A View to a Thrill (Masters and Mercenaries Book 7) (24 page)

His aunt stepped up. She walked right up to the man who had at least a foot on her and seven stone of muscle and pointed a well-manicured finger his way. “If you lay a finger on my nephew I swear I will make your life a living hell. How dare you threaten him in his own home?”

The big guy had the grace to flush but he didn’t drop his weapon. “Mrs. Malone, he has your son in a hostage hold. He’s the one who’s threatening your blood, ma’am.”

His aunt’s eyes narrowed as she placed herself between Simon and the big blond man. “If Simon is using Michael as leverage then I say Michael has been doing something he oughtn’t.”

A low laugh came from Simon’s left. Sure enough, JT stood watching with an amused look on his face and a beer in his hand. “I think you were right, brother. Simon can look after himself. Momma, did you just figure out Mikey’s using this weekend getaway to recruit for the CIA?”

Ava’s jaw dropped open.

Michael managed to put a hand up. “Momma, just listen to me…”

“Hey, let’s all calm down.” Ten stepped up. Of all his men, he was the only one who wasn’t pointing a gun, which was sad because Simon wanted so very much to kill him. “Case, boys, let’s drop the weapons. Simon, as you can see I wasn’t hurting your lady love there.” He frowned back Chelsea’s way. “You were lying about sleeping with him. I’m surprised.”

Chelsea stood still, her eyes moving around as though looking for an exit. She was about to find there wasn’t one. Not from him. “I didn’t lie. Not exactly.”

Ten’s men holstered their weapons and the testosterone in the yard seemed to go down significantly. He wasn’t really going to kill his cousin. He eased up and let Michael go. “She signed a contract with me. She’s mine and she’s going to stay mine.”

Ten snorted a little. “Oh, you’re toeing Ian’s line then. I always said that man should have been born about three hundred years ago.”

“Does he know he has two brothers?” It was the only explanation. The two men in front of him had to be related.

“I might have failed to mention that fact to him,” Ten confirmed. “It wasn’t something he needed to know.”

“What are you talking about, boss?” the taller of the two asked. He had roughly an inch and a half on his brother.

Ten held up a hand. “That’s a discussion for closed quarters. Stand down, Case.”

Case stood down, but there was no way to miss the look in his eyes. He didn’t like standing down. He would prefer to fight it out.

His cousin turned and proved he preferred to fight as well. Simon took a hard punch to his face that almost had him seeing stars. Bastard wanted to play? He might not be at his finest, but he was righteously angry and ready to take it out on anyone. He would have preferred Ten, but he would take a stand-in at this point. Simon reared back and got Michael with a quick uppercut to his chin that sent his cousin flying back.

Michael hit the ground but was on his feet in seconds, wiping blood from his cut lip. “You want to play, Si? You think I wanted it to turn out this way? All you had to do was listen to me for ten minutes. You owed me that.”

“Simon, you need backup?” Jesse asked, his expression as bland as if he were watching two friends playing tennis.

Something nasty had taken root in his gut. “I can handle the little SEAL on my own, brother.”

Michael’s eyes widened. “Oh, you think you can? You think you can take me on? I let you get the drop on me, pretty boy. I know you like to play at being tough, but we all know you won’t get that damn suit of yours dirty in order to play with the big boys.”

“Mike, shut that shit down. He’s family. Can we sit down and talk about this?” JT suddenly seemed to be the voice of reason.

“Simon,” Chelsea walked across the patio wearing a pair of fuck-me heels. She’d put them on so she could dance with Ten. “Come on. This isn’t you.”

No. Being the tough guy wasn’t him. He certainly couldn’t handle an American operative because he was just a dandy in all their eyes. Everything he’d done, none of it mattered. He utterly ignored Chelsea. She’d obviously made her bloody choice. “I don’t get my suit dirty because I don’t have to to take you down, Michael.”

He feigned moving to the left. Michael was bigger than he was, but he was also less agile. When Michael came after him, it was easy to sucker punch him right in the gut, momentarily taking away his ability to breathe. From there, he used his elbow to break his cousin’s nose and when Michael went down to his knees, he kicked him in the groin for good measure.

“Shit,” JT breathed. “I don’t think he likes being called a pretty boy, Mike.”

Michael managed to hold up his middle finger.

Simon straightened his tie and turned to his aunt. “Hello, Aunt Ava. Sorry for showing up unannounced.”

She held her cheek up for his kiss. “Don’t worry, love. I’m thrilled. I’ll set up a bedroom for you unless you’re really leaving us so quickly. Michael, do go and get cleaned up. You know I detest blood at my parties. As for the rest of you, you’re all on probation, including you, my husband.”

Uncle David was giving Michael a hand up. “Damn it. I told you she would find out.”

Ava shot his uncle her sternest look. “I always find out.” She turned to Ten. “Mr. Smith, if that is your real name…”

Ten stepped up, right beside Chelsea. “It is, ma’am. I’m sorry to have to fudge the truth a bit, but my mission is to help your husband with some of his problems overseas. While we were here, we found out about Miss Dennis’s issue, and that really is a matter of national security. We drugged your nephew because I needed to speak with Chelsea privately and he wasn’t about to let me do that.”

“I bloody well wasn’t,” Simon said under his breath.

“His associate is also on several watchlists,” Ten said, staring at Jesse.

“Watchlists?” Chelsea asked, but Simon noticed she didn’t move away from Ten. “Why would anyone be watching Jesse?”

“Because Mr. Murdoch is dangerous and your friend there refuses to see it. The United States government would still like to know how he managed to survive when the rest of the team didn’t,” Ten said.

Simon was just about to start another fight when his aunt jumped in. She walked right up to Jesse and looked him in the eyes.

“Well, he looks perfectly fine to me,” his aunt said and she held her arm out, fully expecting that Jesse would understand she was giving him the honor of escorting her. Ava Weston Malone might live on a ranch in Texas now, but his aunt had never forgotten that she was the daughter of royalty. “Shall we? I find the barbecue tiring. I believe I would like more civilized refreshments, Mr. Murdoch. I think I shall ring for tea.”

“Okay.” Jesse frowned a little, but offered his arm. Simon nodded approvingly. He’d been attempting to civilize the younger man. “But I’ve never really liked tea.”

“Oh, heavens, it’s not really tea, young man. I’m going to call for the good vodka. My husband has driven me to drink. But calling it tea sounds so much more civilized, don’t you agree? Simon, dear, you should join us when the spy shenanigans are through. I’ll have new clothes brought up to you. Despite what Michael said, you do seem to have gotten your clothes a bit dirty. It doesn’t suit you.”

Jesse walked into the house with his aunt, leaving him alone. Only his aunt would call what had just happened spy shenanigans.

Chelsea started to take a step forward. She wobbled a bit on those heels she’d worn for another man. “Simon…”

“Don’t. I completely understand.” She’d made her choice, but he still owed his boss and that meant he couldn’t turn her over to Tennessee Smith. “Get your things together. It’s time I took you to Ian.”

Ten’s eyes narrowed, and Simon got the feeling that the guns were going to make another appearance now that his aunt was gone. “That’s not going to happen. We’re going to keep Ian out of this.”

“Says you and what army?” Simon asked.

“The one I brought with me,” Ten replied. “You make no mistake, Weston. I will not allow you or Chelsea to leave this ranch until I’ve had my say, and even then I might take her into custody.”

“Because you want to fuck with Ian?”

“Because she is a valuable asset and I won’t allow anyone to blow her up. Not while I’m breathing. I waited until you were awake because I was going to give you the courtesy of a debrief. I have valuable information on who’s trying to kill Chelsea Dennis.”

“And you couldn’t have mentioned this before?”

“Before or after you were getting your ass kicked in a motel she had no business being in. I won’t leave her with you because you have no idea how to take care of her. You’ll dump her someplace where any idiot could get to her.”

Guilt churned in his gut. He’d done the best that he could in the time he’d had, but she’d still been placed in harm’s way. It was only luck that Ten’s men had shown up or they might have been taken out. “What kind of intel do you have?”

Ten sighed and his shoulders finally relaxed. “Now, that is something that can only be discussed after I get some of that very delicious barbecue. The good thing about being out in the open is we can talk in the open. Let’s sit down and have a beer and figure out just how fucked we all are.”

Chelsea turned her face up to him, obviously looking for guidance.

He walked past her. He was certain Ten could help her find her way.

* * * *

He was freezing her out and she wasn’t even sure why. Chelsea stared across the table as Simon tipped back a beer. She’d never seen him drink beer, but he’d taken the bottle when JT had offered it to him and gone back to looking broody and gorgeous and being noncommunicative when it came to her.

“You want some more brisket?” Ten asked, pulling the chair beside her back and sitting down.

She shook her head. “When are you going to debrief us?”

Ten sat back, his lean body relaxed. “Malone offered us use of his office after lunch. A couple of my boys are checking it out right now. We’ll sit down and I’ll put my cards on the table and you can put your cards on the table and we’ll see how our hands play out.”

Simon’s eyes found hers. It was a little like getting hit with an arctic blast. He was brutally angry with her and she couldn’t figure out why. Could he really be so angry about getting knocked out that he blamed her, too? Was he pissed that she’d gotten to stay conscious?

She didn’t understand men. When she’d looked like crap he’d been all over her. The whole time she’d been changing and trying to look halfway decent, all she’d been able to think about was him and where he was and how he was doing and yes, she’d wondered if he would like the way her butt looked in the jeans and if he thought the heels were pretty enough for her to deal with the discomfort.

He didn’t like any of it.

Chelsea stood, her decision made. Until someone was willing to give her some answers, she didn’t need to sit here and watch Simon not looking at her. “I’m going to join Mrs. Malone and Jesse.”

Ten frowned. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

She frowned right back. “I don’t care. Do you know what else I’m going to do? I’m going to find a computer and I’m going to send a message to my sister. I’m going to let her know I’m okay and that she should stop worrying about me.”

“Absolutely not,” Ten replied, setting down his fork. “I told you, we’re silent when it comes to Ian.”

“Do you think I can’t reroute a call? I can send that call through so many places Ian could never figure out where it’s coming from. I’m not stupid, Ten.”

“Neither is Adam,” Ten replied. “And I assure you Adam is waiting for that call. He’s been waiting for it since the moment you went missing.”

“I’m better than Adam. I’ve already proved that. I had him jumping through hoop after hoop back in St. Augustine. I can do it again.” She was tired and scared and she wanted to talk to her sister.

“Have you thought about the fact that Ian could act out?” Simon asked, his voice lazy as though he couldn’t really care less about the outcome of this silly little argument.

“What are you talking about?” Ten leaned forward.

“I’m talking about the fact that Ian is smart. He’ll put together the facts and come to the conclusion that The Collective has his sister-in-law and two of his men. I firmly suspect that’s exactly what you want him to believe.”

Ten shook his head. “No. I want him to stay out of my business.”

Simon huffed, a surprisingly elegant sound. “Then you’re going about it the wrong way. All you’ve done so far is poke the beast. He won’t stop, and he has no idea what faction or company of The Collective is involved, so he’ll roll the dice. He’ll go after the most likely and he’ll start a war. If I know Ian, he’ll go straight to the CEO of whatever company he thinks has the most influence and torture the poor bloke until he gives in. And he’ll do it again and again and again until he finds what he needs, which is you. What do you think Ian’s going to do to you when he realizes all it would have taken to avoid that bloodshed was a phone call? You think you’re playing a game and you’re winning. Perhaps you think at the end of this he’ll buy you a beer and agree you’re the shit, as you Americans like to say. He won’t because he isn’t playing a game. He’s fighting for his family and he won’t ever forgive you. And I assure you, Ian Taggart will never forget. If you want any hope of a working relationship with the man after this is over, allow her to call and explain the situation. Better yet, you call him yourself and then let her talk to her sister, which is all she really wants in the first place.”

Ten’s jaw went tight and then he stood up. “Fuck. Boomer, is your head clear enough to go and find me a laptop?” He frowned Simon’s way. “Jesse’s lucky he didn’t kill my man.”

Simon’s lips curved up slightly. “Boomer’s lucky, you mean. He was armed to the teeth after all, and Jesse just had an old umbrella. Not even a fair fight.”

“Come to the office in five. You’ll get your call.” Ten stalked off.

And she was left with Simon. “Thanks.”

“I was only being honest with him. Perhaps I should have kept my mouth shut and allowed Ian to take care of the problem.”

Meaning let Ian kill Ten. “I think it’s better this way.”