A Dom is Forever (Masters and Mercenaries #3)(92)

“I understand.” Avery took a long breath and stood as well. “I would like to go home now. If I have to go home with Liam, I will do that.”

Not the sweetest words he’d ever heard, but he’d take them. He got up and nodded to Alex and Eve before opening the door for Avery. He was going home with her. He had to hope he had a little time to fix the wound he’d opened.

As for tomorrow, that was a fresh hell, and he’d face it when he had to.





Chapter Sixteen


Avery was still shaking as Liam got out of the cab. She almost never took cabs in the city, but Liam had insisted he didn’t want to be on the Tube this time. He’d probably thought she would run, but she’d meant what she said. She wasn’t going anywhere. She wasn’t going to allow all of her hard work to be for nothing because someone was trying to profit off the pain and misery of others.

Still, it would have been easier on the Tube. He’d spent the entire time sitting next to her not saying a damn word. For a man who had so much to say before, he was stubbornly silent now, and they were about to head up to her apartment where they couldn’t talk about anything because the whole place was bugged.

Her apartment was bugged, and everyone around her was lying to her. She wouldn’t believe it, but it was pretty hard to think the prime minister of England was really on hand to help out a bunch of con artists. Of course, it could have been an actor. One who looked and sounded just like the PM.

She sighed. She kept looking for a way out, and there wasn’t one. When she really stopped to think about it, she’d known deep down something was wrong at UOF. Something was wrong with her boss.

“Do you think Brian was in on it?” Brian Molina had been her friend in physical therapy. He’d introduced her to his brother and gotten her the job in the first place.

“Not here.” Liam handed the driver the fare and reached in to take her hand and help her out.

She ignored the offered hand. She would have to get used to being on her own again since she had no real intention of seeing him after this mission of his was over. In some ways, it would have been kinder for him to have just left. She would have had a few more days, and then he could have faded away. She would have been left with the memory of being loved once.

“Avery.” He was getting very good at making her name sound like a curse word, but she was about to get good at ignoring him.

She managed to stay on her feet. She breezed past him and into the building. He was right behind her. By the time they walked past the front desk, he had an arm around her and she was stuck because she’d promised to keep up the ruse. She smiled at the deskman and managed not to punch Liam when his hand slipped down and cupped the curve of her hip.

How long would it be before she forgot his face? Sometimes she couldn’t quite remember Brandon’s face.

When the lift doors closed, she started to shove him away, but he seemed to anticipate her move and crowded her to the back of the tiny car, his body covering hers. He leaned over and whispered straight in her ear.

“There’s a camera in the left hand corner. Don’t give me hell until we get to Adam and Jake’s. It’s not safe. There are cameras everywhere, and one wrong move could clue your boss in.” He tipped her head back and spoke normally. “Are you sure we have to meet your friends for a drink? I just want to get you in bed, baby.”

Heat flashed through her. She could hate him all she liked, but her body didn’t care. The minute he started to talk in that deep tone of his, her body responded. The good news was her body wasn’t in charge. “I think I’m going to be very tired tonight.”

He didn’t seem to pick up on her tone. He just winked down as the doors opened. “It’s okay. I’ll do all the work. All you have to do is lay there.”

“Wow. That sounds so charming.” She held her temper. Only a few more steps and she could let it fly. She allowed him to lead her out of the lift and down the hall. She glanced up and, sure enough, there were security cameras covering the hallway. She’d never really noticed them before. Someone was watching. Maybe it was the building security or maybe it was someone else. Everything she did and said was being watched and used against her.

Liam pulled her into his arms, his voice low again. “Don’t be scared. I’m going to take care of you.”

She wanted so much to sink into his strength. She wanted for him to just be Lee and for everything that had happened in the last couple of hours to be a stupid dream.

But it wasn’t, and she had to face reality again.

The door to Adam’s apartment opened, and he walked out looking like the nice man she’d assumed him to be when he was really some sort of intelligence operative. He was still dressed for the day in a pair of slacks and a button down. “Hey, you two. I was getting worried about you. Come on in. I have a late-night snack ready. Martinis, anyone?”

“Yeah, I want a martini,” Liam said, his voice incredulous. “Beer me, man. But my girl here could use a nice stiff drink.”

She walked through the door, and the minute it closed, Adam turned. He stood taller than normal, his shoulders perfectly straight and all affectation of softness gone. “Avery, I am very sorry you found out like this.”

She hated them all in that moment. Just as she’d thought she was finding some friends and coming out of her social disaster phase, she learned that everyone she’d befriended had ulterior motives, including her boss who she had pretty much bet her whole future on. She no longer had a home in the States. She had no friends there. No friends here. She was alone in a way she hadn’t been even after Brandon and Maddie had been killed.