Hottest Mess (S.I.N. #2)(53)

“So that’s the plan, then,” Quince said. “I’ve got a briefing in the prime minister’s office in an hour, but Noah and I will get going on our end.” His eyes cut to Dallas. “Good to see you, mate. Liam can get you up to speed.”

“Sounds good,” Dallas agreed, as Noah said his goodbyes, too, and the monitors winked to black.

“So what’s the plan?”

“We’re going to send Colin anonymous texts from a burner phone. Vague, but suggesting we know his secret. With luck, it’ll spur him to action.”

Dallas nodded, considering. “Ballsy. But dangerous, too.”

“True. But we need to make a play. After seventeen years, he’s not doing anything that’s going to spontaneously lead us back to the kidnapping.”

“I’ve been thinking along the same lines, actually. Thought I’d mention my conversation with Bill when I’m at Colin’s for dinner. Let him know that WORR and a few agencies are investigating the Sykes kidnapping.”

Liam nodded. “I like it.”

“Assuming he’s really our guy, either the texts or Bill’s investigation could spur him into making a move. But we’re also running a risk that he’ll destroy any remaining evidence. We need more eyes on him.”

“Already on it,” Liam said. “He makes a move, we follow. Noah’s going to pull Tony in for additional surveillance.”

Dallas considered the ramifications, then nodded. “It’s solid. Risky, but it may pan out.”

“I damn sure hope so. And we’ll also have the intel from the bugs you’re going to plant, so let’s talk about how that’s going to go down.”

“Should be easy enough. The point of the dinner is to show off the remodel of the house Colin bought in Brooklyn Heights.”

“So you can wander freely and praise the woodwork and casually mention Bill’s investigation.”

“That’s my plan,” Dallas said. “I just wish Jane wasn’t going to be there.”

Liam frowned. “Why is she?”

“Adele invited her. Apparently Colin invited Adele. So it’s going to be one big happy family, and I’ll have to plant the bugs without Colin or either of the women noticing.”

“Easy enough for a crack spy like you.”

Dallas rolled his eyes, and Liam sank down into one of the rolling desk chairs, then pushed backward a bit before kicking his feet out and studying Dallas. “So what’s the real reason you don’t want Jane there? Because it’s Colin? Or because you still haven’t told her everything she wants to know about Deliverance?”

“Both,” Dallas said. “Neither. Shit, man—everything is such a clusterf*ck right now.”

Liam rolled his chair closer. “Tell me,” he said. And despite everything Dallas had told himself earlier, he heard himself saying, “I hurt her. Goddammit, Liam, I had her slammed against the wall with my hand around her neck and I f*cking hurt her.”

To his credit, Liam didn’t push himself up out of his chair and bash Dallas’s brains in. Instead he said, very slowly and carefully, “I think you need to back up, buddy. Back up and tell me exactly what happened. And while you’re at it, I think you need to tell me why.”

It wasn’t easy. Christ, it was one of the hardest things he’d ever done. To tell his best friend the way he’d been tormented as a teen by that f*cking bitch. To explain his screwed up, violent, horrible fantasies. The kink he was into. Everything he craved with Jane.

He told Liam that Jane had said she could handle it, but he’d never fully believed her. Hell, he even told Liam about the playroom she’d had built in one of the old maids’ rooms in her townhouse, part of a last-ditch effort to convince him that she meant what she said.

And then, worst of all, he actually confessed to his best friend that he hadn’t penetrated a woman since he was fifteen.

“Wow,” Liam said, blinking and looking a bit like he was in shock. “You really are badass. All those women saying you’ve f*cked them.”

“Yeah, I’m just like David Copperfield. Master of illusion.”

“And seriously screwed up, too.”

And despite the hell he’d just put himself through, Dallas broke down and laughed. “Thanks,” he said. “Thanks a lot.”

Liam waved it away. “I don’t mean your angst or your cock. I mean that all this really is messing with your head if you’re telling it to me.”

“It is,” Dallas admitted, running his fingers through his hair. “And I haven’t even told you everything about last night.” He did now, though. About the intense sexual violence of his dreams. About Jane taking advantage of his erection. About the way he’d taken her, not realizing it was her. And then had kept on going when his senses returned, wanting to claim her. Needing to know if she could go with him as far as she’d said.

“And that’s why you don’t want her at Colin’s? You don’t think you can be around her right now?”

“Honestly, I’m more concerned that she’ll be okay seeing me. What I did to her … the way I just took her … Christ, I’m such an ass.”

“An ass? Maybe. But you’re also dense and blind.”