Master No (32 page)

He sunk the ball. One under par.

Theo stood fifteen feet behind him. The boy needed to work on his game. “We’ll make sure she’s fine. We’ll take some up-close shots of the building tonight and get them to Hutch. At least he can tell us exactly what we’re dealing with. Damn it.”

His shot went wide. He strode over, trying again.

Brody came to stand beside Ten. “There’s something else. Liam O’Donnell sent me some reports and asked me to get them to you. He didn’t want them on your phone or laptop in case Faith saw them without you preparing her.”

His gut took a nosedive. O’Donnell had told him he was working on something. “What?”

“He thinks he can prove that the senator was involved in not one but two crimes involving his own family members as the victims.” Brody stared out over the green, a grave look in his eyes. “If he’s right, you can bring the senator down without getting into that building.”

“His wife’s death?” He’d wondered about that. It seemed so coincidental that his wife had been murdered.

Brody nodded. “Apparently Liam has discovered a witness who claims her husband was hired to kill McDonald’s wife. Naturally the husband is dead. Shanked in prison sixteen years ago. Before her death, Alice McDonald visited a divorce lawyer. She’d also hired a PI who disappeared under mysterious circumstances a week after Alice’s murder.”

“That’s all conjecture. It makes a great story, but it won’t put McDonald away. I need proof.” Could he be satisfied if he put MacDonald in prison for the rest of his life? “What’s the other crime he’s looking at?”

Brody hesitated. “McDonald was behind Faith’s kidnapping.”

Ten felt his jaw drop and an unholy rage threatened to take over. The man wouldn’t make it to prison. He would strangle the senator. He would wrap his hands around the fucker’s throat and squeeze and squeeze until he turned blue and then purple, and then Ten would squeeze some more. Would that be too humane? Maybe gutting the man would be more satisfying. Playing in his entrails. Or feeding him to some mangy mutt. Yeah, that would be better.

“Are you breathing, mate?”

“What did you say to him?” Theo seemed to have gotten the ball in the hole and was now studying Ten with a look of horrified wonder on his face. “Dude, you are really red.”

“Ah, you told him about senator’s part in Faith’s kidnapping.” The Russian nodded approvingly. “See, this is why I’m not worried. He is in love with her. No man turns so red unless he’s in love. Well, or he drinks too much vodka and someone insults his mother. My mother was good woman.”

“Shit.” Theo handed Nick his putter. “Why would he do that?”

Ten tried to force himself to calm down. He couldn’t murder the man here. He needed time and space to think about how to properly punish the senator. “Politics or money. It’s all the senator cares about.”

“He likes to combine the two, and Li thinks that’s what her kidnapping was about,” Brody explained. “A manufacturing company had plans to open a factory in Ghana. They would have competed with a rival company for workers and incentives.”

“A Collective company.” Ten wasn’t asking a question. It was a statement. The senator was a puppet for The Collective.

“Yes.” Brody hefted the heavy bag with no problem. “The kidnapping scared off the rival and left The Collective firm with a clear field in the country. Li found a wire transfer to the general who took Faith.”

“That only proves he paid the ransom.”

Brody shook his head. “The transfer was three days before her kidnapping.”

Shit. It would kill Faith. She loved her father. He knew he had to bring the man down. It was imperative.

“Li thinks we should lay all this out to Faith,” Brody continued. “Show her and bring her over to our side.”

And break her heart. It would be broken when she learned what her father had done, but not this way. This way would mangle and scar her heart forever. At least his way, she still believed the man loved her. A monster, yes, but she could still look back on her childhood and know she’d had a parent who cared. Ten took all of that from her if he used this intelligence.

He could bring her to his side. He could chain her there, but he ran the risk of changing her, of hurting her so deeply he might not recognize the Faith she’d been before.

“No. Bury it. Faith doesn’t ever need to know about this.”

“Shit, you really are in love with her,” Theo said, his eyes wide.

He wasn’t sure he’d go that far. He wanted her. He wanted to protect her. “I promised she wouldn’t get hurt by this. I can’t protect her by walking away. The senator has hurt too many people, and he’ll go on doing it if we don’t bring him down. If we can prove he was behind selling out troop movements, he’ll go to jail for the rest of his life. I have to be satisfied with that.”

“I’ll sit on it, then. Don’t worry about it getting to her. The only other people who have the report are at McKay-Taggart. This is your call. And the third hole is a walk. We should get going or those tourists behind us will catch up.” Brody started up a hill.

“It doesn’t have to be me.” He said the words almost as though he was tasting them on his tongue. “I don’t have to be the one who brings him down. All that matters is he goes to jail.”

Nick had walked behind Brody, leaving him and Theo alone for a moment. Theo put a hand on his shoulder. “No. It doesn’t have to be you. Someone else can do all of this, brother. Someone else can break in and get those files and you can walk away with the girl.”

Could he? Did he even deserve the girl? “We have to do the recon. No one else will get this close without tipping off the senator. If I leave this to someone else, they’ll get one shot at it.”

“And they’ll do the job.” Theo breathed in the air, obviously enjoying the island. “When everything goes down, you’ll be there to take care of Faith. She never has to know we were a part of any of this. She’ll lose one family. A shitty one, if I do say so. And she’ll gain another. We’ll close ranks around her and take care of her and she never knows. She never has to feel that pain.”

Was that fair? What really was the truth? It was all subjective. He cared about her. Did it matter that they started out in a way she didn’t completely understand? He cared about her now. He chose her.

God, he chose her. He loved Jamie. Jamie had been his brother, but he was going to choose Faith.

As it should be, my brother.

Something settled in Tennessee Smith and in that moment, he let his brother finally rest. Justice. Not revenge. He would go after justice.

And Faith. He would get his small part of the job done and then he would take Faith home. He would leave all this shit behind and start over. He would be the man she needed him to be.

For the first time in his life, he understood what it truly meant to belong.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Ten watched as Faith stepped onto the balcony. The light from the massive moon made her skin glow. It was late, but he didn’t want to sleep. There was a restless feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“Hey, I woke up and you weren’t in bed,” she said.

No, he’d slipped out shortly after she’d fallen asleep and he’d been standing here, trying to ensure the evening’s operation went as planned. Theo had kept Hope up, playing chess over a couple of fingers of Scotch while Erin had claimed she was tired and gone to bed. He and Faith had done the same. Once Faith was asleep, he’d texted Erin with the go-ahead and then watched from the balcony as she made her way out of the house. She’d been nothing more than a shadowy figure, staying close to the buildings and hugging the dark spaces. If he hadn’t known what to look for he never would have seen her.

Not ten minutes before he’d seen her make her way back to the main house.

Safe and sound. She’d texted him good night—code that told him the operation had been successful. She had the data Hutch would need to crack the security system.

Once Hutch was satisfied he could get someone in, Ten could walk away. He trusted Big Tag. Ian would get the job done, and all Ten would need to do was take care of Faith. He could take her someplace private and they would ride out the scandal that would engulf her father.

She didn’t have to know how close he’d come to destroying them all.

“I couldn’t sleep.” He opened his arms and she walked right into them, nestling against his chest. Yes, that was what he needed. That felt right. He kissed the top of her head. “I stared at you for a while, but then I decided that was probably creepy, so I came out here for some air.”

“I think I’ve gotten too used to sleeping next to a furnace,” she mumbled. “I woke up because I was cold. It never gets cold here.”

She’d put on a robe, but he could get her out of it soon enough. He let his hands cup her shoulders, running down her arms and up her back. He didn’t fight the urge to touch her anymore. She was his and she was going to remain his.

He felt his cell vibrate. Likely Theo giving him hell for leaving him to watch Hope. Her creepy fascination with the youngest Taggart meant Erin pretty much had the run of the place. The staff was minimal and most went home at night. Hutch had already hacked into the security feed, so Hope had been their biggest issue.

He ignored the text. The ringer was off. He didn’t want anything to interrupt his time with Faith.

He kissed her, letting his mouth play against hers. He could take his time, make it last. They had nowhere to go tomorrow. They would play on the beach and have some fun. He would keep them here and then Big Tag would call with an excuse to get them back to the States before the senator was due.

He simply had to make sure that when he needed to go home due to an emergency, she packed up and went with him.

When he let her up for air, she looked up at him, concern in her eyes. “I actually can’t sleep for a couple of reasons.”

Did she know about the fire? He’d noticed she’d been distracted earlier in the evening. At dinner, she’d been fairly quiet, only commenting when he prompted her. When he’d taken her to bed, she’d gone willingly into his arms, but she hadn’t slipped into subspace the way she normally did. Something was going on in her head, and he’d let it play out. He hadn’t mentioned it because he was supposed to be backing off. Unfortunately, he couldn’t. Not when she was potentially in danger. It looked like Hope was getting everything she wanted, but Ten couldn’t take the chance that she was lying in wait. He smoothed back Faith’s hair. She was the loveliest thing he’d ever seen and he had to wonder why he’d fought her. If he’d been born a different man, he would have dropped to his knees the minute he met her, but he was stupid and took his time. He’d still come to the same conclusion.

She was the one for him. She was his prize at the end of this hellish nightmare.

“What’s wrong, darlin’?”

“I know I said some things to you that night when we fought over my sister.”

So she did know. He wondered how she was going to play this. It didn’t matter. He would take care of her any way she went, but he wanted so badly for her to ask him. He wanted for her to need him. “It doesn’t matter. We worked that out.”

“It kind of does now.”

“What do you need from me, Faith? All you have to do is ask.”

She looked up at him, seeming to search his face. “Really? You’re not going to make me grovel because you were right and I was wrong?”

He leaned over and kissed her again. “No. I’m going to help you because that’s who I want to be for you. I want to be the man you come to. No questions. No groveling.” He grinned. “Though I do like you on your knees.”

She hugged him again. “I was worried. I thought you might make me work for it.”

“You’re precious to me, Faith. I won’t ever make you feel less than precious to me. I promise. I’ll look into the situation with your sister in the morning. I want you to be careful around her. I know you love her, but keep your eyes open. I think she might be involved with some very ruthless people.”

“Maybe that’s it. Maybe she’s involved in something she can’t control.”

“If that’s the truth, then I’ll help her get out of it.” It wasn’t, but he also wasn’t lying. If it had been true, he would move heaven and earth to keep a smile on Faith’s face. Unfortunately, The Collective wasn’t the same as a “bad crowd” a teenager could fall in with. They were the baddest of the bad, and if Hope belonged, then she’d done unimaginable things in the pursuit of money and power.

Faith’s hands found his, tangling together in a sweet way. “I can count on you. Did you know that’s really the first time I’ve been able to say that to a man?”

He needed to make her understand how serious he was. “You come first, Faith. I know we haven’t been together for a long time, but I’m willing to put you first in my life. In everything.”

She would never know what he’d sacrificed for her. It was funny that he’d found a peace with it. Once he’d realized how important she was, it was easy to put her first. It was the way of the world. Phoebe had come first for Jamie. This wasn’t a betrayal of Jamie’s memory. It was an actual true remembrance of the brother who had cared for him.