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“I’m used to it. Take a deep breath. Can you at least tell mewhat they used on you? I would say a taser, but it could be a cattle prod,”Aidan said, his tone going mild.
TJ breathed in and out before he answered, allowing Aidan tolisten. “It was both. They were full-service torturers. I was also dosed withsome kind of roofie. It was put in my drink, but I seem to have metabolizedit.”
“That all?”
“Oh, uhm, I might have also been accidentally dosed withwhatever the Agency uses in those microdosers. Youknow the ones they put on their palms and oops, you’re suddenly asleep,” headmitted.
“Accidentally?” Aidan asked.
TJ shrugged. “It happens. I would explain it to you…”
“But it’s classified.” Aidan sighed and sat back, wrappingthe stethoscope around his neck. “I would like to do some blood work, butsuperficially you’re fine.”
“That’s what I told everyone. Sorry to bring you out soearly.”
“It’s not a problem. Carys and I meant to come by at somepoint. Time…it seems to get away from me. We work. We sleep. We start again.Oh, and we plan a wedding that hopefully will actually happen this time.”
Aidan had asked Carys to marry him two years before, justafter they’d formed the CIA team. They’d set a date and then put it off. Onceand then again.
As though they were waiting for something. Or someone.
“Do you think he’s going to change his mind?” TJ asked,hoping he wasn’t stepping on any toes.
“Tris? I think Tris is an arrogant, stubborn asshole whomakes decisions without talking to his loved ones.” Aidan sighed. “I don’tknow. I also don’t know that it matters anymore. He was supposed to work Armyintelligence, cyber intelligence, from safely behind a screen. It was somethinghe could do here in the States, but he got pulled into…”
This was the in he’d been looking for. “He got pulled intothe Agency. But again, I would think that’s okay. For the most part he could behere like the rest of the team. Aidan, I’m worried about him. I thought he wasjust working with the twins and Lou, but he’s involved in something else,something I’m not even sure Big Tag understands.”
Aidan’s jaw went tight. “Well, if Big Tag doesn’tunderstand, then I don’t know how I’m supposed to.”
But there was something about the way Aidan stiffened. Hewasn’t a spy and he wasn’t a good liar. But TJ also wasn’t sure that going athim directly would get the answers he wanted.
And suddenly he wanted answers. He didn’t like the idea thatTristan’s Agency work could break them up. What would happen when he somedayleft the Army and came home to find a job? Would that break him and Lou?
He wouldn’t allow it to. Not that they were together, althoughhe had woken up with the sweetest bundle of femininity wrapped around him. He’dwanted to kiss her awake and pull that old Mission Impossible T-shirtoff along with the boxers she used as PJ bottoms and start the morning right.
Instead he’d stayed still and let her slink away like shehadn’t spent the night in his arms. When she’d brought Aidan back here, she’dpretended like nothing had happened, asked him how he’d slept.
Like a baby.
“The team doesn’t know where he is,” TJ gently prodded. “Iwas hoping you might. I know we’re all worried about him.”
Aidan started to pack up his bag. “No idea, man. Tristan hasmade it plain that his work is nonnegotiable. Carys and I understand and we’removing forward. I haven’t seen or talked to him in months.”
But there was a little tic as his jaw locked and thenreleased.
Was Aidan lying to him? Why would Aidan lie? “You don’t knowwhat he’s working on?”
Aidan stood up. “Sorry, man. You would know more than I do.”
“And you have no idea why he would walk away from you andCarys?”
“It’s not your business.”
“Carys is my cousin. You know this family. It’s all ourbusiness. I could beat the shit out of him for you.” It was sometimes the waythey handled things in the Taggart clan.
Aidan’s eyes widened. “No. No, leave it be. Look, Carys andI dealt with this pain a long time ago. We’re going to be fine together. Itwouldn’t have worked. Our paths diverged after college, and there was nothingany of us could do.”
Except find a way. Something was off, and TJ had neverthought about it before. He’d always thought they needed time to settle in, butwhat if that wasn’t all there was to the problem?
