From Sanctum with Love (Masters and Mercenaries #10)(22)

“He’s like a puppy, always chasing after something new and shiny,” Kai explained. He hated the fact that his life was spread out on a piece of paper like some fiction for everyone to read. It was Jared’s file, but Kai had lived it, too. “Or at least he was as a kid. He struggled in school. The nickname stuck.”

“He’s got a nasty background,” Eve murmured. “His father went to jail for beating his mother and he was left behind. It says here he spent some time in your home.”

“He was one of the strays Jared brought home. He lived at our place for a while. I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s still living close to Jared.”

“The trainer’s been accused of selling steroids,” Big Tag pointed out. “There’s not a single one of these guys with clean hands. And I can tell from this picture that the assistant has crazy eyes. We should look into her. It’s always the chick with the crazy eyes.”

“Unfortunately, he’s often right.” Charlotte closed the file. “I’ll very quietly look into these guys. I don’t buy that it’s Kai’s brother for several reasons. He’s too hot to be a killer.”

“Yes, because a man’s ability to do pull-ups while wearing three pounds of makeup means he couldn’t possibly be a murderer,” Big Tag shot back.

Charlotte’s eyes sparkled in the low light of the conference room as she obviously baited her husband. “He’s the real deal, Ian. He was on that Ninja warrior show as a celebrity guest and he got all the way through the course.”

Watching Ian and Charlotte mix it up sometimes made Kai long for a partner he could spar with. Like he and Kori sometimes did. That woman didn’t bother to temper herself around him any more than Ian did around his wife.

“Those aren’t ninjas, baby,” Ian replied. “Those are dudes who spend a lot of time in the gym. When they can do all that shit while someone’s shooting at them, I’ll call them special. When they can do all that shit while someone’s shooting and be invisible and stab someone at the end, then I’ll call them ninjas. Jared Johns is a meathead who trains fourteen hours a day so he can look pretty on a salmon ladder. I have no idea how he got cast as Pierce Craig. I finally sat down and read that book.”

Everyone with the exception of Special Agent Rush seemed to go still.

Alex seemed to stifle a laugh. “And what did you think of Serena’s hero?”

“You know what? I have no idea why the guys are so hard on her. Serena is a damn fine writer. This character has the douchiest name and sometimes he’s a big old *, but he’s got a good head on his shoulders. Everyone gets all over him, but the dude is doing what’s best for his team. I read the whole series and I don’t get why it took so long for readers to warm up to this guy. He’s obviously the hero. Some of the books were better than others, but every time this guy steps on the page, the book lights up. I think she’s got something with this character.”

“Did he seem familiar at all?” Kai couldn’t help but poke a little. “I’m only asking because you have so much in common. Pierce Craig runs a security agency. You run one.”

Big Tag waved it off. “That’s Serena writing what she knows. I get that. And there are a few similarities, although Pierce Craig was in Delta Force and I was a Green Beret. My only issue is he’s practically a saint, but all the people around him are *s. He’s a very misunderstood guy.”

“And not very self-aware,” Charlotte concluded with a gleeful smile. “I think we should leave it at that. Like I said, I’ll get someone looking into the entourage.”

Rush shook his head. “Don’t worry about that. We’ve got our best people on it.”

“Your best people don’t include my sister, and you have to follow all those inconvenient rules. We don’t have to do that.” Charlotte pushed her chair back. “I’ll share whatever we find. I’m going to go and get ready since it looks like I’ll be having a long talk with the subs tonight. While I have you here, Kai, did you spend any time with our mystery sub?”

Ah, this was one McKay-Taggart subplot he did know about. Roughly three weeks before, a woman named Mia Danvers had applied for a slot in the training class. She’d come highly recommended from an Austin club and had the money to pay for a full membership. The timing had been perfect as Big Tag was trying to find unattached subs and Doms. She also seemed to have the money and connections to forge her identification. Mia might not know it, but she’d been made the minute someone put her file in Adam Miles’s capable hands. Someone had done a decent job of putting together her cover, but Adam, like Charlotte’s sister, Chelsea, was phenomenal when it came to hacking personal data. He’d had a full write-up on the lovely blonde within two hours of getting her file.

“She’s a reporter. Why is she still here? Is there a reason we haven’t given her the boot?” Case asked. “Hell, I’d like to know why she was allowed into the class in the first place.”

“Because I’m curious,” Big Tag said. “She’s a freelance reporter. What’s she reporting on? According to Adam, she hasn’t sent anything to an editor except a few opinion pieces that are unrelated to anything having to do with Sanctum. She doesn’t typically write undercover pieces. For the last couple of years, she’s mostly written about Austin business. Now she shows up in Dallas? She’s asked a bunch of questions about McKay-Taggart.”