Ian glanced up at the newcomer. “Everyone who’s alive.”
He’d asked her to keep up the illusion that Avery was gone.
The newcomer shrugged a little. He leaned forward, moving in close to Ian. “I’ll believe that when I see it.” Had she not been sitting so near, she wouldn’t have heard him. “I know Adam’s work when I see it. If you need anything, I’m here for you.”
Ian’s eyes tightened. “I’ll let the Agency know. Ten, this is Charlotte Dennis. Charlie, this is Tennessee Smith. I hope you’re still using your real name. Has the Agency forced you to join the color scheme of aliases yet?”
An “aw shucks” grin came over the man’s face. “Naw, you know I think those Agency names are a little silly. I know we’re supposed to hide our real names, but I’ll just kill anyone I need to and it’ll be fine.” He reached out for her hand, drawing it up to his lips in a gallant gesture. “Not that I’m a killer, darlin’. I’m really more of a lover. Charlie, is it?”
Ian reached over and grabbed her hand out of Ten’s. “Not to you. She’s Mrs. Taggart to you."
He pulled her hand back, but didn’t let it go. She threaded her fingers through his.
Ten’s handsome jaw dropped open. “The dead one?”
A shit-eating grin lit Ian’s face, and he brought her hand to his lips, brushing them across her knuckles. “Guess you don’t know everything, do you? And if I hear you calling her Charlie, I’ll strangle you.”
Ten sat down across from Ian, his big body taking up the chair. “Well, I like my natural coloring. Zhukov still looks blue, by the way. He’s also become decidedly chatty.”
Charlie could imagine what had loosened his lips. His time with Ian would almost certainly have warmed him up. “Did he admit that I wasn’t supposed to be his only victim?”
“He’s already admitted that the entire McKay-Taggart team was on the list. Though they had left off the new kid. He was real disappointed about that. Apparently not being on a hit list makes him feel like he’s not on the team.”
“It’s rude,” Jesse said from the back. “I’m just as dangerous as the rest of you.”
“I’ll kill you myself if it makes you feel better.” Simon took his seat.
Jesse shrugged. “I just think it was rude for them not to include me, that’s all.”
Ten frowned, his grin disappearing. “The fourteen people on that list included your niece.”
Ian’s hand tightened slightly on her own, the only acknowledgment that he’d heard what Ten said. “What does the Agency know about Nelson’s recent activities?”
Ten crossed his arms over his chest. “We’ve placed him in Russia and a couple of places in India. Since you shut down his last enterprise, he’s been moving quite a bit.”
“What are his ties to the Denisovitch syndicate?”
Ten hesitated, his eyes looking around the cabin.
Ian shook his head. “We made a deal, Ten.”
“Is she really The Broker?”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Ian replied.
How much had he given up to keep her out of the Agency’s hands?
She kept her mouth shut. There was no way she was going to push him. Her ass was already sore.
Damon Knight walked out of the cockpit. “You know who she is and you also know that he’s not going to admit to anything, so you might as well not try. I’ll be honest, I suspect the younger one, too, but he put her in the deal so we can’t have either one of them.”
He’d protected her sister? Even Chelsea turned, staring at Ian for a moment.
“The Broker is done,” Ian said with a grim finality. “You don’t have to worry about that particular problem again. Now, part of my deal with the big bosses was that you would give me full disclosure on Nelson, so start talking.” He dropped her hand, his body closing off from her.
Nelson was still between them. She fought to keep a smile on her face. No matter how close they seemed when he was making love to her, there was still a gulf there, keeping them apart.
Patience. It had always been her downfall, but she was determined to remain patient this time.
“Fine,” Ten finally said. “From what we can tell, Nelson’s ties to Mikhail Denisovitch go back four and a half years. We have a man in a friendly syndicate. As friendly as syndicates can be. He says Nelson started meeting with the heads of the syndicates after he claimed to have evidence against your wife in the murder of her father.”
Charlie shrugged at that. “Of course he had evidence. He’s the one I hired to kill the bastard. I’m sure he didn’t mention that to my uncle.”
“No, I’m sure he left that bit out,” Knight said. “So the question becomes what is Nelson doing in India? I understand why he would spend so much time in Russia. He’s doing some of the syndicate’s dirty work.”
Ten looked up at the MI6 agent. “Why would he be working with Dusan? Tell me something, Charlotte, what does your cousin do and why would he need someone of Nelson’s talents?”
Charlie shrugged a little. “He wouldn’t unless a whole lot has changed. Dusan wasn’t my father’s favorite. He put up with him because he was his brother’s kid, but he thought Dusan wasn’t loyal enough. He wanted to go to college. My dad wasn’t big on the whole scholarship thing when it came to his soldiers.”
“He liked them dumb and loyal, huh?” Knight asked.
Charlie nodded. “Yes.” Dusan was actually one of the only cousins she could stand to be around for more than three minutes. “He didn’t have a high profile when I was living in Russia. My uncle must have put him in charge of a group after I got out. You said he was working the pipeline?”
Ian nodded. “That’s what we’ve figured out. They steal crude straight from the pipeline.”
She knew how the scam worked. “But they would need a finger man. Uhm, a man who works for the oil company who can tell them when the coast is clear, so to speak. The government has been trying to crack down on that kind of thing. Most of the oil companies take security seriously, so he would have to have someone on the inside or he would have to be negotiating with someone who was already there. It’s how they dealt with all the hijacking stuff.”
Chelsea popped up over Charlie’s seatback. “Our father particularly enjoyed hijacking aid and relief packages. He stole everything from antimalarials to AIDS drugs to vaccines for babies. He would sell them on the black market. Such a lovely man.”
Baz was suddenly behind Knight. “We’ve got the go-ahead. If we’re all here, I’m ready to take off.”
Knight nodded, turning away.
“Give it another minute or two. We have one more passenger.” Simon glanced out the window to his right. “Here he comes now.”
Ian stood. “What the hell? Did the Agency send someone else?”
“Nope. I have no idea who it is.” Ten held his hands up. “As far as I know, I’m on my own.”
“You might be, but Tag is not,” Simon said as a shadow fell over the front of the plane.
A man entered, the sun behind him making it hard to see him for a moment.
Sean Taggart had a duffel bag in one hand and a ball cap on his head. “I have my knife kit. If it gets taken by some security fuckers, you’re buying me a new one, brother.”
Sean had come for his brother. She couldn’t help but love him for it. The fact that Ian would have backup that he absolutely, one hundred percent trusted warmed her.
“What the hell are you doing here?” Ian sent a terrific frown his brother’s way. “You’re supposed to be watching out for Grace and your daughter.”
Sean sobered. “Grace and Carys are perfectly safe and you know it.” He was tight-lipped as he looked around the cabin. He obviously wasn’t going to talk freely until he and his brother were alone. “And someone has to watch out for you.”
“In the back. Now.” Ian looked down at her. “Don’t you move.”
She glanced around the small cabin. “Where would I go?”
“We leave in five minutes, Taggart. You should get your family situation sorted,” Baz said before disappearing back into the cockpit.
Ian stalked off followed by his brother. Charlie was left with Ten.
“Now, darlin’,” he said, switching to sit next to her. “Whatever are we going to do on this very long flight?”
“Tag is going to kill you,” Knight said with a shake of his head as he left to join his partner.
Gorgeous lips turned down in a sulky frown. Tennessee Smith likely wouldn’t have to kill often. He would just seduce the information out of his victims. “It might be worth it. Besides, I’m not so bad myself. Don’t discount me just because the packaging is so damn pretty. Maybe I can take Tag down. I’m just wondering why he would hide such a lovely wife. I wouldn’t hide you, honey. You were obviously meant to be shown off.”
“Ian didn’t hide me. I faked my own death and then spent the next five years working my way back to him. He’s my Master and my husband, and if you think I won’t shoot your balls off if you try to touch me, then you haven’t worked up a proper profile on me.” She gave him a smile and couldn’t miss the fact that Simon was covering a laugh.
Ten might be gorgeous, but he had nothing on Ian.
“You can’t blame a guy for trying. It’s a long flight and I don’t read magazines.” He turned his chair around. “How about you, sweetheart? Why don’t you come sit on old Ten’s lap and we can talk about all the things we can do at thirty thousand feet.”
“Touch her and I’ll kill you,” Simon said. “If you need some relief, Yank, I suggest you have a wank in the loo.”
Chelsea faced forward in her seat, her shoulders up around her ears.
Ten glanced Charlie’s way, sitting back in his chair and giving her a little wink.
Yes, it was going to be a very long flight.
* * * *
“What the hell is going on, Sean?” Ian closed the small curtain that separated the cabin from the kitchen.
If Sean was intimidated by his very dark voice, he didn’t show it. It sucked because it was the same voice he used to use on his kid brother to get him to do his damn homework. No one was intimidated by him anymore.
“It’s time to kill Nelson. I’m coming with you.” Sean set down his bag. “Everyone has scattered. Li and Avery are going to our safe house on the East Coast and Jake and Adam are taking Serena, Grace, and Carys to the west. Alex and Eve are headed to Canada.”
Sean was smart enough to not say more. Ian didn’t care that Ten had watched his back on multiple occasions or that Damon Knight had been one of his mentors when he first started working. No one needed to know the locations of his team. No one. Alex and Eve were making their way to Toronto where they would fly to Saint Petersburg on Canadian passports and visas that allowed them to sight-see. They would report back on Denisovitch’s movements.
But he’d meant to keep his brother out of this. “You can’t come with me. You have a kid.”
“And you have a wife. I don’t see what the problem is, brother. Grace has always known that if you went after Nelson, I would go with you.”
“She’s not my wife. Not really.” But the words sounded stubborn and dumb even to him.
His baby brother’s eyes rolled in frustration. “You can keep saying it but I hope like hell you wake up before all this is over. Nothing you say is going to get me off this plane. Adam worked up my visa and I managed to get a bunch of shots. What’s up with that? Can’t Nelson pick a country with less contagions?”
He didn’t have time for Sean’s complaints. “I can have you hauled off this plane.”
“You could try. You might even succeed, but I’ll hop the next flight to India and I’ll be on your doorstep a couple of hours after you get there. Don’t think I can’t find out where you’ve set up shop. Adam might be afraid of you, but Serena craves my enchiladas. Who do you think wins that war, big brother?”
Ian’s fists clenched in frustration. “I don’t want you hurt, Sean.”
“And I don’t want you dead.” He stepped up, leaving very little space between them. “I know you are always going to see me as your snot-nosed kid brother. I know that deep down you’ll think you’re responsible for me until the day you die. And I know that I haven’t done the one thing I should have done for all those years you treated me like a brat kid and bossed me around.”
Fuck, he didn’t want to have it out with his brother. He’d spent the last year and a half trying to make up for choosing Sean over Grace when his brother had asked him to protect the woman he loved. Sean couldn’t know how much the distance bothered him, how much he missed his brother. “What is that, Sean?”
Sean put a hand on his shoulder, his face grave. “Thank you, brother. You didn’t have to take over after Dad left. You could have watched out for yourself but you took over and made sure I had what I needed. Don’t think for a second I don’t know who bought my birthday presents or made sure I had school supplies.”
Ian looked down at the man he’d raised. There was six years between them. It didn’t seem like much now, but when their father walked out on them, Sean had only been ten and then it was a chasm. Their mother had been depressed and barely functional. He’d had to grow up at sixteen. He’d had to take control. He remembered that first night when he sat waiting and hoping that his father would come home. And then he’d gotten up the next morning, begged his mother to get out of bed so she could go to work. She’d stayed in bed for a month. He’d gotten a job working after school until midnight at the local grocery. His childhood had been over. “It’s not a big deal, Sean.”
Sean shook his head. “It’s a big fucking deal, Ian. I know our relationship has been strained, but I’m done with that. I love you. I admire you. If anything happens to me and Grace, you should know that we’ve left Carys in your care.”
That shocked the fuck out of him. “I thought you would leave her to Alex and Eve.”
“No. It was never even a thought in our heads. You’re her uncle and I happen to know that you’re damn good at raising a kid. I hope like hell you get your head out of your ass and start raising some with that crazy bitch in there because she is your match, man. Charlie is everything you need.”
Somehow he didn’t mind his brother calling her Charlie. It bugged him when other people did it. Charlie was his name for her, but when Sean called her that it was an acceptance, a brotherly front. But he didn’t want to think about this right now. He wanted to live in the damn moment for once in his life. “I’m not kicking her out.”