"I'm not letting you go in there alone." Sebastian pulled off his suit jacket, tossed it in the back seat, and rolled up the sleeves of his white button-down shirt. Growing up, my brother spent hours in the gym working out. He still had large biceps, but that didn't mean he could handle what we were about to walk into.

  "This is what I do for a living," I said. "All I wanted from you was a possible location for Lucas. They could have kidnapped someone else as much as we know. I'm sure breaking down the door isn't going to make the relationship easy for the family's organization."

  "I'm not letting you go in alone." He pulled his gun from his holster.

  I grabbed my extra weapon from under my seat and tucked it in my waistband. "Why are you doing this?"

  "Protecting my twin sister?"

  "Sounds more like a question than an answer," I countered.

  I yanked my Glock out of the holster and stared up at the house. Having my brother along for backup would help, or this was finally the time the family would take me out, because I wasn't one hundred percent convinced they weren't against me. Sebastian found my son's location too fast. Of course, going in without my team was a dumb decision, and if my boss figured out what I did, he would lecture me for hours, but I had to get my mind on the task in front of me.

  All that mattered was getting vengeance against the people who killed Tabitha and took Lucas.

  "I know you don't trust me," Sebastian sighed. "But we should stop and call for backup, and assess the situation. We don't know how many men are behind the door."

  "We’ve discussed this. My son could be waiting for me. Calling for help will take too long. If you're worried, you can stay here and text your men." I glanced at my brother. "Unlike our parents, I would die to protect my boy. I've sacrificed not seeing him to keep him safe for years. My ties to the Clark name could be the reason he's in danger. No matter how much I try, I'll never escape this family."

  Sebastian cocked his head to the side. "How do you know her murder or Lucas's kidnapping are connected to us?" He waved his hands at the house. "Your team took down the RKC operation a few weeks ago. Have you considered someone from that organization is looking into the people involved with destroying part of their money flow? I know you would like to blame Dad and Mom, but there might be more to why."

  Ricardo Calhoun ran the RKC gang in Overtown, Miami. He was the brother of my late husband. They didn't cross their organizations much only to profit off each other. I'd only met him a couple of times when I was married to Cyrus, but I didn't want to chance seeing him when the FBI brought the case to Brock for further investigation on a hacker level. It didn’t matter that years prior, I had enough plastic surgery to change my appearance so software systems couldn't identify my face as Cyrus’s dead wife. I offered to take a bodyguard mission in California.

  My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I pulled it out and groaned when I saw my friend Kat’s name across the screen.

  Kat: Hey, girl! I was texting you good luck for tonight, but Asher pulled your GPS location. So, you're a hell of a long ways from the club. What are you doing near Overtown?

  Having a bunch of hackers as friends could be a pain in the ass.

  Mia: I had to run an errand.

  Kat: Oh, are you on a super-secret mission?

  Mia: No.

  Asher: Need backup.

  I hadn't noticed Kat added Asher and CJ to the group text. My brother cleared his throat, while I ignored him for a second.

  Mia: I'm not doing anything wrong. I just need to grab something.

  Kat: The alligators are hungry. You can drop the bodies off at our house.

  I blinked down at the screen.

  My brother peered over my shoulder. "Alligators? Is that code for something?"

  God, I wished. "No. She's a reformed CIA assassin. Well, if we want to get into semantics, she's still working on the reformed part. Kat runs a women's shelter and when the police can't help saving a woman because of the laws they need to follow, Kat sometimes eliminates the threat and feeds the bodies to the alligators in her backyard."

  "You have some strange friends."

  Mia: I don't need your gators, and before you ask. No, I don't want a gator. Remember, I live in an apartment.

  Asher: If you don't need backup, why are you on the street with a man I don't know and a gun? Brock said he didn't have any missions for you.

  Sebastian spun around, looking for my friends. "How does he know I'm here?"

  I pointed up at the sky and waved. "Because he hacked the satellites."

  Mia: I need to grab what I came for. Lunch tomorrow? I'm thinking about gator.

  Kat: I'll snipe your ass. Diner at noon, and I'll bring the gang. You can tell us all about the wild sex you will have with Dr. Paxton tonight.

  "Ew!” my brother groaned. "I don't want to think about your relations, but your friends sound damn cool."

  They were my family, but I refused to talk to my brother about how it felt to be an outcast and not helped.

  Mia: Tomorrow.

  "Ready?" I asked.

  "Yes," Sebastian sighed as he pulled out his gun.

  "I know you didn't have to do this, so thank you."

  "What are brothers for?" Sebastian winced. "Someday I might explain what happened years ago, but like I said earlier, it's not my story to tell."

  "Now's not the time to rehash the past," I ground out.

  I wouldn't mind sitting down and having a drink with my brother. Plus Ashlyn and I were close, growing up. Before I was handed over to Cyrus I’d planned to bring her with me when I moved out of the house. Except Cyrus’s house wasn’t a place I’d wish on my worst enemy. I missed her. Lydia and I never talked much. She focused on her studies, and since she was smart, our parents never made her deal with family stuff.

  Sebastian followed me down the sidewalk and up the path to the house. He had his back against the house, and his gun gripped in his hand, as I wrapped my fingers around the doorknob. They did not lock the house, I learned as I pushed the door open. The only light in the small living room came from the moon shining through the window. Sebastian stepped in behind me.

  "Something feels wrong," Sebastian murmured, lowering his gun.

  I nodded.

  "Let's check the house."

  The slight scratching against the floor gave away the position of the man hiding in the kitchen. I raised my hand and had Sebastian stop. My brother glared, but I ignored him as I stepped around the corner and came face-to-face with a man dressed all in black.

  It would be easy to put a bullet in his head, but the sound could alert others. With a quick jab of my hand to his nose, I heard the crack of the bones only seconds before he fell. My last mission with the CIA was the last time I'd killed someone with my hands. My job in the CIA was more hand to hand than using guns, so I was in top form.

  "Jesus, Mia, where did you learn that?" Sebastian whispered as he helped me carry the body to the living room and hid the man dressed in black behind the curtains.

  We continued down the hall, and Sebastian took the next man out by wrapping his arm around the man's neck. The process took longer, and the guy made a noise that worried me it would alert others.

  The door the guy stood in front of had a light shining underneath. Sebastian nodded when he was ready, and I opened the door, only to find a staircase leading down. Which should be impossible in Ft. Lauderdale. The water table was way too high in Miami for a basement. I'd told my realtor to find me a house with a basement. She told me those types of houses didn't exist. I took out my phone and took a picture. Sebastian raised a brow, but I didn't want to explain I needed to chat with my realtor. The lack of underground shelter held me back from buying a house. A girl needed a bunker. I'd seen enough war and corruption when I worked for the CIA. I wanted an underground safehouse or just a place to escape for a year or two. I still had all my research from when I'd come up with the idea.

  My heart pounded as my foot hit the first step. I heard two men arguing with someone, who had their voices disguised on speakerphone. They were told to keep my son locked down in the basement until the person on the other end of the phone could get me. But they wanted to watch me suffer.

  The basement didn't give me the option for a surprise attack, so I tiptoed down the stairs and into the open room. My son was crying on an old mattress with chains around his wrists. I raised my gun and shot the man near him in the head.

  Sebastian took out the second man, which only left one person. He was shorter with gray hair. I didn't recognize any of them from the Calhoun family. His lips twisted. "Boss will be happy to know I took out a member of the Clark family."

  "Looking around, it seems we have you outnumbered," I countered. Villain speeches always annoyed the crap out of me.

  "Am I?" He held up his hand with a small device.

  His finger was away from the trigger, so I didn't wait for what he planned to say. I aimed my gun and shot the man who threatened my son. His white shirt bloomed red as he fell to the ground.

  "Mom, you came."

  I rushed to my son's side and dropped to my knees, pulling him into a tight hug. I felt the bomb around his chest.

  "Fuck."

  My boy peered through his wet lashes. "Bad word, Mom."

  Sebastian chuckled. "Charge your mom later for the bad word." Sebastian knelt near Lucas. "We need to get this off you."

  "But they said the vest would explode," Lucas sighed.

  For being only twelve, my son had taken his kidnapping well. Later I would send him to therapy, but that second, I needed to make sure he was safe, before more men showed up.

  "You know this is what your mom does for a living." I pulled the shirt off my son and stared at the bomb. "See right here? Once again, it's Norwood's signature. These are the same wires he uses. You can't sit here and tell me I'm wrong. How many hours did we spend helping him make these? So, are you still going to sit here and deny the family isn't behind this?"

  "Except Norwood died four years ago," Sebastian replied. "Seems like someone was trying to frame the family or him. I didn't recognize those men. Like you said, we spent hours building his wires. You think we were the only people who helped him?"

  I didn't. "Honey, I need you to stay still while I get this off you," I said to Lucas.

  Sebastian grabbed me a set of pliers from the toolbox on the workbench as I studied the wires. I'd taken at least seven of these bombs apart in the past four years. I snipped the faded blue wire, and the green wire was the only one left before I could remove the vest. I placed a quick kiss on my son's forehead. "I love you."

  "Love you, Mom."

  The pliers cut through the green wire, and everything happened in slow motion. A soft click echoed through the room, and I glanced over my shoulder but nobody came down. Lucas screamed, and Sebastian pulled me back. My shirt blossomed red, and a dart protruded from my side. Then the pain hit. My fingers turned red when I touched my side. Something had punctured my skin, but how?

  "Fuck, we need to get you to a hospital."

  My vision faded in and out. I'd been stabbed and shot before, but I couldn't remember a single time I'd felt tired. "No hospital. Get the vest off him."

  Sebastian glared at me as he helped my son out of the vest. They'd added a feature. Fuck, how did I miss the silver canister added to the bottom of the vest?

  "Mom." Lucas's voice wavered.

  "Take me to the address in my GPS. It's the second one." My vision blacked out for a second. "Go in the back door. I have the key in my center console. Put me in the office and leave. Protect Lucas until I can come for him."

  "You're going to a hospital."

  I couldn't open my eyes, and I hoped I would say the words out loud. "You owe me. If you do this…I forgive you for not helping me years ago."

  Lucas's voice faded as Sebastian lifted me into his arms.

  CHAPTER 2

  Dr. Paxton Renolds

  I sat across from Wes in the bar area of Club Rose. My attention wasn't on the conversation, it concerned with how late Mia was for the operation. Per my meeting at Blackwood Mercenary, she was supposed to be my sub for the next few months as cover. My brothers and I were doctors, none of us were experts at tracking down criminals, which was what we had let join Club Rose. We had a sister also, but she took a different path and became a ruthless attorney. I loved the fact she was on my side. She did the NDAs for the club, but never stepped foot in the place. Members had to pay an annual million dollar membership fee, go through an intense background check, and have a session with our psychologist. We'd allowed two previous members in who orchestrated the kidnapping of three of our subs. Mia’s job was to make sure there were no more members we had to worry about. Wes also worked for Blackwood Mercenary. His sub Rachelle sat at his feet. He was to assist in the mission.

  I smiled down at Rachelle as her head rested against Wes's leg. They'd gotten their happily ever after. Wes had come to the States to assist in a trafficking case but ended up in a charity auction where the love of his life bid on him. I'd read similar romance books over the years with the same plot concept. Since the Ellison family adopted us, we'd gone to the charity auctions. When I turned eighteen, I hoped to find my happily ever after. Hell, I'd planned to go to the one he was auctioned at, but my surgery had run long, and I didn't attend the charity event.

  I'm a firm believer in everything happening for a reason. I didn't go to the auction because Mia was meant to be put in my path. My brothers would say I'd read way too many romance books, and that life doesn't work that way. The second I laid eyes on her I knew she was the one, but she voiced her opinion about not sleeping with me. To her, our time together was only for the mission.

  I'd figure out a way to get her to change her mind. I was surprised she was submissive at all. We'd come to the club once as partners, for the first mission where we took down one of the members.

  Originally, we didn't plan on investigating the club, but Brock had rerun all our club members’ backgrounds and he recommended we bring Wes and Mia in for a couple months. There were a few members’ backgrounds that didn't line up. I wasn't about to turn down spending time with Mia. Kaeden, my eldest brother, argued about me being part of the operation. He was worried I wouldn't be able to protect myself. He kept his heart locked away, so my younger brother did the same. They tried to push their beliefs off on me. My baby sister would have a fit if she figured out I planned to assist with the investigation. She might be the youngest, but she acted like our big sister most of the time.

  "She'll come." Wes's deep voice brought me out of my thoughts and back to the fact I wasn't alone.

  I rolled my head from side to side before turning my attention back to Wes. "I know I don't have any military or spy training, but I've had years of reading people. It might surprise you, but plastic surgeons need to understand their patients. Many people come in because their husbands or boyfriends want them to have work done, not because they want a tummy tuck. Yes, every surgery lines my pockets, but I'll make them see Dr. Bently Bauer our in-house psychiatrist."

  Dr. Bauer met with most of my patients before surgery, even if it was just a five-minute Zoom meeting. My practice had paid for his London flat and probably funded his next yacht, but I would take the hit in profits to make sure my clients were doing the surgery for themselves. It's also why I had a two-year waiting list. The prior year my practice was voted number one in the state of Florida.

  "Kat sent me a text and said Mia's coming, but might be late," Rachelle said.

  Wes reached down and pinched her nipple through the black corset. "You didn't tell me that."

  "Sorry, Master. She texted when I was in the locker room, and you swept me into a scene before I could tell." Her lips ticked up. "Then my brain went to mush."

  Marcus had his sub Gabe tied to the spanking bench and was inserting a large plug into his ass. Jealousy twisted in my stomach as I sipped on my one glass of whiskey. Marcus doted on his sub, and I wanted to do the same for Mia. Except she didn't show.

  "Why is she late?" I asked as I pulled out my own phone, noting there weren't any missed texts or calls.

  Rachelle's brows drew together. "Kat didn't say. Mentioned she would help if she brought bodies to her house so she could get here faster."

  "I don't understand," I said.

  Wes groaned. "Kat keeps alligators in her backyard for disposal of bodies."

  I waited for Wes to laugh at his joke, but he didn't. Instead, he pulled out his phone and tapped on the screen. "Mia's car is headed this way from downtown Miami."

  "I really want to discuss this alligator thing more," I said. "But my other question is, why the hell didn't you track her a half hour ago?"

  Wes took a swig of his drink. "Because it's a hell of a lot more fun to watch you squirm, thinking she won't show. Mia and I only met a few months ago. She didn't come to Shialia for my sister's wedding. But I know the people around her counted on her. At times, she gives Brock crap, but he said he can always count on her."

  My phone vibrated, and I pulled it out of my pocket hoping it was a text from Mia. Instead, the alarm system had sent an alert the door to my office was opened. Building maintenance was supposed to fix my door because this was the third time this week the alert went off, but the door hadn't moved.

  I rolled my neck and tried to relieve a portion of the stress. Work was fine, but I couldn't stop the feeling in my gut something was about to go wrong. I hadn't taken time to read lately and it had me on edge. Books were my escape from reality and helped clear the worry from my head. Without it, everything felt more stressful. "I'm heading back to my office. If Mia shows up, have her come there. We need to do her limit sheet together."

  It was past ten and the club was in full swing. I stood and weaved my way through the crowd. My older brother, Kaeden, had a sub bound in ropes hanging from the ceiling. I paused for a second because she was the same woman he played with a few months back. Kaeden rarely did a scene with the same person twice. She also worked with him at the Alexander General.

 

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