That sounded like Ian, too. “Are they related to Ian somehow?”
Ten’s eyes narrowed. “Ian ever tell you about his daddy?”
“We’re not exactly close.” They mostly just insulted each other and that was kind of crappy. Her sister loved the big guy and Chelsea couldn’t be bothered to even try to have a relationship with him. Guilt sat in her gut.
“Well, don’t feel bad. He never told me either and we spent some time in foxholes together, if you know what I mean. Big Tag plays things close to the vest. Here’s what I found out. Dale Taggart liked to love ’em and leave ’em. He did a lot of playing around. He married Ian’s mom and seemed to settle down for a time. He walked out but not before he’d already set up another family in Georgia. He was a salesman and traveled a lot. He’d ‘married’ Case and Theo’s mom during his time with Ian’s mom. The old pervert walked away again when Case was sixteen. He died of cancer last year. I’m fairly certain Ian doesn’t know about his brothers or he would have ridden in to save them from my tender care.”
Ian had brothers. They might only be half brothers, but damn they fit the Taggart bill. Hot as hell and just as sarcastic. “He doesn’t know. If he did, he would come after them. Ian believes in two things—the beauty of the power exchange and his family. He takes them both very seriously.”
“And I take my country seriously,” Ten replied. “I need the best team in place to protect my country. I will do whatever it takes to ensure I get those people. And I take care of them. You should definitely know that.”
“How could you not tell him? You’re supposed to be his friend.”
“I have responsibilities that go far beyond friendship, Chelsea. Ian puts that family of strays of his first. I have to put my country first and that means recruiting and training and yes, if I have to, sacrificing this generation’s top talent in an effort to spare all those poor sons of bitches out there from ever having to know what I know.”
“And what do you know, Ten?”
“That life is fragile and we’re all one step away from getting our asses blown up and the world devolving into utter warfare the likes of which no man in history has seen. Do you know how many ways there are for a terrorist to kill a large group of people? Bombs, well planned attacks, biological weapons, economic warfare. Average Joe sitting in his suburban McMansion and planning his Sunday barbecue has no idea that a couple of keystrokes could bring it all down. I do know. I’m the last line of defense. Big Tag can hold his morality around him like a comfy blanket, but I’m the man who has to ensure this country does not fail. And I will take the best and the brightest and I will train them to fight with me. Old man Taggart might have been a nasty bastard but he had good genes. This country needs Case and Theo like they needed Ian and Sean, and I won’t make the same mistakes again. I won’t give them up. Those boys are mine and if Tag wants them, well, he’s going to have a fight on his hands.”
There was zero question in her mind that Tag would have problems with his brothers working for the Agency. Ten would very likely get his fight, but she had other questions. “Why did you save me?”
Ten took a nice drink of that Scotch and seemed comfortable again. “A couple of reasons, darlin’. Like I said, I want the best and the brightest. There’s no one in the world quite like you. No one can play the game the way The Broker can. The way I see it, we can help each other.”
Like she could help him and he could not put her in a torture chamber. She was pretty sure about that subtext. She fell back on Charlotte’s plan. “You know I’m not The Broker. That was Charlotte.”
It rankled a bit, not being able to take credit. There was that little piece of her that wanted credit. She was the best. No one could really touch her when she had a keyboard in front of her, but she was also a little bit of an addict and if she let herself, she would become nothing but a hacker, nothing but a fake name on a screen reaching out to other constructs. She would cease to be Chelsea and be something that lived only in the bottomless web.
Ten wagged a finger her way. “Now, now, let’s not lie and let’s not pretend that I’m dumber than I look. There is no way Charlotte Taggart was The Broker. I know she wants everyone to think she was and on paper, maybe that little story works. But I know her in the real world and she’s not capable. The Broker was cold and calculating. The Broker wasn’t emotional. She played angles and made money and often didn’t care who got hurt. Now that doesn’t sound like Charlotte to me. Charlotte is too emotional.”
Charlotte was too emotional, too vibrant, too bright to stick to the shadows and do some of the nasty things she’d done. Charlotte didn’t even know everything she’d done.
“Don’t go looking like that,” Ten chided. “You look like I’m insulting you when I’m not. Like I said before. I admire you. I think we’ve got quite a lot in common, you and me.”
Simon had said something to the same effect only hours before and she’d shrugged him off because she knew the truth. There were two worlds out there, Ian’s and Ten’s. Simon believed in doing good and making things right, and that set him firmly in Ian’s world. For all his flaws, Ian tried to do the right things in the right way. He would never sacrifice his men. He would sacrifice himself before he would allow harm to come to his team.
Ten would view himself as the ultimate asset and while he might feel bad, he would do what it took and if that meant sacrificing a pawn, then he would play that game.
Chelsea had played something very similar for years. She’d told herself it was for the good of her and Charlotte, but sometimes she’d done it because it was just fun to watch people jump to her tune. It made her feel powerful, like they could take her legs but she could still beat them. The poor little cripple could make the world go round or she could make it stop on a dime. If she didn’t like someone, she could always fuck with his or her life and make it a living hell for months on end. If she decided she needed a little cash, she could take it. No one would notice. A little here. A little there. She’d done good, too. Hadn’t she?
Didn’t the end justify the means?
It certainly did in Ten’s world, but she thought it wouldn’t in Simon’s. In Simon’s world she was just another criminal.