From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10)(101)

“She’s pregnant, Mia.” Kori thought that should be put out there before Erin and Mia started throwing punches. Or stabbing each other. Jeez, she didn’t want to get in between a couple of alpha females. All they needed was Charlotte Taggart to show up and they could start their own wrestling crew.

Mia took a deep breath. “Damn it.” She sat down on the couch. “I could use a good fight after tonight.”

A smile of pure pleasure swept across Erin’s face. “Oh, see, now I like you. You’re going to need that fight if you take on McKay-Taggart. Now tell me why you’re here and why you’ve lied to my people.”

Mia’s eyes narrowed. “So you can report back to them? How deep are you in? You can tell them my brother will never join them. They can block his access to resources all day. He’ll find a way around them.”

Kori saw the moment Erin realized what Mia was talking about and she got a chill. She didn’t understand the spy stuff, but she did know when a moment got real. Really f*cking real. She tried to laugh to bring the potential for violence down. “Mia thinks McKay-Taggart might be involved with some weird corporate thing. I think it’s price fixing or something. I told her that’s crazy.”

“The Collective killed my husband. Theo. The Collective killed Theo,” Erin said, her jaw tight. “Are you telling me they’ve come to your brother? Did they try to tell you we’re involved?”

Mia took a moment and seemed to come to some kind of decision. “They approached him a year ago, right after his stock soared. They were quiet about it, but my brothers started to do some digging. I have three brothers, Drew, Riley, and Bran. Riley’s a lawyer. Drew found out where the contact had come from and then Riley connected that man to a couple of companies. Mega firms with so many arms it’s hard to tell who’s who, but Riley managed to make sense of most of it. Then Bran and I ran with it and figured out how they operate. They’re responsible for a lot of crimes. This goes way beyond price fixing. They own politicians and start wars in Third World countries to advance their business and to crush their rivals. Ian Taggart’s name came up more than once. And when I found out the very man I believe killed my friend was tied to this company, I knew they were involved.”

Erin pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed a number. “Tag, I need you to come to my place. Now. I don’t care. Case is a big boy and he can find his way home. Ian, I’m serious. I need you here now.”

She flicked her finger across the screen. Not many people in the world would hang up on Ian Taggart. Erin had balls. She sat forward and looked at Mia. “We’ve been fighting The Collective for years. I wasn’t here in the beginning, but the firm’s involvement goes back to a rogue CIA agent who attempted to use McKay-Taggart to help him steal technological plans for a drone that would have put the US military years ahead of every other country on the planet. He intended to sell them to China. McKay-Taggart stopped him. We’ve been fighting ever since.”

“So I was right and Senator McDonald was a member of The Collective,” Mia said.

Kori’s stomach was in knots. What did any of this have to do with why Kai needed to clone Mia’s phone? “But you’re wrong about McKay-Taggart working for him. They wouldn’t work for a corrupt senator. Big Tag is smart. He vets his clients.”

“He also loves subterfuge,” Erin said. “Once a spook, always a spook, I say. Ian vetted you, Mia. I’m sure he’s known all along exactly who you are, and I suspect that he thinks you’re working for The Collective.”

“He thinks my brother is one of them?” Mia paled a little.

Erin touched her nose and gave Mia a wink. “Now you’re catching on. We’ve been in a Mexican standoff without knowing it because the boys are dumb shits who would rather play spy games than sit down and think this out rationally.”

“Why wouldn’t he ask her?” Kori didn’t understand. She didn’t understand why they wouldn’t sit Mia down, and she definitely didn’t understand why they’d gotten Kai involved.

Except that Mia had been Kori’s friend and Kai had an in with Kori. If Case hadn’t been able to get close to Mia, which it looked like he hadn’t, then Kai could do the job. Which he had. He’d done his job with the cool precision of a McKay-Taggart operative and then he’d wanted out. He’d obviously found his work distasteful.

Erin sighed, her eyes a little weary. “Ian would love to believe that he’s a mystery to all of us. He’s not. I’ll tell you exactly what he was thinking. He was wondering if Blondie here wasn’t working for her brother. He hoped and prayed she was a plant so he could switch it all up on her and spy on Drew Lawless and maybe, just maybe Lawless would lead us deeper into the organization. He would have listened in, but only one name would have mattered. Oh, if Ian had really found something out, he would alert the authorities, but only if it wouldn’t compromise his mission.”

“I’m scared to ask what his mission is,” Mia admitted.

“They didn’t catch who killed Theo, did they?” There was only one thing that would drive Big Tag like this, that would make him single-minded and utterly ruthless.

“Theo was killed by some random * who got the jump on him because he f*cked up,” Erin replied. “That man was meaningless. Going after that idiot would be like stomping on the bullet that pierced Theo’s heart. He was a tool. Maybe he died when we stormed the compound. Maybe he’s still some *’s lackey. I don’t know. I don’t care. I shot Senator McDonald through the brain. Put that in your story, Mia. I sat on a rooftop with a sniper rifle and waited until the perfect moment, and then I pulled the trigger. You would think I was angry at the time. That I was emotional. I wasn’t. True revenge is cold. It means you’ve got nothing left and all that will satisfy your icy heart is killing another human being. I would very much like to kill Hope McDonald. So would Ian. So would Case. So would Sean.”