Love and Let Die (Masters and Mercenaries #5)(16)

So easy. Now Denisovitch could deal with this shit and he could get back to his real score—India and that f*ckwad royal from nowhere Loa Mali. “Taggart has been an issue for a while, but if you kill him, the rest of that team will come after you.”

Denisovitch snapped his fingers and the stoic-looking goon in a suit stepped forward, a file in his hand. “This is an issue I have already thought about. Will this do?”

Nelson took the folder and quickly flipped through it. Sean Taggart. Alexander McKay. Liam O’Donnell. Jacob Dean. Adam Miles. Eve St. James. “What about the Brit? He hired a Brit a couple of months back.”

“Do you really think he’s loyal?”

The bastard had been MI6 and given up his place to follow Taggart. Sure as f*ck he would be loyal. Taggart commanded nothing if not a crazed sense of loyalty from his men. It had been that way during his Army years. Luckily the CIA discouraged loyalty to anyone but the Agency. “I think it’s safe to say he could cause trouble. Kill him, too. Accidents would be best but assassinations are fine.”

Denisovitch pointed to the picture of Eve St. James, who had recently changed her name back to McKay. “You really think the woman is a threat?”

He couldn’t let the man back out now. “Don’t underestimate the women. Didn’t your brother make that mistake?”

Denisovitch grimaced as though he’d smelled something rotten. “I told my brother not to marry that American whore. When she ran off, I told him to let the cow’s children go, but he had to punish her. All right then, I’ll kill the woman, too.”

“Grace Taggart,” Nelson said. “Don’t forget about Sean’s wife and child. It’s always best to take out the entire line. After all, your brother killed his disloyal wife only to be killed by a disloyal daughter.”

Nelson had unfinished business with Grace and Sean. Oh, he wished he could see Sean’s face when his wife and baby were gone and he realized he was next. That would be a lovely day, but he had better things to do. He would just have to imagine it.

“All right. But Charlotte is first. She will die and then her sister and then the rest will follow shortly after. I insist on this.”

If the f*cker didn’t get Ian and Sean first, there would be a war on his hands. But then again, a war with the syndicate would keep Taggart occupied and allow Nelson to work freely. Not such a bad thing.

Nelson held out a hand. “I’ll leave it all to you then.”

“I will take these people down. Anyone who is involved with Charlotte and her sister will die. This I will swear when I pray today.”

The Russian started talking about vengeance and God, but Nelson stared out into the city. Off in the distance were the high spires of the Church of the Spilled Blood. Nelson stared at them.

It was fitting since he was going to make Taggart bleed.





Ian came awake to the smell of bacon frying. And promptly wanted to vomit. Oh, he joked about vomiting a lot, but today was the real thing. His stomach rolled and rumbled and threatened to blow.

How much f*cking Scotch had he gone through last night? Enough to have had the craziest dream. Charlie had come back. She’d walked right up to his house and dropped to her knees and sucked his cock in that enthusiastic, crazy-hot way of hers.

And she’d had strawberry blonde hair and new scars.

And she’d punched him in the face.

He reached up and felt his nose. Yep. No dream.

“You might as well wake up. The sooner you give in, the quicker you can move through the hangover, brother.”

Sean. This wasn’t a dream. It was a nightmare. He forced his eyes open and sure enough, his brother was sitting across from him, one leg negligently crossed over the other. The sun was streaming in through one of his bedroom windows. It must have been courtesy of Sean because he never opened those blackout drapes. He liked it dark, but the sun shone in and practically gave his younger brother a halo. “What the f*ck are you doing here? Come to think of it, how did you get in?”

Everyone was getting through his security these days.

“You let me in, Ian. I showed up at the gates. You buzzed me in after making me promise I was the pizza man.”

It was worse than he thought. “I did not.”

Sean nodded, his eyes wide and an amused grin flashing on his face. “Oh, yes, you did. You got the munchies somewhere around midnight. It’s all right, man. You were very controlled and perfectly manly when you threatened to shoot me if I put anchovies on your pizza.”

His stomach rolled at the thought, but he made sure his face was perfectly clear. “All right, I’ll rephrase the question. Why are you here?”

“Because your wife said you needed me.”

He was going to kill her. He was going to wrap his hands around her pretty throat and squeeze. Except the minute he had the vision of killing his back-from-the-dead wife, she was suddenly naked and he wasn’t thinking about throttling her anymore. Maybe he could f*ck her to death. That would be a better way to go.

“I was surprised to get that particular call,” Sean continued. “Since I wasn’t aware you had a wife.”

“I don’t.” He needed to get up. He needed to take a shower and get moving. He couldn’t lie around in bed. He had to figure out if Charlie was lying about Eli Nelson. She was too smart to completely fabricate a story, so he was sure there was a kernel of truth somewhere in it. It was his job to pull the truth from the bullshit, to beat her at her own game this time.