You Only Love Twice (Masters and Mercenaries #8)(11)

She didn’t even think about it. She jumped from her sniper’s perch and ran through the open doors, her bare feet hitting the concrete of the balcony. She ran until she hit the railing.

“Get down! Get down!”

But she could see that he was already down, his body covered by a man in a dark suit. Simon. His partner had done his job. Ten wouldn’t take out Simon Weston. There would be too much fallout. She had some time to figure out what was going on. All she had to do was get away from Taggart and get to her brother.

“Give me one reason I don’t kill you right now,” a dark voice said.

Taggart was right behind her. From the sound of his voice he was still in the suite, but the door was open so it wouldn’t take more than two or three steps for him to get to her. Once he put hands on her, it would all be over. Shit. She put her hands in the air because she had zero doubt he would take any reason she gave him. So she needed to come up with something really f*cking fast.

“It’s not what you think,” she said evenly. Calm. She needed to stay calm.

“I think you’re a liar, Phoebe, and I’m going to figure out what you’re doing here. Si, do you have that f*cking maniac under control?” Tag asked.

“He’s not a maniac.” Sometimes she didn’t like the way Taggart talked to Jesse. Oh, she understood it on an intellectual level. It was a guy thing, but it bugged her because Jesse wasn’t crazy and he wasn’t stupid.

“Your opinion is not needed,” Taggart said.

She could see Simon touch his ear. He was likely telling Taggart that he would take care of things.

“You have to get them off the streets. There could be a backup.” She wasn’t going to prevaricate or play coy. Now that she was staring this thing in the face, she knew she’d been lying to herself for a long time. She didn’t know what had happened in Iraq, but she couldn’t be Jesse’s executioner and she couldn’t stand here and watch it happen either. “They’re in danger until you get them out of here.”

She knew her career was over with that one little piece of advice, but there was nothing else she could do.

“If you think I believe a word you say, you haven’t studied me hard enough. Turn around very slowly. I would deeply enjoy putting a couple of holes in you. I don’t like being played.”

Oh, but she’d enjoyed playing him. At least at first she had. He’d been a challenge and she’d needed it at the time. She’d enjoyed knowing things Taggart hadn’t known. She’d waited and watched for the moment his supposedly dead wife would return and get her revenge on him.

And she’d watched as they’d fallen in love again, her heart aching because she’d finally figured out that he hadn’t been the one to push Charlotte Taggart away. He’d been mourning her for years.

The way she mourned Jamie.

She stared out as Simon rolled off Jesse and started hauling him up. Jesse looked up, his eyes meeting hers.

She wanted to reach out to him, to talk to him, to beg his forgiveness.

He turned away as Simon hauled him into the restaurant. It didn’t escape her attention that they’d sat in that Mexican place for hours not weeks before, and for a little while she’d forgotten why she was there. She’d been Phoebe Graham, not Phoebe Grant, and she remembered the moment she’d leaned over and brushed her lips against his and it had been on the tip of her tongue to invite him to stay the night. She’d been ready to sleep with him. God, she’d been ready to cheat on her husband.

Tears filled her eyes. She’d gotten soft here. She’d gotten soft around their damn kids and their lives and how they took care of each other.

“I said turn the f*ck around,” Taggart barked.

It was all over now. Her life at McKay-Taggart was done. She wouldn’t be Phoebe Graham again. They wouldn’t ask her how she was or invite her to lunch. They wouldn’t joke around her. She would have to leave her little apartment.

She would have to start over and all alone this time because she wouldn’t have Ten with her anymore. She’d been so compromised he couldn’t trust her again.

When she managed to turn, she saw Taggart hadn’t come alone. Her big probably-was-a-Viking-warrior-in-a-different-life boss had a SIG trained on her, but Alex McKay had a Beretta and Jake Dean was standing behind them. She couldn’t see what he was holding, but she was sure he was armed to the teeth.

Not that he needed it. Any one of the three men in front of her could kill her without a weapon.

Unfortunately for them, she was pretty good herself, and she only had one person in the world left who gave a damn about her. She had to protect Ten at any cost.

She glanced to her left. The balconies were staggered. If they were uniform, then there wasn’t a balcony under her, but there should be a balcony one floor down and to her right. If she was wrong, she would be seeing Main Street up close and personal, but maybe that wouldn’t be so bad either. Maybe that would be a good way to go.

“We can do this the easy way, Phoebe,” Taggart said. “You come back to the office with us and we’ll have a chat.”

She could guess what that chat would be about and how friendly it would be. It would likely involve a bit of torture. She’d been in this position before. She still had a few scars from her brief time with China’s MSS.

Somehow she thought Taggart would be kinder. Yes, he was a badass, but she was also female and she could play on that with him.