“I’ll do it every time you sound like a stoned surfer,” Simon drawled. “You’re not in the Army anymore. You have to sound like you have a brain in your head. You’re not simply here to follow commands. You have to think on your feet.”
Jesse frowned at his mentor and rubbed the back of his skull. “I need to learn to duck more because this really does kind of seem like another version of the Army. So your enemy is becoming friendly with Charlotte’s enemy?”
“They want me to think so.” But Ian’s brain was working. Something didn’t add up, and he wasn’t sure which way to go. He could go the route that took him down logic road, or he could…find another way.
“The mob du…the Russian mob gentleman and the rogue operative traitor?” Jesse asked.
“Catch up, mate. He’s moved past both of them, and he’s right back to wondering if his wife isn’t working him over.” Simon neatly summed up what was running through his head. “It’s awfully coincidental that she would show up and then suddenly Nelson is hanging out with her family. If it’s really all that sudden.”
“Unless he’s kept an eye on her and now she’s out in the open,” Jesse argued. “I’m really finding it hard to believe that she would work for five years to get into a position where she could help Alex and Eve so she could get back into Ian’s good graces, take a bullet to the chest from me, and it was all so maybe she could trick you again.”
A flash of her still body whispered across his brain, blood staining her chest. Blood on his hands, his shirt, his everything. “Oh, but she took a bullet to trick me before.”
“Yeah, she took a bullet from a man who didn’t want her dead. I wasn’t in on that plot. I was aiming for Alex’s heart.” Jesse ducked Simon’s swinging hand. “Asshole. I thought he was the bad guy. Every single member of this team has smacked me for shooting my brother, but he wasn’t my brother at the time and I didn’t even get him. I got Charlotte. Which is kind of my point. Do you think she’s madly in love with Nelson and is willing to sacrifice her life?”
It was a little bit of a conundrum. He couldn’t imagine Nelson and Charlie together.
“I think Charlotte is damn good at her job. If she thought the risk was worth the reward, she would take it.” But Jesse’s words were worming into his head. It was a different situation. She could easily have just shown up at his place without the song and dance routine in St. Augustine. She’d put a good two years into that operation. What did she really get out of it?
“If it means anything, I believe her,” Simon said. “I think she’s done just about everything to protect that sister of hers. Her sister admitted that she was the one who wrote to Nelson.”
Of course she would if they had gotten their stories straight. Ian had lost the opportunity to question them separately since he’d been far too angry to think rationally.
There was logic to what Charlie did to him.
He went through the photos Adam had left. Four pictures of two men Ian would deeply like to murder, and in a horribly visceral way.
How much of Charlie’s story had been complete bullshit? The scars on her body were real. He’d seen the pictures of her mother’s murdered body.
Was Charlotte so cold that she would work with the same syndicate that murdered her mother and tortured her for years?
Logically, he knew it could happen. She could have been indoctrinated. It had happened many times before. She could be a deeply good actress.
“What’s he doing? He looks like he’s going to kill someone,” Jesse whispered.
Fuck. Jesse was turning into Adam 2.0. He had to shut that shit down. He narrowed his eyes and gave the new guy his most intimidating stare. “Are you volunteering? It’s been a couple of hours since I killed someone and I’m starting to get the itch.”
Jesse grunted a little. “See. Just like the damn Army.”
“I’m bringing Sean into this. He was in Florida with Charlie and this affects him, too.” Ian found the phone and dialed his brother’s cell.
“This is Sean. Hans, are you trying to cook the duck or make it your bitch?”
He hated interrupting his brother at work, but he needed advice. Actually he really hated needing fucking advice. What was he? A “Dear Abby” fan? God, Charlotte had taken his dick. “Sean, it’s Ian. I need to conference you in on something.”
The sounds of a busy kitchen came over the line. “Sure. Give me a sec. Don’t you stop stirring that sauce. I swear to god I’ll murder you if it scorches.”
The door opened and Adam escorted Grace inside, each taking empty seats.
“Doesn’t this affect Charlotte, too?” Alex asked. “Shouldn’t she be in on this?”
“She’s taking a time out.”
“Hey, Sean,” Adam said, leaning toward the speaker phone. “You missed out yesterday. Big Tag made a porno with his wife.”
Grace gasped. “Adam, you are not supposed to talk about that.”
“Shut up, everyone.” He was going to stop this soap opera in its tracks. “We have something serious to talk about. Sean, can you talk?”
“Yep. Adam kind of had my attention at porno,” Sean’s voice said over the speaker phone. “Grace, love, you don’t need to be looking at big brother’s junk, though I’m sure it took up most of the screen.”
“He wasn’t naked, Sean. Charlotte was,” Grace said.
“Oh, well, that’s totally different.”
Ian took firm control of his temper. “Eli Nelson is working with the Denisovitch syndicate.”
Thank god that got everyone quiet.
Grace picked up one of the pictures as she sat down at the conference table. “This is Russia. I thought he was supposed to be in India.”
“Yes, I believe that’s what Charlotte said. Charlie wants me to think he’s in India, and Nelson obviously wants me to head to Russia.” That was a problem for him. He just needed to figure out why it was a problem. He could go one of two ways.
Eve studied one of the pictures. “He’s relaxed. He isn’t worried or tense. Do you see the slump of his shoulders?”
Yes, the fucker seemed to be having a lovely time plotting with the Russian mobster. “Yes. I see that.”