Love and Let Die (Masters and Mercenaries #5)(99)

A smile crept over Sean’s face. “I think we call that love.”

Yep, the vomit was right there at the back of his throat. “It’s stupidity, Sean.”

“You say potato, I say true love. I know you. I know you’ve played through every horrible scenario in your head. I know you’ve gone through all the ways she could be tricking you and everything she would gain by betraying you, but have you thought through the fact that she just loves you and wants to be your wife?”

The plane jumped a little. He was out of time to get his brother away unless he wanted to toss him on the tarmac. “That’s not the likely scenario.”

“You can’t play this on percentages and chances, Ian. Did you read Eve’s work-up on her? Did you read about the way she behaved, the things she did when you weren’t around?”

He glanced into the cabin. Charlie was looking out the window while Ten seemed to be staring down her shirt. And he was sitting in Ian’s f*cking seat. What did she really do when no one was watching?

Ten reached out and put a hand on her arm, pointing at something outside the window. Ian felt a low growl start to build in his chest. But then Charlie frowned at him, removed his arm, and seemed to give him a good talking to.

The raging jealousy that had been inside him since the moment she’d walked back in eased a little. Charlie wasn’t interested in Ten. As far as he could tell she hadn’t looked at another man, and Eve had said she was perfectly celibate in Florida. It had been her reputation there.

Why was he believing a pathetic piece of trash assassin over her?

“You know she sent a bunch of information to the Agency? She stopped a couple of terrorist plots in their tracks. That wasn’t Chelsea. That was Charlie. When I sat down with the Agency, they didn’t want to torture her."

“They wanted to hire her,” Sean surmised.

“I didn’t tell her that.” He didn’t want that life for her. He was allowing her to believe that he’d saved her from torture when he might be keeping her from a job she would love.

“She wouldn’t go. She is right where she wants to be and that means you have some decisions to make.” His brother slapped him on the back, a manly gesture of affection.

He might have to choose between her and Sean because she would still be wanted, still be under the syndicate’s kill order. “Sean, if I run with her…”

“Slip me a postcard every now and then. Let us know you’re okay. You should always know that we’re here if you need us. You have to choose her now. If you love her then you have to pick her over me, like I picked Grace. Let’s finish this and then you run with her. Your job is done. I’m fine. Better than fine. We’re all happy, Ian. You played a part in all of us finding what we need. Your little family is set. So you can run and know that we’ll be fine. You have a new family now.”

Charlie’s eyes came up, finding his. She gave him a smile and mouthed the words “save me” and pointed at her erstwhile suitor.

Save her. It was all he’d wanted to do back then.

Knight’s voice came over the system. “This is your pilot. We’re about to take off. If you want to keep your ball bag in the right place, you’ll sit down and buckle up.”

So he was set. He was going to meet with Eli Nelson and his brother was at his back.

And he kind of wanted to keep his ball bag where it belonged, but Ten might lose his. He strode down the aisle. He wasn’t going to fight with Ten. He didn’t need to.

He took the seat across from Ten. “Charlie?”

She didn’t need more than that. She unbuckled and immediately moved to sit beside him without a backward glance.

Sean settled in across from Charlie, a smirk on his face.

“Buckle up, baby,” Ian said.

It might be a long flight, but at least he liked the company.

Most of it.





The sun beat down on Nelson’s head, the heat nearly unbearable, but he stayed in position, watching the massive yacht in the distance.

He was getting too old for this shit. He was starting to envy the king and his carefree world. Kamdar didn’t have to hustle, didn’t have to worry that every day might be his last.

He was a little na?ve to not worry about that last bit since Nelson’s job was to make sure the king didn’t have a good many days left.

The king was lying back on a chaise as his harem lounged around him. Beautiful women in bikinis that barely covered anything at all. They were all there awaiting the king’s pleasure. Including the new blonde he’d picked up when he’d refueled yesterday.

It had been the simplest thing for Nelson to get his own pretty blonde on board. His attempts at getting close to the king himself had met with failure. The king, he’d been told, was on vacation and not meeting anyone for business.

It would be so simple if he could just murder the f*cker, but until he figured out where the research documents were stored, Kash Kamdar had to be kept alive. The last thing his bosses wanted was the research being made public. He needed every copy either in his hands or destroyed.

Hopefully Olga would do her work and do it well. She simply needed to get into the king’s bed and then wait until he made a mistake.

Or if he took too long, then Olga was not only magnificent in bed, she was also a well-trained torturer. She could lick a man’s balls and then make him wish he’d never been born with them.