Charmed: A Masters and Mercenar - Lexi Blake Page 0,58
said, hoping maybe they would leave it at this. If they thought JT was merely upset that any woman had been put in danger, they might still come out of it with their secret intact. For a little while.
“She could have died.” JT’s jaw had tightened stubbornly. “She took her damn seatbelt off. When I was doing a hundred miles an hour.”
“That’s how she got the picture,” Tag replied as though it should have been plain.
Alex seemed a bit more sympathetic to JT’s problems. “I know it seemed reckless, but Nina knew what she was doing. I would have probably taken the same chance if I’d thought to. Not only does it give us a shot at figuring out if this was one of your employees or someone he or she hired, it also scared the asshole off. She might have saved you a lot more damage.”
“Or I could have lost control of the damn truck and she could have died,” JT insisted.
“But I didn’t and everything is fine.” She wished now they didn’t have company because she needed to calm him down. She knew she’d said she would go to the guest room, but he needed her.
“You could have died.” He shook his head. “No. This whole retreat is off. I’ll call and make an excuse, but I’m not putting her in danger like this. It was one thing when I thought all she had to do was watch for the drop to happen, but no. Someone tried to kill me tonight. I’m not putting her in front of me like that.”
“It’s her job. It’s literally her job to take a bullet if she has to. She did it really well last time. Didn’t even die,” Tag joked.
She appreciated the fact that Tag would never treat her any differently than a male operative working the same job. He would be sarcastic and he would give her all the backup she would need. He would also be absolutely certain she could do the job or he wouldn’t have assigned it to her. “I don’t know, boss. Given the two choices, I might have drank the roofied tea instead. Leaves less of a scar.”
“That’s how you got that scar?” JT asked. “I knew that was a bullet wound.”
A long sigh came from Tag, and his stare went right for her. “Seriously? I thought you were my smart one.”
Well, there went the secret. “Guess not.”
Alex looked back and forth between her and Tag as though he didn’t quite understand. “What? I think Nina’s super smart.”
“Not when it comes to fucking the client,” Tag replied with another sigh. “And apparently making the client so happy while she’s fucking him that he can’t stand the thought of losing her. I will admit, though, that you are good at hiding that shit, Blunt. I picked up on him sniffing around you, but not that he’d already had a taste.”
“Hey,” JT said, suddenly standing tall.
It was obvious her billionaire had far too much stimulation for one day. “JT, he’s not wrong, and sarcasm is his love language.”
“He doesn’t have to talk about you like that.” JT’s voice had gone dangerously low.
“He doesn’t mean anything by it,” she tried to explain.
“Stand down, Malone. I’m not impugning your lady’s honor or anything.” Tag didn’t look worried about the potential for JT’s anger. “I didn’t know she was your lady. Normally I have an excellent radar that warns me when my employees are boffing the clients. Like I said, Nina’s really good at covering.”
Alex had folded his arms over his muscular chest. “Yeah, Ian’s excellent at figuring out who’s doing who. I mean who is having what is obviously a deep and meaningful relationship with another person involved in a mission.”
Alex wasn’t bad at snark himself.
It was time to come clean. “Ian, Mr. Malone and I met in the bar before the job started. We didn’t realize who the other was, and one thing led to another. I assure you our physical relationship won’t affect the mission.”
“It’s affecting the mission now,” Ian replied.
“I think I should have some say in how this goes.” JT wasn’t giving up.
Her heart sank. She knew what he was doing, knew why he was doing it, but this was her job. He’d promised her he understood, and the first time she was in danger, he was playing the white knight and not letting her do what she needed to do. Now that she didn’t have to hide their relationship, she could at least try