The Dom Who Loved Me (Masters and Mercenaries #1)(45)

“I think so.” He pulled back. It looked like he’d seriously f*cked up. Everyone knew he was head over heels for Grace. He’d need to talk his way out of this and fast. “What does the big guy want?”

She frowned and shook her head. Sean caught sight of the scar that started just under her right ear. It was a large pale scar from a knife Sean knew had to have been huge. He’d only seen it once. That scar ran a good length of her torso, a gift from the only time the former FBI profiler had really f*cked up. Now Eve shifted self-consciously and tucked the collar of her shirt close to her neck. “You need to talk to him. I think he’s wrong, but he does have a point. Whatever happens, don’t give up on Grace. She’s not what he thinks.”

Ian stepped into the lobby. His huge presence filled up the room in a way no one else’s could. Ian put his hands on his hips, every muscle in his body tense and shouting to Sean that he was in trouble. “My office, now.”

Without waiting to see if he was being obeyed, Ian turned on his heels and marched back down the hallway.

Sean felt like he was twelve again and getting called out by his brother/substitute father. He followed Ian down the long hallway. Growing up, his mother had conceded control of the house to Ian after their father had fled. Ian had been a teen, but he’d never faltered. He’d managed a job, high school, and helping his younger brother with homework without ever uttering a single complaint. Ian had been the rock they’d clung to. Ian had been the mountain he could never, ever climb.

Sean entered Ian’s perfectly kept office with his spectacular view of the Dallas skyline. It was a power office that screamed out the owner’s success. “What’s this about?”

Ian sank to his chair. His big hands were on the top of his desk clenched into fists. He took a deep breath before he began his assault. “You love her? You f*cking love her? She is a suspected terrorist, and you spend your time telling her how much you love her?”

Sean felt every muscle in his body go tight as though Ian were pounding him with his fists rather than mere words. “She’s not a terrorist. This is completely ridiculous. She’s a secretary. God, Ian, if you spent two seconds with her you would see it.”

It was obvious to Sean that Ian didn’t see past his file folder. He’d made his decision. “She’s in this up to her neck. You can’t expect me to leave you in after what you did tonight.”

Sean’s blood went cold. While he didn’t believe that Grace was involved, he was damn sure that something was going on with her boss. “You can’t take me out. She’s in danger. I won’t leave her.”

“You are coming in. She is the f*cking suspect, and you told her you love her. You are compromised in every way possible. You’re coming in, and you won’t see her again until this mission is over. If she isn’t in jail or some f*cking foreign country being questioned by the Agency, then feel free to take her to the movies and share a bag of popcorn.”

Sean wasn’t even going to argue with his brother’s distaste for normal dating rituals. Ian had his kinks, and Sean wasn’t going there. Sean tried another tactic. “Have you ever heard of lying? I told the lady what she wanted to hear. She’ll comply with what I say. She’s a sub, Ian. Imagine that bit of luck. She’s a sub, and she’s accepted me as her Dom. I put a collar on her this afternoon. She’ll do what I tell her to do.”

She wouldn’t. Grace would fight him every inch of the way if she thought he was wrong, but Ian didn’t need to know that. If Ian thought she was compliant, maybe he would leave them alone.

Ian studied him. “Bullshit.”

“What is that supposed to mean?”

Ian’s arms crossed over his chest like a shield. “It means you’re coming in.”

He felt his teeth grinding together and that need to punch someone rising again. “I am not coming in.”

Ian took a long breath. He sat back in his chair, and his hands came up to his chest, steepling together as he regarded his brother. Sean could see plainly that Ian was trying to decide the best way to “deal” with him. Sean was a problem to be solved, and Ian’s brilliant brain would come up with a way to fix him. Ian had obviously decided that intimidation wouldn’t work, so he was changing tactics.

“Could you be logical for one minute, Sean?”

Not where Grace was concerned. Logic didn’t have a place where Grace was concerned. “Of course.”

“Think about what you’ve been doing, Sean. Have you conducted yourself in a professional manner?”

Ah, the voice of reason. Well, he could be reasonable, too. “If you’re talking about sleeping with Grace, we all knew that was probably going to happen. You sent me in because you wanted me to get close to her. Well, I got close. I couldn’t possibly get much closer. I brought you some info we wouldn’t have gotten if I hadn’t been sleeping with her. Did you get the picture of the note I found? The one with the address? You wouldn’t have touched that laptop of hers tonight if I hadn’t made it happen.”

Ian didn’t look particularly convinced. “You gave me one address. It’s hardly a revelation. I’ll send Liam to check it out tomorrow.”

“Don’t bother. I want to see it for myself. There was a series of numbers on it, too.”

Ian flipped open his computer. He quickly found what he was looking for. His blue eyes stared at the screen for a second. “They are account numbers. Cayman numbers, I suspect. Where did this come from?”