Chapter Ten
Nate woke the second his phone buzzed. He’d connected it to
the security system the night before. Any disruption would send an alert.
Someone had turned off the alarm and then reset the sucker
in under thirty seconds.
He’d been plain. Anyone coming in or out of Sanctum when the
club wasn’t open was supposed to send him notification. There had been no
notifications.
So either the elders were testing him or they had an
assassin who happened to know the ever-changing code to the security system at
Sanctum. One of those was hard to believe, and the other not at all surprising.
He should have expected it. He’d heard rumors about all the
bodyguards getting wild tests of their skills when they signed on at
McKay-Taggart. He was literally guarding one of the founder’s beloved
daughters. There was zero chance they wouldn’t try to fuck with him and prove
he couldn’t do it.
Daisy shifted in bed when he moved away from her, like she
was a heat-seeking missile. It was dark without the light from his phone, but
the illumination coming from the jukebox gave everything a low glow. Yeah,
there was an old-school jukebox. He hadn’t played anything off of it because it
was all old stuff, but it had been exactly the right height to fuck Daisy
against.
“Wake up, love. We’ve got incoming.”
She shot up in bed, her hair wild around her shoulders.
“Holy shit. You think the bad guys are here?”
Damn, but she looked good enough to eat. He eased out of
bed, reaching for his boxers. If he knew Taggart and the crew, they would move
quickly in the hopes of catching him in bed. Unfortunately, catching him in bed
meant catching Daisy, and he didn’t want her embarrassed. “Nah.” He grabbed his
SIG. “I think this is more about me than you. Your da is testing me. Lock
yourself in the bathroom just in case, and call the MT building. Let them know
someone used the security code to enter Sanctum unauthorized.”
Daisy moved swiftly, dragging the sheet around her. “You’re
sure it’s Da?”
“Whoever it was, they knew the alarm code,” he replied. “It
runs on a constantly shifting algorithm Hutch created. As it can only be
accessed by a few phones, I doubt it’s our bad guys. Now hurry because they’ll
try the apartment first, but they’ll figure out quickly we’re not there. If
they catch me, your da will try to get me replaced.”
She held the sheet around her with one hand and her phone in
the other. “Just remember he has a bad back. They all do, and they all think
they’re still twenty-five and in perfect military condition. Be nice.”
She kissed him and moved to the bathroom, already on the
phone. “Hey, I needed to let you guys know we’re apparently being invaded by
cartel members down at Sanctum. It’s okay. Nate is taking care of them. I’m
pretty sure he’s already taken most of them out. It was a lot of blood. I was
hoping Aunt Charlotte would give me some cleaning tips.”
He loved her.
Damn, he loved her. There was no real time to deal with the
revelation because if he got caught, there would be all kinds of hell to pay.
Or he could be dealing with a very well-prepared assassin.
The minute he eased out of the privacy room, he realized he
was definitely dealing with the big bosses, and they didn’t even respect him.
“How long should we wait?” Devi Taggart was in the lounge
below, standing with Brianna Dean-Miles and… Damn, they’d brought Avery with
them.
“I don’t know,” Avery said quietly. “I don’t like this. He
was in Aussie Special Forces. How much should he have to prove?”
“I think it’s kind of exciting.” Brianna had a water bottle
in her hand and looked like she’d come from a yoga class. Or was going to one.
She stood beside one of the tables which was covered in bags, some luggage-like
and others from a local grocery store. “Also, do you think they’ll drag him out
here naked?” Bri gasped as Devi punched her arm. “Sorry. I can look, right? I
mean the dude is hot. Do you think Daisy’s sleeping with him?”
“From what I can see, there’s probably not a lot of
sleeping,” Avery said with a sigh. “I’m pretty sure that’s Daisy’s skirt on the
dungeon floor. I wish they’d picked up after themselves.”
Well, he’d meant to tidy up this morning.
“Good for Dais because Bri’s right. I got a closeup look at
him and he’s hot,” Devi announced.
He moved down the stairs. It was good to know he still had
it. They weren’t looking his way, so it was easy to maneuver around them. The
apartment was on the other side of the building, over the locker rooms and the
security office. It was where they would look because they were supposed to
stay in those apartments. Like the good boy and girl they were. In two separate
rooms.
It was exactly what he would have done had the client been
anyone but Daisy O’Donnell. He could be attracted to a woman and stay
professional. Hell, he’d worked with women he would have been more than happy
to sleep with and never once made a move on one.
He couldn’t keep his hands off that gorgeous ball of
trouble. Not for anything.
He caught sight of a big guy slipping down the stairs,
moving toward the first floor. It was obvious he’d already checked the dungeon
and was moving through a predetermined sweep.
“What do you mean the apartment is empty?” the man
questioned quietly over the comm he was using. They’d brought in actual comms.
Like this was a real op. Nate wasn’t sure if he was flattered or offended. It
wasn’t like these men hadn’t known him his whole bloody life. “No. I don’t know
where the fuck they are. Well, I know where they’ve been. There’s a trail of
clothes all over the dungeon. Li’s going to lose his shit. I told you this was
a bad idea.”
Alex McKay was almost to the stairs. Nate put his back to
the wall and shuffled against it, keeping to the shadows. Fuckers had turned on
some of the lights. Guess night vision degraded with age. The club didn’t have
windows for obvious reasons, so the fact that it was morning didn’t change the
situation. It stayed pretty dark, with only ambient lighting on.
“I don’t know. They’re young and clearly into each other.
You put them in a freaking sex club and you’re surprised they played?” Alex
asked. “I’m checking downstairs. Someone go check the privacy rooms, but I have
to assume he’s asleep. Probably because he was awake most of the night. And no,
I’m not telling Liam. I’ll contact you when I get down to security.”
Nate rounded the corner and put his SIG to the back of
Alex’s head. “Or I’m awake because I’m also on a job. Do I need to incapacitate
you or is it enough that I could have killed you?”
“Fuck.” Alex’s hands came up. “Nope. I’m out. I’ll go join
the ladies if you’ll let me. And no, I won’t be informing anyone. I’d like to
see how you handle them.”
Hopefully the same way he’d handled Alex. “Yeah, I’ll take
the comm unit. You go tell Avery that Daisy is perfectly safe but her husband
might not be.”
Alex handed over the comm unit. “Good luck, man. And dude,
couldn’t you have put on some clothes?”
He would have if they’d given him time, but this was exactly
what they’d wanted. Him with his pants down. So they could deal with his dick
barely encased in his boxers. Nate settled the comm unit into his left ear.
“Alex, I asked you a question.” Ian’s voice came over the
line.
Nate kept quiet. He glanced up. He’d made a pretty thorough
inspection of the place when they’d first gotten here. The apartment could be
accessed only by the stairs at the west side of the dungeon floor. Luckily that
part was still pretty dark and there was only one sniper position, and he’d
just come from it. He moved through the shadows to the edge of the stairs,
kneeling down.
“Fuck, Li. Alex isn’t answering which means Nate got him.
Can we call this off now? I told you he’s solid, and I hope he didn’t think we
were actually here to kill his sweetheart.” Ian sounded irritated as hell.
“Solid? The fucker apparently spent the whole night ripping
off my poor Daisy’s clothes.” Liam sounded way more irritated.
The ripping off portion had been a small part of the night,
and she’d done her fair share of damage, too. He was pretty sure he had some
nail marks on his back. His baby could get wild.
Wild was exactly how he liked her.
Ian jogged down the steps and moved right where Nate needed
him to be.
“Hold on. Charlie’s calling.” Ian put his cell to his ears.
“Hey, baby…wait…what? No. No one is dead. Don’t call the police. Don’t…”
His baby had given him the chaos he needed. He put the SIG
to the back of Ian’s head.
“Fuck me,” Ian said, dropping his cell and holding his hands
up. “Nate, this was not my idea.”
“No, it was mine,” Liam said.
And that was when he realized Li was behind him. Damn it.
“Ian, I need some advice.”
A low chuckle came from the big boss. “Well, Nate, my advice
is to not shoot me in the back of the head. Are we in some weird standoff? I
can’t see, and honestly, I’m too old for this shit. Are you sure you don’t want
one of the twins? I’ll hand either one off no problem. I’ll even throw in a new
truck. Don’t discount that. One of the reasons we’re here is I picked up your
rental. It’s a Fiat. I had to get Bri and Devi to drive it over because none of
the rest of us fit.”
“I suggest you put the gun down now, Nathan,” Liam
threatened.
Nate hadn’t gotten the advice he so needed. “Do I take him
out or let him shoot me? Because I’m torn. Daisy told me he’s got a bad back.”
“A bad back my arse,” Li bit out.
“She didn’t say anything about your arse,” Nate allowed.
“Just your back. I’m supposed to be nice to you.”
Ian snorted. “Take the old guy down. It’s the only language
he’ll understand.”
“As if he…” Liam began.
Nate turned, his arm coming out to knock the gun away, and
then he shifted, one leg sweeping under Liam’s and putting him on the ground.
Nate was on one knee, his hand around his future father-in-law’s throat before
Li could take another breath.