You Only Love Twice (Masters and Mercenaries #8)(28)

Phoebe heard the lock open with a satisfying snick. So her skills weren’t as rusty as she’d thought. She’d made the torque wrench and pick out of office supplies from Erin’s very sparse desk. The whole office looked like no one was home. There were no pictures, no little knickknacks. Erin Argent’s desktop was empty with the exception of a computer monitor and a charging station for her cell phone. Inside the desk wasn’t better. Phoebe had found gun oil and some cloths and a few office supplies, like the unopened box of paper clips that had become Phoebe’s lock picking set. Other than that, it looked like Erin lived like a Spartan.

She got the door open just as a loud bang shook through the walls. She shrank back for a second before the acrid smell hit her nostrils.

Flashbang. Shit. She was going to kill her brother. That was so much damn overkill. She was just about to run toward the lobby when she heard a cry.

Oh, god. The babies. The babies were here and Phoebe had no idea what Ten had told his men to do. Fear gripped her. She knew her brother wouldn’t ever take an innocent life but bad shit happened in the middle of battle. The idea that any of those precious babies could be lost made her sick, forced her feet to run toward that sound. She ran past the kitchen, catching the barest glimpse of Sean Taggart there. If he was worried, it didn’t show. His head was down and he was cutting something in that quick manner chefs used.

Another cry pulled Phoebe away. It was a high-pitched little baby wail. She started to turn the corner when she heard a man talking. British accent. Simon Weston.

“I’m moving. You don’t have to get rough. Just leave the children alone,” Weston was saying in a perfectly reasonable voice.

Phoebe glanced around the corner just in time to see Charlotte Taggart start after the big guy who had Weston.

Phoebe slipped down the hall and into the room they had just come from. Avery, Grace, and Serena were huddled in the back corner with the children while Eve leveled a gun at Phoebe’s head.

Phoebe could have had it out of her hands in about two point three seconds, but she wasn’t here to fight. “Is everyone all right? Please tell me they didn’t hurt the babies.”

Eve stared for a moment and then lowered the gun. “We’re fine. I don’t know where the others are. Charlotte is following Simon. I couldn’t stop her. If anything happens to her…”

“It’s my fault. I know. Just barricade the door. They don’t want to hurt anyone. They just want to get me and go.”

“Then you should really go,” Eve replied with icy eyes.

Tears formed as she realized this was her good-bye. Coldness from a woman she’d come to trust, but Phoebe was smart enough to know that a person rarely got a second chance. The old Phoebe—the one before Jamie and Ten, the one before Jesse—would have flipped her the bird and told her to f*ck off. It was best to hide pain behind pure disrespect. But this Phoebe was still so raw.

She simply nodded and looked at the women she’d belonged with for such a brief time. She’d never had female friends before. They’d become quite precious to her. “Take care of those babies. And Eve, I know you’re scared, but you’re going to be such a good mom. That baby boy…he’s so lucky.”

She started to leave but then felt a hand on her elbow. When she turned, Eve pulled her in for a hug.

“You stay safe, Phoebe. You know that woman you became while you were here, she was always inside you,” Eve whispered. “You don’t have to lose her. Well, maybe some of the klutziness, but you don’t have to lose the core of her.”

The core of Phoebe Graham had been a woman who helped the people around her, who gave and gave and rarely requested anything back. When she went back into her brother’s world, it would be different. She would sink back into the personality she’d developed over years of service to the Agency. She would guard herself, her emotions.

It struck her that the year she’d spent at McKay-Taggart had been precious. It had been the first time in her life that she’d really made friends. Jamie and Ten didn’t count. From the moment she’d met them, they’d felt like family, and a very exclusive one. Their father had taught them to trust no one outside the family, to let no one else in. They only had each other, but for a brief time, Phoebe had Eve and Serena and Grace and the others.

It had been nice to have a little community to help take care of.

Grace stepped up and there were tears in her eyes. “Go on, sweetie. I’m worried they’ll kill each other.”

She shook her head. “Te…the man who’s coming to get me wouldn’t really kill anyone. This is his version of shock and awe. He won’t use deadly force.”

“Yeah, well, no one told Ian, and whoever is out there is about to get Ian’s version,” Serena said. “And he will definitely be looking to kill someone.”

Shit. Ten was going to get everyone killed. Without another word she turned and raced down the hall. She had to hurdle over a body encased in a familiar black uniform. The big man had been dumped in front of the break room. She didn’t see blood, but that didn’t mean one of her brother’s men wasn’t dead. The minute the McKay-Taggart men figured out they were in trouble, they would use any and all means to deal with the situation.

“Are you kidding me?”

Frustration dripped from Ian Taggart’s tone as she approached the lobby.