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Chapter Three

Aidan sat in the reception hall, a glass of Scotch in his hand.

“Son, are you all right? Can I get you anything? I sent your mom home with Daisy and Nathan, but I stayed in case you need a ride.” His father sat across from him. “Or you need to talk. I know you prefer to talk to your friends, but I’m here for you, too.”

His father. His da. “I’m okay. I talked to Mom before she left. We’ll give it a couple of weeks and then we’ll figure something else out. This is a setback, but the one thing in the world I know is I want to be Carys Taggart’s husband.”

“Of course you do. It’s what you’ve wanted since you were a kid. A baby, really. You would follow after her when you were in diapers. I swear you learned to walk so you could toddle beside her.” His father studied him for a moment. “Tristan’s back.”

Didn’t he know it. Apparently everyone did. “Yeah, and he brought helicopters full of armed assassins with him. Guess he was serious about being a danger to us.”

His father pointed a finger his way. “I knew he thought he was protecting you. You’ve talked to him?”

He didn’t want to lie to his da. “Yes. But Carys doesn’t know we’ve been communicating on a regular basis. She absolutely doesn’t know he’s the guy I’ve been playing games with online for the last year or so. It was oddly the easiest way for us to talk.”

Because Tristan knew how to ping a signal across the globe.

“Do you want to keep something like that from your fiancée?” his father asked.

“Tristan didn’t think it was a good idea to bring her in. He thought she would freak out. And he’s not wrong. Carys can be stubborn when she thinks she’s right.” It was one of the reasons their threesome worked. He was the go between for two very strong personalities.

He wasn’t certain Tristan and Carys wouldn’t self-immolate if left alone. Not that he didn’t have his own situation. When he and Carys were alone they fell into patterns and routines, and found it difficult to break them. Especially since they were in the same field and could understand the pressures on each other. It sounded like perfection, but sometimes they required an outside force to remind them both there was something to life beyond studying and surgery and rounds. Tristan would have laughed if Aidan had told him they needed to go to a symposium on cutting-edge surgical techniques for their honeymoon. Tristan would have told him to stuff the conference or if it was important enough, to postpone the honeymoon. Instead, he and Carys had decided to be practical.

Tristan was the one who constantly pushed her boundaries. The one who could get her to cry.

Aidan was fairly certain Carys hadn’t cried in two years.

Was it all about to fall apart? He had no idea what he would do if he lost Carys, too.

“What’s going on, son?” His da stared at him with intelligent green eyes. “I know you haven’t wanted to talk about it, and your mother and I have honored your privacy, but it’s past time.”

Aidan shook his head. “I know very little, Da. I know a few years ago Tristan got involved in a long-running operation with one of the Agency teams he works with, and it got dangerous.”

“But Ian says he doesn’t know anything.”

The man known as Big Tag had been his father’s “brother” for most of his life. Aidan wasn’t about to throw him under the bus. “According to Tristan, he didn’t tell Uncle Ian. This wasn’t the team he’s on with the twins. Because Tristan is technically Army intelligence, he’s allowed to work all over the place. He works with military teams and Agency teams, but he doesn’t share information between them. I don’t know entirely how it works, but I know everyone’s frustrated with him. Unless they’re all lying to me and they’re in on it.”

“I know the twins. They would find a way to tell you if they knew something. If they believed this would all get sorted soon, they would have found a way to…” His father frowned. “Oh, I hope this wasn’t Kala’s way of forcing you to postpone the wedding. Sometimes that girl likes to play god. I wouldn’t be surprised if she found someone she didn’t like and set them up to do this knowing damn well we’d shoot an encroaching helo down.”

His cousin could be ruthless. “I don’t think so, Da.”

“Oh, she could do it,” a deep voice said. “If my daughter thought she could help her cousins out and get rid of someone who annoyed her at the same time, she would set it up. She believes in multitasking, however, I assure you she wouldn’t have put the kids in danger.”

Aidan looked over and the man, the myth, the legend himself was standing there, and he wasn’t alone. Tristan was beside him, looking worse for the wear. His security uniform was wrinkled, and his usually perfectly messy hair was just messy. He had a small cut on his jawline, and there were singe marks on the sleeve covering his left bicep.

He hadn’t thought to check on Tristan. Damn it. He’d been so fucking angry he hadn’t done his job. “Did you get hit?”

Ian huffed and slapped a hand gently upside Tristan’s head. “He’s fine. He got a taste of what could have happened because unlike the smarter members of my team, he forgot to duck when the bullets went flying. I’ve trained you poorly. Come Monday you’ll be back in school. After a couple of spontaneous sniping attempts, you’ll get better at ducking.”

“I didn’t want to let them out of my sights,” Tristan corrected and frowned at Ian. “They could have gotten away.”

“They could have put a bullet through you,” Ian argued, though there was an oddly cheery expression on the man’s face. Like he genuinely enjoyed the chaos.

It had been odd, realizing Tristan was standing over them as the gunfire seemed endless. He’d been covering Carys, but he’d gotten a look at Tris looming over them like a stalwart guardian.

It had been that moment Aidan had known things would be okay.

So why was he still so fucking mad? It rolled through him and took everything he had to keep under control. This wasn’t him. He was logical and cool. This rage he felt wasn’t going to fix their problems. It wouldn’t help Carys. “And did you honestly think the helicopter could hide? Like where would it go?”

Tristan’s eyes narrowed, and Aidan knew he’d poked the Dom inside his friend. “Well, it showed up pretty fucking fast, so I figured it could manage to leave in the same fashion. Would you like me to perform your next surgery? Since we all seem to know how to do the other person’s job.”

It was good to know he could still slide under Tristan’s skin. It oddly made him feel seen. He probably needed therapy but for today it felt good, and he was going with it. “Somehow I think my job requires a little more skill.”

“Are they going to throw down?” Ian whispered the question to Aidan’s dad. “And do we think they’re going to fight, or is this going in another direction?”

Tristan’s eyes rolled. “We’re not going to fuck.”

“It might help,” Ian threw out with a shrug like he didn’t see the problem.

The problem was it never came up. They’d never talked about potentially exploring the boundaries of the relationship. When Carys teased them, they always shut her down. “Our kink was never each other. It’s always been about the girl. For one of us. Tristan kind of comes and goes, and mostly he goes now.”

“Hey, we should go and get a drink, son.” His father seemed to want to play the voice of reason. Which was odd since reason was usually his mom’s job. “Eric’s packing up all the food, but we can probably get a plate or two and hash this all out over some whiskey.”

“Yeah, lubricating these two is going to lead to good choices.” Ian nodded. “I wholeheartedly agree, and I would be with you except we’re heading back to Dallas. We need to talk about this in a safe room, and the only one that comes close is the conference room at MT. So I’m sorry to leave you, Aidan, but this is serious. I’m leaving two bodyguards behind, and I expect you to listen to them.”

“Of course he will,” his father agreed.

Because he was always the good kid, the responsible one. He was the guy who helped everyone move and listened to their troubles and gave sound advice no one ever took. His sister was a rolling ball of good-natured chaos, and he’d been tasked with protecting her at a young age. He protected everyone.

Which was probably why the image of Tristan standing there, ready to take every bullet that came their way, made him feel…safe.

It was a lie because Tristan would leave them again, and he would be all alone trying to give Carys what she needed.

“Why do I need a bodyguard?” The impulse to go along with whatever the military branch of the family said was practically ingrained in him, but he pushed it aside. The last thing he and Carys needed was to be under armed guard. They’d lost their wedding day. He wasn’t about to lose their honeymoon. No matter how much it would suck as a romantic getaway. It was theirs, and the truth of the matter was he was now the dominant partner. Carys might kick his ass if she knew he even thought the word outside a kink setting, but it was true. She needed someone who made her life easier, who took care of the little things like another whole human being watching them twenty-four seven. “This wasn’t about us. Congratulations, Tris. I now fully admit you’ve been right all this time. We’re safer without you. I’ll take my wife…fiancée, and we’ll be out of everyone’s hair for a couple of weeks.”

“We don’t know who this is about yet, Aidan.” His father looked slightly surprised at his outburst.

Because he was never a brat prince. That had been Tristan’s place, but he’d been filling in for Tristan for a while now. He might as well handle this aspect, too. “We know exactly who this is about. Tristan Dean-Miles. He’s been telling me for over two years how dangerous his life is, how he can’t come home because he’s too busy chasing his James Bond dreams.”

“Hey,” Tristan began.

Aidan held up a hand, staving off the argument. “Sorry. I was wrong about the James Bond comment. You’re not chasing some fictional character. You’re still an eight-year-old hoping one day he can be as good as his dad.”

“Aidan,” his father admonished.

Ian shrugged. “It’s a fairly accurate description. You learned a lot from your psych rotation.”

He’d been good at it.

“Fuck you, Aidan,” Tristan replied. “And you will take the bodyguards. You can take them with you or you can go into a safe house. Those are your only options. The honeymoon, like the wedding, is over before it began. So you’re the big guy making the decisions. Which one is it going to be? Keep some freedom, or are you going to behave like an angry child and get both you and Carys locked away?”

His rage was starting to beat out his fear. Tristan didn’t get to walk back in and start giving him orders. “You wouldn’t.”

Tristan’s lips curled up in a sneer. “Oh, I would. I will. You want to make me the bad guy? I can play the role. I’m excellent at it. Ask anyone. And while we’re at it, don’t expect to go back to work.”

“I have two weeks and then I need to be back. I can’t exactly call in sick.”

Tristan’s broad shoulders shrugged like he didn’t care. “Nope, but you can quit, and that’s what will happen if I decide it’s too dangerous for you. Make no mistake. I’m in charge here, Aidan.”

“Or you can hang with a bodyguard for the next couple of weeks,” his da said, his gaze going between the two of them like he was trying to figure out what was going on. “The guard will be happy to go to Canada with you. We’ll handle everything. All you and Carys have to do is sit back and enjoy the trip. There’s no need for fighting.”

“Canada?” Tristan’s expression turned an odd blank. “Why would Aidan go to Canada?”

“They’re honeymooning in Montreal,” his father explained. “They were thinking about going to LA, but they ended up choosing Montreal.”

He hadn’t exactly told his da why he was going to Montreal. “It’s romantic.”

Tristan frowned. “No, Paris is romantic. Bora Bora is romantic.”

Did Tris want to shame him? “Montreal is what we can fucking afford. I don’t know if you know this, but we’re not made of money.”

“Montreal isn’t exactly a cheap city. I told you I would pay for everything,” Tristan insisted. “You’re being stubborn.”

He was being practical. “Which I would let you do if you were actually a part of this marriage, but you’re not. You are not a member of our family, Tristan. You gave up your place when you decided the Agency was more important than our wife.”

“I never said that.” Tristan got into his space, his shoulders going back, and Aidan wondered if they were going to start throwing punches. It might feel good. “We had an agreement. You were going to take care of her while I figured this shit out. You know you’re not the only one with a job.”

“You’re the only one who chose a job over our relationship. You shut the rest of us out,” Aidan said. “I might not be able to talk about specific patients with you, but I can discuss my day with my partners. Your whole fucking life is classified, and look what it brought us to. You think I’m going to let you back in after today?”

Tristan’s jaw tightened. “I think Carys will.”

“Maybe you don’t know her as well as you think you do.”

“Oh, I know exactly how to get Carys to let me in.” Tristan’s voice went low, a sure sign whatever he said next would piss Aidan off. “Tell me something. How’s the sex, A? You been giving her the really kinky stuff?”

“Hey,” his da said.

He wished they weren’t having this fight in front of their family. “Are you serious? Should we pull out our dicks now and let the uncles measure them? If all you have is you’re better at fucking than I am, then I’ve already won this fight, Tris, because I’m the one who’s taken care of her for two and a half years. You’ve been gone for two and a half years. You don’t get to walk in here and nearly take a bullet and get back in bed because you’re the fucking stud.”

Tristan had paled. “I didn’t say that.”

“I get it. The two of you have some things to work through.” Ian sighed, a weary sound. “But I need to know if I’m sending bodyguards or kidnappers. And I would like an itinerary for this Montreal trip. After today, I have to consider someone knows exactly who Aidan and Carys are, and now they’re involved. Tris, have you thought about what it means they’re going to Montreal? No one mentioned it to me. Li, you want to maybe elaborate?”

His father turned to Ian, his hands coming up. “Why would I? No one asked where they were going. I was unaware I needed to put in a request for my son to take his wife on a honeymoon. You know I’m starting to understand Aidan’s position. You all expect him to behave a certain way, but you don’t give him the whys, do you? Those are classified.”

He didn’t want to cause a rift between his da and Ian. “Don’t blame him. Uncle Ian’s been left out, from what I can tell.”

“But he can blame me,” Tristan said, bitterness in his tone.

“Yeah.” He wasn’t letting Tris off. “Da can absolutely blame you. Everyone can. Ian didn’t tell you to get involved in arms dealing.”

Ian’s brow rose. “Nor did Ian tell him he could announce it to the world. Aidan, you should understand that while I didn’t know exactly what Tris was doing until recently, and I think he’s a dumbass for getting involved in this without bringing anyone else in, I do understand why he wanted to protect you. The people who are after him are serious killers, and they proved it today. I don’t know why you think an attack at your wedding has nothing to do with you, but I’m here to tell you it fucking did, and while Tristan might piss you off, he’s right. Look, I can’t force you to do something, but I can assure you my brother will protect his daughter.”

“And I’ll protect my son.” His da’s tone had gone stubborn and dark, his Irish thick on the tongue. “He’ll go to the safe house, and he won’t have a choice about it.”

“Da,” he started.

His father shook his head. “No. Not after today. If you’re going to be ridiculous about this, I’ll take over, boy. I’m not about to let my son die.”

Okay, it was oddly soothing to hear his father say the words. He was always more concerned about Daisy, but something settled inside Aidan when his father declared he would be utterly unreasonable and assholish when it came to Aidan’s protection. “Da, we should talk about this.”

Ian stared a hole through him, and Aidan suddenly realized this wasn’t his funny, sarcastic Uncle Ian. This was the Agency operative. “Why Canada?”

Tristan seemed to realize something. “Ian, it doesn’t have anything to do with…you know who. I’m sure Carys thought it was pretty, and they probably found a good deal on a hotel there. Honestly, it’s more a fuck you to me than anything else. They knew I would pay for the honeymoon. They probably figured I would try to show up or something.”

It was infuriating. He heard the door behind him come open, but he was too angry to turn around and see who was there. “It has absolutely nothing to do with you, Tris. You want to know why we’re going to Montreal? I got invited to a symposium, and Carys understands my career is important.”

Tris had gone a pale white. “What? What fucking symposium, A? Tell me you didn’t accept an invitation from Emmanuel Huisman.”

“He finally gets to the point,” Ian said under his breath. “Fucking right hand doesn’t know what the left is doing. This—this is why I didn’t want to get back in the Agency bullshit.”

The last was said to someone behind him, but Aidan wasn’t concerned. “This has nothing to do with the Agency, but yes, I got invited to a very exclusive meeting of some of the best cutting-edge surgeons. As a resident. It’s going to make my career.”

“It’s not about you, Aidan,” Tristan said with a sneer. “It’s about me. Who the fuck do you think is after me? It’s Emmanuel Huisman. You’re nothing but a pawn in this game of ours, and the fact that you never bothered to tell me about it proves you have no idea how to play. You’ve been talking to me every week for years, but you decide to keep me out of this for petty reasons?”

A gasp came from behind him, and Aidan turned. Carys was there with her cousins and Louisa Ward. They stood in the doorway like a phalanx of beautifully dressed Valkyries. Except Carys, who looked like someone had gutted her. She’d changed into yoga pants and a tee, but she was so gorgeous his heart ached.

She knew he’d lied, had kept things from her.

Nothing would ever be the same again.

* * * *

Two hours later Tristan took his seat in the conference room. His fucking heart ached because he’d known the minute he’d realized Carys was in the room, Aidan would never forgive him for telling the truth he’d promised to hide.

But damn it, what the hell else was he supposed to do? Was he supposed to let the people he loved the most fall into the clutches of a man who wanted to burn the world down? They didn’t know it, but they had become pawns in a dangerous game, one Tris had worked so fucking hard to keep them out of.

“I need to understand how Huisman knew about Aidan.” Kala had changed into jeans and a tank top, showing off her toned arms.

“We don’t know he does.” Cooper sat beside her, making sure to get a seat that would keep him close to her. “Aidan’s top of his class. The Foundation is known for finding up-and-coming doctors.”

Kenzie’s pink ponytail shook in the negative. “It’s too much of a coincidence.”

The gang was all here, with a couple of extras. The big boss had opened up the room to Sean and Grace and Liam and Avery. Tristan had protested when Ian wanted to bring in his parents. He’d told Big Tag he wasn’t a fucking civilian and he didn’t need mommy and daddy here with him. Or his papa.

So his parents were pissed at him, too. Everyone was. He was the bad guy, and there was nothing he could do to change it. The only thing he could do was embrace the role.

“Huisman is a world-renowned neurologist.” Aidan sat next to Carys, but it was clear they hadn’t hashed it out yet. She wouldn’t look at him. She’d ridden over with TJ and Lou, and Aidan had come with his father, leaving Tristan to ride with Big Tag, who’d spent the hour and a half telling him what a dumbass he was. “Beyond his medical work, he runs the foundation. He’s literally known for his philanthropic work.”

“And he knows Aidan because of our ties to Owen Shaw and his wife, Rebecca,” Liam pointed out. “Rebecca speaks highly of him. Ian, what’s going on?”

“She speaks highly of him because I asked her to,” Ian said, sinking into his seat at the head of the table. “They work in the same field, and Dr. Walsh-Shaw is something of a legend. There would be talk if she had a problem with Huisman. I don’t need problems right now. At this point, the war has been kept to the shadows. Li, I didn’t tell you because you’re not involved with that part of the business. You and Alex pretty much run this place now. I didn’t want to overload you.”

“And it’s classified.” Aidan’s father waved off the issue. “I don’t expect to be kept up to date on Agency matters, Tag. But you might give me a heads-up to watch certain situations more closely.”

Big Tag’s gaze slid Tristan’s way. “Well, up until a few weeks ago I didn’t understand the situation. For the most part my team works directly under me, with Drake and Taylor Radcliffe acting as our Agency liaisons. The twins, Tash, and Lou don’t work with anyone else. Cooper rarely takes other assignments. Zach will occasionally work with military intelligence or Special Forces teams. But this one loves to spread his talents around. How many different Agency teams are you working with, Tris?”

The man made him sound like a cheating lover. “I work where the Agency needs me to work. In this case I’m working with a small team in conjunction with military intel. It’s about a project I started over two years ago. I actually worked on this before I started with the Agency, and I transitioned it over when I joined the team.”

“No, you didn’t because I never got the memo,” Big Tag shot back.

“Neither did I.” Kala looked at him like she was sizing him up.

Of course he’d fucked over her beloved cousin, and neither of the twins were known for letting things go. He glanced over to Carys, who sat between Aidan and her dad. She hadn’t looked at him. Not once. What the hell was going through her head? He knew it was bad because she’d shut down utterly. He could handle a raging Carys. This closed-down woman scared the hell out of him.

“I didn’t transition it to your team. I brought the case with me, though. It was supposed to be nothing more than retrieving intel. A few years ago an arms dealer named The Jester came onto the radar. He moved a lot of guns out of the Philippines in the beginning, but after making enough money, he started dealing weapons of mass destruction, as we like to call them,” Tristan explained. “The Jester worked mostly on the Dark Web, and no one knew what he looked like or where he physically resided.”

“Until you found him,” Big Tag said.

He somehow managed to make it sound like a bad thing. “Yes, I managed to track down one of the world’s most infamous arms dealers when no one else could. Well, no one except the man who killed him. Luckily I took him out before he could report back to the man who’d paid him. I killed the assassin and then sat down at the arms dealer’s system and sent the group a message.”

“Let me guess,” Sean said, eyeing him like he was going to use one of his fillet knives soon. The Taggarts had intimidating stares down. “You walked in, ready to arrest him, found him dead, and decided the smartest thing for you to do was to take over his identity.”

“Yes, I did.” It was obvious this was a trial of sorts, and he was guilty. “I took over his identity on the web and managed to take over his whole business. It wasn’t even hard since no one really knew what he looked like. He hid in the shadows. I unfortunately also discovered he had some dealings with government entities. I’ve been trying to track those down, and I think I’m close. Which brings me to the mission I was supposed to clear with Drake and Taylor this weekend.”

“Oh, it’s my turn to guess.” Ian took a long breath. “Is it to infiltrate an upcoming medical conference?”

Tristan barely managed to not wince. “I was going to ask if we could find someone who was going and send Kara in with him. I thought maybe Dare would know someone. I don’t think we should send Dare in since we still don’t know how much Huisman understands about how we work.”

“He knows everything,” Kala assured him.

“He’s met Dad and Tash,” Kenzie hedged, proving she wasn’t entirely in step with her twin. “He definitely knows who Dare is and his connection to our team.”

“He knows I run this company,” Ian said. “We’re a private firm, but it can’t be too hard to find out who works here. And he knows I work for the CIA. He’s got the money and the resources to figure it all out. He absolutely knows Tasha is Agency. I have hopes he doesn’t know about the twins. They managed to avoid him entirely while we were in Australia. The question is how did he figure out Tristan has taken over The Jester’s business?”

Grace shook her head and leaned forward, a worried expression on her face. She glanced toward her daughter before posing the question to Ian. “I don’t understand what’s going on, but I know after today we have to think someone is coming after Carys or Aidan. They need to be in a safe house.”

“Grace,” Aidan began.

His mother, Avery O’Donnell, shook her head. “No. I don’t care about your career, Aidan. You’re going to do whatever Ian decides is best.”

Aidan’s eyes closed—a sure sign he was trying to get control of his emotional state. He opened them and looked at Ian. “Fine. Where is this safe house? If we’re going to burn down both our careers so Tristan can get the glory, we might as well start here and now.”

TJ had been sitting next to Lou at the far end of the table. He raised a hand. “Uhm, or it could be me they were trying to get.”

“So there’s another possible explanation,” Carys said quietly.

“The best option is a safe house while they figure the situation out,” her father insisted.

“For how long?” Carys turned to her father. “I know you want to protect me, but I can’t trust there’s some timeline that could save my career. I didn’t go to school for all those years to watch it go down the drain. So the obvious thing to do is Aidan and I go to the conference and we provide cover for the team.”

“Absofuckinglutely not,” Tristan said, the idea turning his stomach. “It’s not happening, Carys.”

The whole room erupted, everyone arguing. The twins thought it wasn’t a terrible idea, promising they could train Carys and Aidan. Cooper thought he could watch over them. The parents all thought it was the single worst idea anyone on the planet had ever had. Lou tried to explain all the ways tech could keep them safe.

And Ian sat, quietly watching.

The knot in Tristan’s gut tightened because the truth of the matter was only one person mattered. “Ian, they can’t do this.”

The man he’d called uncle turned his way, his eyes slightly cold. His voice was low, meant for Tristan’s ears only. “You would rather they lose their futures instead of trying to find a real way out of this situation? They won’t forgive you, Tris. This might be your only way out, too.”

“Then they never forgive me.” He’d always known it could happen.

Ian’s head shook. “I don’t think they’re going to let you make the decision for them. Can you address Carys’s question? How long will you keep them in limbo? How much of their lives are you willing to ask them to give up?”

Why couldn’t anyone understand? “I’m trying to save them.”

“And they don’t get to decide for themselves?” Ian asked.

“They don’t understand this world.”

Ian shot him a disappointed look and sat back. “Then they’re lucky we do.” Ian held up a hand and raised his voice. “Everyone stop.” He looked at Carys. “Is this what you want, niece?”

Sean’s head fell back. “Damn it.”

“Yes,” Carys replied simply and reached out to her mother. “Mom, I need to do whatever I can to fix this. My cousins won’t let me die.”

“I won’t let you die.” Had she forgotten he was fucking here?

“You need to do this?” Grace asked, tears in her eyes.

Carys nodded. “Then I’ll have my life back, and I can figure out what to do with it.”

She’d always known what she wanted. Him and Aidan and a weird family and a career. A house with dogs and a cat. A life they could all enjoy.

He’d burned it down for all of them.

“Then let’s sit down and figure out the op’s parameters,” Ian said, pushing back his chair. “I need to go call Langley and give them an update. The rest of you take a break and figure out where you’re bunking down for the night. Aidan and Carys, you can stay with your parents or at Aidan’s if Coop and TJ stay with you. Otherwise, I think it would be best for everyone to stay with the twins for a couple of days. When does this conference start?”

The better question was when had he lost control?

“Thursday,” Aidan replied. “We were flying out tonight and staying at a nice hotel before we joined the group at the compound.”

A brow rose over Ian’s eyes. “This isn’t being held at a convention center?”

“Like I said, it’s exclusive. We’re staying just outside the city. Dr. Huisman has a number of guesthouses on his property. It’s more like a meeting of some of the greatest minds in the business. Though we are supposed to get a tour of the foundation,” Aidan explained. “I got the feeling it’s a lot of talk around a fire pit and stuff. Exchanging ideas.”

Aidan could get him into Huisman’s home?

There it was. There was a part of Tristan that loved the chase so much he actually excited at the thought. One percent of him. The rest was terrified, but he couldn’t deny the thrill was in there, too.

If they were on this mission, they would also be working under him to some degree. No one could cut him out. No one. Not even Ian Taggart.

“But I don’t want to work with Tristan,” Carys said in a firm voice, her chin stubbornly up.

“Then you won’t work at all,” Ian replied. “Because he’s the subject matter expert here, and I’m not in charge of him when it comes to this. Make no mistake. I will take care of you. The team will watch out for you, but Tristan’s pulling the strings here.” Ian turned Tristan’s way. “Tell me, who would you call if I tried to take you off?”

“The director. I would go straight to him.” He wouldn’t waste time moving up the line. The director of the Central Intelligence Agency was well aware of what he was doing.

“And there you have it.” Ian stood. “Think, niece. You work this op, you’ll work with him, and you’ll likely have to take some orders from him. Now I’ve got calls to make including to Canadian intelligence.” He sighed. “I said that without laughing. My world is dark now. Get something to eat and figure out your situations. Sean and Grace, Avery and Li, come down to my office so we can get the shouting done and I can tell you how I’ll protect the babies with my balls.”

Kala sat back, looking cool and collected. “Nah, we’ll be the ones protecting them.”

Tasha groaned. “That’s what he meant. We’re the product of his balls.”

“Eww,” Kenzie said, nose wrinkling.

“We’ll take care of them,” Cooper promised.

The parents all left, following Ian, and he was damn straight happy he didn’t have to sit in on the meeting. He was sure they were going to Ian’s office to conference in his folks.

Would Adam Miles ever find himself in the same place? Never. He would have figured it all out and managed to make it to his incredibly luxurious wedding like the boss hero he was, and Jacob Dean would have been right beside him. His dad and Papa didn’t fight. They worked as a team, and never at cross purposes.

They were absolutely in synch with how to take care of his mom.

“And I’ll head out and make sure our place is set up for you, Aidan.” Cooper pushed back from the table. “You and Carys should be comfortable. TJ, you want to come help me make sure the security system is working?”

Kala snorted. “Carys isn’t going home with Aidan and Tris.”

“We have a lot to talk about,” Aidan said almost pleadingly.

Carys’s brows rose. “Do we? It seems to me like you’ve been doing a lot of talking. Maybe we don’t have anything to talk about and my cousin is right. I’m going home with them. You and Tristan can spend all the time you like together. It’s obvious I don’t have a place as anything except the toy you want to protect.”

“You are the woman we have both loved since we learned the word. And how are you going to avoid us when we’re all working together?” He might be terrified for them, but there were some upsides to Carys’s stubbornness.

The tension was so thick as Carys stared at him. He could feel it. It was anger and hate and sex and need.

She hadn’t been getting everything she needed. She’d been lovingly taken care of, but Aidan couldn’t top her the way he could. He didn’t even want to.

Sometimes, though, she couldn’t ask for what she wanted. Sometimes she used D/s to get what she wanted without saying it. She simply pushed him, and he knew she had a safe word. They’d talked about it, decided it was an odd form of communication between the three of them. She would push and push, and he would punish her until she found what she needed. Then they could breathe again. Then they could talk.

“Carys, you might think about this.” TJ was the only one who wasn’t watching them with wide eyes. He was completely oblivious. “The only free bed is the one in the… I think they call it an office, but it turns into a torture chamber at bedtime, and not the fun kind.”

“She can have my room,” Kala said, her gaze going between Tristan and Carys.

“Oh, that’s nice of you,” TJ replied with a smile. “Maybe it’s for the best because everyone needs some space.”

Tristan didn’t need any space. He needed her. His cock tightened. “I think I need to talk to Carys and Aidan alone.”

Kenzie frowned. “But it’s getting interesting.”

Tasha stood. “It’s totally time to go, sis. I need to call Dare. And you need to think about who the Canadians are going to send. There’s no way they let us run an op in a Canadian city without oversight.”

“Fuck. Ben Parker.” Kala shoved away from the table.

Ben Parker was the Canadian operative Kenzie had a thing for. Except he’d nearly gotten Lou killed, and now they were all supposed to hate his golden boy ass. He didn’t have time or brain space for Parker right now. Not when his whole body was humming.

Lou threaded her fingers through TJ’s as the group moved out of the conference room. “You do know Kala’s going to end up in bed with us, right?”

TJ frowned as he started to walk out. “Wait, what?”

Lou pulled him along.

It was well known in their group that Kala often slipped into her best friend’s bed. Usually after a sweat-inducing nightmare she wouldn’t ever acknowledge. She would wake up screaming sometimes and head to a safe place. He would bet TJ didn’t even know she was in bed with them since Kala was an early riser and TJ slept like the dead.

“Are you three sure you should be alone in here?” Cooper asked. “There’s an undercurrent between the three of you I’m worried about. Maybe we should call my mom in.”

Dr. Eve McKay, who would want them to have a therapy session. His cock said absolutely not. “Coop, you might need your mom to help you navigate the relationship with your subs, but I do not.”

“Dude, I was trying to help,” Cooper shot back.

“I am not your sub,” Carys announced.

“I’m definitely not your fucking sub.” Aidan sat back, an angry gaze in his eyes.

But they were, and he’d left them. He didn’t think he’d had a choice, but he’d left them, and it was time to show them the boss was back and they could relax.

Except they were insisting on going into all the danger he’d been trying so hard to keep them out of. It looked like fate was going to throw them together all over again.

Starting here and now.

Tristan calmly stood and walked over to the door, turning the lock and hitting the button that lowered the shades.

It was time to start winning back his subs.

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