Love and Let Die

Chapter Five

The overhead light shone down on the conference room table and the evidence Simon and Jesse had spent the afternoon collecting.

“Does the DPD know yet?” Ian ran a frustrated hand through his hair as he stared at the pictures Simon had taken. They showed a man, likely a businessman given the fact that he was wearing a suit, lying on the floor of his expensive hotel room. He had a startled expression on his face, but then he also had a bullet hole through his forehead so Ian could forgive the man for being startled. It was a neat, clean execution, the kind the mob specialized in. It looked like their hit man had found the perfect perch from which to shoot someone coming out of the building that housed McKay-Taggart, and he didn’t really care that it was already occupied.

“No. No one’s found the bloke yet.” Simon was relaxed in his chair like finding dead bodies was an everyday occurrence for him. He sipped his Earl Grey. It was four o’clock. Nothing interrupted afternoon tea for the Brit. Ian was pretty sure Simon would stop in the middle of a shootout for high freaking tea. “The shooter had put the Do Not Disturb sign on the door. Staff won’t find the body until he’s supposed to check out, I would think.”

And then they might start to put two and two together. Maybe. If they were smart. He needed to make things look good with Brighton or the cops would get involved and everything would go to hell.

Jesse took off the ball cap he was wearing. At least he’d had the good sense to wear a ball cap and a fairly shapeless sweat suit. The kid looked too casual for the office, but no one would remember his hair color or body type. If he slumped properly, it would take inches off his six-foot-three-inch frame. “The hotel is quiet, minimal security. Room 721 is definitely the place where the shooter was planted. We found the sniper hole. The windows don’t open so he used a glass cutter to make a one-inch round hole, just enough to get the barrel through, not enough to hit the ground below and cause a ruckus. He knew he might be there for a while.”

“How obvious was it?” Again, he was thinking about the cops. It might be much easier to draw a line from point A to point B if they found holes where none should be.

“I barely found it. He put it in the bottom corner of the glass. I cracked it a little so it didn’t look so neat and stuffed a tissue in it. It’s what I would do if I accidently broke a window,” Jesse said.

It might work. It might not. “I don’t suppose the fucker left casings behind?”

“No,” Simon replied. “He was very neat, very clean. I managed to bribe one of the security guards. I convinced him I was a PI looking for a cheating spouse. He brought up the security cameras from the hallway at approximately the time we were looking at. A man roughly six foot or so wearing a ball cap got on the elevator carrying a briefcase at the right time. I didn’t get his face, though. He was careful to keep his head down.”

Ian huffed a long breath out. What a shitty day. “Well, it’s good to know Denisovitch trains his people well. We can bet he’ll try again. We need to come up with new protocols concerning Charlotte.”

What was he supposed to do with her? If she wouldn’t leave and hide, he had no idea how he was supposed to just let her run around the streets of Dallas alone. He had no doubt she could take care of herself. The question was how much chaos would she cause while she did it?

He had to keep an eye on her and that meant she would have to stay with him. Fuck.

He glanced over and watched her through the open blinds. She was sitting in her chair in Phoebe’s office, both women quiet. Phoebe’s head was down, her eyes on the computer screen while Charlie’s were squarely on her hands. She stared down at her lap, and Ian wondered what she was thinking.

Plotting most likely. She always looked so pretty when she plotted.

He had to take her into the dungeon tonight. If they didn’t get horrifically murdered first. Charlie would be kneeling at his feet in Sanctum, putting on a show for Derek Brighton.

Was she putting on a show for him, too?

Alex stepped into the room, holding out Ian’s car keys. “I moved your car into the parking garage. I thought it would be better to take Charlie out that way than to walk into the open.”

That woman was going to give him a migraine. “Thanks. I’ll make sure I put her in the trunk when I leave for Sanctum.”

“She’ll love that. No, we’re leaving your car here. We’ll take mine. I doubt they’re looking for mine.” Alex sat down beside him, his eyes going over the photos. “Nice. So our assassin doesn’t mind taking out a few civilians. What is Charlie going to want to do about her sister?”

He hadn’t even thought about Chelsea, the sister Charlie had betrayed him to save. He didn’t want to admit it, but he was interested in meeting Chelsea Dennis. “Send someone out to her place. Bring her to Sanctum tonight. We’ll regroup there. Simon, why don’t you and Jesse go and nab the girl?”

Simon’s eyebrow arched. “What if the girl doesn’t want to be nabbed?”

Alex shot Jesse a nasty look. “Well, I happen to know your little partner there is quite good with duct tape.”

“I said I was sorry about kidnapping Eve.” Jesse turned a bright red. “I’ll go get the address from Charlie. Wait. I shot her. Maybe you should do it, Simon.”

“You really are going to have to stop assaulting people who end up being your team members.” Simon stood and Jesse followed him. “Can the girl write out the address? I understand she’s on lockdown.”

She was going to stay that way. The longer Charlie didn’t actually talk to members of his team, the better. “Adam has it along with a phone number. He’s already talked to the apparently very abrupt Miss Dennis. They’re coming up with a plan to try to flush this guy out. I don’t want you bugging Charlie. Charlie is thinking about all the things she’s done wrong today. I’ll see you at the club in two hours. Make sure this Chelsea girl has the proper clothes if she’s going on the dungeon floor. If she’s not, she can sit in the locker room until I’m ready to question her.”

“I’m sure she’ll be thrilled with the invitation,” Simon muttered.

Probably not. According to Adam, she was spitting mad. Ian was really just cutting her off at the pass. If he didn’t bring her in, she would show up on his doorstep and likely get a bullet to the head, and then he would have to deal with a dead girl and he couldn’t explain that away to Brighton. He needed to know where the Dennis sisters were at all times. If Chelsea was anything like her sister, she could start an apocalypse without really thinking about it.

Ian pressed the com button on the phone. “Adam, could you join us?”

There was a slight pause, and he could have sworn he heard the fucker giggle and Serena telling him to stop. Poor Serena. She was going to have two kids soon. “Yes, of course, boss. I’ll be right down.”

“So Charlotte’s on lockdown?” Alex asked, his eyes sliding Ian’s way. There was a slight grin on his face.

“What’s lockdown?” Jesse asked.

“She’s not allowed to speak without permission,” Simon explained.

“We can do that?”

“If only it worked that way.” Simon stared out the window.

What was that grin of Alex’s about? He tried not to think about it. “Yes. I thought it best to put her in high protocol. That way I don’t have to listen to her. It’s the one good thing about having to take her into Sanctum tonight.”

“The only thing?” Again there was that smirk on Alex’s face that made Ian feel like the butt of a joke.

Ian turned to his best friend. “Do you have something you want to say?”

“Nope. Just that you might want to call off the surveillance on your office. Do the subs at Sanctum know about your newfound ‘cuddle every one of them’ rule?” A long laugh came out of Alex’s mouth.

Motherfucker. He’d practically made a porn film. And he knew exactly who would keep a copy. “Adam!”

Adam walked in with Jake, and they gave each other a look. It was the same look naughty five-year-olds slid each other’s way when they’d done something stupid and couldn’t help but laugh about it.

Fuck. He’d forgotten about the 540. Goddamn it. It was the kind of thing he never forgot. He’d even watched her for a while from Adam’s computer, but the minute he’d gotten into the same room with her, he’d forgotten everything except the fact that he was her temporary Master. “You will turn those cameras off now.”

Jake stepped in front of Adam as though he could protect his ass if Ian decided to cave his skull in. “Now, Ian, you told us to keep watch on her. Unfortunately we got to watch a whole lot more of her than we expected.”

“My private life is not Adam’s porno.”

“Hey, Ian, don’t blame him,” Jake said. “He was actually working on something else. I was keeping watch. I called him over. Alex, too.” Jake actually flushed a little. “And Serena might have been in the office.”

Oh, this was all her fault. Charlie had turned his entire life upside down and he’d gone from being the respected head of the team to porn star. Thank god he hadn’t fucked her. Because he’d really wanted to. He’d wanted to clear off his desk and spread her legs and force his cock deep. He’d wanted to make her moan and scream.

“Serena cried. She said it was really beautiful,” Adam explained.

“Did she take notes?” He was not going to end up in one of Serena’s pussy-ass Dom romances where the sub manipulates the hell out of the Dom.

“I believe she was too busy taking mental pictures,” Jake said. “She wants Charlotte to know that she really admires her breasts. Serena actually has a deep appreciation for the human form, whether it’s male or female.”

Jesse frowned. “Wait, are you guys saying Charlotte got like twelve kinds of nekkid and I missed it?”

Three different hands came out, slapping him upside the head.

“Damn it.” Jesse shook his head. “I don’t see what the big deal is. You guys see each other nekkid all the time.”

“I’m putting you in elocution lessons,” Simon said, seemingly unfazed by everything except his charge’s redneck speak. “Why did I get left with the backwoods version of My Fair Lady? It’s because I’m British, isn’t it?”

It was time to move past his porno. “Adam, give Simon everything you have on Chelsea Dennis. Now tell me what the plan is.”

“I’ve left a trail for the Russian to follow. I couldn’t make it too obvious or he might get suspicious,” Adam explained. “I used Charlotte’s credit card to book a room in a motel in Waco. I hired Karina to drive down in Charlotte’s car in a blonde wig. She leaves in an hour. She’s going to be passing several traffic cameras, and I told her to blow through at least one red light.”

Karina Mills was a Fort Worth-based PI they worked with from time to time. She was also a submissive at Sanctum. She was tough and thorough and tended to charge out the ass. Another thing to lay at Charlie’s doorstep. “So she’s checking in as Charlie and waiting for Zhukov?”

“Nah, I thought you would prefer one of us to actually do the takedown. Li is with her. Jake and I are on Avery duty. Li and Karina are going to settle in at the motel. We went over procedure. They’re going to keep the shades closed so he can’t take them out from a distance. I checked out the surroundings. There aren’t a lot of sniper positions. It’s a busy motel. He’s going to have to get up close and personal if he doesn’t want a bunch of heat on him.”

Meaning the assassin would be forced to break into the room. He would very likely try to make it look like an everyday, normal break in. He would steal some cash, maybe rape the girl. He would discover very rapidly that Liam O’Donnell didn’t appreciate his person being violated.

“Liam knows I want this guy alive, right?” He wanted to know exactly who had hired him and how far Nelson’s ties to the Denisovitch syndicate went.

“Alive, but fucked up, right? Because Liam apparently really wants to fuck this dude up. He claims he’s gone too long without a good fight,” Adam explained.

As long as the fucker was capable of talking, Ian didn’t care. “Tell Li to take out his frustrations on the guy, but I want him able to answer a few questions. It’s a good plan. You’re still hired. Go and set it in motion and then go and erase that fucking tape.”

“You know there’s not really a tape per se.” Adam seemed to get the gist of the nasty look Ian sent him. “I’ll take care of it. Why don’t you guys come with me?”

The four men walked out, all of them smiling behind their hands.

“Hey, Jesse’s right, you know,” Alex said quietly. “There wasn’t anything on that feed that you haven’t done at Sanctum a hundred times.”

Oh, but there was. He didn’t cuddle the subs afterward no matter what he told Charlie. Every encounter was negotiated, and the most aftercare he would give was praise for a job well done, some ointment on abrasions if he left them, and the occasional massage. Sometimes he would offer orgasms if he wanted the sub sexually.

But he didn’t cuddle with them afterward and he didn’t sleep beside them. He would never admit it. Not ever. He wouldn’t admit that he could fool himself during sex. He could close his eyes and pretend the sub under him was Charlie, but the minute he held them, the illusion was gone and he was hollow and empty again.

They didn’t smell like her, like lemons and sugar. They weren’t as soft as his wife. Their skin didn’t seem to sink into his. When his partners talked, they didn’t have her sweet sarcasm.

They hadn’t lied to him. They hadn’t betrayed him.

Fuck.

“I need you and Eve to come out to the house and stay with us. If this plan works, Li will bring the asshole out to my place for the interrogation.” That might solve one of his problems. Maybe if he knew Alex and Eve were there he would keep his hands off the girl.

Maybe.

Alex studied him for a moment. “All right. That should work out just fine. We’re having the house we bought renovated. It was supposed to be ready when we got back from Hawaii. We were going to stay in a hotel, but your place might be so much more fun. Might I ask why? You could handle an interrogation yourself.”

Well, he sure as fuck wasn’t going to tell Alex he needed help keeping his hands off Charlie. Alex seemed to be morphing into Oprah, and Ian was certain all sorts of mushy advice would follow. “I want Eve to work up a full evaluation on Charlotte and her sister. She can do it better if she’s watching them outside an interview.”

“Are you sure you want to treat her like a suspect? This might be the time to try to get to know her again.” Yep. Oprah was in the house.

“The only way I want to get to know that woman again is whether or not she’s telling me the truth.”

“That’s not what it looked like on that tape, man.”

“I am attracted to her,” he allowed.

“You’re attracted to a lot of women. You don’t cuddle them and rub your cheek against their hair. You don’t look peaceful when you’re close to them.”

He sent his best friend a hard stare. “Have you been reading Serena’s books? What the fuck is wrong with you?”

Alex held his hands up in surrender. “Sorry. You’re not ready to talk about this. Eve told me to take it slow, and I’m pushing you.”

He had to get a few things clear. “I’m attracted to Charlotte, but I’m not going to let her play me the way she did last time. Maybe she’s here for all the right reasons, but she’s too late. I won’t let her in again. I might fuck her because it’s almost inevitable, but as soon as this plays out, I will dump her ass and I won’t look back. You guys seem to be waiting for me to have some grand revelation. Well, let me tell you something, Alex. I already had it. I had it when I realized she was willing to use me, to let my team suffer the consequences so she could solve her own problems.”

“She was trying to save her sister.”

“I would have saved her sister,” Ian nearly roared back, the betrayal so close to his surface. He forced his rage down. God, he didn’t want to do this, but no one seemed willing to let him be. “She was my sub and she trusted that fucker Nelson over me. We’re done.”

“I hadn’t thought about it like that, Ian,” Alex said, his eyes grave.

Ian turned and saw Charlie looking right at him. He was pretty sure she wouldn’t have been able to hear what he’d said, but she obviously hadn’t missed the way he’d said it. Her face went soft as though she could offer him sympathy and peace from another room.

He felt himself go cold. Yes, that was better. Cold was infinitely better than the hot anger that threatened to overtake him. “Well, it’s the only way I can think about it.”

“I broke trust with Eve and we still made it.”

Ian rolled his eyes, turning away from his onetime wife and back to his best friend. “No, you were stupid. You didn’t listen to her and you both got hurt. Then you were stubborn for a really long time. It’s different. I knew fairly soon into the relationship that Charlotte wasn’t what she seemed to be, but I loved her. I knew she was in some sort of trouble, but I didn’t want to push her. I loved that woman more than anything I’ve loved in my life. More than Sean. More than my mother. I thought we had a bond. I married her because I thought she would turn to me. I gave her every chance to trust me. Instead, she let Nelson nearly kill her. She took a drug that probably had a fifty-fifty chance of ending her instead of turning to me. No. I will not trust her again. No. I will not let her back in. I know you think I’m missing a piece of myself. You think I’m a bastard and that somehow a woman is magically going to fix me, but you’re wrong. She was my shot and it didn’t work. We don’t all get to find our Eves. I understand if you would rather hang with the married guys. Women tend to get nervous around me.”

He hated the idea of losing Alex. Really hated it, but he didn’t let it show.

Alex sighed, standing up and putting a hand on his shoulder. “I’m backing off now. Not from you. You’re my best friend and you have been for damn near my whole life. You can’t lose me. And Eve loves you. Grace loves you. I don’t know where these nervous women are because Serena really was taking notes and probably will put you in a book soon. You can rail at her and she’ll just smile at you. The only woman around here who’s scared of you is Phoebe, but then she screamed about a spider the size of a dime the other day. So I’m not too worried about her. I’ll go talk to Eve and tell her we’re sticking close to you for a couple of days to watch your back.”

He relaxed a little. “I don’t think you really need to watch over me. They’re after Charlie.”

“I don’t doubt they would love to take you out, too.”

“Whatever happens, you know that I don’t want Eve putting herself in danger. Maybe I should rethink this.” He was going in circles. He wasn’t thinking of anyone but himself. How could he really put his team in danger?

“Hey, we’re coming with you and that’s final. Eve can handle herself. She’s perfectly capable, and she knows when to duck,” Alex said with a smile. “They’ll be looking for your car. We’ll take mine to Sanctum and then go out to your place. I can get our bags from the hotel this afternoon and be back in time to get us out to the club. Is the backyard entrance to your place passable?”

There was a reason Ian had picked that particular location for his home. He owned several acres of the land around it and had long ago put in an alternative entrance to his place. It involved some country back road driving, but he could get inside undetected when he wanted to. “It should be fine.”

He would like the backup. The thought of being alone and responsible for keeping Charlie alive scared the shit out of him.

Alex winced a little. “I want you to know I’m sorry about putting you in a bad situation with Brighton. I’ll try to smooth that over, too.”

He held back a sigh but realized how much he would miss Alex and Eve if they weren’t in his life anymore. He was just starting to find a relationship with his brother again. Charlie was threatening to fuck all of that up. She was coming between him and the people he loved. She was forcing them to choose sides in this little war of theirs.

Maybe it was time to let her see just how hopeless this operation of hers was.

Alex walked out the door and Ian’s mind started working. He strode by the office she was sitting in, her eyes following him, but he paid her no mind.

He had an evening to plan. He got to his desk and picked up his phone, dialing a familiar number. “Ryan? I’m going to need you to do a couple of things before tonight’s play.”

Fifteen minutes later, he had most everything in place. At least this part of his world was running efficiently.

So why was his gut in a knot again?