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Make shit up. He could do that. Sure, he knew this Jesterguy. His real name was Ian Taggart.
No, that wouldn’t work. They wouldn’t believe it was hisuncle. He was too high profile. He needed someone tough, someone who would beon guard because the minute Lou or Devi went missing, they would know somethinghad gone wrong. They wouldn’t think either woman was going off on their own forthe weekend or ditched plans.
Would they know the same about him? Or would they think TJ’skind of a flake. That sounds like something TJ would do.
Fucking TJ.
He knew how his cousins referred to him when they thought hewasn’t treating Lou right.
Would they leave him here? They might, but they wouldn’tleave Lou and they wouldn’t leave Devi, and that was all that mattered.
It was the worst revelation in the world. Now that he washere, now that he was facing never seeing her again, he knew he’d been stupid.
He should have taken Lou the minute he realized she didn’twant to live in an ivory tower. When she’d made the decision to work with hiscousins, he should have taken that as a cue. It didn’t matter that they wouldhave to have been long distance. Hell, they didn’t. He could tell his uncle hewanted to be on the team and his uncle would make it happen. It wasn’t like hedidn’t work with Agency teams all the time. He could have had Zach’s place onthe team, but he hadn’t thought he was ready.
He never thought he was ready.
There was shuffling outside the door, and TJ turned hiswhole focus that way. The light above was dim, the bulb locked under a coveringhe hadn’t been able to dismantle. He’d tried since he’d looked for any weaponhe could find. He’d been willing to use that bulb as a knife if he’d had to,but to no avail.
He didn’t have a weapon, but while his bones ached, he couldfight. He wasn’t letting them hurt a woman he loved. Not a chance. He would getaway or he would die, and either way his sister and Lou would be safe.
He wished they hadn’t parted the way they had. Adrenalinestarted to pump through him, and he moved to the side of the door to givehimself the best chance to jump whoever was about to walk through that door.
“Move it, lady,” a deep voice said.
His stomach turned. They were bringing someone.
The door came open, and his worst nightmare was real.
Lou. There was a hood over her head and her hands were tiedin front of her, but he knew who it was. He’d bought her the emerald greensweater she was wearing. It was cashmere and cost way more than he should havespent, but he’d known how good it would look against her skin, how it wouldbring out the gold in her eyes. She wore it with a skirt that went down pasther knees and boots that had a square heel.
They pushed Lou through the door, and his instincts kickedin. He didn’t take the chance to jump the guard. He couldn’t because he had noidea what shape Lou was in.
What had they done to her?
What had he done to her?
He caught her before she could hit the hard floor, gatheringher into his arms even as the guard stood in the doorway.
“Now we have someone to torture instead of you, SergeantTaggart. Perhaps you should take the next few hours to explain to your friendwhy she’s going to suffer. Or you could take this time to change your mind andtalk.”
“I’ll talk,” he promised. “I’ll tell you everything. Justlet her go.”
Lou shook in his arms. She was crying. She was probably soscared. He held her close.
“We’ll be back this afternoon. Take this time to trulydecide. You have no idea what we can do to her,” he vowed, and the door closedagain. He heard the sound of a heavy lock sliding closed.
His whole world narrowed to the woman in his arms. “Lou?Baby, are you okay?”
He fumbled, getting the hood off her head. Her glasses wereaskew, but they hadn’t taken them from her. Normally she wore contacts. Ifthey’d taken her glasses, she would have been even more vulnerable. He smoothedback her hair. It was usually neatly kept, but she’d obviously been throughsome things. It was tangled, but her face looked untouched. Her eyes looked upat him, brown with flecks of gold. Tears slipped from them, caressing hercheeks.
“You’re alive.”
He held her close. “Yeah, but we’re in trouble, baby. I’mgoing to get you out of here. I promise. I’m going to do everything I can tomake sure they don’t hurt you. You have to be ready. Kala will know something’sgone wrong, and they’ll look for you. Did they find…”
Her head came up and her eyes flared, a clear warning. “Yes,they found me. I’m here, aren’t I? They didn’t find Devi, though. She’s out oftown. I think they were looking for either her or me.”
He certainly hadn’t meant finding her. He’d beenabout to ask about her tracker. They’d found his, but they’d obviously known hewas Special Forces and taken the chance he might have one. Not every soldier did.It was both a strength—his CO could potentially find him—and a weakness ifanyone got control of their codes. Then anyone could track potential high-valuetargets. There was a chance they hadn’t checked Lou.
