Chapter Seventeen

 

Something was wrong but she couldn’t put her finger on it. The car turned down the long road that would take them to the conference hotel in central London. It was getting late, but the streets were still crowded with tourists in this part of the city.

Brad frowned as he looked her over. “I can’t send you in with a comm device.”

She nodded. “I know. I’m sure the first thing she’ll do is make sure I’m not wired.”

“The good news is we’ve already got a room and Jax will be able to cut into the CCTV around the hotel.” Kyle Hawthorne was driving, and to his credit he didn’t have a single problem with driving on a different side of the street.

Tucker and Jax had gone on ahead. She would be dropped off a few blocks from the hotel and walk in to avoid showing up with Brad and Kyle, who would be using a worker’s entrance. Damon Knight had set everything up so they could slip inside without causing a scene.

Everything felt rushed, like time had suddenly sped up and she was in light speed mode.

She hoped this was all over before Drake found out what was going on. She knew she should have called him, but he was on his own op, and they were both professionals. A good spy didn’t call her boyfriend when she got scared.

There was nothing at all to be scared of. This was a simple break-in and a bit of thievery, and then she would have an in. She would be able to ID The Consortium operative and give the Agency a bunch of important information, and then she could be out if she wanted to. She could even kill off Constance Tyne and help the Agency create a new construct another operative could work with. Taylor Cline could have a life again.

So why was her gut twisting in knots?

“I’m going to have eyes on you everywhere. Owen made sure the suite he and Dr. Walsh are using has some high-tech cameras in it. They’re brand new. Undetectable right now. If anything seems to be going wrong, I’ll be there, Taylor,” Brad promised her.

“And I’ll be in a room of my own, monitoring the situation from another part of the hotel,” Kyle explained. “We took out a couple of rooms to make sure we have good coverage.”

Brad huffed. “I don’t think we needed to do that. The suite Jax and Tucker are in is down the hall from where Taylor will be working. We can get to her quickly if something goes wrong. Which it will not. She’s going to be fine. This is a simple job. An audition, if you will. They have zero reason to hurt her. If things go poorly, I expect The Consortium operative will simply never call back. It doesn’t make sense to harm her because the Agency would have questions.”

“Logic doesn’t always work in an op like this. Something you would know if you had ever been in the field,” Kyle argued.

“I’ve certainly been in the field.” Brad managed to sound both prim and annoyed at the same time.

“No, you’ve monitored safe houses and picked up dead drops.” Kyle moved through the light traffic with ease. “I’m not insulting you, Brad. You do a good job taking care of logistics and watching out for the men and women you support in the field. Your analysis can be spot on, but you don’t know what it means to have to make choices without any backup. You don’t have to make the hard calls.”

“Like you did when you killed Julia Ennis?”

The car seemed to go cold, a silence lengthening between the two men before Kyle pulled the car over to the side of the road. “Yes. Like I had to make the choice to kill Julia. You haven’t had to choose between someone you care about and your job, your morals. You’ve never had to make that choice.”

“You don’t know that,” Brad said quietly. “You have no real idea what I’ve done, what I’ve had to sacrifice for this job. You’re a showy guy. You’re the main character in every play, the alpha male who roars his pain. I’m not. I’m a guy who doesn’t take center stage, who keeps his pain inside. So you believe what you want, Kyle. I’m done with operatives like you. You think the whole fucking world revolves around your pain, your needs. You’re a child and you behave like a child. You create drama and chaos where patience would serve you better.”

Damn. She might need to stay behind to make sure Kyle didn’t kill Brad. The tension was so thick between these two men. But she had a job to do, and she had to trust that these were professionals.

Hopefully.

She checked her Glock, ensuring it was ready. She had everything she needed, including the small device she would use to get past the hotel’s key card system on the rooms.

It was go time, and she couldn’t hang out here and watch the drama unfold. “I’m going in.”

Brad seemed to calm. “Okay. Be careful. Do what you need to do and if things get too hot… Taylor, if things get too hot, I want you to think about the op. I want you to genuinely consider what we’re trying to do. Identifying The Consortium is the most important op of the last ten years. If we identify the members, we can figure out where our leaks are and we can save lives.”

“So her life is less important?” Kyle seemed ready to argue.

“You don’t go into this job if you’re worried about your own damn life,” Brad argued.

Oh, she was so done with them. She deeply wished she’d been able to have an all-women team. Far less drama. She would bet if she’d been here with Sandra and Kim, she wouldn’t be listening to endless arguments. She opened the door and slipped out into the night, shutting it behind her before she could get another lecture.

Drake would be giving her one. She was absolutely sure of that.

She started toward the hotel, noting that Kyle had driven away.

She was on her own.

Like her father had been. Like her Uncle Nicky had been before he’d joined McKay-Taggart and Knight.

She walked toward the Tube station, pulling her hoodie up over her head. The plan was to let the CCTV cameras catch her on the Tube, taking the line toward the hotel. It was only three stops from here, but she’d been instructed to approach the hotel this way. They should only know she’d walked in from the east. Kyle would have been careful about where he dropped her off, avoiding the CCTV cams.

She forced herself to stop and breathe for a moment.

Don’t ever walk into a mission worried. Turn that part of your brain off. The only thing you should be concerned about is acting and reacting to whatever happens. You’ll do that best if you’re calm, dushka.

It was so good to be able to hear her father’s voice in her head again. After he’d died, she’d shoved her feelings down, and being able to acknowledge them in a way that didn’t include anger was a revelation.

Her dad was still here with her. Would always be. No one could take his love away. Not even a bullet. She was the only one who could make the choice to ignore her father’s love. It had been given fully and wouldn’t fail her as long as she opened her heart to it.

Her father had always been alone in the field with the exception of the few jobs he’d had partners he worked with. They were never regular partners. His job had been solitary. He’d always talked about how he’d loved the camaraderie of the military teams he’d been on, how there had been a good mix of working the op and watching out for each other.

Once many years before, she’d heard rumors that Tennessee Smith had tried to build a team he could use, the same men every time. Men who would get to know each other, watch out for each other. A true team for spies.

It had fallen apart because Smith had been disavowed. The team he’d carefully organized had been pulled apart and only brought back together outside of the Agency. They’d gone to McKay-Taggart where the teams operated so differently.

Her brain was working overtime as she swiped her Oyster card and found the proper platform.

A team wouldn’t work for all missions, but it could help to have a couple of groups that worked together, learned everything they could about the operatives around them so there wasn’t this crushing sense of vulnerability.

She felt it. It pressed on her chest. Why should she trust Brad—a man she’d barely spent any time with?

Of course Drake had tried that with his sister and Kyle Hawthorne and it hadn’t worked out for him either.

The Agency would have to be careful. Each team member would have to be thoughtfully selected.

Wind gushed through the Tube station, and she heard the whirring sound that let her know a train was coming in.

Almost time.

Get in. Do the job. Get home.

Home was anywhere Drake was. Drake would be waiting for her. He wouldn’t be gone this time, and he wouldn’t allow the job to sweep her away. He wouldn’t let her get drowned by this, her personality and wants ignored in favor of the mission. Drake wouldn’t let it happen. He would come for her and fight to have a place in her life, to give her a space outside the job.

No matter what happens to you in life, do not forget who you are, dushka. You, my darling girl, you have been my salvation. You are the reason I am still me. I got to be your father or I would have only ever been a weapon. You made me human.

Tears pierced her eyes at the thought of her father’s words. He said them a few weeks before she’d gone to Romania to wait for him. They’d been in Havana for the doctor’s appointment. He’d been staring out over the ocean, and they’d had that comfortable silence they always seemed to find together. Then he’d said those words and kissed her forehead and they’d gotten breakfast.

She’d built Constance Tyne as armor she could place around her body and soul. She’d created Constance so she didn’t have to be Taylor, and if Drake hadn’t come along, she would have stitched Constance into place and allowed Taylor to recede into the background, the bare foundation of the weapon she would have become.

“Hey, are you all right?”

She turned and there was a woman standing next to her as the train whooshed in and the doors opened, letting out the passengers that were still traveling past ten in the evening. There were only a few people waiting on the train, and it unnerved her that she hadn’t realized this woman was standing so close to her. She gave the blonde a smile. “Oh, I’m good. Thank you.”

She turned and entered the train, hoping she could shake off the woman with the long blonde hair. She was wearing a pair of sunglasses despite the fact that it had been dark for hours, and her accent was pure American.

Yet when she sat down, the blonde sat beside her. The train pulled away and the blonde sat back, flipping her sunglasses up and showing off vivid blue eyes. She crossed one leg over the other. “Are you nervous, Constance?”

Fuck. She felt a chill go up her spine and realized that she wasn’t ready for this. Not in any way. Maybe Constance was, but falling in love with Drake again had softened her up enough that she wasn’t sure she could play the Constance role.

But she had to. Starting right now.

She banished all softer thoughts and forced herself to go cold. No one else was sitting in the car they occupied. “I thought we were meeting in the lobby.”

“Why do you think I told you to get on the train? The lobby of that hotel is busy even at this time of night. There are too many eyes and ears, and I suspect someone is onto me,” the woman said. “I’ve got connections I don’t like to think about. Now let’s talk.”

“We haven’t been talking all along?” Something was off with the woman.

“We’ve been dancing around, and it wasn’t always me. That’s what you need to understand. When you talk to one of us, you talk to all of us. There aren’t many of us, and you should understand that if you can’t get the job done, the severance package from the group is rather permanent. Which is exactly what happened to the last woman you spent time talking to. Hence, I’m here to do cleanup.”

She didn’t like the word cleanup. “If you aren’t the woman I’ve been talking to, I think I’ll get off at the next stop. I’ve decided I don’t need a side job.”

Blue eyes rolled. “Don’t be so dramatic. I’m not here to off you, but I thought I should be open. Would you be happier if I said our group is one big family and we’re all happy sisters and it’s going to be fun? Or would you rather know that if this job goes well, you’ll receive fifty grand and the option of another job in the near future? Feel free to walk right off this train and never look back, but you’re walking away from cash and the opportunity to stick it to the man. The man being the Agency. Come on. Who doesn’t want to fuck over the Agency?”

She wasn’t sure what this woman was angling for, but she wasn’t giving her anything. She was giving off a vibe that made her think the other woman was trying to figure her out, to get under her skin, and she might not like it if the woman decided she wasn’t up to snuff.

“I don’t care about the Agency. I care about money and power. If you’re going to tell me this group of yours is some kind of therapy session for wounded operatives, then I definitely should get off because I don’t want to join your cult, lady.” Taylor stood up.

A husky laugh filled the car. “Oh, now I like you. Excellent. This could work out. I read through Cleo’s reports on you and you sounded like such a drab bitch. I wasn’t looking forward to this. Cleo’s the dead one, by the way. We all pick a couple of different identities. One for the regular world and one for the board. They like to use call names. I think it makes them feel…smart or more manly or something. Even the female CEOs have annoyingly large balls and like to swing them around. It’s a lot of testosterone. Anyway. If one passes the audition, so to speak, they select a name the board will call them by. Typically it’s a historical female. Cleo was short for Cleopatra. But it was totally a bullet that took her out, not an asp. I thought that was the way we should go but I got voted down by Joan and Helen. Yeah, Arc and Troy. I hate those bitches. Stuck up. Full of themselves.”

“And I should call you?”

Her lips curled up. “Lizzie.”

“For Queen Elizabeth?”

The blonde snorted. “No, darling. For Borden. I’m honest about who I am. I’m a straight up psychopath you don’t want to cross. Brace yourself. We’re coming into the station. You getting off?”

She should. She should run, but she was suddenly intrigued. And Brad and Kyle, Jax and Tucker would be watching for her when she got to the hotel. She needed to figure out as much about this organization as possible, and she now had a few key tidbits of information. “I think I can handle another stop. Do you want to outline what this audition is about?”

The train stopped and the door opened again, the announcements of the station and to mind the gap coming on the overheads.

“You like to get straight to business, don’t you?” The blonde looked her over. “You’re shorter than I thought you would be. You know I think we might have worked an op together once.”

So she was former Agency. Or current Agency. “I’ve been with the Agency for almost a decade. I’ve worked many ops. I don’t remember you.”

“Well, we’re supposed to be forgettable, aren’t we?” The doors closed again and the train started to pull away. “That’s what they want from all of us. They want us to be pretty but not spectacular. Just pretty enough to catch a dick. That’s what one of the board members told me. Of course I think he’s overestimating how hard it is to catch a dick. It's not like they’re an endangered species, and most of them aren’t too picky.”

“The man actually said you were pretty enough to catch a dick?” Taylor was surprised.

The blonde’s shoulder shrugged. She was dressed in all black and looked chic. Like she’d spent the evening wandering an art gallery. But what she wore seemed carefully chosen. The pants were flexible and likely comfortable, and the shirt covered her fully. All she would need was a hat to hide the hair and she could be invisible in the darkness. “I think he used the word seduce, but come on. Most men don’t require seduction. You know it’s precisely why they use women as operatives. Female operatives don’t tend to lose their heads over a pretty man. Only the idiot ones do, and if they’re lucky they get a second chance to correct their mistakes.”

It felt like she was talking about something very specific. “I wouldn’t know. I haven’t had many relationships, and I don’t intend to get into anything beyond a base sexual relationship with a man.”

She had to think of this as an odd sort of job interview. She would gather knowledge and then the next operative to take on the job would know exactly what to do.

“Good for you, girl,” the blonde said. “Keep the fuckers at arm’s length. Do you have any family you’re close to?”

“Shouldn’t you already know that?”

“I like to ask.”

“I don’t have any biological family left.” In this Taylor could be honest. “At least none that I know of. My parents are dead, and I didn’t have any siblings. It’s precisely why the Agency recruited me. I don’t have any ties.”

“And you don’t mind selling your country out,” the blonde replied.

“That’s rich coming from you.”

“No hypocrisy here,” the blonde assured her. “It was merely a statement of fact. Honestly, when you think about it, America is capitalism. It’s our real religion, so chasing after money makes you the most American of all. At least that’s how I think of it. I grew up in a very rah-rah, America rocks home, but one of my parents got it. He understood that personal power is worth far more than any patriotism.” She stood and straightened her clothes. “We’re going to my room first. I need to grab something before we get started.”

Taylor didn’t like it when plans changed. “I thought I was doing this on my own. I prefer to work alone.”

The train pulled into the station close to the hotel and the blonde moved to the door. “I assure you that you’ll be acting alone tonight, but I do need to be able to watch you. You’re going to wear an earpiece so I can direct you.”

“I thought I was simply going to download Dr. Rebecca Walsh’s laptop.”

“The parameters have changed slightly.” The blonde looked her up and down, one brow rising. “I need to know you can think on your feet. If this goes well, I’ll get you in touch with the board. Like I said before, we’re down an operative and we need someone competent in place. There are some big things happening on the horizon, and I don’t have time to train some newbie who would probably faint at the sight of blood on her hands. So let’s go or you can run away and I’ll handle it myself.”

The doors opened and the blonde stepped out, starting for the ramp that would lead up and out of the station.

She could stay here on the train and let it all go. Drake would cheer her on.

And The Consortium would kill more men like her father. Drake would continue to worry about his sister, and Kyle wouldn’t be able to rejoin his family, and that girl he kept chasing online would end up with a dude named West.

One night. It was all she had to give this mission and she could feel satisfied that she could build another. Taylor stood and followed the blonde out.

A man was standing up ahead, his eyes on the blonde. He was silent as everyone moved around them. The train filled and the station went quiet.

“Good. You’re coming.” She went right up to the man and patted his lapel before looking Taylor’s way. “This is our muscle for the night. He’ll help us out if we need it. You can call him John.”

John.

Fuck. She was staring right at the man she’d been trying to ID for weeks. The man who worked so often with Julia Ennis.

The dark-haired man who killed at Julia’s command nodded her way. “Let’s get going. Everything looks to be in place. I’m expecting the op to begin right on time.”

They turned and started up the ramp.

Taylor followed. Her night had gotten way more dangerous.

 

* * * *

 

Drake raced into the lobby of The Garden, still holding his cell. He’d lost Lydia back at the restaurant, though he was certain Damon would have his ass for not calling in before he came back.

He couldn’t tip off Brad. Taylor had been in the dungeon. She wouldn’t have her cell on her so calling her would have been useless. Brad might be listening in on her cell. He hadn’t thought to check, hadn’t thought to protect her from a person who should be watching over her.

Damn it, he’d trusted the wrong person again.

He was the worst fucking spy in the world, and this time Taylor would pay the price.

“I need you to find Kyle Hawthorne.” He approached the woman at the front desk.

She was a tall brunette wearing a corset and miniskirt. “I’m sorry, Sir. I can’t disrupt the evening’s play. If you would like to find someone, I can check your membership and you can enter the dungeon after you change.”

He didn’t have time. Luckily The Garden had protocols. He pulled the keycard he’d been given when he’d gotten here. “My name is Drake Radcliffe. This is about Mr. Knight’s other business.”

Her shoulders straightened immediately, and she ran his card without another word. She picked up the receiver to the hardline telephone and stated the proper code before hanging up. “He’ll meet you at the door, Mr. Radcliffe. Should I put the club in lockdown?”

Oh, he would bet she was either military or law enforcement of some kind since the words were said without a hint of panic. “I want to keep things quiet for now. Do you have a record of who’s left the building in the last two hours?”

She opened the laptop that was sitting on the front desk and started typing. “I’m showing a group left here forty minutes ago. I would need to get on the garage security system to find the names and the security cameras. Sorry. We keep that on a closed system in case we need to quickly get rid of files.”

Because The Garden had been raided before, and Knight would do what it took to prevent bad actors from harming his people. “I can run down there after I find Kyle.”

The door from the dungeon came open and Damon Knight walked through. He was in leather pants but the white T-shirt he had on let everyone familiar with the man know he wasn’t playing that evening. “Drake, I’m glad you’re here. We didn’t want to tell you too much over text because you weren’t on a secure line. The op is going down tonight.”

His gut tightened. “Where is Taylor? Tell me she isn’t with Brad.”

Knight’s brows came together. “Of course she is. He’s her handler. I overheard them briefly talking about how they were going to run logistics. Jax and Tucker went separately, but Taylor left in a car with Kyle and Brad.”

“I need a car. I need to get to that hotel as soon as possible, and I need to know the route they took.” Adrenaline was starting to pump through his body. He needed to get to her.

Knight pulled his cell and touched a number. “Yes, Nick. I need you to get to the hotel. You are? Excellent. I’ll be in contact soon.” He hung up. “Nick is already on his way, and Owen and Rebecca have been informed that this is going down tonight. They’ll stay out of their room.”

“Taylor called Nick and Owen?”

Knight’s head shook. “Nick told me Brad contacted him to let him know they were on the move and by the time Nick got in contact with Owen, Brad had called him as well.”

Why would Brad call them? Yes, they’d talked about bringing them all in, but why go to the trouble of sidelining Drake if he was going to turn around and tell a man who acted like Taylor’s uncle where they were going? Nick would protect Taylor. For that matter so would Kyle.

“What’s going through your head?” Knight asked, starting for the door again. He led Drake through and made a beeline for the exit that took them out to the garage. “It’s obvious something’s got you rattled. We were all surprised but we knew we wouldn’t be given much of a heads-up when it came time to go. It’s in The Consortium’s best interest to keep things quiet until they’re ready.”

Yes, he understood that rationale, but it was obvious to him that Brad had ensured he wouldn’t be around when the op went down. “I was meeting with my longtime tech. We had a side job to do while we were here. I needed a plausible reason to be in London in case anyone asked. That timeline got moved up this evening, and after a while I managed to get Lydia to confess that Brad was the one who asked her to distract me.”

Knight fished his key card out and got them through the door to the garage. “Please bring around the Benz, and I need to be equipped.”

The two guards who’d been standing at the desk moved to do Knight’s bidding.

“You think Brad is up to something?” Knight asked.

There was another scenario to consider. “Or Lydia is lying.”

Knight nodded as one of his guards handed him a shoulder holster. “Yes. She could be lying. Are you suspicious of Brad?”

Drake pulled his cell and quickly sent a text to Kyle.

Keep eyes on Brad.

“I haven’t been. He and I joined around the same time, though we came from two different places. I have to wonder if he doesn’t resent me for moving up easily because of my father.”

Knight secured the holster and checked his weapon before sliding it in and taking the jacket the guard offered. “I would assume he would want to make you look bad or himself to look good. That could be why he would cut you out. He could want a good op without you being able to claim any credit.”

That seemed petty. “I don’t know. Now I’m worried I’ve fallen into some kind of trap. If Lydia is lying, what game is she playing?”

The Benz pulled up, driven by the other guard. It reminded him of all the security around his mother. He’d grown up in a wealthy household, and with his mother’s career in politics, there was always security around. During his childhood it had been big burly men. Lately his mom was concerned about diversity and inclusion. She’d hired an all-female team, so now there were always badass women around.

“I don’t know. I rather wish you’d talked to her more instead of deciding she was telling you the truth.” Knight gracefully slid into the driver’s side.

Drake looked down at his phone as Kyle texted back.

I’m trying to keep eyes on Taylor, but she hasn’t shown up yet. I’m covering a different part of the hotel. What’s wrong with Brad?

Damn it. He got in the car and slammed the door, then Knight took off. “I’m sorry I didn’t handle it as well as I should have. All I cared about in that moment was Taylor. She’s still all I care about. The op can go to hell.”

Knight eased the car onto the road. “I can understand that, but you need to calm down and think. Have you reached out to Brad?”

It hadn’t been his first instinct. His first instinct was to quietly creep up on the fucker and kill him before he had a chance to fight back. But Knight was right to consider other options. “If he’s dirty, he could try to take her out.”

“Or he could realize you’re onto him and stop whatever he’s doing,” Knight pointed out. “Would he give up his career to fuck with you?”

“Brad’s whole life is his career.” That fact was what didn’t make sense to him. “He’s always been the most by-the-book guy I’ve ever known.”

“Well, that would be excellent cover for a man who wanted to hide his true ambitions.” Knight turned onto the main road that would take them to the hotel. “What does he get if he hurts Taylor? From the way he’s been talking, this operation is the largest he’s had a hand in. Why would he want that op in danger?”

“It’s already in danger because Taylor’s changed her mind about sacrificing her entire life for an undercover op.” He was texting Kyle as he spoke.

Something is wrong with Brad. He sent me on a wild-goose chase to keep me from being on the team when Taylor was called in. That means he knew when Taylor would be called in.

It didn’t matter who was fucking with the op. He meant to get Taylor out of there. Nothing mattered beyond ensuring she was safe.

“He can’t force her, and killing her wouldn’t make him look better to the Agency. No matter how callous they can be, they don’t tend to reward handlers who get their operatives killed.” Knight was far more capable of being logical than he was. “So I’m still not understanding why he would want to hurt Taylor.”

“It doesn’t make sense because he couldn’t possibly have known they would call her in tonight. Unless he’s working with The Consortium. We’ve known for a while that Julia wasn’t the only one working for them. We’ve been fairly certain they were behind the killing of an asset of mine a year and a half ago. Brad was the one who pointed it out. That could be a smoke screen.”

“What kind of contact did Brad have with your sister?” Knight asked.

“None that I know of. I mean he knew her and he’d worked with us a few times, but they never paid attention to each other. Which, of course, is what they would do if they wanted to keep things quiet.” Something Brad had said before tickled across his brain. “He mentioned he’s been seeing a woman, but he’s been secretive about it. I can’t see him with my sister. She’s got a very specific type.”

“Yes, his name is Kyle Hawthorne, who happens to be here.”

Fuck. If Brad was working with The Consortium, then this could all be one long play by his sister to get what she truly wanted—Kyle.

Lies on lies. That’s what he was dealing with. Everyone was lying or hiding something, and he couldn’t see through the lies to get to the truth.

He quickly texted Kyle.

Watch your back. I think Julia is here. She could find a way to take Taylor hoping I’ll trade her for you. Get out of the hotel now.

If that was true, then Brad had betrayed him on every level. Brad was the only one who knew how much he loved Taylor.

“If Brad is working for The Consortium, then Julia knows about the op and Taylor.”

“And if he’s not?” Knight seemed determined to force him to look at this situation from all angles. The trouble was there were so damn many angles, and all of them were dependent on information he didn’t have.

“Then he’s innocent and Lydia is the one working for The Consortium, but if she’s the one lying to me, I don’t understand why because she doesn’t know about Taylor. She doesn’t know about the op at all.”

“So you’ve got two different people in two different boxes and you can’t figure out how they could be connected.”

Drake’s phone buzzed, announcing a text had come in.

I’m not going anywhere, but when Taylor walks in, I’ll find a way to shadow her. If Julia shows up, I’ll handle it.

That was Kyle. Stubborn to a T.

He was going to get himself killed. “Can you go faster?”

“We’re almost there. Keep thinking, Drake. I know it’s hard because the woman you love is in danger. If this was Penelope, I would be as panicked as you are, but you have to calm down and think this through. You know the answer. You simply haven’t put the pieces together yet. So take a deep breath and let your mind work.”

What had his father taught him?

Nothing is more important than the work. Not your life or your family. At the end not even your country. The intelligence we receive is what we serve. We take that information and create or destroy as it guides us.

Where was the information guiding him?

And how had he not realized how deeply fucked up his childhood had been?

He shoved that thought aside. He had the feeling he was going to need more therapy before he settled in and thought about having his own kids.

“Breathe, Drake. You’ve never been in this position before. You’ve never loved someone. It’s hard. But you can do this.” Knight’s voice was deep and soothing, as if he genuinely knew exactly where Drake was in this moment.

Because he probably did. He worked with his wife, and they’d worked together when they’d both been in British intelligence. They still worked together, though now they oversaw the younger operatives, helping them and keeping them safe.

He and Taylor could do that.

Was there a connection between Lydia and Brad that went beyond their working relationship?

“What if Lydia is the mystery woman Brad talks about?” Drake mused. “Lydia only said they were friends, but she could be lying. He’s mentioned he has a girlfriend but won’t tell me her name. I would absolutely have been concerned if he was sleeping with Lydia.”

“Excellent.” Knight made a turn, and Drake could see the lights of the conference hotel up ahead. “What you’re telling me is that Lydia worked with both your sister and Brad.”

Fuck. “She’s the connection between them. But why would she want me to turn against Brad?” His brain was whirling, answering his own questions. “She wants me to get rid of Brad because they’re done with him. But if she’s working with Brad, then she likely knows about Taylor. If she’s lying, then she’ll tell my sister and Brad that I’m on my way. I need to have Kyle grab Taylor the minute he sees her.” He was moving past texts now. He dialed Kyle’s number.

“Hey, I can’t talk right now,” Kyle said as he picked up.

“You have to listen to me. This is a setup. Julia is behind it,” he said as quickly as he could. “But Lydia and Brad are in on it, too.”

“Yeah, I’m starting to get that.” Kyle sounded slightly out of breath. “Taylor just walked into the lobby with Julia and her asshole enforcer. I was about to call Brad when Jax told me he was in the room Brad was supposed to be in and Brad’s gone. Left everything but his gun behind.”

Drake’s stomach churned. “Knight and I are almost there. Start moving toward Owen and Rebecca’s suite. If you have any way to get Taylor away from them…”

“They’re not going where they should be. From what I can tell, they’re in the opposite wing. They got on an elevator using a key card,” Kyle said. “I think they’re going up to the larger suites, the ones they reserve for celebrities.”

Or for government employees who required a ton of security.

There was one other target Julia could go after.

“She’s going after my parents.”

Knight sped up, and Drake prayed they made it in time.