A Dom is Forever (Masters and Mercenaries #3)(102)

“Just a little. But we might need to call our friends and get the name of a good cleaner.” Because someone was going to have to deal with the bodies.

The cursing began, and Liam let himself slide to the floor again. Ian would handle it from here. A sense of peace came over him. Sure it was fighting with the adrenaline that came from being shot at, but it was there all the same. He wasn’t alone. He’d fooled himself. He hadn’t been alone for a long time. The moment he’d woken up, filthy dock water in his lungs and a blank space in his memory, had been the moment he’d been reborn. For the first time, he understood a little tiny bit of the spark that kept Avery going despite everything she’d been through.

A man wasn’t his past. A man was his future, and it was something he had to fight for. And family wasn’t necessarily blood. The bonds of friendship could form tight family ties.

Adam pushed through the door. He must have been closer than anyone else, and it was obvious he’d run his ass off. “Holy hell. Jeez, what did you do to these guys? And that’s my shirt. Motherf*cker. You got blood on my shirt.”

Brothers. They could be hell on a man, but he was damn glad to have them.





“Why didn’t you tell me my brother is alive and well and f*cking my secretary?” Molina only waited long enough for the waitress to walk away before he started in on Nelson.

“I didn’t realize it myself until about a year ago. I found myself working with his team on the operation that led to my early retirement from the Agency.” Nelson leaned over, his face very serious in the gloom of the pub. Unlike the last place Nelson had insisted on, this pub was dark and on a quiet street. The restaurant before had been in the open. “Are you telling me Liam O’Donnell is here in London?”

“Are you telling me you didn’t know, ya bloody bastard?”

“Careful, Thomas.” Nelson placed emphasis on Thomas. “People might wonder why an American millionaire talks like he should be standing on the docks of Dublin with a pint in his hand.”

Molina tried to rein in his emotions. They seemed to be running rampant ever since the moment he’d realized dear Liam was still alive. “How did he get out of that house? I set it to blow the morning after I left. Early. He should have still been metabolizing the drugs I gave him.”

Nelson shrugged, a negligent gesture. “He must have had a stronger constitution than you guessed. You never told me why you didn’t just kill him like you did the rest of them. Why did you feel the need to kill those kids?”

“I liked it. It was fun.” And he’d needed a place to blow up. “I had to be able to disappear, and it had to look good. And I couldn’t be completely certain the explosives would go off. Anything can happen. Those dead kids were my backup plan to deal with Liam in case it all went wrong.”

“Why not just stab your brother, too? He couldn’t come looking for you if he was dead.”

It had been a moment of weakness. His brother had fallen into the girl’s bed. He’d been so drugged out of his mind that he hadn’t noticed when Rory raped the girl and strangled her. That had been a bit of fun. He’d f*cked her and killed her, and big brother just slept right on beside them. But when Rory had gone to shove a knife through his gut, his eyes had opened. A stupid smile had come over his face.

We’re doing good now, Rory. We’re doing good, you and me.

And Rory had stood up and walked out telling himself it was enough to make it out with the bonds. Liam wouldn’t live. He wouldn’t even wake up. He would never know.

“That was obviously a mistake, but one that’s being taken care of as we speak.”

Nelson’s eyes tightened, his whole body losing its previous casual air. “You’re taking out your brother?”

“I sent my two best men to do it.” Any minute now Malcolm would text him with the word that his brother was dead and they were safe. “Do you think he was working with MI6?”

“I know he was working with a man named Ian Taggart who still works for the Agency from time to time. They’re hunting me, not you, and if you only sent two men to take him down then my guess is your men are dead and Liam now knows you’re on to him. You should have talked to me before you pulled a stunt like this.”

Rory felt his spine straighten. He didn’t like the way Nelson was talking to him. “Since when are you my boss?”

Nelson leaned forward, his voice a low rumble. “Since the day I pulled you out of the SAS and gave you the kind of life you had always longed for. If it weren’t for me, you would have ended up getting kicked out of the Army. How long would it have been before your brother found out about your criminal connections? How long before he discovered all the secrets you sold? Do you think he would have helped you out the way I did? No. He would have handed you straight over to the government, and you would be rotting in prison.”

The waitress came back smiling a gap-toothed smile. She put two pints in front of them, but Rory wouldn’t touch his. He would fiddle with it, but he never drank anymore. He wouldn’t allow himself to be out of control for even a minute. But when he was finally able to shed the Thomas Molina guise, he would be himself once more. He would drink and f*ck and kill whenever he wanted.

And Avery could watch it all. It would be the perfect punishment for f*cking his brother when she’d avoided touching him. She’d treated him like a bloody infant, but she spread her legs as fast as she could once Liam had walked in the door.