“What?” Adam said, leaning in. “Are you telling me that sweet little woman who was in my office this afternoon writes porn?”
Sean winced. “Dear god, don’t call it porn.”
Grace frowned, a single finger pointed straight at Adam. “It isn’t porn. It’s erotic romance. There is a huge difference. Amber Rose writes hot love stories. And if you can’t handle it, then I don’t care. I love her books, and I wish I had known who she was when I met her. Erotic romance helped me figure out what I wanted.”
Jake shook his head. Grace read some rough stuff. He’d never actually read them himself, but he’d glanced through them when Grace had been under investigation. “Are you serious? Those books you read are all about BDSM.”
It was a little incomprehensible, but according to Grace there was a whole category of books that claimed to be BDSM romances. Female fantasies about bondage and pussy Doms who fell to their knees and let their subs walk all over them. Yeah, Jake hadn’t read those.
Grace nodded. “Yes, they have BDSM elements.” A little smile crept over her face. “And she also writes a lot of ménage.”
Sean laughed. “I forgot about that. Wow. That’s interesting.”
“You’ve read these books?” Jake asked. Ménage? There was no way. This was a joke.
Sean shrugged, his face flushing slightly. “I wanted to know what my wife reads. I will admit Amber Rose’s books are actually kind of good. There are several of those authors who write some pretty hot stuff. It’s very different from what I imagined. Not my bag or anything, but the books have actual plots and stuff. Along with some pretty freaky sex…loving, freaky sex.” He grunted as his wife elbowed him. “You are going to get so tied up after this baby is born. I’m keeping a running tab of all your punishments.”
Grace smiled brightly at her husband. “I look forward to it.”
“Get in here now!” Ian’s bark resounded through the bar. Jake could have sworn every sub in a mile radius hit her knees, though Grace managed to stay standing.
Adam frowned. “I think we fucked this one up royally, brother.”
Jake followed Adam and Grace into the conference room. He thought about telling Adam that it hadn’t been his fault, but the truth was they had both mishandled the situation. Adam, in his own way, had come on far too strong. And Jake had pulled away too hard. Jake had misread the situation.
Ian Taggart stood in the center of the room, his arms across his massive chest. He might have let his hair grow out, but he still looked every inch the Lieutenant Commander of a Green Beret team. He hadn’t been in command of Jake and Adam’s team. That had been his brother, Sean, but there was enough military discipline ingrained into Jake’s brain that Ian’s stance had him at attention.
“What’s up, chief?” Adam had always had a bit of trouble with authority. Where Ian’s anger would make Jake more professional, it would bring out Adam’s sarcasm.
Jake sent Adam a stare. It was Jake’s “let me handle this” look. “I take it this is about the Serena Brooks case? We were planning on presenting it to the group in the morning.”
It was nothing less than the truth. He had all the notes on his laptop. He’d intended to go over everything later in the evening after he’d burned off some of his anger. He’d intended to run all of Serena’s information and have a perfectly polished PowerPoint presentation for the morning meeting. He’d planned on recommending that they take the case and then have Liam handle the whole thing.
He hated getting blindsided.
“Derek Anderson saved my life and the lives of three of my men, giving his own in the process. He was under my charge in Afghanistan. He was my responsibility. His sister was his only family. I owe her. She has asked me to do one thing in ten years. One fucking thing. She asked me to take care of her client who is being stalked and harassed. She asked me to take care of a single female in a professional fashion. Do you want to explain to me what the problem is?” No one in the whole world could ice over words the way Ian Taggart could.
“She did come in early,” Eve pointed out. “Not a one of us knew what was going on. You might have at least let Grace in on the situation.”
“I sent her an e-mail.”
Grace frowned, obviously not allowing Ian’s tone to intimidate her in the least. “Which I got about thirty minutes after Serena Brooks ran out of the office. Don’t you try to pin this one on me. I handled it the best way I knew how. The minute I found out she was dealing with a stalker, I called in Jake and Adam. They’re the close contact guys. They’re the only ones here who can do twenty-four seven since you put Liam on the Black case.”
Ian’s mouth turned down. “Well, the last information I have is that the bastard is in Europe. Liam has better contacts there than anyone else.”
“And I’ve contacted them. Now all we can do is be patient. But the big bastard here doesn’t do patient well. I can handle more than one case at a time. Especially when all I’m really required to do is keep my ear to the ground,” Liam complained.
Alex sat back in his chair, his hand scrubbing across his face. “I can handle it, especially if Liam can back me up.”
“Not the way we can,” Adam interjected. “And you have that corporate case you’re working on.”
Ian held out a hand and everyone shut up. “I always meant to put Jake and Adam on the case. Jake and Adam handle close contact, Eve profiles the asshole, and Liam can be the backup. From what I can tell, the cops assume this is a domestic dispute and are trying to stay out of it.”
Eve sat forward. The former FBI profiler pinned Ian with a stare. “Why do they think her husband is involved? Is there a history of violence? Do we have a file on him?”
Alexander McKay passed her a file folder. “I pulled together what I could after I talked to Ian. I knew you would be interested in this particular case. This is personal, more up your alley.”
Her warm brown eyes turned to her ex-husband. Jake didn’t know why the couple had broken up, but there was no doubting that they still cared. There was also no doubt that there was a wall between them. As Eve’s hand went for the file, she carefully avoided contact.
“What was your take on the husband?” Eve asked, her eyes sliding away from Alex’s.