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“You love the bastard,” his mom murmured. She was lookingover files. “They do, too. Although him doing it to Seth on stage was over theline.”
His cousin Seth was a singer/songwriter—not what his UncleIan had expected. But like a good dad, his uncle often attended his son’sperformances. TJ had been there the time Seth had been experimenting with usinga synthesizer and yes, it had been terrible, but he wasn’t sure anything was sobad that his uncle had to go on stage, hit him with a rolled-upnewspaper—something his uncle would never, ever use on a dog—tell him he was abad musician and take the aforementioned awful synthesizer off stage with him.
Seth really should stick with guitars.
There were times he was so glad he was Theo Taggart’s kid.Of all the Tags, his dad was the best.
“So when we get back, are you okay staying in Devi’s room?”his mom asked. “When she comes back from New York, I’ll shift some stuffaround.”
“I’m staying with Lou.” Not that he’d actually asked Lou.Technically he was staying with his cousins in the weird room they called anoffice on the most uncomfortable sofa bed in the history of time. His sister’sroom was perfectly comfortable, but it lacked an essential element. Lou.
She was already pulling away, and he couldn’t let thathappen. He was going to be exactly who she thought he was. Funny. Nice. Helpfularound the house. Right up until the moment he got a hand on her and then ooops, he wasn’t sleeping on the sofa anymore.
His mom looked slightly surprised. “I thought she woulddistance when she obviously avoided sitting next to you.”
She’d run like a scared mouse, but he wasn’t about to letthat stop him. “Yeah. I’m heading back to their place when we touch down. It’llmake it easier to talk about the op. We still have no idea why they think Iknow this dude. We’re supposed to get more information on the guy in the nextcouple of days.”
“They were serious if they were willing to kidnap yourmother in order to make you talk,” his father pointed out. “So they have tohave a reason to believe you’re involved. You need to go over every op you’vebeen on in the last couple of years, everyone you’ve worked with.”
“I think we’ll all be doing that over the next couple ofweeks.” Cooper was standing in the aisle, a mug of coffee in his hand. “Hey,TJ, Zach wants a word. Call me if the plane starts going down.”
Shit. What did Zach want? He wasn’t close to Zach. He’dworked with the man on a couple of occasions, and he reminded TJ a lot of hisuncle. Zach was an authority figure with a capital A. Some people went into themilitary because they didn’t have another place to go or wanted to use thetraining to get good jobs. Zach had gone in because he was practically theposter child for the all-American soldier.
He got to his feet and marched toward the cabin, wishing hewas moving to the back of the plane. At the back of the plane was a smallkitchen and bathroom, but more importantly it was where Lou and Kala had setthemselves up. He would think Kala was trying to ice him out, but she’d beenthe one to tell him he could stay with them the way he almost always did whenhe was in town.
Which was good because his other option was sleeping on Sethand Lucas’s couch, and that meant watching at least one chick try to sneak outin the early morning hours. Sometimes two, but he’d seen as many as foursneaking away, and he didn’t like to do that math.
Would that have been his life if he hadn’t met Louisa Ward?Would he have ditched the military and worked for one of his uncles and screwedas many women as he could? The strange thing was he didn’t find it appealing atall. He genuinely preferred hanging with Lou and Kala and Kenz, watching moviesand playing games or taking Bud 2 to the dog park. He liked going over to Lou’sparent’s house and hanging with her little brother.
Had he screwed this up so badly he couldn’t hope for thatlife now?
He glanced back when he made it to the cockpit door, but Louwasn’t looking up. She was leaning forward and talking to Kala, a seriousexpression on her face.
He wanted to go back there, take her hand, and show herwhere her place was, but his uncle might have a heart attack, and his fatherhad counseled patience at this point.
He had weeks with her. Unless she freaked and kicked his assout.
He knocked on the door and then entered when Zach gave himleave.
Zach was sitting in the pilot’s seat, his masculine featuresilluminated by the lights coming off the instrument panel. “Hey, man. Have aseat. We’re in full autopilot mode for the next couple of hours, and I thoughtwe should have a chat.”
That sounded bad. “In a captain to sergeant way, or a don’tfuck up my team you nitwit way?”
A ghost of a smile hit the man’s face, and he gestured tothe chair beside him. “Can’t it be both?”
TJ managed to slide into the copilot’s seat. He wondered ifZach had changed seats since Cooper was the pilot and if he’d done it forintimidation purposes. Not that he was. “Sure, except you should remember thisis my team, too. I grew up with them. They’re my family, so you shouldunderstand I will never willingly put them in danger.”
“And yet you did today.” Zach was all business now.“Sergeant Taggart, did you or did you not stop down in the middle of a missionto kiss my asset?”
“She’s not your asset. She’s Lou.”
“Do you think I don’t know that? Do you think I don’t knowexactly how many missions she’s run and what her kill rate is? Zero. It waszero until today, and I planned to keep it that way. You fucked that up. Youare the reason she was forced to do something counter to who she is. She wassupposed to get in, hunker down with you, and wait until comms came back onlineso she could blow the door and get away. You distracted her.”
“That’s not what she said.” He’d heard her telling someonebefore the conference meeting that it was all a way to keep him from sayingsomething he shouldn’t. Bullshit. He didn’t believe a word of it.
“You and I both know she’s trying to salvage her pride.”Zach obviously wasn’t buying it either.
TJ hated the thought. “Because it’s awful to kiss me?”
