Page 73 of Spy With Me
Also, Ben Parker was hot. So freaking hot.
Zach frowned her way like he could read her mind.
He was hotter. Way hotter.
Zach growled under his breath but turned toward the bigCanadian. “Parker, I am not the one who drugged you, and don’t blame Karaeither.”
Parker shoved himself to a sitting position and held his ziptied wrists up. “Of course she didn’t. Who do you think I’ve been working with?We’ve been looking for you, but she has to do it undercover or the Agency willexpect her to bring you in. What the fuck are you doing, man? Is that TJ’ssister? I think I met her at that club last year.”
The Hideout. They met briefly, though she wasn’t supposed toask a lot of questions. She gave him a wave. “It’s Devi. Hi.”
“She’s here because Huisman wants her,” Zach said gruffly.“She’s in protective custody.”
“Why would Huisman want her? I know why he wants Lou.”Parker let Zach cut through the zip ties.
“Because her last name is Taggart,” Zach replied in ano-nonsense tone.
But nonsense was fun. Also, she wasn’t sure what Zach wastrying to hide. There was zero way this man didn’t know they were doing it. Shecould see Kala maybe telling him Devi Taggart was only valuable for her lastname, but she’d been told Kenzie usually worked with Parker, and she would havetalked. “And the whole sleeping-with-the-bombmaker’s-son thing.”
Zach frowned her way. “Really?”
She shrugged. “He’s going to find out when we sleep togetherlater tonight. Or did I hurt your feelings so much with the truth that you’regoing to withhold that glorious cock of yours?”
“I did not need to hear that,” TJ said with a groan.
Parker stretched his big body and rolled his friend over.“She’s right. I knew. Maggie and I have been open and honest these last fewweeks, and that’s why Tim and I are here and probably going to get fired forworking outside of parameters. Come on, man. It wasn’t that big a dose. Sorry.He’s one of the best techs in the world, but he doesn’t normally get hit withtranqs. Unfortunately, I do. Where is Maggie? I assume ifyou’re here and TJ’s here, she’s here, too. She came.”
Whoof. He said that last bit with a weird longing,and the person who was here was so not what he was longing for. She hoped. Whatif they had it all wrong and he was a total masochist and liked Kala instead ofKenzie? She wished Dais and Bri were here because they could discuss this wholesituation over margaritas and have Nate or Zach pick them up so they didn’thave to drink responsibly. But then she looked at Parker’s friend. Who wassuper familiar. Irritatingly familiar. Well, at least she knew how they’didentified her. “That’s Tim.”
Zach nodded. “I think that’s what he called him. Kara isdownstairs, but I should warn you, they apparently needed a pilot and…”
“McKay.” Ben sighed. “Then I’m going to find out if she’splaying me, aren’t I? I don’t know if I buy his whole I can have her sinceshe’s not worth the trouble act. He was in love with her.”
He was a good judge of character because Coop wasdesperately in love with one of the Karas. She waved it off. They could dealwith that themselves. She had questions. “I mean that’s Tim. The guy who savedme from the creepy dude who drugged my drink when I went to the bathroom.”
“What?” Zach asked,
“What?” Her brother left his post and had that deeplyworried expression he got whenever she did something super dumb. Or traveledwith Daisy.
Parker sent a slightly sympathetic look Zach’s way. “Sorry,man. Thought she would tell you. It happened earlier today. We were followinganother player in this game of ours. We found him today in a pub in town, andhe was chatting up Devi.”
“Eww, you make it sound like I was flirting,” she argued.“Which I was not. He was my dad’s age at least. Nope. I have all the troubledman romantic tropes I can handle right now. I do not need to add an age gap inthere.”
“Someone drugged your drink and you didn’t mention it tome?” The words were carefully said. Like he had to think about them.
Oh, that was him being totally pissed at her because shehadn’t given him the chance to protect her. It was a Dom thing. And she had herreasons. “It would have freaked you out. Although now I can see it also mighthave made you wonder about who was in town and you might have gotten us out ofhere before my brother found me.”
“Yes, exactly. I would have found his ass on CCTV andID’dhim,” Zach said, “But that is not the point. The pointis someone threatened you and you didn’t bother to mention it to me. Or Lacey.”
Lacey was Lacey again. So many names. How did they keep themall straight? They must do some serious memory work in spy school. “I didn’tthink it was a big deal, and he didn’t technically threaten me.”
“If he drugged your drink, consider yourself threatened,”her brother said with a little self-righteousness.
Like he never got accidently dosed and stuff. Rude. “Well, Ididn’t drink it because Tim told me not to. I bet he’s not even English.”
“No.” Parker seemed way calmer than before. He seemed to beenjoying the show now that he knew Miss Magenta was somewhere in the house.“He’s Canadian, and honestly, I’m surprised that accent worked on you. Hewasn’t supposed to make contact. His accent is way worse than he thinks. It’sawful, but he went off script when he realized our target was trying to drugyou.” He gave Zach a man-to-man look. “I believe it was some kind of roofiemeant to make her compliant so he could get her out of the pub. I took a lookat the CCTVs around town after I alerted TJ’s team that I found his sister.Somehow they narrowed it down to Wales, and they were in Cardiff waiting forword. He caught sight of her after the woman she was with left. I suspect she’ssome sort of operative, but I haven’t identified her yet. We were doing thatwhen the old dude showed up. What the hell? One minute he knocked on our doorand was polite and seemed like a sweet older man. And then he was a fuckingserial killer.”
“You’re not dead,” Zach said with a long-suffering sigh. “Iwould bet trying to look into Lacey is exactly what brought Arthur to yourdoorstep.”
