Chapter Nine #2
“Which was?” Oliver asked, and even he seemed serious now.
“To copy and steal secrets,” Sosa explained. “Sometime it is
government secrets. She will go with her father to a party at an influential
person’s house. While the adults are talking, she sneaks away and finds where
the computers are and downloads them. Most of the time she wouldn’t leave a
trace. If they were worried about it, they would do some halfhearted hacking
shit to distract from the real problem.”
Damon stood. “I need to call Ian.”
Vivian had an open, happy expression on her face. “Should I
come? Mal and I worked on this case all weekend.”
Damon frowned. “Mal? What are you doing working… I don’t
want to know, do I?” He turned back to Vivian. “I cannot tell you how impressed
I am with you.”
Vivian froze as though she knew something bad was coming.
“But…”
Mal stood up. “No buts. She found the case. She’ll work it,
and I’ll be her second and her guard.”
Damon’s head shook. “Damn it, Mal. This is serious. I was
going to let her work a simple corporate spy case. This has international
implications, and it affects her family.”
“Which is why she’s perfect.” Mal was going to stand his
ground. He’d been here for months. He’d already proved his worth by getting
Damon’s agents—who were also his children—out of several tight spots. “No one
will think she’s working on this. She’s a psychologist. And honestly, if these
people are as good as they say they are, they’ll know who your operatives are,
and the Dallas operatives, too. She won’t be on their radar. And neither will
I.”
Damon’s eyes narrowed on him. “Did she really find the
case?”
“I assure you she did,” Mal replied, looking to Vivian before
he turned to Damon again. “I put them in front of her. I’ve been going over old
cases, and that one was in the stack I pulled. I realized the connection and
gave it to her in a group of cases. I didn’t point it out. She had to find it.
Which was quite frankly exactly what you were doing, though in a bit of the
opposite direction, I suspect. You wanted her to present the Nichols’ case. I
left the notes to solve that one for you. It would be a waste of Vivian’s time
and talents.”
“The Nichols’ case was a starter case,” Damon shot back. “A
proper case for her.”
“She’s not a starter. She’s been profiling for you for years
now. I know she doesn’t have military experience, but that’s what I’m here for.
She’s had plenty of self-defense training, and she knows how to use several
weapons. I wouldn’t put her in a knife fight, but she can protect her team if
she needs to.”
Dark brows rose over Damon’s eyes. “And if I choose another
lead?”
Mal simply stared at him. There were times when quiet worked
better than threats.
“Or we can make this Mal’s first case,” Penny pointed out.
“He would be in charge, and he can assign his own team. You’ve been planning on
testing him. He’s right about the fact that no one knows him, and they’ll view
Vivian as nothing more than a desk worker.”
“They’ll see my position as nepotism because of my last
name,” Vivian said quietly. “It’s a good thing. They’ll underestimate me. I
don’t look like an operative. I’m perfectly fine having Malcolm in charge. I
never expected I would run the team. But I do want to be on it.”
“I would have zero problems working on a team Mal is
running. He’s shown great leadership in the last couple of months, and somehow
he’s way less of an asshole than he was in the beginning,” Robert said. “Just
the other day he was working with Nicky and Nicky came back and didn’t want to
kill him.”
Well, that was quite rude. “What did I do to Nick?”
Ariel snorted and put a hand on her husband’s leg. “You can
be quiet, and Nick likes to talk. Apparently you’re more open to being friendly
now.”
“He’s not rude,” Vivian argued. “He takes his job
seriously.”
“Oh, I can be rude,” he admitted. “But I find myself in an
infinitely better mood lately. Are you sure? I don’t want to take anything from
you.”
“Not what I heard,” Oliver said in an exaggerated whisper.
“Oliver.” Penelope managed to make her son’s name an
admonition.
“Wait. What else would Mal want from Vivian?” Robert asked,
obviously confused.
Well, at least one person didn’t know.
Ariel leaned over and whispered into her husband’s ear.
Robert’s eyes went wide. “Does her dad know? Can I be there when he finds out?”
Vivian had gone a vivid pink.
“Hey, our relationship is D/s only.” Mal wanted to give her
as much cover as he could. “She’s not looking at me like I’m boyfriend
material. She knows I’m too old for her, which is why she’s clearly defined the
relationship. I expect you to respect it. If you want to look at our contract,
I’ll provide it.”
A lie, but a necessary one. While they’d all been testing
him, he’d been doing the same. Robert was far more easily shamed than the rest
of them. Pointing out that he was challenging Mal’s rights as a dominant
partner would mean something to the man.
“Of course not,” Robert said apologetically. “It’s hard
because I’ve known her since she was a child. She reminds me of my own girls.”
“And you’re a good ten years older than Mal,” Vivian pointed
out. “If I were involved with you, it might worry my father. There’s only a
decade between me and Mal, and quite frankly, most men my age act like Oliver.
It’s no one else’s business, and it won’t affect our working relationship.”
“Well, beyond the fact that Mal’s going to lose his bloody
brain if anything happens to you,” Oliver pointed out. “However, this seems
extremely simple, and they don’t even have a plan yet. I can safely go on my
op. Though I will need a new guard. You know no one shows up to one of these
things without their staff. Who wants to party?”
Oh, this was going to be fun. “When we got interested in Kit
Lowe, we did a deep background check, including who the man works with now.
He’s a consultant on a project with Kirkallan
Industries. That’s the name of the company we suspect has connections to The
Chateau. We decided to check the guest lists for the wedding you’re working,
Oliver. Kit Lowe is going to be at that wedding and likely some of the
festivities surrounding it. It appears we will be coming with you, and I think
you’ll find… What do you call them? Oh, yes. The olds will likely pay very
close attention to your mission. Which is now my mission, and you’re one of my
operatives.”
Oliver’s handsome face fell. “Fuck me.”
He was about to give the rest of the room a hard-core
lecture on how Vivian was smart and would never have a real relationship with
him and how dare they think that when her hand slipped into his. She tangled
their fingers together.
“So, we’re going to a wedding?” she asked.
“Looks like it,” he replied. “And unfortunately, we still
have to take Oliver.”
Oliver was looking peppy again. “Hey, has anyone thought about
the fact that the only way to bring Vivi with me is for her to be my date? Fun
times ahead, love.”
He might have to murder his friend.
* * * *
Vivian sat in Damon’s office as her uncle stared out
of the large monitor with a frown on his face. Unfortunately, Uncle Ian wasn’t
alone. He was with his partner. Who was also Vivian’s dad.
“You want to what?” Uncle Ian asked Damon. “Do you not have
any female operatives who can do the job, because I know Lucy is there. I can
see why Sami wouldn’t want to go undercover as her brother’s date. That’s some
Lannister shit there, but Lucy can go. I could send Kala over. She’ll probably
kill Oliver, though. I would send Kenzie, but then Ben would kill Oliver, and
that Canadian is mean. I like him.”
Damon sighed and leaned toward the monitor. “Vivian found
the connection. She knows the case, and I believe she’ll be invaluable when it
comes to profiling in the field.”
“Hey, sweetie. That is such excellent work. It’s the first
real break we’ve had, and you should know the whole team at MDWM is thrilled to
have something new to work with.” Her father was still in amazing shape. He
kept his hair close cropped and always had a ready smile for her. Many a
teenaged friend had tried to hit on her dad.
Then they met her mom.
“Not that I’m surprised. You’ve always been good at
puzzles,” her father continued. “But, sweetheart, you’ve never been in the
field before.”
Mal stood somewhere behind her, clinging to the shadows like
he often did. He was a big, gorgeous, broody sex toy. Except he wasn’t merely
that. He was rapidly becoming someone she depended on. Wanted in her life.
She hadn’t even gotten her prize yet. They’d worked all
weekend, and there was something comforting to that as well. Seeing how patient
he was, how he would bring her tea or biscuits. She’d fallen asleep at the
table and he put her in his bed, but he’d slept on the couch.
She wished he’d slept with her so she could have rolled over
and been sleepy and oops, she kissed him and she couldn’t take that back.
But he was a gentleman.
“There’s a first time for everything,” she explained
briskly. “The team has decided I’m the best person for the job, and I’m eager
to get out of the office. Mom always talked about how much she enjoyed
fieldwork.”
Her father had visibly paled. “That was a long time ago. The
world was different.”
This was what her father always said when she talked about
working in the field. “No, it’s not. It’s the same dangerous place it’s always
been. Damon thinks I’m ready.”
“Well, I wouldn’t say that exactly, not for all fieldwork,
but I think you’re certainly ready to go to a party and talk to Kit Lowe about
his AI projects,” Damon said. “Look, I’ve thought about this for months since I
knew this would be your reaction. But the truth of the matter is Vivian is the
best person for the job. The wedding is on an estate outside of London. It’s a
two-day affair. She’ll go as Oliver’s date, and she’ll have a bodyguard and an
assistant, who is also a bodyguard and backup. Apparently, all the best rich arseholes
travel with an entourage.”
Her uncle seemed to understand her dad needed a minute.