A Dom is Forever (Masters and Mercenaries #3)(70)



“Because of your wife?”

Ian’s face tightened. “Yes. Charlotte is a part of my life better left buried.”

“Did you kill her?” He really wasn’t sure he wanted the answer to that question.

“Yes and no.”

Liam was ready to punch a wall. “Fuck it, Ian, will you give me a bloody straight answer? I’m sick of this. I’m thinking about walking out of here right now and taking Avery with me.”

“Don’t you f*cking threaten me,” Ian snarled.

“Ian, calm down. We talked about this.” Alex was sitting in the corner, still in his sweats and a T-shirt.

Liam ran a hand across his hair. If Alex had been a snake, he could have bitten him several times. Liam was losing it. “I didn’t see you.”

Alex gave Liam a little half smile. “Sorry. I’m here to make sure you two don’t beat each other down.”

“Like you could stop us,” Ian snarled back.

Liam was with Ian on this one. He was starting to think a beat down might be in order. Beating the f*ck out of Ian just might make him feel better.

“In that case, I’m here to call the match. Adam and Jake have a hundred riding on it. Jake thinks Ian will kill you, but Adam is counting on the fact that you’re awfully mean.” Alex sat back, waiting on the outcome.

“Does everyone know but me?” That was his fear. He was on the outside again. He was the one who didn’t fit.

Ian slapped at one of the lockers, the sound reverberating through the room. “No. Alex is the only person on the team who even knew I had ever been married. Adam and Jake and Eve just think I’m talking to you about the fact that you’ve been an * for four days and you’re jeopardizing this op.”

Ian hadn’t told his brother? “What about Sean?”

“My brother has enough problems with me as it is. Even back then, Sean had a love-hate relationship with me. Knowing about Charlie would have put him firmly in the hate camp, more than likely.”

“You’re wrong about Sean. He would understand,” Alex said quietly. “Li will, too. Tell him.”

Ian was quiet for the longest time, so long Liam thought he wasn’t going to speak. “I was recruited into the CIA through their black ops program. They sometimes recruit active Special Forces members to train as operatives. I was one of them. I had run two or three small-time missions, mostly gathering recon in Afghanistan. I served there for a long time and had very good contacts. That was where I first heard whisperings of an arms dealer selling tainted materials, enough to make a significant dirty bomb or several that when used in a coordinated attack could destabilize the economy of any number of first world countries.”

“I know the reason behind the op, Ian,” Liam replied. He’d sat through many briefings, boring meetings meant to make him brutally aware of every aspect of the operation. He’d been sure that they were just long to make the agent briefing them justify his job.

Ian moved on. “I started tracking the arms dealer, but I couldn’t get close to him. He had ties to the Russian mob. I didn’t. I knew it would take more than just money.”

“You needed someone with a bad reputation.” Liam knew this drill. Someone like Ian would have to be under deep cover. That was hard. The Russian mob had access to many ways to break a cover. They would need real ties, and Liam had them. He had them all over his nasty family tree.

Ian’s eyes rolled. “You’re going to put the worst spin on this you possibly can. You and your brother had IRA ties.”

“I never hid them.” He couldn’t have hidden them. When he’d gone into the Army, he’d been a dumb kid barely able to wipe his ass much less hide the fact that his mother had seen the IRA as a religion. He hadn’t. He never had. It had almost been his way of rebelling.

“I know, and you were so damn good at your job that the SAS took you in anyway. Your commanding officers didn’t believe you had a hand in the IRA, but there are always rumors and those rumors can be used for good or bad.”

He’d never had a second’s misconception why he’d been chosen, and he’d known bloody well there could be a cost. His idiot younger self had practically wanted to sacrifice for the cause. That dumber Liam had believed he’d be a hero. “I knew that going into the mission. I knew there would be fall out. I knew intelligence would put it out that Rory and I were still meeting with Ma’s old cohorts.”

“Rory did meet with them, Li.” Ian’s words dropped between them.

Liam couldn’t help but reject it. “No. If he did, it was only for the mission.” But why hadn’t Rory told him? Ian had to be mistaken. Except he was always so cautious.

Ian seemed to choose his words carefully. “He did it before the mission. He was under investigation, but he convinced your higher-ups that he was just checking in on family. His ties were why I picked you both for the op.”

Liam felt the ground shifting beneath him. Rory had gotten in touch with their uncles? Their crown hating, kill ‘em all uncles? They’d grown up surrounded with bitterness and bile, and they’d promised to never go back after their mother drank herself to death. “He would have told me.”

“We all have secrets, Liam. Even from our brothers.” Ian’s eyes found the floor.

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