Chapter Eight

Carys took a deep breath and tried to find the calm place she’d been taught to go to before a fight.

Though they hadn’t been called fights. Matches. Kumite. It was one of the three main parts of karate, along with kata and kihon. It was sparring with and learning from another student.

She’d enjoyed her time in karate. She’d started her training with Kenzie and Kala, though they’d quickly blown past her.

“How much do you remember?” Kenzie was dressed in shorts and a tank top, showing off toned arms. Her cousins were incredibly fit. Deadly.

“Enough to know I should pay attention to my flight instinct,” she admitted. It might be for the best all the way around.

Kenzie grinned. “She’s not going to hurt you. Now if Uncle Adam was here…”

She’d seen Adam and Jake carry Tristan out, and for a second she’d felt a worry. Then she’d let it go. Surely he’d been through worse than being kidnapped by his family. Not that he would ever talk to her about it.

Her cousins knew far more about the man she’d loved than she would ever be allowed to know.

“I think Adam is about to discover how stubborn his kid is.” She couldn’t imagine whatever Adam and Jake were planning would go well. Tristan would get pissed and get his pride on and then he would find a way out, and he would have blocked off someone else who could have helped him.

He seemed determined to be alone, and she was tired of fighting him. She couldn’t help but think about all the times she’d pleaded for him to come home, to talk to her, to be with them. She’d told him how lonely Aidan was without him.

Except Aidan hadn’t been alone at all.

“I don’t know,” Kenzie said, sitting on the bench.

The Hideout had a room deep inside the club the regulars all called the fight club room. It was one of the larger spaces, with a padded floor and bleacher seats on either side. Cooper had obtained the seats from a local high school in the middle of renovations. Her uncle had looked at them and sworn they would rot away from all the adolescent angst, but it had been mold that had caused problems. Lucky for them Gabriel Lodge was incredibly interested in carpentry and had replaced the bad rows promptly.

“I think he might be coming around.” Her cheeriest cousin was also overly optimistic.

Carys stretched one arm over her chest, opening up her shoulders. “Last night he promised he would answer any questions I had.”

Kenzie’s eye sparked with enthusiasm. “See.”

“And he also told me he’s going to replace me on the op with someone from the Agency.”

Her nose wrinkled. “With who? It can’t be Kara. We’re going in as the bodyguard. Also, we have to dye our hair and go by something else because there’s the slightest chance the doctor will remember us from Australia. We didn’t have direct contact with him, but he could have seen us at the conference. And contacts. I hate the colored contacts.”

“Uhm, isn’t it going to cause trouble if he remembers you?”

Kenzie waved the worry off. “He won’t because of the hair color and the eyes. Also, we know how to dress to minimize the girls, if you know what I mean.”

“It’s the three biggies for women operatives.” Tasha sat down beside Kenzie, handing her a water bottle. “Hair, eyes, and boobs. It’s what most men see and remember, though I worry Huisman pays more attention to detail than the normal man.”

“Is this coming from Ben Parker?” Kenzie asked as though the question meant not a thing to her.

Which meant it was important. “Okay, who is Ben Parker?”

“Is he the Canadian dude who was here a few weeks ago?” Daisy sat on the bench closest to them, Devi Taggart at her side.

Devi looked preoccupied with her phone but she answered. “I think his name was Ben Parker. He was totally into Kenz. You remember it was the night Kala was so pissed because she couldn’t play, and Uncle Ian was here in the conference room and then he walked through the dungeon with a blindfold on like he would die if he saw something.”

Daisy grinned. “Cooper put a couple of spanking benches in his way, and Auntie Charlotte let him fall over one. It was funny.”

“Yes, I remember the night, but I didn’t catch his name,” Carys said.

“He was only into me because of my boobs,” Kenzie said with a frown. “Or maybe everyone is right and he’s been playing me all along. All I know is I can’t forgive him for the shit he pulled with Lou.”

“What happened to Lou?” She seemed to have missed a lot in the last few weeks. She’d had no idea her cousin had a crush on some foreign operative. A rival, it seemed.

Things were happening so fast. Tasha had come home from Australia with a fiancé. Lou and TJ had finally gotten their shit together. Kenz had a crush. Daisy had a boyfriend.

She was the only one going backward.

“Nothing,” Tasha replied. “Ben used a situation Lou was in to confirm Huisman is at the very least involved in some shady dealings. You should understand Huisman is dangerous. I know Dad gave you a briefing, but I suspect you weren’t listening. I told him to hold off, but my dad powers through.”

“Ben set up the situation. The situation didn’t exist until Ben made it happen,” Kenzie corrected. “Lou could have been killed. But I do think he’s right about Huisman. You need to be careful around him, and Aidan definitely needs to be careful.”

“I got the whole Huisman bad thing,” she admitted. “I’m not sure Aidan believes it, but then it’s not like we’ve talked. Though I’ll be honest, I didn’t get a lot out of the briefing. I was thinking about Tristan. It was the first time I’d seen him in forever.”

“Oh, hey, Car. I did not know Aidan was talking to him,” Daisy said. “I swear on my feminine soul I would have told you.”

There was never any doubt. Daisy was her girl. “I know, sweetie. It’s okay.”

“It’s not okay because he’s sitting over there and you’re here,” Daisy pointed out. “You two have barely talked. And did he really sleep on the ground?”

“Not like the ground ground,” Kenzie corrected. “The inside ground. Aidan protected his love in the true Taggart male fashion.”

Like her dad had protected her mom after she’d found out the whole basis of their relationship was a lie and her dad had climbed into her bed as part of an op. And into her pool. And on her boss’s desk.

She wished she hadn’t read the book. There should have been a trigger warning. Read this book and you’ll never look at your parents the same way again.

It was disturbing, but when she thought past the sex stuff—if it had really happened—then her parents had gotten through some traumatic stuff. Stuff Carys would have said was a deal breaker.

Could she get through it? She wasn’t even sure Tris truly wanted to get through it. She glanced over to where Aidan was sitting with Cooper. They’d shown up a couple of minutes before with her brother in tow. Lucas sat beside them, a frown on his face as he watched her.

He was going to be trouble. Her younger brother was a walking red flag. She loved him but he slept his way through whatever space he happened to occupy. Sometimes she thought her brother’s out-of-control libido was the only reason her dad had pretty much just accepted the whole “my daughter’s in a threesome” thing with a shrug and a sigh and yes, some whiskey. It was what her family did.

She was a bit worried her brother—who had half a foot and seventy pounds of muscle on her—was going to take it upon himself to try to deal with Tris.

And while Lucas was excellent in the kitchen, a true star on the rise in the culinary world, Tris was a trained killer who was on the irritable side right now.

Would he even show up for play night tonight? Or would his parents’ interference send him right back to the airport, shutting them all out again?

“I wish you two were talking,” Daisy was saying. “It’s weird. Like something stable in my world isn’t stable anymore. You should think about this, Car. You’ve never had to date.”

“Dating sucks,” Devi agreed.

“It’s true,” Kenzie said. “The dating world is filled with land mines, cousin. You never know if the beautiful man who seems so into you is only trying to get into your pants for intel.”

“I don’t think I have to worry about someone working me for information. I don’t know anything,” Carys admitted.

Kenzie shrugged. “Neither did your mom and yet…”

Tasha sent her sister a frown. “Hey, she’s sensitive about the whole her parents had sex thing. Uncle Sean and Aunt Grace are way more circumspect than our parents.”

Everyone was more circumspect than Ian and Charlotte Taggart. Everyone in the world.

“Oh, I understand,” Daisy said with a shake of her head. “I recently learned my father was the player of choice when it came to Hooter’s waitresses back in the day. Though I don’t think he kept it to Hooter’s. I think it was all the chicken wing places. He really liked chicken wings.”

“Girl, do not bring that fight to us,” Tasha said, gesturing to her sister. “Our dad was apparently Mr. Dom and did every sub at Sanctum while Mom was dead.”

Kenzie nodded. “Yeah, but he was sad she was dead. He was looking for comfort. Uncle Li was just looking for chicken wings.”

“Well, my parents are practically perfect.” Devi sighed. “Dad died, but Mom didn’t like rip through a bunch of dicks. Probably because Dad left her all kinds of knocked up. You know when you think about it, we have a real trend of dying and coming back.”

Actually, they had a real trend of epic love stories. When she thought about it, all their parents had something serious to get through. She was sitting here thinking she was the only person in the world who ever felt this way, but she knew it wasn’t true. She was a freaking doctor, and she listened to her patients. They all had stories. They all had heartaches.

Maybe it was time to start listening to her elders. How had they gotten through it?

Aunt Erin had lost Uncle Theo to a crazy woman who’d kidnapped him and wiped his memory. They were happy today.

Aunt Charlotte had faked her own death, and Uncle Ian had been under suspicion he’d killed her for years. They were happy today.

Apparently her dad had been a massive asshole, and her mom had found it in her heart to forgive him.

And they were happy today.

“You know Dare didn’t know who I was when I slept with him,” Tasha said quietly. “I lied to him because we were in the middle of an op. I knew I was in love with him and I lied. I let my team bug his room and download his laptop. I almost lost him. In some ways, I think I would have if I hadn’t gotten shot and he had to face a world without me. We’re together today because of his generous heart.”

Kenzie sniffled.

“Nate didn’t know who I was,” Daisy said. “I stole a night of passion from my big Aussie bastard and he forgave me.”

She knew this story well, and Daisy was embellishing. “You were after his dick, sweetie. Not his secrets. It’s not the same. You didn’t cause Nate a shit ton of heartache. Just a little confusion.”

Daisy sniffed. “Well, that makes me sound like a novella. You know like when Aunt Serena needs a break from the big books. You don’t think she’d make me a novella, do you?”

Carys snorted. “Never. It was epic.”

Now she wondered if hers was epic. It had simply always been there. Aidan and Tristan had always been there, and until Tris decided to run off to the military, they hadn’t had a ton of drama. She hadn’t cared when some jealous girls called her a whore. Her parents had accepted them with relative ease.

Was she wilting in the face of the first real trouble they’d ever had?

Tristan had told her what he wanted, and she’d shut down. She’d gotten her feelings hurt and let him go.

“Hey, are we doing this or are you going to admit you remember nothing and promise you’ll duck behind me when shit goes down?” Kala had on shorts and a sports bra, her magenta-colored hair up in a high ponytail. “Because shit is absolutely going to go down.”

“Hey, Kala, you could go easier on her,” Kenzie complained.

Cooper stood up. “Maybe we should talk about this first.”

She rather thought she knew what her cousin was doing. Kala was poking at all her sore spots to point out her weaknesses. To show her how hard this was going to be.

Because she was soft.

She was a Taggart, too. Oh, if things had gone the way they were supposed to she would be Carys O’Donnell, and maybe the name didn’t change things, but maybe it would have.

She was still Carys Taggart, and it was time to prove it.

Carys got into Kala’s space. “The good news, cousin, is I can put you back together after I take you apart.”

Cooper winced. “I don’t think that’s how this is going to go.”

“Baby, why don’t you spar with Lou?” Aidan had joined Cooper.

Kala’s lips curled into a snarl she still managed to make look cover-model worthy. “Really? You think you can take me, doc? You’ve been in your ivory tower for too long. It’s fucked with your reasoning skills.”

“Yeah, well the Agency is the only reason you’re not covered in tattoos and traveling the world in a built-out school bus,” Carys shot back.

Kenzie laughed out loud, but everyone else went still as though waiting for carnage.

Lou gave her a weak smile. “I mean, she is right about the tats. You complain about it all the time. It’s also the reason she’s not pierced all over.”

“Except in the good places,” Cooper said with an entirely masculine smile. It made Carys wonder what was really going on between those two.

Kala’s eyes narrowed. “Thanks, Coop. As for my sweet, na?ve cousin, let’s go.” She frowned suddenly. “And I wouldn’t build out a freaking school bus. Ewww. I would be fully tatted up in a tiny house in the middle of the forest with a small goat army. Thank you.”

And then her cousin punched her. Right in the gut.

The air whooshed out of Carys’s lungs, pain flaring as she tried to get enough oxygen.

“Hey.” Aidan stepped in front of her. “That wasn’t fucking fair.”

“There’s no fair where we’re going,” Kala replied simply. Aidan had a couple of inches on her and a lot of muscle, but her cousin wasn’t afraid of him.

Because she knew damn well she could handle herself. Despite what her cousin had said, her reasoning skills were top-notch, and she knew admiring her most psychotic relative for her cool under pressure probably wasn’t the healthiest thing. Kala had a lot of issues. Being sure of herself in a fight wasn’t one of them.

“Hey, let’s get into the locker room and let Aidan look you over.” Her brother reached for her hand.

“Maybe it would be for the best,” Kenzie said with a wince.

“Yeah, Carys, let the men take care of you,” Kala taunted.

She’d been letting everyone take care of her for the last two and a half years. Poor Carys. Her man left her. Aidan had to take care of her all alone. The sympathy was nauseating when she thought about it.

She’d just taken it.

She wasn’t taking it anymore.

They weren’t playing fair? She sniffled and held a hand out to her cousin. “I get it now. Forgive me.”

Kala frowned as though deeply disappointed in her. “Sure. It’s okay.” She reached out to shake her hand. “Like I said, I’ll watch out for you.”

Carys found her cousin’s radial nerve and pressed her thumb down, causing Kala to gasp. She took the moment to kick her right between the legs, probably hitting whatever piercing she had in there.

The whole room went still.

“That’s right, baby. You give her hell,” a deep voice said.

She looked over and Tristan was standing in the doorway with Zach Reed in tow.

Kala had fallen onto the mat, and every man there took a step back.

All of them except Aidan, who was still trying to protect her. “She’s going to get hurt.”

“Sometimes we need to get hurt to remind us how resilient we can be,” Tristan said. “I’m putting fifty on my baby. She’s mean, and she knows pressure points.”

She’d forgotten how much Tris loved it when she was an arrogant brat. Aidan loved her sweet side, but Tristan craved the bad girl. She hadn’t been a bad girl in far too long.

Kala’s legs came up, and she was suddenly on her feet again. “Nice move. It won’t work again, but you’re right to use my preconceived notions against me. Do it with every fucking man you meet. They will underestimate you, and then you can take them down.”

Cooper moved back. “You’re insane, Tris. I’ll take your bet. Kala, don’t kill her. Deep down you love her.”

Kala looked his way. “Why the hell else would I be doing this?”

“Because you love to fight,” Cooper replied.

Kala shrugged. “Truth. But I do love her, and this is absolutely for her own good. Show me what you got, cos.”

Carys felt a surge of energy go through her, felt Tris watching her and Aidan’s worry.

And then let it all go as Kala threw her next punch and the fight was on.

* * * *

“You could have died.” Aidan put an ice pack on his previously sane girlfriend’s wrist. What the hell was she thinking?

“She wasn’t going to die.” Tris sat across from her in the lounge where everyone had retreated for drinks and snacks after watching two women try to kill each other. “Carys, you handled yourself well out there, but you should know…”

“She took it easy on me,” Carys said with a sigh and a wince as she sat back.

“Easy?” Aidan couldn’t believe what he was hearing. It had been brutal. They’d gone at it for more than thirty minutes. Carys had gotten flipped and punched and held down with an elbow in her back. “There was nothing easy about what I just saw.”

And there had been nothing he could do about it because every time he tried to stop it, Tris put a hand on his shoulder and made him sit back down.

She needs this, he’d said.

Needed to get punched? Needed to get put on her belly like she was some kind of wrestler?

Carys sighed. “She totally pulled her punches.”

“She did, and I’m glad you saw that.” Zach Reed handed her a glass. Amber liquid with one large ice cube.

Bourbon. She took it with her free hand. “She was never going to truly hurt me. She wants me to understand what happens if I get into a real fight.”

Zach was six foot four and corded with lean muscle. He sat down across from Carys. “And what do you do if you get into a real fight?”

Zach had come into town to help Tris. Because they’d been working together for a long time now. Had Zach taken his place?

Fuck. He might be jealous of Zach.

“Get out of it as fast as possible and hide so Kala doesn’t have to worry about me,” Carys said and then knocked back the bourbon.

“Excellent.” Zach gave her an approving nod. “Then you’re halfway there. You have some good moves. Now the question is how prepared is Aidan?”

“I’ll take care of Aidan.” Tristan sat in his chair, his own bourbon in hand.

“No one needs to take care of me.” Was he now considered the softest one? “I know self-defense and all the same pressure points Carys does. I’m not exactly helpless. Also, I thought we were probably going to a safe house.”

“Told you I can’t send you because you promised Huisman you would be his pet resident,” Tris replied. “And it was recently pointed out to me that I don’t get to walk away for two and a half years and come back in and start barking orders. Carys, you want to do this?”

There was a part of Aidan praying she would tell him no and he was on his fucking own.

There was a bigger part praying she didn’t give up this chance. If she walked, he wasn’t sure they ever came together again. If they were together, they had a shot. If she said no, it would be too easy to let time go by, to come up with excuse after excuse why to put off trying again.

“I want to go,” Carys said, handing the glass Aidan’s way. “I need another.”

Something eased inside him. He would get his shot. He would get a chance to decide if they could work in this new world they found themselves in, the one where Tris was different but still so familiar.

And that meant starting to act like the man he wanted to be. He took the glass. She hadn’t listened to a thing he’d said all day. “Not if you’re going to play, you don’t. You’re right, baby. You’re tough. From what I can tell nothing’s broken and you won’t even bruise. So are we playing or should I get you another drink?”

Tristan’s lips curled up in a decadent smile. “You sound ready to play, partner. I think she wants it. I think her inner brat is begging for it. The fight with Kala was nothing but a warm-up.”

Carys sighed, and her eyes closed as she sat back. “It won’t mean anything. Not anything beyond I need a session and it would take forever to train a new top.”

“Sure, tell yourself that, baby,” Tris shot back.

Her eyes opened. “Just because I play with you tonight only means we’re sexually compatible, and I’m lazy when it comes to finding what I need. It doesn’t mean we’re together.”

“It’s exactly what it means if we’re running this op,” Tris said. “You’re with me through this op or this op doesn’t happen.”

“What?” Zach looked at Tris like this was completely new information to him.

Tristan sat back, his eyes still on Carys even though he was talking to Zach. “I’ve decided they’re more important than taking down Huisman. If she won’t let me close to her, I can’t protect her. Same with Aidan.”

“You can’t be serious.” The captain sat up straight, leaning over. “You know what’s at stake. You’ve always known. We have reason to believe someone got files out of the Tandy Medical Group the night the Canadians raided. Huisman knew what was there. I think it was him. He has the formula for the weaponized anthrax. If he finds the right delivery system…”

“Anthrax?” Aidan took a seat beside Carys. “No one mentioned bioweapons.”

Carys’s eyes had opened, and she was suddenly way more interested. “Yes, this is new information. What is Tandy Medical? Is it a pharmaceutical company?”

Zach stood and looked out over the lounge, waving at someone. It was mere seconds before Tasha walked up, her hand in her fiancé’s. Dare Nash had come in during the middle of the sparring match, sitting beside Tasha and wincing with the rest of them as the cousins had seemingly tried to take each other out.

He was being overly dramatic. When he looked at Carys he could see she wasn’t truly injured.

And she’d been kind of hot as she’d taken on a woman most men in the group would be wary of sparring with.

“Hey, Zach. We didn’t think you would join us until we head to Canada,” Tasha said.

Dare held out a hand, shaking Zach’s. “Good to see you again.”

Zach offered them the cozy love seat, switching to a padded table for himself. He looked way too big, but it held. “You should know we’ve got a contractor on this op.”

Tasha sat back. “Does his name rhyme with Shadam Giles?”

“Yep.” Tristan snorted slightly but he smiled, a genuine smile and not the fuck-the-world expression he’d seen on his best friend’s face so often in the last few years. “My father called in some favors. He’s pretty much done with me…how did he put it…fucking up my whole world, and he’s sick of waiting to bury me. Uncle Ian’s right. Papa is overly dramatic. Anyway, he’s coming in, and we should expect the olds to be super feisty. You know how they like to go at each other.”

“What does Adam joining the team have to do with bioweapons?” Aidan asked. Having Adam on the team meant someone might have half a chance of reining in Tris’s reckless streak.

He wasn’t sure what had happened with Tris’s parents, but Tris seemed more like Tris than he had in years.

Tasha’s brows rose in obvious surprise. “Wow. We’re doing the whole talk about classified intel around Zach now? I thought we usually left him out of those fun chats so he has plausible deniability.”

Zach shrugged. “I’m going with the Taggart flow. If we’re bringing in civilians, they deserve to know what’s at stake and in plain terms. Telling them Huisman is probably a supervillain isn’t going to cut it, and if they have doubts, it could cost them their lives. So I thought Dare would take this one. They asked about Tandy.”

Dare sighed, a weary sound. “Tandy Medical was part of my father’s company. The Nash Investment Group used to fund medical research, and we owned stakes in a bunch of research companies. They did cutting-edge stuff.”

“Like the Huisman Foundation,” Aidan pointed out.

“Yes, though Huisman is bigger than we ever were, and I would say we were pretty big,” Dare replied. “Tandy Medical was doing research into emerging viruses and bacteria. Funguses sound funny, but they pose a real threat to humanity as we move through climate change. Tandy was supposed to research ways to combat those threats.”

One of the worst things a surgeon had to worry about was infection. A surgeon could do miraculous work, and it could all fall apart because of a tiny bit of bacteria. Staphylococcus, streptococcus, pseudomonas were simply the most common. There were always new threats to deal with.

They didn’t have to go looking for them or figure out a way to make one do its deadly work better.

Of course he could come up with a couple of reasons… “So they were planning on selling the research?”

“I’m sure my father would have at some point,” Dare agreed. “He’s in prison right now awaiting trial. He wasn’t a good man. Money was my father’s god, and he didn’t care how he got it.”

“This is one of the things we learned while we were in Sydney. Tandy was potentially developing a stronger version of anthrax,” Tasha explained. “A stronger version, one that could be dropped on a large population for maximum effect.”

“Why would anyone want to make anthrax more deadly?” Carys asked. “I don’t mean to sound na?ve, but I’m expected to believe a world-famous doctor, who’s known for his philanthropy, is behind a plot to murder hundreds of people?”

“Oh, if my intel is correct, we’re talking thousands. Maybe hundreds of thousands,” Tris said quietly. “Murder, though, isn’t the principal motive. What we believe is happening is disruption. We believe Huisman is the head of a connected network of groups called Disrupt.”

“I’ve heard of them, but they’re not some terrorist group.” Aidan was confused. “Disrupt America is about dismantling systems that no longer work in the modern age. They press for things like health care reform.”

“Our hospital recently got a grant from DA to buy high-tech crash carts built specifically for maternity patients.” Carys leaned forward. “I wrote the proposal myself. Texas has one of the First World’s worst maternity outcomes. Disrupt is trying to help us change that.”

“The surface organization does excellent work,” Tris explained. “But we believe there’s a smaller, more elite group within the group.”

“Like a star chamber or an illuminati society,” Zach continued. “They use all the resources the public face has to push their own agenda. Which is chaos. We have reason to believe the inner membership has targeted a couple of large cities in Southeast Asia as test runs. Especially looking to disrupt trade routes.”

“Canadian intelligence took out the Tandy Group and found the research Huisman told us would be there.” Tris sat back. “But I looked into their systems, and I found a hack roughly two hours before the raid. They pulled down most of the research files, including the anthrax project. It took me a while, but I managed to trace the hack back to Montreal, where the Huisman Foundation now resides.”

“And the arms dealer who kidnapped TJ verified it was Huisman he was working with,” Tasha agreed.

Aidan had been the one to check TJ out after he’d come home from his adventures with a German cattle prod. He’d been physically all right, but it proved how dangerous the job was.

Tristan sighed and took a sip of the water he’d selected over beer. “So that’s what we’re working with. Oddly, no one is listening to the criminal over the doctor. Not that we’ve pushed it. For now we’re in this odd place with Huisman. He knows we’re a CIA team investigating things that happen around him. How much more he knows is a mystery.”

“It’s one of the things we think you can help us figure out.” Zach set his glass on the table next to Tristan.

Tasha threaded her fingers through her fiancé’s. “If we’re right and Huisman is the one behind the attempt on your life, then we have to worry he’ll try it again.”

Zach’s head shook. “We can’t be sure Aidan and Carys were the target. I would say it’s unlikely. If I were to bet on it, the attack was about TJ. There’s a faction of the illegal arms world that believes TJ is connected to The Jester.”

“Or someone’s finally figured out I took over the role, and this is about me,” Tristan concluded. “Either way, we’re going in knowing this is a dangerous situation. I don’t think Huisman is going to try anything while we’re in Montreal. We’re too close to his home base, and if the man values anything in the world, it’s the Huisman Foundation. He won’t allow any scandal to taint it.”

“Or he’s good at pretending and he doesn’t care about anything and we’re walking into a trap.” She sighed and sat up, pulling the ice pack off her wrist. “Either way, I need a session. I get the feeling the rest of the week is going to be a whole lot of my cousins trying to kill me so they can save me. Not really looking forward to it.”

How did he go from worried everyone he loved was going to die to horny as hell in the space of a couple of seconds? “You should go and get dressed.”

She stood and frowned down at him. “So you can talk to Tris behind my back?”

“Yes.” They needed to game-plan. “We always talk about play sessions.” He should be honest with her. “Even when he’s not here. You should know most of the time we did some hardcore kink play it was because he talked me into it.”

A brow rose over Carys’s eyes. “You talked to him about our sex life?”

Since he’d first known what sex was. “It’s always been our sex life. The three of us. It’s hard to break habits.”

“It’s not a habit. It’s who we are,” Tris argued.

Zach stood up. “And this is turning into a therapy session. I think I’ll play as long as I’m here. You three get your shit together.”

“I’ll see you in the locker room,” Tasha said as she and Dare joined Zach. “We can talk more if you want.”

Carys waited until they were gone. The lounge was starting to empty out as everyone began getting ready for the evening. She turned to Tristan. “What do you mean I’m with you until the op is over? You genuinely expect me to sleep with you while we’re working? I understand I have to keep up appearances with Aidan, but you’re supposed to be his bodyguard.”

“And I assure you I know how to sneak into your bed, baby. I’ve slipped through Sean Taggart’s excellent security system more times than I can count. It wasn’t Aidan who hacked the system and shut off the sensors to your bedroom window and looped the cameras.” Tris crossed one leg over the other, looking like a decadent brat prince. “If getting into your silky panties is the reward, I can make anything happen.”

Sometimes he had to translate for Tristan. “I think what he’s trying to say is, it’s inevitable so let’s not play games. You honestly think you’re going to be in a high-pressure situation and not end up in bed with us? Tell me you’re not already rationalizing how this evening’s going to go.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Carys’s expression had gone blank.

He could speak Carys, too. “You don’t? Let’s see if I get this right. That beautiful brain of yours is arguing with your wounded heart. And I understand, baby. I truly do. We hurt you, but your logical mind is wondering if it’s worth it to lose everything. You’re wondering if you can forgive me. Maybe Tris can be the sacrifice you make so no one thinks you’re a doormat. No one thinks that, but this is where your pride comes in.”

Tristan sighed. “I got a lecture on pride already today. I was told in no uncertain circumstances that pride has no place in a relationship. You know when you think about it, she’s a little like me.”

Carys’s eyes flared.

“Don’t help me out,” Aidan complained. “Like I said, your head is at war with your heart. Your heart reminds you how much you have invested in this relationship and prays there might still be a way to save it all. The problem is you’ve spent years and years being taught to shut down your emotional side so you can do your job.”

“So you think I’ll choose you and sacrifice him. Then why let him in our bed?” Carys asked as though the question didn’t matter.

He’d thought about this for freaking years. “Because we don’t work without him, and you know it. There’s a reason we didn’t follow through with the first wedding. There’s a reason we’ve waited for him. He was an asshole, but he’s our asshole, and without him we’re floating through. Hell, the only reason we were getting married this time around was his insistence.”

“You didn’t want to marry me?” Carys asked, her voice tremulous.

“Of course I did and I do, but baby, we need him. I worry if we’re alone, we drift apart. Like we’ve been doing for a while now,” Aidan said. “I love you, but you need more than me. You need him, too. And that’s what he’s trying to show you. He’s not trying to steal some sex before it’s all over. He’s desperately attempting to prove to you we can still work.”

“I don’t think we can. I don’t think us sleeping and playing together for a couple of days is going to fix our problems,” she argued.

“But you’ll do it because while your brain and heart are at war, your pussy is going to sneak in and take what it wants.” This was what he hadn’t done in forever. He hadn’t challenged her. They’d fallen into ruts, neglecting their bodily needs while they both tried to pretend they didn’t miss Tristan. He’d hidden his worry from her and she’d done the same, both afraid to upset the other. “Your pussy hasn’t had what it really needs in a long time. Two men worshipping you, pushing all your boundaries. Showing you that while your cousins are badasses, they’re not the ones who are so fucking incredible they require two men to satisfy them. Tell me you’re not thinking you can sleep with Tris and walk away and get some revenge.”

“Of course she is,” Tris said, his eyes steady on her.

“What if I decide I don’t need either one of you?” Carys asked.

“Then you lose nothing.” It wouldn’t happen. They could prove it to her. He was still pissed at Tristan, but he was self-aware enough to know he didn’t want to break with him.

“And if he leaves again?” Carys sounded more vulnerable now.

This was the heart of the matter.

Tristan was quiet.

Aidan moved into her space. “Then I will figure it out. I’ll figure out how to be enough for you.”

Carys’s hand came up. “It’s not…”

He shook his head, hand coming up to keep hers against his cheek. “No apologies. This is who we are, but we have to figure it out. I want to give it one more try, but if he fucks up again, I’m not willing to give up on us. I’ll find a way.”

Carys’s eyes closed briefly but when she opened them again her expression softened and she went on her toes to press her lips against his. “I needed to hear that. Thank you. And you know my pussy is going to win this war, so I should go and get dressed. I don’t know how this is going to work, but I will give you this time. Even if it means I have to give it to him, too.”

“I’ll take it,” Tristan agreed. “Feel free to punish me as much as you like in the vanilla world, but understand on the dungeon floor, you’re my sub and I’ll deal with you as I see fit, brat.”

Carys kissed Aidan again and walked away, moving toward the stairs leading to the locker rooms.

“I was hoping getting her ass kicked would put her in a better mood,” Tristan said with a long sigh. “I suppose I have a lot of work to do, but at least she’s not forcing the issue for now.”

“She’ll want to know what your plans are at some point.” Aidan took the seat across from Tristan. “I know I’ll want them. If you’re planning on going back to working for months at a time with no word, we should think about ending it here and now.”

“And if I decide I’ll only work with Uncle Ian’s team? Would you be satisfied with that outcome? The twins are never gone for more than a week or two. I could resign my military post and take a job with my fathers as cover,” Tristan offered.

“I thought you were trying to avoid working at MDWM.”

“Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Someone’s going to have to run it someday, and it’s not going to be my sister,” Tris admitted. “I don’t know. I only know I have to find a way to fix this thing with her. With you. I hurt you, too.”

“Are you sure? You’ve made new friends.” Aidan had been thinking about this for days. “You know it would be more normal for you to drift away. Not many people are lifelong friends. Things change. Circumstances change. You have more in common with Zach now than you do me.”

Tristan seemed to consider what to say next. “We’re not friends, Aidan. We’re not lovers, either, but I think it’s closer to that than some bro friendship where we watch sports and bitch about our girlfriends. That’s never been what we have. We don’t like to talk about it, but we love each other, too. We’re probably never going to get physical, but we’re still more than friends. Not really brothers. Something more, and we always have been. Zach is a friend. That’s all. I’m not looking to replace you. There is no replacement for you. If you leave, that spot you fill inside me will be empty forever.”

Aidan stared for a moment, shocked. “I thought we didn’t talk about this.”

Tristan shrugged. “You get shot at as much as I’ve been lately, your masculine ego suddenly doesn’t seem so fragile. I don’t care if people think we’re fucking each other. Honestly, if we were wired that way, I would in a heartbeat. If Carys thinks it would be sexy, I say we go for it.”

It had always been the only real awkwardness between them. They didn’t talk sex unless it was about Carys. They pretended there wasn’t a spark between them. It never had to go anywhere. It could be something they contained. Or something they decided to explore. “I don’t care what anyone thinks either.”

A brow rose over Tristan’s eyes. “And yet when I call you my sub…”

Aidan pointed his partner’s way. “You’ve never called me that before, asshole. It was a shock. I’m sorry I fought back a little when you walked back in after years and tried to take control. It’s a dick move.”

“But you are my sub,” Tristan insisted. “And you know it deep down. We fell into our positions naturally when we were kids, and they hold up to this day whether we publicly acknowledge them or not. Which is precisely why it was such a dick move to leave you both on your own. I haven’t said this plainly enough, A. I’m sorry. I thought I was protecting you but what I was doing was marginalizing you. I was treating you and Carys like possessions I wanted to protect, not like partners I trust and love and need.”

It was a lot of emotional growth from where he’d been the night before. “What did your dad do to you?”

Tristan’s lips curled up in genuine amusement. “Trapped me in plastic wrap. It was a whole thing. Not earth friendly when you think about it though. But, more importantly, my family made it clear I hurt them more by pulling away than I would have bringing them into my problems. It’s the same for the two most important people in my life. I am sorry.”

The words were a balm to his wounds. “All right. I meant what I said though. If you fuck up again, I have to pick her.”

Tristan stood and reached out a hand. “I know. And I won’t. I promise. We get through this and I’m out. I’ll hand it all over to someone else and I’ll come home.”

It was everything Aidan wanted. He reached for Tris’s hand and pulled him in for a hug. “We have to work on her. She’s got a wall up.”

Tris wrapped his arms around him. “The good news is I know how to take a wall down.”

Aidan hoped he did.