Page 75 of Spy With Me
Parker nodded. “Yes, though I didn’t realize the connectionuntil Manny separated you from your team and we all took a second look at you.The bombmaker is your mother, Shannon Reed, and Manny recently hired yourfather to find her. He decided that the best way to bring her in was to haveyou. I suspect he decided the best way to bring you in was Devi. She’s onManny’s radar now. You have to be careful. He’ll kill her if he can. Like hetried to get Tasha. Now he’ll come after her. He didn’t realize what he had allthose weeks ago. He thought his plant just brought her along to control Maggie.At least that’s what I got from the reports, but I suspect what I read isheavily redacted. The key is that he knows she’s your weakness, and he will useit against you.”
Zach’s arms came up to clench her shoulders, but he didn’tsay a word.
Yes, her Dom had way too much stimulation, and it lookedlike the day wasn’t over.
* * * *
Zach stood in the dining room, the small table serving astheir conference room. Too small table. Everything felt too small right now.Including his skin.
I’m not saying he’s the right person. He’s the right nowperson.
It hurt. Ached. The words reminded him that none of this wasgoing to be easy, and he had zero idea what the hell he was doing. Of course hewas the right-now guy. He didn’t have a fucking future.
“So you’re the Lou of the team?” Devi was chatting withParker and Tim like this was all a normal, everyday business conference and nota meeting of three different intelligence teams and the rogue agent they wereall hunting or working. Like she hadn’t let that rogue agent fuck her like theworld was going to end.
She had poured everyone tea like this was a happy afternoongathering and not a recitation of all of his sins. And hisshitasticpast. If she thought he wasn’t Mr. Right before, wait until she heard about hisbiological dad’s rap sheet.
Lou sat across from Tim, TJ at her side. “It’s so good tomeet other techs. We don’t ever get to talk.”
Tim was a puppy of a man. The kid was maybe twenty-two andlooked like he smelled like maple syrup. With shaggy golden brown hair,oversized glasses, and… Was that an actual pocket protector? Anyway, he waskind of the quintessential nerd. Except he didn’t mind hitting on every womanin sight.
Of course Tim probably had a squeaky-clean record andparents who didn’t treat his life like a revolving door in a house of horrors.
“There’s a reason.” Parker was all charm now that Lou was inthe room. He was polite and solicitous to both women and seemed friendly withTJ. Though naturally he looked at Zach with an air of suspicion.
Where the hell was Kala? Where was Coop? If they were offdoing it somewhere before they had to pretend they weren’t married, he wasgoing to punch his brother. Not Kala. She punched back.
“We get all the techs together and you start talking abouthow dumbass we operatives are,” Parker said with the smooth smile of a player.But Zach noticed his eyes kept looking toward the door where Miss Magenta wouldenter.
Instead, Arthur moved in. Henry. Whatever they were callinghim.
He stood in the doorway, cold blue eyes taking in theCanadians. “Gentlemen, you can call me Mr. Bishop.”
Parker sat back, and it was easy to see he was trying tofigure out how to handle the older man. “Well, you’re certainly not Dr. ArthurBeddoe. I can see why you picked the cover. Rural vet with a simple website. Noreal web presence. I suspect your target didn’t pay much attention to your workand didn’t go into town often, so he wouldn’t run into the real Dr. Beddoe.”
“And yet he seemed to deal with a bunch of health problemswith the animals.” Zach’s head was still reeling when it came to Henry and hisdaughter. “I helped him vaccinate goats earlier today. Or I guess he fakedthat.”
“The goats are perfectly safe from clostridium perfringenstypes C and D, as well as tetanus,” Henry announced. “And I did handle thehorse’s leg earlier this week. I have a vet I know who walked me through thewhole procedure. I assure you no animals were harmed in the working of this op.My wife would have my head.”
“Target?” Devi asked.
“He’s talking about me. Mr. Bishop and his partner, LaceyRook—almost certainly not her real name, but we won’t be using many of thosetoday—were instructed to investigate me,” Zach explained. “I apparently wasn’tas good at hiding my evil ways as I thought I was.”
“Hey,” Henry began, his gaze shifting to sympathy. “We allknow you’re not evil, Zachary. I know this is going to come as a surprise, butMr. Lemon didn’t ask me to investigate you because he thought you were bad. Hethought you were getting in over your head and wanted someone to watch yourback since you wouldn’t let your team do it.”
“I know his name is Ian,” Parker said. “We don’t have to useall the ridiculous Agency names. Let’s go with first names if we’re worriedabout being identified, though I would like to point out that Ian knows prettymuch everything about me, and it doesn’t feel fair.”
“Then you should be better about hiding things,” Henry said,taking the chair at the head of the table. “I don’t like the games either, butsometimes you’re compelled to play. Sometimes you don’t have a choice.”
Because like Big Tag’s daughters, Henry’s wanted to play,and he felt the need to watch over her. He wasn’t so sure, though, about BigTag’s reasons for investigating him.
“So are you planning on letting the Agency know we’re here?”Parker asked the question casually, but there was no mistaking the undertone.
“He’s not calling anyone.” Kala walked in. She stopped atthe door and managed a soft smile. “Hey, Ben. Thanks for the intel. I needed tofind Devi Taggart, and you came through. It means a lot to me. I’m sorry aboutthe rude welcome. I didn’t tell Mr. Bishop you were in town. I didn’t want toblow your cover.”
“It’s fine. I would have made contact sometime tonightanyway.” Parker straightened his shoulders, and his eyes seemed to eat her up.“I’m glad we’re working together properly now. You look good, Maggie.”
She looked like her twin. He’d never truly considered howgood an actress Kala was, but there were Kenzie Taggart vibes in the air now.She sat down beside Parker. “You do, too.” She sighed. “You need to know thatCooper is on his way in. We needed a pilot. TJ can barely drive a car.”
