You Only Love Twice (Masters and Mercenaries #8)(29)

And then she heard a hard thud and a sound that could only be fists hitting a body.

“Stop it!” She simply yelled the words as she entered the room. It didn’t matter who was fighting. It had to stop. They were supposed to be allies and she’d ruined that, too.

It was worse than she’d imagined. Everywhere she looked someone was pointing a gun at someone else or had Phoebe’s friends on their backs. And the worst was the ball of rage that seemed to be made up of her brother and Jesse.

So much for keeping his cover. His mask was off and she could see the rage on his face. “Tennessee! Stop it!”

He punched out, twisting and turning with Jesse as they both seemed intent on killing the other.

“Charlie, get the f*ck out of here,” Big Tag commanded. “Do you have any idea what kind of trouble you’re in? Dean, could you secure the package better than Jesse did?”

Phoebe squared off against Jake Dean because she wasn’t about to get locked in another office. “He could try, but I swear I’ll take out his balls this time. Remember what I did to your hand, Dean? Back off. Come on, Taggart. You know who I work for. Now can we try to keep those two from killing each other?”

“You’re not going to run?” Taggart still had a hold on Malone.

“There’s no reason to anymore,” she explained with a huff. “I was trying to protect that dumbass in there.”

“Which one?”

She was just about done with Taggart. “My brother, you idiot. I’m serious. The best thing to come out of my cover being blown all to hell is the fact that I can have a serious talk with you about how you treat Jesse. He’s not stupid. He’s smart. He’s way f*cking smarter than you since he knew all along I was working for Ten.”

“Your brother?” Tag’s hand came down as he released Malone. “Ten is your brother?”

Yeah, she probably shouldn’t have mentioned that. “Not by blood, but he’s my brother all the same. And he’s being a moron.” She looked back over to where Ten and Jesse were. Jesse had caught sight of her and he turned her way. That gave Ten just the distraction he needed. He charged at Jesse. “Stop it! All of you.”

Ten got Jesse on his back. “You think you can play around, you little shit? You think you can f*ck around with her? You’re going to learn how we do things in my house.” He punched Jesse right in the face.

Jesse’s eyes went slightly glassy.

Tag shoved Malone out of the way and holstered his weapon. “Ten, get the f*ck off him. He doesn’t like being on his back. It’s a trigger.”

“Yeah? Well, I don’t like a lot of things.” Ten reared back. “I’m taking this f*cker with me. I’m renditioning him. I have some questions I can’t ask on American soil. Malone, tell Ace to fire up the chopper. How about we head to the Middle East, Murdoch? I know you love it there.”

“You leave him alone.” She walked right up to her brother and started to push him off, but Taggart caught her around her waist and hauled her back.

“Don’t. He’s dangerous,” Taggart said. “Do you see that light in his eyes? He’s not with us anymore.”

Sure enough, Jesse started to fight, but not in the controlled way soldiers did. He thrashed, bucking Ten off him and rolling to his knees. He looked up at Ten, snarling like an animal.

“Everyone move back,” Taggart said in a calm voice. “Si, if you can work some magic here, I would appreciate it.”

“You’re being a little overdramatic,” Case Taggart said with a roll of his eyes. “Step back, boss. I’ll handle him.”

Before anyone could say a thing, Case stepped close to Jesse and Jesse pounced. He was on the bigger man, wrapping his hands around Case’s throat and saying something in a foreign language. Phoebe didn’t speak any of the Middle Eastern languages. She’d concentrated on Chinese and Korean and all the subdialects.

“Jesse!” She called out for him when Ten jumped back in.

“You’re making things worse,” Weston growled.

“What’s he saying?” Phoebe winced as Ten got Jesse in a chokehold. At least it would be over soon.

Or not. Jesse managed to move his head and catch Ten’s arm, biting down enough to draw blood. Ten shouted and dropped back.

“He’s saying he’d rather die,” Taggart explained. “He’d rather die than go back to being a dog. Someone’s dog. I don’t know all the words. It’s been a long time.”

“Charlotte, will you talk to him? Chelsea was able to talk him down last time,” Weston explained as Jesse turned on Ten.

Case started to walk up behind him, holding the butt of his rifle up.

“Stop!” Phoebe used her most authoritative voice and pointed a finger at Case. The man wouldn’t know subtlety if it bit him in the ass. “If you hurt him, I will make sure your next assignment is in the ass end of Africa. You’ll be pulling the leeches off your dick on a daily basis. Do you understand me? Charlotte, stand back. I’ll do it. He’s my responsibility.”

It had been right there on the tip of her tongue to say “he’s mine.” Every time someone questioned her rights to him, her damn alpha girl seemed to come out. She had to watch it because he wasn’t hers. However, she’d gotten him into this position and she would be the one to get him out.