Love and Let Die (Masters and Mercenaries #5)(48)

Charlie let her head rest against his shoulder, but he could feel how tense she was. She understood the stakes, and he had no doubt that she would keep her mouth shut in this instance. She had a knack for self-preservation.

“By the man from the Fort Worth operation?” Brighton asked. “The rogue agent you’ve been pursuing?”

It was always better to let a person make their own assumptions. They tended to believe themselves, to feel smart for their deductions. “His name is Eli Nelson. He’s pissed at me for more than one reason. I cost him a very lucrative business deal a few months back. He knows damn well I won’t stop until I’ve crushed him.”

Not a lie in there. Just not the entire truth.

Brighton sat back, running a hand through his closely cropped hair. “I hate the spy shit. Give me a good clean murder any day of the week.”

“The good news is you totally have a murder on your hands now. You’re welcome.”

Dark brown eyes rolled. “I can’t solve that one, *. It’s going to be on my docket, and it’ll go unsolved.”

An unsolved case on his docket would hurt him. “Look, when I get this figured out, I’ll help you, okay? We can connect some dots and make sure this guy’s family knows why he was killed.”

Brighton’s eyes narrowed. “Or I can take you into protective custody. It would be the right thing to do. I can’t just let this guy run around. He’s killed once. He could do it again.”

“You could try. We’ll see if you have a safe house that can handle me.” Ian was well aware that his voice had gone positively frigid. “You know what will happen if you do that. This guy will disappear and he’ll resurface when I least expect it. Right now I know who’s coming after me. All you would do is waste months of my life, and I would lose the chance to make sure I’m right about who wants me dead.”

Brighton let his head fall back. “I should call the f*cking Feds in. Hell, I should call in the Agency. They should be dealing with this shit.”

He couldn’t let that happen. The minute the Agency got involved, he would lose control of Charlie, and there were some places even he wasn’t sure he could get into. “I’m calling in that chip you owe me, Derek. For Kandahar.”

Ian had saved Derek’s life in Afghanistan and covered up a very substantial flub on the former sergeant’s part. It had been a messy bloody affair, and Ian had cleaned it up. He knew he was going straight for the throat. Brighton still hadn’t forgiven himself for what had happened, but Ian couldn’t afford to back down.

“Damn it.” Brighton leaned forward. “That is so f*cking unfair.”

“You should know better than most that life isn’t fair, Derek.” Ian couldn’t back down. Didn’t even want to. Favors were meant to be called in, and he’d done Derek Brighton a big one.

Brighton held a hand up in surrender. “All right, but you have to keep me up to date. You should know that the minute this affects another civilian, I won’t care what I owe you. I’ll do my job, Ian.”

He would do it because once he hadn’t and that one incident had affected the rest of his life. Ian knew he should be damn happy he had that favor or Derek’s duty would screw them all. “I wouldn’t expect less.”

Charlie relaxed a little.

Brighton turned slightly and motioned toward the bar, holding up a single finger. Jillian nodded and started to pour him a beer. “I don’t think I’m in the mood to play tonight. The good news is that frees me up to drink.”

Two drinks were all anyone was allowed at Sanctum if they were playing, but all of his Doms were known to treat the bar like a bar when they weren’t. Derek, especially. Lately, Ian had noticed Derek didn’t play much. He seemed to prefer to watch scenes and drink and go home alone.

“This one’s on me.” It was the least he could do and besides, Ian wasn’t drinking this evening. For the scene he had planned, he wouldn’t touch alcohol.

Jillian brought over a frosty mug and sat it down in front of Brighton. Ian motioned her over and quietly asked that she find her Dom and request he take care of Chelsea. Jillian, who had also witnessed the scene, nodded her assent and went to look for her husband, Ryan.

Charlie’s face tilted up, and there were tears in her eyes.

“Don’t,” Ian said. He didn’t need a crying sub. “And don’t forget protocol. I’ve been lax. I won’t be now.”

There were advantages to being able to control her ability to talk. He didn’t have to listen to mushy thank yous. Actually, this was kind of the dream. Charlie couldn’t talk. She could only sit there and look pretty. If only there was a high protocol for not getting herself killed by assassins. He would definitely put that shit in place.

Brighton took a long sip of his beer, watching them carefully. “Are you sure it’s the right time to take a sub? Don’t get me wrong. I’m actually happy to see you with a sub, but aren’t you a little worried she could get caught in the cross fire?”

“She’s practically bulletproof.” He slapped her very juicy ass. “And she’s solid. She can take a lot of damage.”

Charlie’s mouth firmed to a stubborn line and her eyes narrowed, but she didn’t say a word. She just glared at him.

Yeah, he liked high protocol.