Dominance Never Dies

Book 11: Masters and Mercenaries

by Lexi Blake

Genres: Military Romance; Romantic Suspense

Synopsis

A loss he can’t forget
 
Since losing his twin brother, Theo, in the line of duty, Case Taggart has felt dead inside. The former Navy SEAL has dedicated himself to his family and their business but he can’t help but feel stuck as he watches everyone else move on with their lives. Only meeting the beautiful Mia brings Case out of his misery, until he discovered she was just a reporter looking for a story. Betrayed, he turned his back on her and never looked back.
 
An attraction she can’t deny
 
Mia Danvers can’t get Case Taggart out of her head. Though they hadn’t been lovers, she’d felt more for him than for any man she’d ever met. Growing up in the shadow of her over-protective, older brothers, she felt free when she was with Case and she longs to feel that way again. She knows that if she can find any trace of Theo Taggart, Case will be forced to let her back into his life. Months of searching have finally paid off and she knows this is her second chance.
 
A desperate search
 
Case and Mia follow the clues they hope will lead them to Theo and the villainous Hope McDonald, but the search becomes increasingly dangerous. From Dallas to South America and beyond, dark forces work against them and threaten their lives. With each step forward, Case and Mia are pulled closer together and forced to confront their mutual attraction. But when the truth about Theo is revealed, Case may have to make a choice between his brother and the only woman he’s ever loved.

A Masters and Mercenaries Novel by Lexi Blake

Release date: June 14, 2016

Publisher: DLZ Entertainment, LLC

Print pages: 385

Sample

Chapter One

 

Dallas, TX

 

Mia Danvers stood outside the building that housed her target and shivered a little. Not because of the cold but because of what she was about to do.

Moth to a flame.

Or rather very stupid woman to a freaking gorgeous, two-hundred-pounds-of-muscle cowboy commando.

Why him? Why did it have to be Case Taggart? He was so far from the men she normally dated as to be ridiculous. She liked smooth men, polished and a little on the metro side.

Men who didn’t make her heart pound simply by walking in a room. Men who didn’t make her insane.

Her cell phone trilled and she practically jumped at the chance to not walk into that building. She glanced down at the call. Her brother Brandon. Her sweet brother, the one she was closest in age to.

The one who could turn violent so quickly. The one she worried she would lose one day.

“Hey, Bran. What’s up?” She was supposed to be in Austin. This trip to Dallas and then on to South America was completely unscheduled and very secretive, and she was hoping to keep it that way. Oh, her oldest brother would figure out something was up eventually, but she’d given the pilot of one of the smaller corporate jets her best sob story and a bottle of expensive Scotch. Surely Drew wouldn’t miss one little tiny luxury jet. 4L Software had several.

“Why are you going to Colombia?”

Damn it. Did they have a locator chip on her? Or maybe they had a psychic on hand to always guess where she would get into trouble next. She wouldn’t put it past them. “What? Why would I go to New York? I don’t have any friends at Columbia University.”

A deep chuckle came over the line. “Oh, baby sis, you know how I adore your plotting and I enjoy watching you make Drew crazy, but I also love you. And keeping you alive is important to me. So I’m going to ask again and be more precise in my language. Why is there a corporate jet headed for Cartagena, Colombia? You know, it’s that place in South America. Supposed to be lovely. Also the site of many corporate kidnappings, which is why we have to have insurance for anyone who heads down there. Are you chasing a story?”

She was chasing a ghost and she needed Bran to keep his mouth shut or big brother would be chasing her. “It’s sensitive, Bran, and I need you to not tell Drew about it.”

“All right.” Her brother sounded calm and collected, but then he almost always did. Bran appeared to be the most laid back of her brothers. With his charming manner, it was an easy mistake—right up to the moment he went berserk. Never on her. Never on any woman. Bran loved women of all shapes and sizes and ages. He was the man most likely to drop whatever he was doing to make sure an old lady crossed the road safely, but when it came to other men he could get nasty. Especially if he thought one was mistreating a female. Naturally he chose to hang out in strip clubs where he could get his rage on regularly.

She often wondered if Bran’s volcanic anger went back to that moment when they’d been children on the run. To that one moment in their shared childhood when they’d been brutally separated. She didn’t remember as much about the time after their parents had been killed as her brothers, but that one memory was stamped on her brain.

Please, Bran. Please, don’t leave me.

“I’ll keep my mouth shut with Drew as long as you stop back here and pick me up,” he conceded. “I have no idea what you’re up to. I’ll let you do what you need to do, but you have to have backup.”

“I’m getting it right now. I’m meeting with Taggart in a couple of minutes.” He just didn’t know they were meeting. According to her source, Case wasn’t home. She was going to do a little breaking and entering to prove to that infuriating man that she was more than some crazy rich bitch.

The trouble was she was fairly certain he didn’t mind two of the three descriptive words in that sentence. She could remember him vividly grinning at her and calling her a crazy bitch. He’d given her the hottest, sexiest smile and he’d almost kissed her.

It was the rich part that seemed to bug him. It didn’t matter that it was her brother who was insanely wealthy. All that mattered was he apparently thought she was spoiled and entitled, and all because she might have lied to him the slightest little bit. It had been a teeny tiny lie that had nearly gotten his friend’s brother incarcerated for several murders he hadn’t actually committed, but she’d meant well.

“You’ve got a bodyguard?” Bran seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. “That’s good. That’s exactly why we’ve been in talks with McKay-Taggart, but you do understand Drew’s trying to keep that under wraps, right? He and the big, scary Taggart are working on something. I’m not sure what.”

She knew. They were working on trying to find a woman named Hope McDonald. Once Ian Taggart had figured out that her brother wasn’t working for the shadowy group known as The Collective, he’d enlisted Drew as an ally. Unfortunately, she was fairly certain they were looking in the wrong place and she had contacts that might pan out. One of them had sent her a photograph a few hours before.

The trouble was this guy was a paranoid weirdo freak who would bug out if commando dudes showed up at his place. Tony was the sweetest man, who also likely had several mental health issues he should deal with, paranoia being the chief among them. If she showed up with an army of ex-military men, he would likely shoot himself then and there.

If those ex-military men allowed her to go at all. They seemed to be taking a very hard line on protecting the women and children on this op. For all she knew, Erin Argent had no idea the Taggarts believed her lover was alive.

If she’d gone to Drew with her intel, he would have passed it on to Ian Taggart and Taggart would have left her out. Tony would run and her best shot at finding Theo would be gone.

Her best shot at proving to Case that she was more than a rich brat would be gone.

Maybe it made her a stupid girl, but she couldn’t handle not knowing. She had to know if it could work with him because her brain wouldn’t think about anything but the way it felt when his hands were on her.

She hadn’t even slept with the man and she was running off to Colombia to try to save his brother from the clutches of an evil corporation, and she was probably going to get shot, but it might be worth it.

She really was a crazy bitch.

“I’ve got a bodyguard and it’s going to be okay.” Unless her bodyguard took exception to her breaking and entering and kicked her out on her ass. In that case, she had two guns, a pocket Taser, and some nasty pepper spray. And she knew damn well how to use them. “I’ll call when I get back. It shouldn’t be more than a few days.”

“What’s his name? The bodyguard’s? I’ve talked to a couple of them. I liked the Cajun guy. He seems solid. I want his number.”

Why? Why did her brothers have to be overgrown guard dogs? Sure their childhood had been marred with murder and tragedy, but damn it, she needed them to not give a shit for a few days. “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”

Once she was in the air, she would be safe.

“Mia, I need a number or I’ll have to tell Drew,” Bran insisted. “Riley’s in New York checking out something but I’m sure he’ll be interested, too.”

She cursed in her head and kicked at the bike stand in front of the building. And fuck all that hurt. “Fine. It’s Case.”

There was a long pause on the line. “Case, as in the guy you want to sleep with but he’s a manwhore douchebag and you’re too smart to sleep with him Case? That Case?”

Hypocrite. “If women used that line of thinking on you, Bran, you would never get laid, and yet I happen to know that you do. How many strippers have you gone through? Is there one left in the Austin area who hasn’t seen your penis?”

He chuckled over the line. “Probably. I have to hope so or I’ll need to move.” His voice went deep again. “And that simply proves that I know what I’m talking about when I talk about manwhores. He might be a good guy, Mia, but he’s not going to love you. He won’t let himself love you. He’ll use you and walk away, and while he might feel like shit if he’s got a conscience, he won’t change his mind.”

“You met him once, Bran.” They’d met in Austin a few months before. Ian Taggart had come down with his wife, Sean and Case, and a man named Liam O’Donnell, who seemed to be doing much of the legwork on the operation. She’d sat by utterly fascinated with the group she’d met while tracking a killer a few months back. The man who had killed her college roommate and had nearly taken out Kori and Sarah was now dead, and the friends she’d made at Sanctum had forgiven her, but Case Taggart had barely spoken two words the whole time he’d been there.

I’ve got more important things to do than play house with a spoiled rotten princess. You don’t want me. You’re just bored. Go back to your wealthy lovers, Mia.

She wasn’t sure what the hell he’d meant by that. She’d broken up with her fiancé a little while after she’d met that caveman. She’d realized Jeff was nothing more than easy to get along with. They’d fallen into dating and she liked him, but she hadn’t known what chemistry was until she’d met Case.

And she hadn’t known what she wanted sexually until she’d taken the class at Sanctum.

“I only needed to meet him once,” Bran insisted. “I also happen to know that he has some deviant sexual proclivities. I have to tell you that I don’t approve.”

She felt her eyes narrow. “You want to explain what you mean by that?”

Something in her voice must have gotten to Bran because he backpedalled like a pro. “I was only saying that I don’t think he’s the man for you and you should think about that.”

“No, you told me you don’t approve of the man because he belongs to a sex club. I belong to the same sex club. You want to talk about my sexual proclivities? Let’s get into yours if we’re going to throw everything on the table. You want to slut shame me, brother, I can toss that shit right back in your face.” She didn’t take the shame crap from anyone.

“I never said that word. Not once. I’m not worried about the sex, Mia. I’m worried about the fact that you’ve suddenly decided you want a man who likes to hit women for sexual pleasure.”

She sighed. Something had happened in Bran’s past. She wasn’t sure what it was, but his time in foster care after their parents’ deaths had been the worst. Drew and Riley had gone into a group home together. Mia had been adopted by the best parents in the world. And Bran had gone through home after home after home. He’d been a sweet boy one day and the next he’d been alone, his privileged world destroyed, and when Drew had managed to put enough money together to get him out of the system, he’d been a different human being altogether.

“It’s not like that, Bran. It’s wholly consensual and I have all the power.” At least in the dungeon she did. The Dom might nominally be in control, but the sub made the real choices.

The choice to trust her partner, the choice to let go and enjoy the moment, the choice to throw off all those silly rules and be herself.

Of course outside the dungeon, Case was the one with the power. The power to tell her no. The power to rip her heart out of her chest.

She glanced down at her watch. If she didn’t get a move on, he would find her standing outside.

“I’ll back off,” Bran said quietly. “But you have to know I’ll kill him if he hurts you.”

She wasn’t sure Bran was thinking properly. Case Taggart had been a Navy SEAL before being recruiting into a CIA black ops program. He was fast and deadly and he wouldn’t hesitate to defend himself. Bran only had rage on his side. The good news was while Case might break her heart, the man would never, never hurt her in a physical way.

Not in any physical way that wouldn’t lead to an orgasm.

“I have to go, Bran. Please, if you’re going to tell on me, at least give me a day. This is important.” It might be the most important thing she’d ever done. She’d been a journalist for the last five years and she’d tried to do good in the world. But this felt like more.

Theo Taggart had been kidnapped by a woman who was torturing and using him. He’d already spent months away from his family. He didn’t even know that when he’d “died” his girlfriend had been pregnant with his child. Erin had given birth to their son today.

If she could find Theo Taggart and bring him back, that would be one less kid in the world without a dad.

Sometimes she missed her father so damn much. She could barely remember him and yet she felt the hole in her heart. TJ Taggart shouldn’t feel that hole.

Whether or not Case decided to take a chance on her, she couldn’t leave his brother out there alone in the world.

“You tell Case to call me. All right? I’ll keep my mouth shut, but god Mia, try not to blow anything up. Or bring down the whole country.”

That had only been once and it had been a small country with a terrible dictator. It was good it had come down. “I promise.”

“I love you, sis.” The line clicked and she was alone again.

She pocketed her phone and tried to concentrate on her mission. Case’s building was nice and had good security, but she’d discovered that a smiling girl with a hint of cleavage could get almost anything done. It was mere moments before a man in a suit came out and she sprinted up to catch the door.

“Thanks,” she said, giving him her biggest smile.

“You’re welcome.” He winked her way as he strode out toward the street.

Thank god not everyone was as security conscious as Case Taggart. The good news was she’d memorized the code for his alarm and she was actually quite good at picking locks. Hopefully he hadn’t changed the code, but she was counting on him being lazy about that. The lock picking skill was something she’d picked up from one of her many adventures. She hurried up to Case’s corner unit on the third floor. Luckily, at this time of the evening most of the young professionals who lived in the building were still at work. But just in case, she rang the doorbell and waited a few seconds. Nothing. One more ring and she was sure he wasn’t home.

She got out her handy pick and torque wrench and went to work.

She’d learned this particular skill from a cat burglar she’d met in Italy. It was all about moving the proper pieces into the right place and at the right time. She liked to practice. There was something soothing about unlocking a door someone wanted to keep her out of.

Was she being a complete idiot? Was she trying to force her way into Case’s life when he’d made it plain he didn’t want her?

The locked popped with a little snick and she was in. No going back. There was too much on the line.

She would be respectful. She would text Case and explain where she was. The last thing she wanted to do was catch the man off guard. He would probably shoot her and not even feel bad about it. Definitely she was texting him. Mia walked through the door and got a glimpse of his dark apartment.

They’d been out several times, but he’d always gone over to her place. At first she’d thought it was because he was a guy and likely had a mess of an apartment he was ashamed of. She should have known Mr. Navy SEAL would have a pin perfect place. The only reason he’d insisted on going to her place had been so he could spy on her.

She was going to have to find a light before she let the door close.

How would he handle the fact that she was the one bringing him this lead? Would he be pissed that she was bugging him again? Or impressed with her abilities?

Before she could think about the answer to that question, something massive hit her against the chest, gripping her arm and wrenching it back before she had a chance to fight. She tried to kick out, but the big bull of a man easily outmaneuvered every trick she’d learned in Krav Maga class. Mia found herself shoved hard against the wood of his door, something cold and metallic at the base of her neck.

Case. Her intel had been faulty. He was here and he was not thrilled to have a guest. She pressed back against him because she couldn’t breathe. That was when she realized at least part of Case was happy to see her. Something thick and long rubbed against her backside and she could have sworn he was sniffing her hair. He was so close and the threat of danger in the air kind of did something for her. Maybe it made her a total pervert, but her body was heating up simply being close to him. The man had a gun to her head and she was kind of hoping his hand would shift because he was close to cupping her breast.

A long moment passed, the world seeming to narrow. The threat was heavy in the air—violence or sex. She knew which way she would go. Her heart thudded in her chest, her nipples hardening. She leaned back into him.

 “What the fuck are you doing here, Mia?” His voice was rough, his arm tightening around her.

What was she doing? She was practically dry humping the guy who held a gun on her. Presenting. He had a gun to her head and she was presenting to him. She couldn’t be that girl. Could she?

“I thought I was being clever. I…god, Case will you please put the gun down?” Her voice was breathless. “And the other…you know…I can feel it against my back. Unless that’s another gun.”

“I think I’ll wait until the police get here. You stay right where you are.” He was unmoving. She wasn’t going anywhere until he let her go.

Shit. And double shit. Now she had to talk fast and try not to give away the fact that she was aroused as hell. “Case, I came here for you. I came straight to you because you know they’ll both leave us out. We can do all the work, but big brothers will leave us behind when it comes time. We have to stick together.”

For a second she thought he wasn’t going to let her go. She could feel the heat of his breath against her neck and she prayed his lips followed.

He took a step back from her and she bit back a groan of disappointment. For a second they had been connected. The gun hadn’t meant a damn thing because he would never use it on her.

Case stepped away, leaving her cold and flipping the switch next to the door, flooding the room with light. “If this is something about the op my brother is running with yours, then talk to Ian.”

She forced herself to turn around and then she felt her jaw drop. He wasn’t wearing anything. Well, he was wearing a towel, but so very much of him was on display. A whole lot of gorgeous tan skin was right there, and damn but that boy worked out. The towel was wrapped around his lean waist, riding low on muscled hips. He was drool worthy and the sight of that big freaking gun in his hand was an odd turn-on. Not to mention the fact that the towel tented out admirably. It looked like Case was built on big lines everywhere. “Really? You walk around like that?”

Like a flipping Greek sex god.

He gave her his big old gorgeous jerk smirk and put a hand on his hip as though he knew exactly what she was thinking. “Darlin’, I just got off the phone with my girlfriend. She’s good at getting me revved up, so to speak.”

That was a kick to the gut. It had been months since she’d last seen him. He’d gotten a girlfriend? A sub? Had he taken a sub? Kori hadn’t mentioned a sub, but then she likely wouldn’t talk about Sanctum since Mia hadn’t been there in months. She wasn’t sure she would even be welcome. No one had told her her membership had been canceled, but she wouldn’t be surprised.

Was she pretty? Thin? Mia wasn’t thin. It almost never bothered her. She wasn’t that girl who worried about her weight, but Case made her vulnerable. If he had a girlfriend, then he was dumb because she was obviously the one for him. If he couldn’t see it, then she wasn’t going to beg. She would do what she came to do and then he could get back to his tiny, thin sub who likely never ever disobeyed him or lied to him for perfectly good reasons. “I didn’t come here to talk about your love life. I came here because we need to work together.”

A single brow rose over his blue eyes. “So you decided to break in?”

Yeah, now that seemed like a stupid thing to do. What had she been thinking? Of course he hadn’t been sitting around for months waiting for her. He likely hadn’t thought about her at all. “I didn’t know when you would be back. And I kind of thought it would prove to you that I can be a good partner. I have skills, too. I thought if I was waiting here for you when you got back from whatever you were doing, maybe you would take me seriously for once.”

“Oh, I take you seriously. You seriously annoy me and now you can leave.”

She stood her ground. “I’m not going until you’ve listened to me. Drew told me to stay out of this and I have for the most part, but I never stopped looking. I never stopped trying to find him.”

Case went still as she pulled a folder out of her massive bag. “Who?”

She heard it in his voice. It was a little hopeful question. He’d been hoping and praying since that moment he’d found out his brother was dead. She knew it because it’s what she would have done. She loved her brothers. They were obnoxious and way too interested in her business, and if one of them died she would be devastated. If she thought for a second one of her brothers was out there and being horribly tortured, she would move heaven and earth.

Case had known that pain for almost a year. It didn’t matter that he had a freaking girlfriend and might never be able to love her. None of that mattered. He was a man who needed to save his brother and she was going to help him.

“Theo.” Mia handed him the grainy printout Tony had sent. “I found Theo and we’re going to get him back together.”

Case stared down at the photo. She’d memorized the damn thing. It showed two men, both holding AK-47s. One still had a mask over his face, but the other had slid it up so his features could be seen. She’d known immediately who he was. Case and Theo were fraternal twins, but they looked enough alike that they could be mistaken for each other. Case had a tighter jawline, his eyes slightly wider than his younger brother’s. He was the tiniest bit bigger, maybe a half an inch and ten pounds of muscle.

She’d studied Case, mooned over him like a teenaged girl. She knew damn well what he looked like. The man in the photograph was Theo Taggart. She’d known it before the facial recognition software had confirmed it.

“Where?” Case’s voice sounded harsh and deep.

Tortured, as though he was being hurt along with his brother.

“It’s from a bank heist in Colombia.” She hated telling him that, but she couldn’t hold out on him. It was far too important.

More important than her heart.

“Where in Colombia?” His eyes narrowed, staring at her. That gorgeous jawline of his had gone tight.

“Cartagena. I have a friend there. I’d put out the word to my network that we were looking for him and Tony came through with that. He makes a careful study of everything that goes on around him, including certain police frequencies he shouldn’t be involved in.”

Case nodded and turned, stalking toward the back of the apartment. “Excellent. I’ll need his number and an address. Write them down for me.”

There was the arrogant bastard. She started to follow him. “It’s not going to work that way. I have to take you there. Tony is difficult to say the…oh. My god.”

He was naked. He’d tossed off that towel and his backside was the single most beautiful thing she’d ever seen. It was sculpted and muscular and freaking perfect but his back… What the hell had happened to his back? He had a deep scar that ran across the skin of his back from right under his left shoulder blade down to barely above those gorgeous cheeks.

It wasn’t the only scar. There was a circular one on his thigh and some others.

So much pain.

“You know it’s usually considered polite to knock before entering a gentleman’s bedroom,” he said, his voice deep. He didn’t hurry up though. Nope. He simply reached for his boxers and slowly put them on like a reverse-strip-tease, you-can’t-touch-this show.

“Like you’re a gentleman,” she said with a huff.

He stepped into his jeans and turned, those big hands of his working the fly. “Did you get an eyeful? I suppose I should be happy you didn’t faint at the sight of all those ugly scars. I suppose those college boys you mess around with don’t have ugly scars.”

She rolled her eyes and started to mouth off to him and then stopped. Surely the man knew how freaking gorgeous he was. He had to know, right? “The scars aren’t ugly, Case. I think you need them. You would be too pretty without them. And I’m very sorry for staring at your backside. It’s obvious you put in the glute work.”

He frowned as though he’d expected something totally different out of her. “You were staring at my ass?”

Maybe this hadn’t been the right way to go. She felt her skin flush. “It’s a nice backside. I’m a woman. I looked. And what college boys? You have a distorted view of my dating life. I’m not exactly hitting the frat parties. You do know I’m twenty-six, right?”

“How do I know anything about you? You lied about everything.”

And they were right back to the core of their issues. She’d told one teeny, tiny lie while in search of a greater truth. It wasn’t even like she’d gotten away with it. No, the hacker gods of McKay-Taggart had found her out very quickly and used her because they’d suspected Drew was working for some super-secret evil organization. “I would suspect by now you’ve gone through my every record, Case. And it wasn’t like I was lying without a purpose. You know why I did it.”

Because she’d lost her best friend and no one would believe her. No one would talk to her about the investigation. They’d called it a random murder, but she’d known it was far from random.

He shook his head and moved to his closet, grabbing one of what seemed to be an endless supply of black T-shirts that molded perfectly to his chest.

She’d seen the man in leathers, a vest covering his torso. The line the vest left uncovered hadn’t told the tale. All she’d seen was perfect skin, but without the shirt or vest, his chest was another network of scars.

She wanted to touch them, to trace them under her fingertips and then kiss each one.

Of course, his girlfriend would probably object.

Stop it. Get down to business. Stop thinking with your girl parts because they obviously have terrible taste in men since they seem to only want stubborn, assholey cowboys who have about as much forgiveness in their hearts as a dried up well.

“I know that you should have been honest,” he said as he pulled on his boots. He sat on the edge of his bed, working to get the beat-up boots on his feet.

“Yes, just like you.”

His blue eyes narrowed, staring her down. “I was trying to make sure you weren’t working for the people who murdered my brother.”

“And I was trying to do the same damn thing for my friend. When I started this, I thought Jared murdered my friend and Kai and your family were covering for him.” It was what she truly couldn’t understand. They’d both done the same thing for roughly the same reasons, but he wouldn’t even look at her much less get back to that moment when he’d kissed her.

God, that had felt so real. It killed her that he’d been playing a game.

“Supposition, and ridiculous supposition at that. We’ll have to agree to disagree, Mia. Could you forward me all the material you have?”

He hadn’t changed at all in the months they’d been apart. He still wasn’t willing to listen to her or give her a chance to change his mind. “This is all the material I have.”

He held a hand out. “All right. I thank you for this. I need to get to Ian’s.”

She held the folder out for him. It wasn’t like she didn’t have a copy. “Did you hear a word I said?”

Going to his eldest brother was the last thing she thought they should do. Ian Taggart would take over and he wouldn’t care that the situation was delicate.

“Heard and understood. You’re not going to Colombia. Go back to Austin. If you really want me to, I’ll update you when I can.” He started back to the living room.

She followed hard on his heels. “You’re not leaving me behind. I meant what I said, Case. Tony won’t talk to you.”

“I’m pretty damn good at making people talk, darlin’.”

The way he said darlin’ made her heart pound, but now she realized he used that deep tone of voice on every female. She wasn’t special.

And it didn’t matter. She was doing this for a little boy who might never know his father. “Not Tony. He’s ex-CIA and if he even gets a hint that someone’s after him, he’ll run and you won’t find him.”

His eyes narrowed. “Or you’re lying to me again in a desperate attempt to get what you want. What is it this time, Mia? Is it another story? Or is this a play for attention? Is big brother ignoring you?”

She stopped, finally getting it through her thick skull that he didn’t want her.

She’d brought him the best lead she could find. From what she could tell, this was the best lead anyone had found on his brother and it didn’t matter. She stared at him for a moment. She was insanely crazy about this man and he couldn’t give her the time of day.

Did she want to be this girl? The one who begged and pleaded and took the scraps?

Without another word, she moved to the door. He didn’t want to have anything to do with her, then she would have to move on. No matter how much it hurt.

She walked toward his door. She could be at the private airfield in twenty minutes and Cartagena roughly six hours later. Seven, depending on when they could take off. She would get to Tony long before the Taggarts could do their damage and she would send them all the information she uncovered.

Then she would move on.

If Case Taggart couldn’t see that she was the right woman for him, she wasn’t about to waste more time on the man.

God, why did her heart ache? Why was it so hard to keep her feet moving?

In her head she did a mental checklist. She had everything she needed. When she got to Colombia, she would hire a car and go to the hotel. She’d already sent the message to Tony. He would send her a time and meet place.

Hopefully she could get it all done before the Taggarts put boots on the ground in South America.

“Hey, where do you think you’re going?” Case was the one following her now.

She stopped in the middle of his living room, turning on him. The sight of his living space alone should have proven to her they wouldn’t work. It was too neat, Spartan. There was nothing of the man himself in this place. No photos, no little mementos. There was utilitarian furniture, a massive TV, and an Xbox. Mia’s apartment was messy and filled with sentimental crap. He would hate it.

Like he hated her.

“Does it matter?” She was suddenly tired. She’d dreamed of seeing him again and while she hadn’t expected him to welcome her with open arms, she also hadn’t thought he would show her outright hostility.

“It does if you’re planning on chasing this lead yourself and fucking over what might be my only shot at saving my brother.”

This was the moment she should walk away. The Taggarts could rise or fall on their own. She’d done enough.

If she thought for one second that they could not only find Tony, but also get him to talk, she would walk. The problem was she was the only person who could do this job. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place and it was obviously time to get to work on her own.

This trip had been a fool’s errand and she wouldn’t make the same mistake again. She would move forward. When it came time to turn the investigation over, she would do it, but until then she was on her own.

“Go home, Mia.”

She understood what he meant. He didn’t care where she went as long as she wasn’t bugging him. “Good-bye, Case.”

She started to turn, but he was right there, his big hand on her elbow. He twisted her around and she stumbled slightly, landing against his chest.

“Tell me why you came, Mia. Stop the bullshit.”

She might be using her pepper spray tonight. “Do you think I faked that photo?”

“No.” His hand was still tight on her arm. “Not even you would do that. But you could have sent it to me. You should have sent it to Ian. But no, you came here to me, to my house, into my bedroom. So tell me why you’re really here. Maybe if you’re honest with me, I’ll give you what you want.”

“You seem to know everything. Why don’t you tell me why I’m here?”

“Because I think those fancy boys you play around with aren’t doing it for you, darlin’. I think you want to see what it’s like to go to bed with a man who gets his hands dirty. Is that what you want? A quick roll? Because I might be willing to do that for you.” His handsome face was close to her own.

All she would need to do to bring their lips together was go up on her toes.

Unfortunately, she wasn’t willing to degrade herself. Not even for him. The sweet Case she’d known, the one who treated her like she was special, like she made him happy, had been a lie. This was the real Case. The other one had simply been his cover.

The great thing about the way he was holding her was how very easy he made it to bring her knee up and send his balls back into his body cavity.

She heard him hiss and then she was free. “Tell your girlfriend she’s got a real jewel on her hands. And thanks, Case. I think I just got over you. I’ve carried this stupid torch around from the moment I met you. It’s good to see those true colors shining through. If I come up with anything, I’ll let Ian know. Good-bye, Case.”

He’d taken a knee, one hand cupping the balls she’d recently injured. “Mia, stop. We need to fucking talk.”

But she’d said everything she needed to say.

With tears in her eyes, she left his apartment, his building, and his life.

She would find Theo, but she was done with Case.

 

* * * *