’t touch the klutz. To tell you the truth, I’m kind of on
Murdoch’s side here. If she’s an operative, I’ll eat some of Li’s haggis.”

Liam shook his head. “Damn me, girl, but we’re going to have
to give you a geography lesson. I’m bloody Irish, not Scots. Why da fuck would
I eat haggis?”

She shrugged. “They all sound the same to me.”

Ian pulled his phone out and whatever was there made his jaw
tighten. “We need to move. She’s on Main but she’s walking. We can catch her.”

Ten minutes later, Jesse found himself on Elm waiting for a
signal. It didn’t get past him that he was right where that text had wanted him
to be. Someone wanted him in that walkway, but he couldn’t figure out why. He
had to wonder if that someone who wanted him to learn the truth would care that
he’d brought company along. Simon stood beside him. Jesse inhaled deeply, the
smells of Italian and Mexican food filling his nostrils and reminding him he
hadn’t eaten. Campisi’s was to his back, but he knew if he walked down the
little alley that connected Elm to Main he would find Sol Irlandes. He’d taken
Phoebe there a few weeks back. They’d had a nice meal and questioned the
artistic value of putting a giant eyeball in the middle of downtown Dallas. The
massive “work of art” sat across the walkway from the restaurant and overlooked
Main Street. It
was surrounded
by a little park of
perfect green grass. It was weird and he kind of found it fascinating, but
Phoebe said it creeped her out.

“What are we waiting for?” He was impatient. He wanted this
all over with so he could shoot everyone the finger and get back to the baby
shower. He wasn’t so much interested in watching Eve open gifts, but he
definitely had plans for the appetizers Sean had cooked. His stomach rumbled.
He shouldn’t have to go through all this stress on a freaking empty belly.

“The all clear signal. Be patient.”

“She’s in the hotel. Adam, can you get into the CCTV at The
Joule?” McKay’s voice came over the comm in his ear. They’d all put them in so
they could talk to Jake and Adam.

“Already there,” Adam replied. “She’s at the front desk.”

“I have eyes on her,” Jake said. “I can’t get too close, but
I won’t lose her.”

What the hell was she doing at a hotel? Was she meeting
someone? “Do you think she has a boyfriend?”

He asked the question of Simon, not bothering to click the
button that would send his voice to the rest of the team.

“I don’t think this is about a hidden lover, Jesse,” Simon
replied. “Wait for it to play out.”

The Joule was right through that alley. All the answers were
right there. It was one of those swanky places he always felt uncomfortable in.
If she was meeting a lover there, he likely had money because a place like that
didn’t come cheap.

Why would she lie to him? Why would she go out with him if
she had someone else?

It explained a lot when he thought about it. She wouldn’t go
to bed with him because she had someone else. The bigger question was why she
wouldn’t just tell him. Maybe her lover had been the one to send the text.

“She’s moving to a room. I think it’s on the fifth floor,”
Jake said. “Adam, get me a number. Tag, you can move in.”

They were all moving in, all playing a part in catching his
girlfriend cheating on him. The humiliation didn’t seem to stop. The minute he
thought he was fitting in and his life was moving in the right direction, he
got this shit.

Jealousy burned in his gut, but more than that, he was mad.
All she’d had to tell him was she wasn’t interested. She could have been
honest, and then they wouldn’t have this god-awful scene that was playing out.

“I’ve got the room number. 512. Adam, can you get me in?”
Jake asked. “I’ve got Tag and Alex with me. We’re getting in the elevator now.”

He was done. He touched his comm and started walking. He
turned right down the alley as he spoke. “Don’t you get it, guys? She’s fucking
someone in that room. Leave her be. I’ll sit in the lobby until she comes down
and we’ll have a talk about what it means to string a guy along.”

“Jesse!” Simon yelled, the sound coming from both his comm
and behind him.

He was so fucking done with this. She was cheating on him.
Not really since they’d never actually had sex, but he’d kind of thought they were
involved. It went to show how stupid he was. He was going to look even stupider
if Tag took down Phoebe and her boyfriend in the middle of their afternoon
delight.

He made it halfway to Main Street when he knew someone was
watching him. He stopped under the awning of the Mexican place and looked up at
the hotel. What room had they said she was in?

And that was when he noticed the red dot on his chest.

She wasn’t cheating on him. She was setting him up for a
kill. She was in that hotel. Maybe she’d even sent the text. In those seconds
he stood there, the truth hit him. She’d never wanted him and now she wanted
him dead.

She was watching him. She was hiding in the recesses of that
hotel room with a sniper rifle. She hadn’t had the guts to take him out face to
face. No. She’d put a scope between them like he was an animal she was hunting.

“What the fuck are you waiting for Phoebe?” he yelled at the
top of his lungs. “You want me? You want to take me out? Do it!”

He put his arms out so she had the best target possible.

Everything he’d survived and it had come down to this. A
weariness settled over him and Jesse accepted the truth. He’d fought and fought
to live and now he was going to stand here and let her do her worst.