The Dom Who Loved Me (Masters and Mercenaries #1)(53)

He made it to his Scout. He’d happily given Eve back her Benz. He’d been too confined in the little luxury car. He greatly preferred his big-ass SUV. He slid into the car and took off immediately. He didn’t turn toward his apartment. He wasn’t going home to sleep. He was heading out to the small building Grace had tracked Parnell to.

It was late. The streets were quiet, but Sean parked down the block anyway. This part of the city was all about business. Though the lights were all on, no one was home. His feet made absolutely no sound on the sidewalk beneath him. Sean was still for a moment, letting his senses open to the world around him. The night was silent save for the normal sounds of the city. An air conditioner coughed to life. Somewhere he could hear a sprinkler system working. Nothing else. He’d been trained by the best. Though he’d been out of combat for a long time, the rhythm always came back quickly. He moved efficiently, and before he knew it, he stood at the back door of the Addison Mail and Storage Center. He had circled the place a couple of times to be certain no one was working late.

It was time for a little breaking and entering. It would be easy because Sean knew the simplest way into any building was to have the key, or in this case, the key card. He’d cased the place after Grace and Parnell had left. It was a simple thing to flirt with the girl at the counter and bump into her. He’d lifted the card out of her pocket and palmed it before she knew what was happening. Now he just had to hope no one had changed the codes.

He slid the card into the reader at the back door and a green light came on. Bingo.

Sean moved through the building, keeping to the shadows. His body hugged the wall despite the fact that he sensed he was alone. He looked around and found what he feared. A red light blinked from the corner. Security camera. It wasn’t swinging, so it was stationary. It was set up to catch people coming in and out, but not people moving around in the building.

His eyes quickly adjusted to the dark. He was in a mailroom. The smell of slightly molding paper assaulted him. He moved freely through the mailroom and into a small office. No cameras here. There was a computer and a ton of paperwork. Sean shuffled through until he found an invoice list. No Evan Parnell. No Matthew Wright. Fuck. Grace. According to this paperwork, Grace paid the bill on box 115. He had to stop his hand from shaking. What the hell was he going to do? Could he really turn Grace in?

According to Mr. Black, the Earth League was targeting polluters. The Bryson Building housed the corporate offices of one of the world’s largest natural gas companies. It was the same gas company Grace had signed a petition against. What exactly was she involved in? Was she really planning on blowing up that building? It seemed incomprehensible, but all roads were leading back to her. There was only one way to make sure.

He made his way to the door on his left and there it was. Another room, this one just rows and columns of boxes set into the walls. And another camera. This one swung around, but it also had its blind spots. Patience was the key. Most thieves would panic and either run or try to take out the thing, thereby alerting whoever was monitoring it that there was a thief. Sean wasn’t a thief. He was something more complex, and he knew that patience would prevail.

One, two, three…the numbers made a staccato rhythm in his brain. Fifteen seconds to the right and then it started its sweeping swing. It wasn’t the most high tech of units. Its range wasn’t great. It was adequate, but not all encompassing. The question was, where was the box Sean needed to get into?

When the camera made its swing, Sean stepped into the blind spot and made his body as small as possible. Box 220. The box he was looking for was 115. Damn. It was on the other side. It looked like it was in a corner though. The other blind spot.

Sean let the camera swing by twice, getting the motion and timing correct. He hoped that he was right about the security code. There was only one number on that sheet he’d found in Grace’s briefcase that might work. 115-36-2-12. The box number was 115. The rest had to be the code. Taking a deep breath, he followed the camera, staying in the blind spot. Counting, he waited and when the camera swung back, stepped out and located the box, about halfway up. He punched the code in, and the box popped open. He pulled the long metal box out, hugged it to his body and stayed close to the outer wall. In a few minutes, he was back in the mailroom, opening his prize.

And freaking out, just a little.

He was going to kill his brother, his goddamn, closed-mouthed, keeping-secrets brother. This wasn’t about terrorists. And Mr. Black had lied to every one of them. Once again, the Agency was playing a game, and they were the pawns.

They were smack in the middle of a spy game.





Evan was perfectly satisfied with the way his brother’s face flushed as he watched the tape. Matt had been mad at first when he entered the office. He’d been angry to discover Evan had been spying on him. Amateur. It was what he did. He’d been a spy for so long, it was second nature to him. Thanks to the good old USA, he wasn’t comfortable unless he knew for damn sure what the people around him were doing.

“What do you want me to do to you?” Johansson’s voice came over the tape. Evan knew what came next.

“Fuck me, Sir.” Grace’s breathy moans made Evan’s dick hard.

He’d never really thought much about his brother’s assistant except for the trouble she could cause. She was a good front on several levels. She wrote out checks without really asking questions. He’d managed to get her to pay the bills on several storage units he didn’t want ties to. But he’d never seen her as a woman. That had been a mistake. She was a total freak. He’d never suspected that. If he had, he would have f*cked her a long time ago. Maybe if he had taken her to bed, he wouldn’t have to do what he needed to do now.