Dallas, TX

9 months later

 

Stephanie stood on the threshold of the big Mediterranean house the O’Donnell family called home and wondered for the thousandth time if she was doing the right thing. She’d already upset Liam and she was going to cause problems with his friends.

Mostly because Liam had gotten a look at the baby in the car seat at her feet and reached the proper conclusions. There had been no questions, no casual wonder about how she’d come to be in Texas with a baby she hadn’t mentioned before. She’d hoped someone would ask the question. Who’s the dad? She would have mentioned she wasn’t sure and moved on.

Nope. Li was far smarter than that. He’d taken one look at her baby boy and vowed to kick his father’s arse, as he put it. And he’d known exactly who that was.

“It’s going to be okay,” Avery said, tugging on her hand as Liam hauled the car seat up.

“How old is this kid?” Li complained. “He feels like a toddler.”

“Two months.” It was hard to believe two months had already past. She’d dreaded having him and now she wanted time to slow down because he was growing far too fast. It was odd how her world had shifted in two months and three days, how the center had changed and she was better for it. “He weighs fifteen pounds already.”

“Bloody Aussie.” Liam smiled down at her son. “Hey, boy, I’m your Uncle Li and I’m going to kick yer daddy’s arse.”

Liam walked inside and Avery closed the door behind them.

She clearly hadn’t thought this plan of hers through long enough. But then she’d been far too terrified to be worried that someone might find out how foolish she’d been. “Please. Brody can’t know. He doesn’t want to know. He doesn’t…he doesn’t want me. I chose to have Nate. Nate’s mine and no one else’s.”

Avery laughed, the sound musical to Steph’s ears. “Oh, dear, I’m afraid that boy belongs to all of us now. Come on. Let’s figure this out. I’ll make sure Li doesn’t get on a plane tomorrow. Now, what kind of trouble are we in?”

So much trouble. “Like I said, someone’s trying to kill me and I’m not sure why. I didn’t know where else to go. I probably should have called, but I left my cell behind and didn’t want to spend the money on another one.”

Running a clinic in Africa didn’t pay well. She’d pretty much put everything she had into that place. Outside funding was rare and always spent on upgrading her tools. She was constantly begging for old equipment because a twenty-year-old CT scan was better than no CT scan.

“You shouldn’t have gone anywhere else,” Li replied. “You did the right thing. You came home. We told you after your mum died and you were alone that we were your family now. You always were family to us. Did you think we didn’t mean it?”

Tears pierced her eyes. Where was inner tough chick when she needed her? She seemed to have gone dormant in the months since Steph had felt that first kick to her stomach—from the inside. She’d gone all gooey and emotional, unable to hide those parts of herself that had been shoved down before. “I think I hate bringing trouble to your doorstep.”

Liam lifted Nate out of his carrier, hefting him up to his chest. “This boy here ain’t a bit of trouble, are you? What a handsome young man. And you’re strong, aren’t you? Look at that. Two months old and he’s holding his head up like a champ.”

She was grateful for the chance to smile about something. “Yes, he’s strong for his age. And big. I had to scramble to find clothes for him. I’d only bought newborn onesies. I didn’t realize how big he was going to be.”

“And you had him in the field?” Liam asked the question with a soft tone that didn’t fool Steph one bit. At some point, Liam O’Donnell had decided she was the little sister he’d never had, and he could bring the hammer down.

“I have my own clinic, Li. I have a surgery and everything. I’ve done C-sections in the clinic.” She backtracked as she saw Li’s eyes flare. “Not that I had a C-section. Somehow my vagina was able to spit him out. I didn’t even need an episiotomy. Turns out I’m super stretchy down there.”

Li frowned, looking over at his wife. “Do I want to know what she’s talking about?”

“Absolutely not.” Avery led her to a comfy chair in front of the fireplace. “Sit and rest for a bit. We’ve got a guest room and I’ll pull Aidan’s travel crib out of the closet.”

Stephanie shook her head, grateful to have diverted Liam from his cause. She could give him another one to worry about. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. Like I said, I’m in trouble and I’m worried about staying in one place for too long. I heard that sometimes McKay-Taggart will stash a client in a safe house. I thought I could stay in a motel tonight if you could get me a meeting in the morning. I know the group has to decide whether or not to take a case. Uhm, they’ll also have to decide if they work on a payment plan because I’m going to need one.”

Liam held her baby in his big arms and the sight pierced her with longing. Nate had never been held by a man. Her nurses were all women and Alfi Dauterre, her recently hired security expert, had zero interest in babies. The Aussie soldier of fortune sometimes showed up at her clinic, offering her help in exchange for a room, a meal, and free medical care. He needed a lot of antibiotics. Liam picking up her baby was the first time he’d been held in manly arms, and Nathan seemed utterly fascinated with him.

“We’ll take the case and there won’t be any talk of payment,” Liam replied. “And you’ll stay right here.”

He didn’t understand. “I can’t thank you enough, but I know you have protocols.”

“Not for family, we don’t.” Li’s big hand patted Nathan’s back, easing him down until he settled his head against Li’s shoulder. “Trust me. We’ll meet tomorrow but the only question is going to be what we do to help you. There won’t be a question of whether we take the job or not. You do understand that Big Tag owes you? He’ll do anything you need. Do you need him to kill Brody Carter? Because he’ll do that, too. See, there’s a question we will have to decide. I say it should be me who murders the big bastard, but Tag might want to play, too.”

She couldn’t help but laugh a little. “You can’t kill Brody.”

“Are you trying to tell me this boy ain’t his?”

So old-fashioned. “I’m trying to tell you that boy is mine. I chose to have him.”

“You didn’t conceive him on your own and you know it.”

“I think what Stephanie is trying to say is that Brody didn’t want a child,” Avery explained quietly. “She made the decision to have him. What’s his name again?”

“Nathan.” She looked up at Avery. “Nathan Avery Gibson.”

Avery’s eyes were shining as she looked down at her. “That is a lovely name. I can’t tell you how much that means to me.” She frowned suddenly. “Of course if you thought enough of me to give your son my name, you probably should have called and mentioned that you were pregnant. Steph, I called you not two months ago to tell you that I was pregnant again. You didn’t think to mention you’d had one of your own?”

“I wasn’t sure how to tell you,” she offered lamely. The truth was she’d frozen when she’d gotten the call from Avery. It had been three days after Nate’s birth and all she’d been able to think about was the fact that Avery was having baby number two and Nate would be an only child of a single mother who could barely afford the necessities.

“I think what Stephanie’s saying is she was ashamed. Which is the bloody stupidest thing I’ve ever heard.” Liam’s voice raised and that had Nate’s head coming up. She worried he might start crying, but he simply looked at Liam and then turned his head her way as though he totally agreed with the lecture his uncle was delivering. “What exactly did you think would happen, Stephanie? Did you plan on never seeing us again?”

Damn, that was one judgmental Irishman. “No. Not at all. I just didn’t know how to tell you.”

“I was planning on checking in on you in a month or two. I’ve got corporate clients who take me into West Africa and I was going to show up on your doorstep. Would I have even been welcome?”

She’d stepped in it. “Of course. I would have been thrilled to see you. And I was going to call. I promise. It didn’t go through my head once that I wouldn’t see you again. I was going to call and tell you about Nate after I figured out how to make sure you didn’t kill his father.”

Nate leaned forward and placed a fat baby hand on Liam’s nose, touching and patting it like it was a new toy.

“I won’t kill him. I’ll only make him wish he was dead, and after I’m done with him he won’t ever be able to do this to another woman. He won’t have the proper parts because I’ll cut them off. Then I’ll ensure he does his damn duty to you and the boy.”

It was hard to take him seriously when he had a baby tugging on his nose, but Liam was a patient man. Probably because he’d had his own son and now had another kid on the way.

“I don’t want Nate growing up with a father who resents him, so I’ve left Brody out of my pregnancy.”

Liam’s eyes narrowed. “Are you telling me he doesn’t know?”

“Of course he knows.” She stood up, giving him a frown of her own. “I called him. I called him about ten times, Li. He wouldn’t answer the phone. I left him a detailed voice mail about how his seed was growing in my womb. I went into clinical detail. I was pissed at the time.”

“And he didn’t reply?”

She sighed, her anger fleeing in a moment, replaced with the sadness that invaded any time she thought about that Aussie. “He told me before we slept together that he didn’t intend to see me again. He left me a note asking me not to call or try to contact him. I was supposed to contact Damon Knight if I needed anything, but I think he was talking about security concerns. Li, please drop this. He knows. He doesn’t care and I’m finally okay with it.”

Li’s jaw tightened but Avery stepped in.

“Don’t make this harder on her. Let me hold that baby and you go and pull out the crib.” Avery took Nate, cuddling him close. “And then call Ian and let him know we need a family meeting in the morning.”

Liam kissed his wife and stepped back with a shake of his head. “Do you know the name of the person who’s coming after you?”

Weariness set in. It had been a hideous few days. She’d had to make her way to Guinea and then to Frankfurt and Dallas, all the while worried there was an army behind her. “He was a mercenary. I’ll be honest, Li. I didn’t get his name. They all called him boss and that was all. The boss.”

“You say he’s a merc? Not a warlord?” Li asked.

Liam had spent plenty of time in that part of the world. She rather thought one of his reasons for taking assignments in West Africa had been so he could check up on her, but it also put him in a position to understand the geopolitical forces at work in the region. “He’s European. German, or maybe Dutch. I’m crappy with languages. I know they weren’t speaking English or Krio. It was a European language he spoke with his men.”

“What exactly happened?”

Avery held out a hand. “Li, it’s almost midnight and she’s been traveling for days. She needs sleep. She can go over all of this in the morning meeting.”

“You’re sure he’s coming after you?” Liam pressed.

“He promised to kill me, but I’m hoping it takes him some time to find me. My friend Alfi found a private plane that took us to Conakry in Guinea. I managed to get a flight to Frankfurt, and from there I made my way to Dallas. I hope he’s still looking for me to have flown out of Freetown or to have gone on by car.”

Li nodded. “Smart girl. We’ve got a bit of time. All right, then. I’ll make sure everything is set up and I’ll call out for a few additional eyes for the night, just in case.”

“He means we’ll have a couple of beefy bodyguards here in about an hour or so.” Avery sat down in the chair across from her and started to rock back and forth, as though having a few armed guards come to her house wasn’t a big deal. “Ian recently hired a bunch of new bodyguards and they are heavenly looking men. My Li is the handsomest of all, of course, but Serena and I are trying to convince a couple of them to be cover models for Serena’s new project.”

“I’m done with hot bodyguards.” She’d totally learned her lesson. Alfi was incredibly handsome and had made it plain he hadn’t cared that she was pregnant. He would be happy to sleep with her when he came by. She’d turned him down with a laugh.

Avery studied her for a moment. “I don’t know. They are pretty nice to look at and a couple aren’t even manwhores. You never know. Unless you’re still stuck on Brody.”

She wasn’t. She’d written him off when he hadn’t bothered to call her back to even ask about his son. It had been a kick to the gut as the days had gone by with no return call. She’d tried again when she was four months along and she’d been seized with the morning sickness that should have come in her first tri. She’d called and told him exactly what she thought of him. Explicitly, and with lots of words her child shouldn’t have heard even in utero.

He hadn’t answered her then, either.

Still, as she’d gone into labor, she’d called one last time, begging him to come to her. She’d left a message pleading with him to come hold her hand.

Never again.

“I’m not even thinking about hooking up, Avery. I’m barely cleared for sex. It will probably be another six months before I even think about it, and then I’m pretty sure I’m going to find myself a nice Hitachi wand and settle down. I’m going to name it and everything.”

Avery sighed. “Oh, dear. He did some damage.”

Steph shook her head. “He told me what he wanted and I pushed him. I don’t blame him. I simply want to move on without him. I’m good. Well, except for the psychopath chasing after me. And the fact that I need to make up a batch of formula for Nate. One more thing I couldn’t manage. I got mastitis a few days after he was born and I had a high fever for days before the antibiotics worked. I don’t know if it was all the surgeries after…well, anyway, I can’t produce enough milk for him.”

There it was, that moment in her life that all roads seemed to lead back to. That one moment when she’d been weak and it had cost the woman in front of her more than most people could imagine.

“It’s all right,” Avery promised. “He’ll be fine on formula. He’s a big, healthy boy and you’re doing a great job with him.”

Maybe it was how tired she was or simply the fact that being around Avery stripped her bare, but the tears started up and she asked the question she’d been thinking about since the moment she’d held her baby. It was a question she’d asked Avery before, but now it meant more. Now she knew what Avery had lost. Now she’d held her own child.

“How can you even look at me?”

Sometimes the accident felt like it had happened to another person, another Stephanie.

Sometimes she could still feel that moment of impact, hear the crash, louder than thunder, like it was happening to her all over again.

She’d been a teen coming home from a party. Her whole world had been laid out in front of her. She would be class valedictorian, get accepted to medical school, make her parents proud.

One single mistake. One moment where she’d taken her eyes off the road and she’d killed Avery Charles’s infant daughter and young husband. Avery had been in a coma for months and Stephanie’s future died.

Until that day when she’d stood in front of Avery. She’d expected anything from a lecture on how her carelessness had cost Avery everything to Avery telling her to do what her darkest self wanted to do—to die like she should have on that country road.

She’d expected anything but what Avery had given her. Forgiveness.

You owe me a life, Stephanie. You owe me two lives. You don’t get to be a coward and take the easy way out. You pay me back by being good. By doing good.

Avery Charles O’Donnell was the single most extraordinary human being Stephanie had ever met. Avery was the reason she was alive and working.

Avery cuddled Nate close and reached for Steph’s hand. “I look at you with ease and joy in my heart because you’re my friend. Stephanie, there are events that happen in our lives that can devastate us, and we can’t control them. The only thing we can control is how we react to them. Something terrible happened and I could have lain in that bed and allowed that one moment to make me bitter and hateful. I could have looked at you and damned you to hell, but that wouldn’t have solved anything at all. Forgiveness is a gift we give to ourselves. Who knows what could have happened if we hadn’t both been on that road that night. I could be married to Brandon and Maddie might be in high school. Or we could have divorced. Or they could have died some other way because I was always meant to go down this path. I can’t question why they were taken when they were, but I believe one day I’ll have to answer for how I handled it. I chose to live and that meant finding meaning. Hell, maybe it meant making meaning where there was none, but I don’t regret forgiving you. Not for a second.”

Tears poured from her eyes because she should have done this long ago. Avery was a blessing in her life. “I’m sorry I didn’t call.”

“I understand and you’re here now. So I get to ask you to do something else for me.”

“What’s that?”

Avery reached out, placing a hand over hers. “Forgive yourself. Come home and raise this baby. Forgive yourself. Forgive Brody. Move on with your life with an open heart. You can’t be this child’s mother and hate yourself. It’s time to come home.”

“I thought about putting him up for adoption.” She admitted the plan that had come to her in her dark moments.

“Because you don’t think you’re worthy of him,” Avery said. “But you are. While you’re here, I want you to see a friend of mine.”

She could guess. “Kai Ferguson?”

Avery sat back, Nate settling down against her. “Yes. I know your mom sent you to a therapist, but that was a long time ago and you’ve done a good job of hiding away from the world. I thought it was good for you at first, but now I wonder. You can do charity work here and raise your baby around family. You can find someone who makes you happy, and I worry you won’t even try if you stay out there.”

She would do anything for Avery. “I’ll see Kai. I’ll try.”

Avery stood up. “Is his formula in the diaper bag?”

Steph followed her, every bone weary. “Yes. I’ll get it if you don’t mind me using your kitchen.”

Avery pointed her way. “You see, you’re acting like you’re a burden. That’s what we’re going to work on.”

Liam stepped back out of the hall and picked up her sad suitcase. “Avery knows how to make a bottle. You are going to take a long, hot shower and get to bed. We’ll handle the wee one. Well, we’ll handle the massive linebacker you’ve got there. Go to sleep and rest. You’re good now. You got him out and now it’s time to let me take over.”

They presented a united front. All three of them. Nate looked perfectly happy in Avery’s arms.

“Okay.” She could use a shower, use some sleep she hadn’t been able to get while sitting up in economy with a baby in her arms.

She was safe. It was enough for now.

 

* * * *

 

Brody Carter set the weight down and stretched one arm over his head and behind, trying to loosen his left tricep.

“I can’t believe you’re actually up at six in the morning working out.” Kayla Summers strode into the gym, wearing pink yoga pants and a tight tank, her night-dark hair in a high ponytail. “After everything you drank last night, I suspected you would be sleeping it off.”

“Bastard doesn’t sleep,” Tucker said as he did what had to be his hundredth bicep curl. The damn boy had been in the gym before Brody and he hadn’t broken a sweat. “He parties and he works out. I think he needs a mission.”

The man they’d named Tucker had a point. Tucker was one of the six men McKay-Taggart rescued from Dr. Hope McDonald’s cruel experiments. The now deceased doc liked to experiment on men. Her drugs had wiped the memories of the men the team now called the Lost Boys.

Thinking about Dr. McDonald made him think of another doctor, a doctor who was the opposite of Hope and her evil experiments. It made him think of a doctor with the sweetest smile in the world.

“Hey, anytime the boss needs me, I’m ready to go. And it’s not like I haven’t been working. Walt and I just got back from a job in Iraq. That wasn’t a piece of piss job. It was serious. God knows keeping Walt alive is work enough.”

His normal partner also happened to be the scientist on the team. Walt was brilliant, but he also sometimes was a magnet for trouble. He was far better in the lab than the field, but that meant Brody got stuck there where he knew nothing and ended up surrounded by people who were way smarter than him.

That was his place though. He was pure muscle and he couldn’t forget it.

Tucker shifted the twenty-pound weight to his free hand and started all over again. “Well, I would do almost anything to get out of here. Not that here’s bad.”

Sasha was working out beside Tucker, laid out on the leg press. “Here is no bad. Here is good food and many women to pleasure me. I have been in bad place. Bad place has no women.”

His bad place had been torture and drugs that wiped his memories, so Brody was fairly certain Sasha was telling the truth. Sasha had recently completed his training with their boss Damon Knight and been given Master rights at The Garden, the club they all played at. Sasha was there every night the club was open.

Brody spent all his time in the bar lately. Oh, he’d had a few sessions with submissives, but he couldn’t work up the will to go any further than a flogging or rigging up a sub for his friends. He’d been a bit like a monk because every time he put on a pair of leathers, all he could think about was how Stephanie had dropped to her knees in front of him, offering up her sweet self.

And then she’d tried to walk away when he wanted to save her. She’d been willing to offer herself up to that bugger CIA guy Ezra Fain, with his perfect looks and polished ways. He’d had a vision of Fain putting his hands on her and he’d made the single, biggest mistake of his life.

He’d given in and let himself go. He’d taken her in a wild frenzy of lust. He hadn’t been tender with her, hadn’t given her the long hours of lush lovemaking she’d deserved. He’d fucked her hard a couple of times and then snuck out like a bloody coward when she’d fallen asleep.

He didn’t deserve a sub. Nope. Not when he couldn’t get his head off the one he’d let slip away.

“Is he going to murder someone?” Sasha asked. “I have seen this look, right before someone tries to murder me. This is not old memory coming back. In the bad place, I was nearly murdered many times.”

“Yeah,” Tucker whispered back. “I remember that, too. Sometimes I wish the doc had done one last memory wipe and made me forget her. But it’s like I said, Carter needs a mission to work. He’s getting antsy. And since Walt is off his feet for a couple of weeks, I will volunteer to be your partner. I can watch your back and hey, if you want to rough up a few bad guys, well that doesn’t need to go in a report, does it?”

“The only thing I’ll be doing today is sitting in front of a computer finishing up the details on the Iraq job and making sure Walt remembers to take his antibiotics.” It was going to be a dull day, and for some reason he’d been antsy the last two days in a way he wasn’t sure had anything to do with Walt nearly getting himself killed because he was far too curious.

He’d been thinking about her for days. Maybe that was because he was surrounded with women planning a wedding. Hayley Dalton was marrying his friend Nick Markovic, and all the women of The Garden were aflutter with the details. There was an incredible amount of lovely feminine energy around him and he couldn’t help but think of Stephanie.

Kayla grabbed a bottle of water from the small fridge. “I don’t think we have anything exciting right now. I’m working on a couple of corporate cases. Super boring. I don’t get to shoot anyone or anything. I was so bored I almost asked for the Loa Mali assignment.”

Brody turned to her. “The royal wedding? I thought the Dallas office was handling that. Didn’t you sleep with the king once?”

Kayla’s ponytail bobbed as she nodded. “Many times. I was undercover. Hence the ‘me not getting to go to the beach wedding of the century’ thing. Exes. I’ve found it’s totally best to keep that door shut, locked, and the key thrown away.”

Ah, words of advice. Yes. That was what he needed to hear. “Because it’s best to look forward and not back.”

Kay shook her head. “Nope. Because almost all the time I was working the dude over for intel. I’ve spent most of my adult life making a living as a spy. Dudes get pissy when they find out you didn’t give them your real name or your real job and hey, sorry I downloaded your computer and gave all that stolen tech to my government. It’s a whole lot of drama. But if I could go back and see Scotty Barris, I would do it in a heartbeat.”

“Another spy? Did you have hot time while on the job?” Sasha asked with a wink.

“Nope. He was the president of the chess club and I was the only female member of the chess club,” Kayla explained. “One night while practicing he touched my boob and my world changed. Unfortunately, one of my dads walked in and then both my dads were giving me the lecture. And Scotty never touched my boob again. I would go back and ask him to touch the left one, too. I’m a little OCD. It still bugs me.”

She was also a little sarcastic. But her words were still true. He’d shut the door and it needed to stay locked.

It was precisely why he’d erased Stephanie’s messages without listening to them. He’d always had someone follow up a few days later to make sure she was all right, but he couldn’t listen to her voice and not break down. He had to be strong enough for both of them.

Because that woman deserved the best, and it wasn’t him. It wasn’t fucking him.

“He looks like he wants to murder someone again,” Tucker whispered far too loudly.

He was done. The gym wasn’t going to do it for him today. He needed coffee and then he would dive into writing a report about how Walt got shot in the foot because he stopped in the middle of a gun fight to solve a damn equation on a white board. “I’m going down to breakfast. If you see Damon, tell him he’ll have his report this afternoon.”

Kay gave him a jaunty salute. “Will do. Hey, anyone want to spar? I was going to do yoga but now all the violent talk made me want to punch someone.”

They were arguing about who got to punch whom as he strode out the door.

His crazy life. This was the only thing he was good at, stepping in front of bullets so smarter people could live. That was his talent.

He was halfway to the lift that would take him down to the kitchen when his mobile trilled. He pulled it out. He always answered. Unless it was her.

It wasn’t. It was a call from the States. From Li O’Donnell, which meant it had something to do with work, and likely something important since it was around midnight in Dallas. With a long sigh, he answered. “This is Carter.”

“Ah, good. Now look here, I’m going to say something and I’m only going to say it once. I’m saying it to allow you to get a good head start and because I’m a fair man. I’m coming for you. Did you think you could sneak in and out of her life like that and there wouldn’t be any consequences? Did you think because her mum died that no one would stand up for her? You were wrong, you arsehole.”

He sounded an awful lot like another Liam. The one who had a special set of talents and murdered people on screen. “Uhm, I think you got the wrong number, mate. This is Carter. Brody Carter. If something’s happened to Avery, I’m sorry, but I haven’t seen your wife in a long time.”

“I’m talking about Stephanie.”

He stopped, his whole body going cold in an instant. “Something happened to Steph?”

“Yeah, something’s happened to Steph and you damn well know it.”

“What? What the hell is it?” His heart thudded in his chest. If some fucker had hurt her, he would have a job to do. A bloody, painful job. Damn it. Damn it. Damn it. He’d known. He’d known that clinic would get her killed one day. “Tell me, O’Donnell.”

There was silence on the other end of the line.

“Tell me now!” The waiting was going to kill him.

“You almost sound like you care, Carter.”

“I bloody well do care about that girl. More than you can know. Fuck. Tell me what happened. Is she dead?” He couldn’t help it. He was practically crying. The idea that she was gone gutted him. And yet wasn’t that part of why he’d left? Because she was so reckless?

He should have stayed. This was his fucking fault. He’d been right not to try to be with her. She deserved better, but he’d walked away and left her alone. He’d done that when he knew how reckless she could be. He’d done it knowing how close a couple of her calls had been.

He’d done it because he’d been afraid.

It hit him with the power of a sledgehammer. All this time he’d told himself he’d done it to protect her, to ensure she found someone worthy, but he’d been a sniveling coward protecting himself.

“Brody, she’s not dead.” Liam sounded calmer, less like he wanted to slice a man open and play in his entrails. “She’s alive, though she is in real danger. Why did you dodge her calls if you care about her this much? Don’t lie to me, man. I can hear it in your voice.”

The tightness in his chest eased. “I dodged her calls because you know how it is with women. They get it in their heads that a man is worth something he ain’t. They can give up their lives following a man who ain’t worthy of them. I couldn’t listen to the messages she left because I knew I would break down and go to her and then she’d be strapped with me for life.”

“You’re a stupid bastard,” O’Donnell said and Brody could practically see him shaking his head.

“Yes, I believe that’s my point.” He didn’t need O’Donnell to tell him something he already knew. “Now tell me what’s going on with Steph.”

“So, you haven’t seen her since the Freetown op?” O’Donnell asked.

Only in his dreams. In his dreams, he wasn’t a stupid bloody wanker. In his dreams, he had the kind of job that would make her proud, that they could build a family around. He wasn’t the man who’d screwed everything up again and again. He was the kind of man she could depend on. “No. I haven’t seen her since then. Haven’t talked to her. She called me, but I couldn’t… I thought it best we didn’t talk. I sent a friend of mine down there to watch after her. He checks in and he hasn’t said a thing about her being in trouble.”

O’Donnell sighed and seemed to come to a decision. “Understood. Sorry, I was under a mistaken impression. You’re right. I am calling the wrong number.”

He wasn’t going to let O’Donnell hang up. Not until he knew what was going on. “Wait. What kind of danger is she in?”

“Don’t worry about it, mate. She’s here in Dallas and I’ll take care of it. You don’t have to be involved at all. I can see that now.”

“I want to know what’s going on. Damn it. Tell me.” He wouldn’t be able to do anything until he knew she was safe.

There was an arrogant huff over the line. “You can’t be bothered to even listen to her voice mails, you don’t deserve to know what’s happening in her life. Even when there’s an army out there looking to kill her. Bye, Brody. Hope you’re happy with your choices later in life. I made a mistake by calling you. I should keep this in the family and you are not in my family. Stay away from her.”

The line went dead.

There was an army looking to kill her? What the hell was happening? O’Donnell couldn’t leave him hanging like that.

Brody immediately called the number back. It went straight to voice mail. Bastard. He tried to pull up Steph’s number. He’d erased it off his phone and she hadn’t called him in months. The lift doors opened and Damon Knight stepped out. It was always odd to see his normally perfectly dressed boss in workout clothes, but Brody didn’t give it too much thought. All he cared about was what Damon could give him.

“I need Steph Gibson’s phone number.”

Damon’s gaze sharpened on him. “I thought that was over.”

He didn’t have time to argue, but Damon was his boss and Brody owed the man. “Yes, of course the op is over, but I heard a rumor that she’s in trouble. I want to check it out.”

“I wasn’t talking about the op. I was talking about the affair you had with her.”

Did everyone know? Could not a single person keep their mouth shut?

Damon’s lips curved up in a smile. “I know what you’re thinking. You’re blaming the rumor mill. Normally I would as well. Not this time. You’re to blame that particular secret got around. You get chatty when you’re drunk. If it helps, I think you’re wrong to believe you’re not good enough for her. Women tend to know what they want. When we tell them what they want, it’s called Mansplaining and it tends to get a bloke in trouble. Like when you kindly attempt to help your wife through those first few months of pregnancy by giving her scientific facts about why her hormones are out of balance. Spent a week on the couch for that. Apparently walking off morning sickness isn’t a thing.”

“Her phone number?” He didn’t need to hear about Damon’s problems with Penny. Even Brody was smart enough to know that when a woman was pregnant, a man should rub her feet, throw food at her, and pray he survived.

“Ms. Gibson’s?” He pulled his mobile out of the pocket of his sweatpants, flipping through the contacts there. “I’m sure I have it somewhere. You said she was in trouble? I think you should call the Dallas office. According to my records, Liam O’Donnell is her primary contact.”

Yes, and that had grated on Brody when he was in Sierra Leone with her. He’d been her constant companion, her guard, and her cover, and yet he hadn’t been in charge. Not really. Every move he made had to be reported back to O’Donnell, who acted like her dad or something. He’d never truly been in command. “I need to talk to her.”

“Here she is.” Damon turned the phone his way.

He wasn’t wasting a bit of time. He simply took the phone from Damon and pushed the button to connect.

It wasn’t more than one ring before a masculine voice answered. “Hello?”

That accent was fairly thick. Definitely European.

Brody froze for the second time. “I’m looking for Stephanie Gibson.”

A chilly chuckle came over the line. “Yes, well, aren’t we all? Are you a friend of hers? Because we would really like to know where the bitch is.”

“Who is this?”

“Let her know she can run, but she can’t hide. I know what she has and I’m going to get it back one way or another. I’m going to give her everything I promised her. Tell her if she turns herself over I might go easy on that boy of hers. What did she call him? Nate. Yes, Nate. If she makes me come after her, all bets are off. I’ll kill him, too. Real slow like. She’s got twenty-four hours.”

The line went dead.

Brody immediately tried to call it back. It went straight to voice mail.

What the hell had she gotten herself into? And who was the “boy” that man had mentioned? Had she taken a lover? Someone named Nate? Of course she had. She’d talked that night about how she was sick of being alone and she needed someone in her bed. It had been him for one night and now she’d found someone else and they were both in trouble.

His insides ached at the thought of another man’s hands on her, but he’d made that bed and he had to lie in it. He owed it to her. She’d given him everything she had that night and he’d taken her like a rowdy sailor.

“What’s going on?” Damon asked. “I take it that wasn’t the doctor.”

“Not sure yet, but I need to get someone to ping her cell phone and find out where it is. O’Donnell said she’s in Dallas, but she didn’t answer. It was some arsehole with a German accent. Maybe Dutch. I can’t tell. Give me a minute.”

He handed Damon his phone and shuffled through his own, looking for Alfi’s number.

Damon was already on his line. “O’Donnell, give me the rundown on what’s happening with Stephanie Gibson. Yes, I know it’s midnight there. I’m aware of the time difference.”

O’Donnell wasn’t going to be helpful, but Alfi might. The phone rang once and then again and again before the line picked up.

“This is Dauterre. I’m partying right now. This better be good.”

Brody could hear loud, thumping industrial music. “Where the hell are you? You’re supposed to be in Africa.”

“Brody, my mate!” Dauterre’s Aussie accent was thick over the line. That’s what happened when he drank heavily. “Brody, I was thinking about you. Gosh, mate, you have no idea how much I’ve wanted to talk to you.”

“Are you in a pub? Where the hell are you? You’re supposed to be watching over the doctor. You remember her? I’m paying you to check in on her.” He was going to kill Alfi. “Where is Steph? What happened?”

Alfi went silent for a moment. When he spoke again, he seemed a bit more sober. “No idea, mate. I suspect she’s at her clinic. Ain’t seen her in a while. I got things to do with my time, too, you know.”

“She’s not there. She had to leave in a hurry because someone’s trying to kill her. I believe that’s a fact you might have mentioned to me.”

“Well, then I’m sure she’s probably on her way to see that Irishman she always talks about.” Alfi sounded tired, his words slurring. “Nice lady, she is. I’ll check in on her next time I’m in Freetown. It’s probably a misunderstanding or something. Don’t be so high strung. The girl is fine. Everything is normal. You know you only told me to call you if something outside the norm happened.”

He hung up. Alfi was drunk somewhere and he would be useless until someone sobered him up.

“Bastard.” Damon was staring down at his phone. “Told me to mind my own business and then hung up on me. This is my business. That’s my name on the bloody door. Arrogant Irishman.”

Brody looked at his boss. O’Donnell might have done him a favor. “There’s only one way we’re getting answers.”

“Go there and demand them. Well, you’ll be useless until you do. Though you’re not using the jet for what will be personal business. You’ll have to fly commercial.” Damon shuddered as though that was the worst punishment he could hand out.

Brody had only flown private since he’d come to work for McKay-Taggart and Knight. Before then almost all his flights had been in the back of an SASR transport aircraft. “No problem.”

“Take one of the lads as backup,” Damon ordered. “If the good doctor is in trouble, I have no doubt you’ll convince Big Tag to let you work the case. Owen’s working with Nick and Robert’s acting as Ariel’s bodyguard while she’s working a case for MI5. I need Kay here in case anything comes up, so it’s got to be one of the others.”

“I’ll take Tucker.” He’d said he wouldn’t mind turning a blind eye to any random violence that might occur.

“I’ll let him know to be ready. I would call Big Tag, but he’ll back his man. You’ll have to make your case in person.” Damon strode into the gym.

Brody walked past the lift. It would take too long. He jogged up the stairs.

He would get to the bottom of this. Even if it killed him.