On Her Master's Secret Service (Masters and Mercenaries #4)(98)

Had Evans kept her out of the loop, too? Why else would she have disrupted his plans?

“Fuck. Mikey didn’t order me to do that.” Chazz nodded toward the back of the club. “But some of our friends alerted us to your presence here, McKay. Mikey would love to have a talk with you.”

“Since he has my wife, I’d like to talk to him as well.”

Again Chazz frowned, and Alex felt his gut tighten. “I don’t know nothing about that either. I just got a call from the big guy and he’s figured out that you’re not who you said you were. I’m just going to keep you and your boy in there on ice until Mikey decides what to do with you. Bring him into the kitchens. We’ll keep him with the other.”

Alex followed along, making an inventory of the weapons on his body. He’d get his SIG back, but there was a semi in his right boot and a knife in his left. Jake’s car was loaded down with ordinance under a false bottom in the trunk.

One of the very likely soon-to-be dead bouncer/meathead musclemen gave him a shove through the double doors of the kitchen. Three more of Chazz’s bouncers were inside. They’d been ready and waiting apparently. Someone had tipped them off. He caught sight of Sean, making a careful but quick study of the kitchens. The line of stainless steel ovens and burner units were to his left, with two big refrigeration units on his right. The expo station sat between them. Someone had sent the rest of the staff home it looked like. They were alone in the big kitchen with nothing but the security staff.

Where was the kid? Alex looked at the bouncers but none of them was Jesse Murdoch.

“Hey, I’ve had a morning, brother.” Sean sat at the back of the kitchen near a large prep space. The chair that held him was against a counter. It looked like he’d been jumped while he was working. His knife set was rolled out and there were piles of herbs and onions on the counter, precisely cut and portioned out. Sean sported a nice shiner and a couple of bruises. Why? How many *s had they sent at him?

“I can see that. You look like you got taken down by a baseball team.” They often used sports references to gain information. He couldn’t just come out and ask Sean how many men were lurking around.

“More like an offensive line just before the snap,” Sean shot back.

Seven then. Seven offensive players had to be on the line of scrimmage in football. Alex quickly counted. Six men were in the room with them and Massive Asshole had fled, likely into the waiting arms of Jake, who would be asking him the same types of questions.

Easy breezy.

“I should have known you would f*ck this up,” Alex told Sean. “You got tied up.”

Sean’s blue eyes closed briefly as though he couldn’t stand the embarrassment. “Lost my best paring knife, too. It’s been a shitty day. I’m ready to end it. I know everything I need to know.”

Nice. This was why he loved working with Sean. They communicated so well together. He quickly decoded the information Sean had imparted with a few bland sentences. Sean had managed to keep his three-inch blade and had already worked through the bindings. He was ready to go when Alex was.

“Get another chair for the new *,” Chazz ordered. “We’ve got to keep him here until the boss tells us where to take him. It shouldn’t be more than a couple of hours.”

One of the bouncers walked out to do his boss’s bidding.

“Their timetable moved up. Chazz got a phone call an hour ago,” Sean said.

So that’s why he’d allowed himself to be captured. With only seven untrained guys, there was no way Sean had been taken down in a fight.

“I didn’t ask you to talk.” Chazz took a long breath, and his eyes narrowed. “You know now that I have your friend here, I don’t know that I need you anymore. I took you down because I thought I might need leverage if he showed up. Mikey said nothing about keeping you around. It might feel good to work one of you over. I got some issues to work out. He’s probably going to close this club down now. We’re going to have to move and all because you two are f*ckwad cops.”

“Is that what he said? And how did your boss find out?” Alex slightly shook his head, giving Sean the no-go sign. He brought two fingers up to his chest, scratching a little. Two minutes to go. He had a few things to discover before they got to the part where Chazz cried a lot and likely crapped his pants.

“That’s none of your f*cking business,” Chazz shot back.

“I’m not a cop.”

Chazz snorted. “Really? And why should I believe you?”

“I used to be a cop, a fed actually. I used to work with the man who I believe is supplying your boss with information,” Alex explained.

Sean’s eyes went wide, but he stayed silent.

Alex stared at Chazz. “The question now is whether it’s your boss or my former partner who took my wife.”

Sean’s whole body went tense.

“And who killed Kris,” Alex announced.

Sean’s face went red. “Are you f*cking kidding me?”

Chazz shook his head. “I told you I didn’t order that hit, but if the boss did, then the bitch needed killing.”

“Alex,” Sean hissed his name.

The thing with Kristen was going to kill him until he had an answer. He hoped she lived. “Yeah, go, but I need that idiot.”