Jesse sat down at the conference table, a fresh shirt on his chest and all cleaned up. How many times was he going to have to clean up blood and pretend he hadn’t gone fuck all insane because someone put him on his back or said the wrong words?

“Hey, I think your boss killed my boss,” Michael Malone said as he sat down across from Jesse. He had a plate in one hand and settled a glass of punch on the table. “Are there any openings here? Because I had that bruschetta and it was amazing. No one cooks like that on our team. All we ever get are donuts and coffee.”

Apparently, the shower had gone on, just with a wider guest list. While Ten and Ian had continued to beat on one another, the rest of the group had settled their differences over cake and punch.

Where had Phoebe gone? She’d disappeared with Charlotte and he hadn’t seen her for thirty minutes. She swore she had no reason to run, but Jesse couldn’t trust her.

“What’s bruschetta?” A massive dude with a knot on his head the size of Cleveland walked in. Boomer. He was ex-Special Forces, now Ten’s man. He wasn’t the brightest bulb in the bunch, but Jesse sympathized. Apparently every team needed one.

“It’s like toast except they put lots of good tasting crap on it.” He hadn’t known what it was either before he’d spent time with Sean.

Boomer nodded. “The thing with the steak on it. Yeah, that was really great. Does anyone have some aspirin?”

The dude had taken a chair to his skull according to Jake.

“Hey, I think this one pooped.” Deke walked in carrying Tristan with the ease of a dude who didn’t mind a little poop. He was grinning as he strode through the door with the baby in his arms. Li and Avery walked in behind him with Aidan in Avery’s arms. “He smells like hell. This place is full of kids. I like it. Now I know why Ten invaded. The kids are so damn cute.”

Serena stepped in, holding her hands out for Tristan. “I’ll take him. Oh, gosh, baby boy. You do smell bad. I’m going to change him and then we’re going to head home with Grace and Sean. Sean’s got a bag of peas on his eye, so I’m going to drive his car while Grace takes Avery home. But I’m going to require an update ASAP. The last time I looked, Ian was dragging Ten back into his office. I want to make sure he doesn’t cook and eat the bastard.”

Jesse had caught a glimpse of that, too. Tag had dragged Ten back by his shirt, like a lion dragging a carcass back for a nice private meal, though this particular carcass had still been talking. He’d heard Ten talking about protecting the country and making sure valuable assets didn’t get tainted by suspicious persons.

He might be dumb but he wasn’t ignorant. Jesse could guess who was potentially tainting McKay-Taggart. Him.

For as long as he’d known about McKay-Taggart, Jesse had understood they worked with the government on some of the worst cases to threaten the homeland. They fought side by side with the Agency to put down double agents, arms dealers, and terrorists.

Had Big Tag given him a job so he could keep an eye on him? Had this all been about watching Jesse Murdoch to make sure he didn’t carry out some nefarious plan? Was that why he was constantly monitored?

Simon sighed a little as he sat down beside him. He adjusted his suit and let his head rest against the chair. “Where’s Tag? I got the message that we were having a briefing.”

Simon was his best friend. He was well aware they made an odd pair—an Oxford educated lawyer turned spy and an Army grunt. When he thought about it that way, it didn’t make a lick of sense. It made a lot more sense that Simon hung out with him to make sure he didn’t fuck up or suddenly turn terrorist.

That one moment. He still dreamed about it. When he closed his eyes he could feel the Humvee under him, moving across the desert. He could feel his comfort with the people around him, see their faces as they laughed and joked. He could see Alannah smile and give him a little wink as the Humvee bounced. She held her hands up like she was on a roller coaster. It was a private joke between them. In that moment, he’d been happy, content despite all the danger around him. He’d been safe.

And then he wasn’t.

God, he’d give just about anything to get back to that moment before the IED had blown. To that moment before his innocence had been forever lost.

“Jesse?” Simon’s head had come up.

Jesse turned slightly, keeping his voice calm. It was easy since he felt hollow. He wasn’t sure how much emotion he had left inside him. Phoebe had done this to him, though at the end of the day she was just doing her job. But Phoebe had shown him that there was no going back. He would always be under suspicion because he’d survived and they had died. “I got the same text. I’m sure he’ll be here soon.”

Jesse was used to waiting. When he got an order to be somewhere, he got his ass there and then he waited. He didn’t complain or get restless. He just waited.

How could he change his nature? Because he needed to. He needed to walk away from McKay-Taggart. He wasn’t sure what he would do, but he had some land back in Wyoming and maybe it was time to shut himself off from everyone.

“It’s all right, Jesse. No one blames you for biting that bastard. I just wish you’d taken a bigger chunk out of him.”

He was such a joke. He really was a dog without a leash sometimes. “I think I should hand in my notice.”

Simon’s chair turned. “No.”

Just a flat denial and no explanation. “You don’t get a say in this. I’m going to tell Tag when he comes in. I can be on a plane to Laramie by tonight.”

He didn’t have much to pack. Almost everything he owned had been picked out by Charlotte and the other women. He would grab his duffel and pack his clothes and make arrangements to ship his guns. He had a couple of pictures he wanted to take, but not a lot else.

Simon leaned forward, his eyes going to his cousin who suddenly seemed deeply interested in his punch glass. “We can talk about this later, but don’t think for a second I’ll let you leave.”

Jesse really didn’t care if Malone was listening in, or Deke for that matter. Hell, apparently everyone had been listening to his private humiliations for months. “You don’t get a say.”

“I bloody well do. I’m your partner. This affects me, too. You can’t just quit.”

“Watch me.” He knew he was being stubborn, that he should have just slid his resignation onto Big Tag’s desk and walked out, but somehow he couldn’t leave without having it out with Simon. Everyone else, he could handle. Simon and Phoebe had been his people. God, he thought he’d had people again but he needed to always remember that moment in the Humvee. When he really thought about it, his life had ended there and he was just a walking shell now. It was just that for a moment, he’d felt alive again.

His mind suddenly went back to Jimmy, the new guy. He’d only been in the unit a few weeks when they’d been caught. He remembered how stoic the man had been. He’d just had one request—that whoever survived take his wife a message. Jimmy had been messed up when he’d given Jesse the message and it hadn’t made a lick of sense to him, but he’d promised.

Jesse had failed in that, too. He hadn’t been able to find the wife of the private. He’d fucked up and gotten the name wrong because no one in Army personnel could tell him anything. Hell, after all the crap he’d been fed, maybe the man had never existed at all.

He kind of deserved what he got.

“Jesse, I will not allow that woman to break you,” Simon hissed his direction. “Do you understand me? She lied. She fooled us all.”

“And what about you? Did you lie, too?” He had to know. Even though he was still going to walk away, he needed to know if Simon had ever been his friend.

“About what?” Simon asked, his voice low.

“He wants to know if you were watching him, too,” Malone said, his eyes grave. “He thinks because my team was monitoring him that maybe you guys were doing the same. You know you aren’t the only one who spent time in a prison over there, Murdoch.”

“I’m the only one with a set of videos devoted to how I watched my team being killed. I bet the Agency’s played them over and over.” Many soldiers had been guests of the jihadists but not many had gone through what he had. They hadn’t been a guest of the Caliph, as he called himself.

“I got captured,” Deke said, settling into a chair. “I still have the scars. I was tortured for almost nine weeks they tell me. I lost track of the days. My team found me, took out the little prison I was in. I still think about it a lot. Ace was taken for longer. I think that’s why he keeps to himself a lot. Not me. I wasn’t allowed to do that. I got home and my damn sisters wouldn’t leave me be. They covered me in babies. Yeah, five sisters can make a lot of damn babies. I tried to tell them I wasn’t safe, that I could hurt them, but they just kept handing them to me. One of them would go to sleep and I’d find myself rocking another. Somewhere along the way I figured if I was okay around those tiny things, I probably could control myself enough to work again. You’re not the only one, man.”

He’d had no one to come home to. “I’m the only one your unit is monitoring.”

“That’s not true,” Malone said. “We monitor a lot of people. Hell, we monitor ourselves half the time.”

“Yeah, well, your boss has a hard-on for me. He’s a fuckwad with serious issues.” He didn’t get why Ten had it in for him. He’d never met the man before he’d come to McKay-Taggart. He could understand being monitored, but this felt personal, and Jesse couldn’t grasp it.

Deke snorted. “Look, Ten might be a little paranoid, but you have to understand what’s sitting on his shoulders. Your boss can focus on his team because most of the time the damn world won’t explode if Big Tag makes a misstep. That’s not true for Ten. Taggart made a choice. He chose to walk away and concentrate on his own shit. Ten can’t. He was raised to do this job, and he was raised to believe that he’s all that’s standing between the US and all of our enemies.”

“That’s a bit arrogant,” Simon interjected.

“Is it?” Malone asked. “I think a man like Ten has to be arrogant. Do you have any idea what he’s sacrificed for this country? You ever seen the man with his shirt off? I caught him once coming out of the shower. There’s a reason he doesn’t work out with the rest of us. His back is a ruined mess. Looks like brands. Maybe iron pokers. It looked like one was sent straight through him. He’s got matching marks on both sides. So don’t think the man doesn’t know what pain is.”

“Yeah, well, we’ve all got issues.” He really didn’t care what Ten had been through. He couldn’t right now. Maybe later he would find some well of sympathy, but he was tapped out for the moment. “So did you know Phoebe was his sister?”

Boomer sat up. “The hot chick is his sister? Shit. I was thinking about hitting on her.”

“Think again because I’ll make that massive knot on your head look like a tiny bump,” Jesse threatened. Damn it. He had to start thinking before he spoke. “Or hey, give her a try. Maybe she won’t be as cold for you.”

“Really? You’re going to play it that way, Murdoch?” Naturally Phoebe chose that moment to walk in. He watched as she moved to the conference table. They were right. She moved with ease and grace now. Had anything at all been real about her?

He just shrugged.

She sank into the chair beside him and sent him a stare that every man who had ever been involved with a woman knew meant trouble. “So now I’m the ice queen? Could you figure out which kind of evil I am, please? Because before I was a slut.”

“I didn’t say that.” He’d never once used that word about a woman. It was ugly. No woman should be made to feel bad about her natural sexuality. He was an idiot, but at least he had a code. “I’m sorry if it came off that way. I was trying to figure out your relationship with Ten. I wasn’t calling you names. I wasn’t trying to embarrass you or anything. I was just trying to see how he reacted.”

Her lips curled up. “Apology accepted. It was smart, you know. It was a good play. Ten certainly wasn’t ready for it.” She turned to the other men in the room and her face went icy cold. “Who decided it was a good idea to raid an American company on American soil?”

The three of them looked back and forth, obviously not quite sure how to handle the new girl in the room. Malone finally spoke up. “That was Ten’s call. It’s Phoebe, right?”

“It’s ma’am to you. I might have spent the last year embedded but I’m still your superior, Malone, and don’t think I didn’t vet every single one of you. Just because you don’t know who I am, doesn’t mean I don’t know who you are. I know your names, your histories, and why you were chosen for this team. I also know that I chose you because you’re supposed to be smart enough to know when the time has come to tell the boss he’s lost his damn mind.”

She had a really sexy voice when she got all authoritative. He’d never minded a woman being in charge. He totally blamed his grade school teacher, Ms. Tucker. There had been so few children that she’d taught grades one through five, and she’d been the first female authority figure he’d ever had. She’d been sweet and kind, and she knew how to kick a little ass when she’d needed to.

Malone and the rest of the men sat up straighter. “Look, ma’am, all I know is the boss got on the phone earlier today and when he got off he went into psycho mode. We didn’t even get a mission briefing. All we were told was we had to extract an operative without loss of life. He showed us your picture and gave Ace directions where to set the chopper down.”

“I damn near shit myself when I realized where we were,” Boomer admitted.

“Dude, too much information,” Deke said with a shake of his head.

Boomer merely shrugged. “Big Tag scares me. I know what our Tags are capable of and I think that dude’s meaner.”

“No, he’s just older,” Case Taggart said as he walked in.

“I don’t know. I saw what he did to Ten with that stapler.” Theo was right on his brother’s heels. They were twins, but Jesse could tell them apart. Theo had a lightness that escaped Case.

“Which is why you should probably stay away from him,” Case said with a pointed stare his brother’s way.

Theo sat down. “It’s just dinner. Our sister-in-law is very persuasive.”

“Grace is not our sister-in-law,” Case argued. “Neither is Charlotte.”

“She is and why are you so opposed to having more family?” Theo shook his head. “We don’t have any as it is.”

“We’ve got each other and the team. That’s all we need.” Case paced behind them as though he wasn’t about to get comfortable. Stubborn. Yeah, he was a lot like Big Tag. “And while we’re on the subject, you should stay away from that red-haired chick. Do you think I didn’t see that? You let her get the jump on you.”

Theo turned a nice shade of pink. “I’m not used to fighting girls.”

From what Jesse had seen, he wasn’t very good at it either. Erin had gotten him and good. If Theo was interested in Erin, he might have a touch of masochist inside. Of course, he wasn’t one to talk because just being close to Phoebe was making his dick stir.

“Where is Tag?” He needed to get this thing moving. The faster Tag showed up, the sooner he could leave and avoid making an idiot of himself.

“He’s having to haul Ten in. Apparently there’s the issue of someone’s balls swelling,” Jake Dean said as he sat.

The rest of the team walked in after Jake, some with cake and punch, and some with ice packs on various parts of their bodies. Ten’s team straggled in with them. Erin looked up, eyeing Theo Taggart like an annoying pest she couldn’t get rid of. Yet she also couldn’t quite keep from watching. Her eyes strayed to him constantly.

“Are you all right?” Phoebe turned in her chair.

He couldn’t look at her. “I’m fine.”

“You have a bruise on your jaw. Should you have some ice on it? I could get you some.” She pushed her chair back. “I’ll be right back.”

“Don’t.” He practically growled the words her way. She was so much easier to deal with when all she did was stammer and blush and seem to follow orders.

“Jesse, you’re hurt,” she argued.

“And I’ll survive. I don’t want any help from you.”

“Well, that’s too bad because you’re going to get it,” Phoebe shot back. “Don’t think for a second that just because I back off getting you an ice pack means we’re not going to discuss the fact that someone is trying to kill you.”

“That would be you.”

She sighed, a frustrated sound. “I told you I had zero idea who that kill order was on before I got to the hotel.”

“You lined up your shot fast enough,” Simon pointed out.

“Look, just the fact that you casually say phrases like kill order tells me everything I need to know.” He didn’t want to find her attractive. He didn’t want to look at her. Hell, he didn’t want to think about her because the minute he did, his heart rate ticked up and he lost his damn mind.

“That’s pretty hypocritical of you.” She turned back in her chair, staring straight ahead. “I was doing my job just like everyone in this room has done their job. Actually, I didn’t do my job or you would be a chalk outline in the middle of downtown Dallas.”

“I should thank you for that?” There was still that little piece deep inside that wished she’d just done it. It would all be over and he could move on to whatever the hell happened to dead men.

She frowned suddenly, turning to Simon. “Why were you there? In the alley, I mean.”

“I made you a couple of months back. We’ve been following you ever since,” Simon explained.

She flushed slightly. “It was the night The Collective came after you, wasn’t it?”

He’d been scared for Phoebe that night, but now he knew he should have just taken her with them. She’d likely have dropped a couple of Collective operatives. “Yeah, Simon figured it out and then we found the tracer on my Jeep.”

“Might I point out that you guys were about to be horrifically murdered when we showed up?” Deke said.

Malone nodded. “Taggart was running late, cousin. If Phoebe hadn’t set us on your trail, Chelsea would now be in Collective hands and you and Murdoch there would be six feet under.”

“It doesn’t matter.” Phoebe held a hand up. “Yes, I did put the trace on your Jeep. I’ve been filing a report on what happens in this office once a week. I’ve kept in contact with Tennessee, but until today I had not received any kind of orders beyond watching and reporting. Hello, Mr. Taggart, Ten. You both look worse for the wear.”

Jesse looked up as Big Tag and Ten walked into the room. Limped was more like it for Ten. The right side of his face was swollen and his lower lip had cracked a bit. Big Tag managed to almost look like a man who hadn’t had his balls abused by a pair of cowboy boots. He winced just a little as he eased into his chair.

“Nothing’s broken,” he said. “Jesse, you okay?”

“I’m better than most.” His ribs still ached and he had a spectacular headache, but he would live. “Can we get this over with? I’d like to get home.”

“He’s planning on quitting.” Simon was like a little boy tattling on his brother.

“No,” Phoebe protested.

“Who’s quitting?” McKay asked.

“It better be Phoebe,” Erin said under her breath. There was only one chair left and it was beside Theo Taggart. He tried to hold it out for her but she rolled her eyes. “I’ll stand, buddy.”

“I’m not your buddy,” Theo warned, his jaw hardening.

“No, you’re not, kid,” Erin agreed.

Theo stood, matching Erin’s aggressive stance. “I’m not a kid either.”

“Oh, is the baby looking for a mommy?” Erin could be obnoxious to say the least.

“I’ll show you what I’m looking for, sweetheart.” Theo took a step her way.

“I’m too old for this shit,” Tag groaned. “Theo, dude, she will tear your dick off.”

“The heart wants what the heart wants, I guess,” Theo tossed back with a smirk on his face.

Tag stared at his brother. “Then your heart really needs to have a long discussion with your dick because again—she will rip it off. It’s why I hired her. Please, can we stuff the sexual tension down where it should be? Like deep down. I don’t want to hear about anyone’s fucking feelings or dark desires or childhood anxieties. Shove it down like a man and yes, I mean you, Erin.”

She sat down with a sigh. “I’m not the one with a case of the feels, boss. Your little brother has obviously never been around a girl before.”

“I take it back,” Case said, smiling for the first time. “I like her.”

Ten shoved a hand through his hair, a weary look in his eyes. “My men better stand the fuck down. I might have broken a couple of ribs, but I can still shoot you. Sit and behave. We have a problem.”

“A major problem. Turns out the kill order didn’t come from Ten,” Taggart announced.

“What kill order?” Boomer asked. “Hot new boss lady said something about it and then Murdoch looked all sad and shit. I still don’t get why we’re here.”

Ten looked at Taggart. “He’s actually the single best sniper in the country. All right, let’s go over some things. I sent Phoebe in when it became apparent that Taggart was going to get involved with Jesse Murdoch, a man who has been on several watchlists since he was rescued from a jihadist prison.”

“Lots of people got taken,” Li said, sitting forward. “Most of them are welcomed back. I know what happened with Murdoch was unusual, but why wasn’t he given the benefit of the doubt?”

“Shortly before we found Murdoch we received intel that an Iraqi psychologist was working with a jihadist group to try to turn American soldiers and then release them back into the military,” Ten explained.

“From there they were supposed to become sleeper agents, waiting for a time and place to strike,” Taggart continued. “Given what Jesse said about his captivity, the government and the Agency came to believe Jesse had been in that particular program.”

“Shit, that’s very Manchurian Candidate,” Simon said under his breath.

“But if he’d really been turned, he likely wouldn’t have mentioned the psychological torture.” Phoebe didn’t look his way, but he could tell she was aggravated by the way her fingers drummed along her thigh. She kept her hand under the desk as though she didn’t want anyone to know.

He wanted to reach out and still her hand, to give her some comfort.

“Or he could tell us exactly what he told us because it would throw us off the scent,” Ten argued. “You know as well as I do that the best covers always contain a grain of truth.”

“He’s not a traitor. Do you even read the reports I submit?” Phoebe sent Ten a stare that would freeze lava.

“It doesn’t matter now.” He could easily put an end to this argument. “I quit. So you don’t have to worry about me tainting McKay-Taggart anymore. I’m going back to Wyoming. I’ll keep a low profile and I won’t try to lose whatever tails you feel necessary to set on me.”

“No.” Taggart took a sip of the ridiculously strong coffee he liked.

“You can’t stop me.” He should have known his boss would make things difficult.

“Yes, I can. And so can Ten. We’ve agreed to a few things. Mostly we agreed to beat the shit out of each other again at the first convenient time, but we also agreed that something is wrong here. Phoebe, you’re the first person in a very long time to fool me.”

“I wasn’t trying to fool you, sir. I was trying to do my job,” Phoebe pointed out.

“Nonetheless, you have my respect. Unfortunately, you also have my distrust and bitterness, and don’t discount those. I have to say the over-the-top scaredy cat shit threw me off. And the Harry Potter crap was a nice touch. I don’t think there’s been a spy in the history of time who hid behind Harry Potter bobble heads. Adam, call Guinness.”

“On it,” Adam replied with a grin.

Did anyone give a shit that he kind of had every right to quit? He was about to say something to that effect when he saw Ten’s skin pale and he turned to Phoebe.

“You brought them here?” Ten asked. “You brought the bobble heads into this office?”

Phoebe looked down at the table. “I’ll talk to you about it later.”

Taggart’s eyes went from one to the other, his brain obviously working overtime. “All right then. Who has the number to her Agency phone?”

“Just me. This wasn’t exactly a normal assignment. I’m given a lot of leeway in how I run my department. Black ops within the Agency are taken pretty damn seriously. I answer only to the head of the CIA. I recruit my own men and I tend to run my own missions.”

“Yeah, into my fucking office. You’re paying for that carpet. And for the chair Dean broke on Boomer’s head. That was a good chair.”

“Well, I wasn’t aware you’d turned the whole place into a nursery, Tag. I kind of thought you ran a security agency. Now I can see you’re all far too busy talking baby talk and drinking fucking tea.” Ten shook his head like that was the worse thing a person could do.

“It was punch, boss. And it was really good. You see they made it with sherbet…” Boomer stopped. “Is this one of those times when I shouldn’t talk?”

“Yeah. Most of the time you shouldn’t talk, buddy.” Ten’s eyes closed and he took a long breath. When he opened them again, he turned to Taggart. “I’m sorry, Ian. She’s my sister. When you said she wouldn’t be a problem anymore, I lost it.”

“And are you sorry for putting a spy on me in the first place, asshole?” Tag asked.

“Nah, I had good reasons and I’m not apologizing until you apologize for Chelsea. I’m not stupid. I know why she took the job. Now let’s get down to business. I did not send that message,” Ten said.

Phoebe sat up straight. “Then who did? Is there any way it could have been a drill?”

“I don’t know.” Ten nodded. “I’m going to look into it. So everyone can stand down for now. This was all one huge mistake and I sincerely apologize for bringing you into it. I’m going to figure this out and someone is going to pay.”

“Yes. You will. I’m billing your ass,” Taggart said with a long eye roll. “And we’re not friends anymore.”

“Like I said, I’m sorry about a lot of things.” Ten stood on shaky feet. “My team, let’s get up to the chopper. Ace is waiting for us there. I’ve got one more thing to say to Taggart, but I’d like to say that in private. Go on. We’ll talk more about it back at base. We head back to DC in two weeks and have an assignment the day after that. Get some rest and heal up. We’re going to be on the move for a while.”

Ten’s men proved just how well trained they were by leaving without another question.

That wasn’t the way McKay-Taggart worked.

“A drill? Are you fucking kidding me?” Dean glared at Ten.

“If you think you can cover this up, you’re wrong.” Adam Miles was already on his computer.

Taggart held a hand up. “Out. Everyone. Now.”

“I’m not going anywhere until I get an explanation.” Simon didn’t move from his chair.

“You’ll get explanations later. I promise,” Ian said. “Just give us the room. I will handle the situation.”

Slowly, they all got up. Jesse figured he was the only one who was happy this clusterfuck seemed to be over. He started to move, but Tag held a hand out.

“Not you, Jesse. You and Phoebe stay.” Tag looked up at his partner. “Alex, could you make sure no one disturbs us?”

The door closed and he was left alone with Tag, Ten, and Phoebe.

Naturally he was the one who got to stay. “I told you there’s no need. I’m leaving on the first plane out of here. I don’t give a flying fuck what kind of mistakes were made. If Ten’s worried I’ll sue the Agency or something, he can bite my ass.”

“I didn’t send the kill order,” Ten said.

“I get that it was a mistake.” He was tired and just wanted to get out of here.

Phoebe turned her face up to him. “It wasn’t a mistake. I know what I saw. Who has the phone?”

“Adam,” Tag replied. “He’s going to fill in the rest of the team. He’s working with Chelsea—who was planted in your organization for just this reason.”

Ten slammed a hand down and then winced. “Motherfucking shitty day.”

Shit. There was something he hadn’t mentioned, hadn’t really even thought about. Damn it. He was the Boomer. He was the dumbass. “They sent me a text. I wasn’t in that alley by coincidence. Simon and I were supposed to wait outside the hotel.”

“Yeah, I was going to talk to you about that, dumb…” Tag began and then Phoebe leaned forward. “I mean we should have a discussion where I remind you that I am actually the boss and you should follow my orders.”

Phoebe sat back.

“Dumbass.”

When Phoebe started this time, Jesse held a hand out to stay whatever she was about to say. “It was a stupid move and Tag calling me a dumbass is the equivalent of him saying he gives a shit.”

“About a dumbass.” Tag pointed at him. “You could have been killed. She could have shot you right there. We would have watched you die.”

“I’m sorry, boss.” He knew what that felt like. He wouldn’t wish it on his worst enemy, much less a man he respected and loved like a brother. “I lost my head.”

“What did the text say?” Tag asked.

Jesse handed Ian his phone, letting him read it for himself.

“Who sent you the text?” Phoebe had turned again, concern on her pretty face.

“I suppose the person who wanted you to kill me.” And that meant there was no question about it.

There was a traitor on Ten’s team, and he was gunning for Jesse.