“She’s not trained,” Taggart replied. “But I wouldn’t hesitate to send her into the field. From a strictly business standpoint, she’s made of the right stuff to be a successful field operative.”
Which meant she was cold, calculating. Like they were. Unlike Penelope Cash, who he would have to watch over. He would very likely not need to protect Chelsea Dennis. She could handle herself. It would be better that way. It really would. “So we can talk to her about it?”
Ian leaned forward, his business face on. “You’ll get pushback from Simon. There’s something odd going on with them. She’ll need to go to the shooting range and prove she can handle a gun. And I would watch her closely. Not because I’m worried about her. I don’t know where her loyalties really lie.”
“How can you talk about her like that?” Charlotte asked.
“Because I’m being the boss right now, Charlie. This is an op, and it’s an operation you’re involved in. I have to make sure it runs properly. I would never put you in this position because you’re far too emotional. You work with me and me alone because I don’t trust your safety to anyone else. Chelsea is different. Chelsea can handle herself. God knows she’ll put her own safety first. She’ll be fine.”
Charlotte got a little teary. “She’s not like that. You just don’t know her. Please, Ian.”
Damon waited as they seemed to wage a small but important war.
Taggart’s mouth became a flat line, and he looked back at Damon. “No. Chelsea can’t go in the field. She’s strictly tech.”
Charlotte turned and hugged him, whispering a “thank you.”
Ian Taggart was well and truly caught, and it fucked up Damon’s day.
“Sorry, man. You need to talk to that girl again,” Ian said, leaning into his wife, giving her the comfort she seemed to require. “If she’s perfect, then you’ll just have to convince her. Bring her to the club. If she’s submissive, she’ll be curious. You need to use that curiosity. Let Charlie talk to her. She’s awfully persuasive.”
Damon stared out as the limo slowed, caught in the never-ending London traffic. To his right, Hyde Park looked peaceful, tourists and locals milling about on a nice Saturday. Not a care in the world.
What was Penelope Cash doing?
And how was he going to convince her?
* * * *
Penny closed her laptop, her face heated, her heart pounding.
Submission. Dominance. Discipline.
If she took this assignment, she would find out just what those words meant. Kinky sex stuff. It was kinky, weird sex stuff. Distasteful. She should march right back into Nigel’s office and shove his file in his face and tell him she was a lady and she wouldn’t be used as a prostitute.
Except it wasn’t really distasteful and she was rapidly discovering she wasn’t the prude everyone thought she was.
She’d known that. She’d never cared what people did in their own bedrooms. Or dungeons. Or playrooms. Or wherever people wanted to do the consensual things they did. She just didn’t think she wanted that for herself. She’d always imagined herself with a nice man, a quiet intellectual who she could talk to and raise a family with.
Of course, she’d had that man. Peter had been kind and quiet and should have been perfect. So why had she avoided sex with him after a couple of months of being engaged? She told herself that it was because her mother had gotten sick, but there had been chances to see him, chances to keep their relationship together, and she’d let them all drift by. By the time he’d left her, she’d actually felt grateful.
Her mobile trilled, the sound surprising her a bit. She looked down. Her sister. Diana was trying. Trying hard, and it wasn’t like she hadn’t lost anything. “Hello, Diana.”
“Pen. I wanted to ring to see if you need any help packing. I’ll see you at the wedding, but I can come down today if you need me. I know how much work there is to do. I really think you’re going to be happier, but you know you can stay as long as you want. George and I don’t mind. The house is yours.”
She felt a small smile crease her lips up. “I want to go with something smaller, and I’m going to split the money with you.”
They’d been having this argument for months, but it made her feel oddly secure. There was a lot of money in the house, but her siblings weren’t fighting her. She was having to fight to get them to take their portions. George was handling the legalities, and Diana had pitched in.
It made her realize how much she’d pushed her siblings away, how much she’d taken on her own shoulders.
She got up and walked to the largest of the three bedrooms. Her parents’ room. She’d put it off long enough, and now she was packing up her mother’s things, keeping a few items, but giving away the clothes and knickknacks that represented her mother’s life. She pushed the speaker phone option and continued talking to her sister as she worked, emptying the dresser. “I’m fine, Diana. I’m almost done. There’s just the bedroom and then the kitchen. I’ll be ready to put it on the market in a couple of weeks.”
“All right. I just want to make sure I’m helping.”
She was overcompensating. “She knew you loved her, Diana. You came every week.”
“She didn’t know me at all at the end, Pen. And George and I let you take the load. I should have moved her in with me.”
Around the children? Her mother could get violent when she had an episode. “No. Please let it go. I don’t want to talk about this. We’ve discussed it and you’ve apologized.”
“Fine, I’ll let it go for now. I’ll see you tomorrow, right? You won’t leave me and George alone with the horrible Hendersons, will you?”
Their cousin, Beatrice Cash-Henderson, was marrying some posh nob and Penny had gotten dragged into the wedding. It was being held at some expensive club where Bea and her nasty sisters would lord it over the rest of the family.
And she’d promised to go.
“I think I feel a bout of Ebola coming on, Diana.”
“Oh, don’t you do that. There is no hemorrhagic fever in London. You’re going and that’s that. I’ll see you there. Do you want me to get you a date? I met a nice doctor the other day. He works at University College. I think you would like him.”