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Her mom’s eyes went wide, and her mouth actually dropped open. Then she slowly nodded. “Yes, I can do that. I know quite a few lovely single men your age.”
Lou sniffled and then strode out the door.
“What the hell just happened?” Tasha asked. Lou hadn’t dated in years. She’d seemed so ready to sit and wait for TJ to finally wake up.
“I think watching you go through this is making Lou and Kala think about their own lives, and that is a miracle indeed,” her mother said quietly. “You can do this, Tasha. Your heart is a mighty thing, and it can overcome the damage done by Dare’s father. You have to be patient, and you have to be open and honest with him.”
“I won’t ever lie to him again. Not about anything important.” She would always tell him he was sexy no matter what unsexy things he did.
“Then let me tell you more about these stages you’re about to go through and why they’re important. You see, men are fragile things,” her mother began.
Tasha sat back and prepared for war.
* * * *
Dare sat down at the conference table and wondered how long it would be before Tasha was in the room with him. Five minutes? Ten? He needed to perfect his game face in that time. She’d stripped him so thoroughly of his armor it was hard to think about it being back in place.
Ian had brought him in here and then went off to find his wife. He’d promised they would start what he’d called the “briefing” shortly.
He’d already been briefed. His job was to escort Tasha to Oakley’s place in the Blue Mountains and then let her do her thing. Nate would be there as well, helping out, and there would be numerous ways the rest of the team would be watching over them. Spying on him. Oh, it had been put in all kinds of words like protecting and ensuring his safety, but they were still spies. Once they had what they needed, he and Tasha would enjoy the rest of the weekend like nothing happened. In public, at least.
Then they would move on to fucking over his father and getting him free. After that, he would never have to see her again.
He would be free to do anything he wanted, free to be with anyone he wanted to be with. But it would not be her. It would never again be her.
“Mr. Nash?”
He looked up and a man stood at the door, tall and leanly muscled. He looked to be around thirty, maybe a few years older than his Tash.
Than Natasha Taggart. His Tash had never really existed.
“Can I help you? Mr…Ian asked me to wait here.” He wasn’t entirely sure who knew Tasha’s last name and who didn’t. He wasn’t going to break their deal.
The man slipped inside the room. He wore all black, from his T-shirt to the boots on his feet. “Yes, he told me you were in here. I’m Captain Zach Reed. I’m technically US Army intelligence like our friend TJ, but I work mostly with the Agency, and specifically with the team Tasha is on.”
“Okay.” He wasn’t sure what that had to do with him. “I would say nice to meet you but it isn’t.”
Zach had broad shoulders and the kind of masculine good looks that would attract almost any woman with eyes. “I can understand that. You’re meeting me on one of the hardest days of my life since the man who’s been more of a father to me than my own is pissed at me right now. I had a shitty dad, so the idea of him not being proud of me, well, I couldn’t care less. Big Tag being disappointed…that hurts, and I kind of thought I was over the whole male mentor authority thing.”
He was not going to do some weird therapy with this guy. “Is there something I can do for you?”
“You are going to be hard to deal with, aren’t you?”
“Not at all. I fully intend to do anything and everything that is required for this mission. I’ll escort Tasha and do what I can to give your team access to whatever the hell you need from Oakley.” He held a hand up when it seemed like Zach was going to explain. “I don’t need to know. I don’t care. He’s a bad guy. Go get him. I just want to get it over with.”
So he could move on with his life.
Zach put his hands on the top of the chair, considering Dare with a thoughtful eye. “She did not know who you were when she walked into the pub that night. They’ve explained this to you, right?”
About a thousand times. “It doesn’t matter.”
“It does,” Zach said with confidence. “I’m not sure if Ian explained the way our team works. It’s different than you might think. Tasha is the Agency head of this team, but I can overrule her. I outrank her when we’re out in the field. It’s a special arrangement specifically for this team. There’s nothing else like it at the Agency. Someone like Whittington can say he runs his own team, but with the exception of the tech he works with, the members of the team change out on a regular basis. The idea of a team for him is nothing more than constantly changing parts. TJ—Tasha’s cousin, by the way—doesn’t work full time with Whittington the way Tristan, Cooper, and I do with Tasha’s team. It’s run that way for a reason. So the operatives never get too close. So the op always means more than the team.”
