Dominance Never Dies (Masters and Mercenaries Book 11) (33 page)

It made his stomach twist. Not only had he lost Theo again, he’d lost Hutch. He’d done that. It was his fucking fault because he’d been in charge.

“I need a complete rundown on what’s happening.” Ian had hung up and crossed his arms over his chest, staring Case down. “And on this clusterfuck of an op I wasn’t informed of until the dude with his head stuck up Lawless’s ass told me.”

If that bothered Fain, he didn’t show it. “Someone had to be sensible and the minute Lawless hired me, my loyalty had to be to him. I might have discussed the fact that this op could go sideways because the men running it were far too close to the target.”

Ian hadn’t spoken a word to him in the car. He’d been on the phone with Charlotte the whole time, calming her down since apparently she’d been informed that her husband had been tossed in a South American jail cell. The next family dinner was going to be so much fun.

He’d lost Hutch and Theo and he’d almost lost Mia. Maybe he didn’t deserve a family at all. “It was my fault.”

“Of course it was your fucking fault,” Ian shot back.

Mia stood beside him. “It was mine. I wouldn’t let him tell you.”

“Really? You held a gun on him at all times?” Ian stared at Case though his words were for Mia. “You threaten to beat my baby brother up?”

“Hey, let’s leave my sister out of this.” Lawless stepped up to Ian. “I told you I wouldn’t put up with you bullying her.”

“No,” Mia replied, ignoring her brother. “I didn’t use a gun. I used sex and logic. Though mostly it was sex. I wouldn’t put out if he called you.”

Case sighed. He could have told Lawless no one bullied Mia and got away with it. No one but him. The fact that they’d fought before the op weighed heavily on him. “Her informant was touchy about having a bunch of operatives running around. He’s ex-Agency. We talked to Ten about him briefly. Hutch did.”

God, what was Hutch going through? He stepped away from Mia, the guilt beginning to plague him. While he’d been in the car all he’d wanted to do was see her again, but now it came crashing in on him.

He’d put her in danger. She’d handled it all with grace, but she could have been taken, too.

“Why did they leave you behind?”

Mia frowned. “One of the men wanted to take me with them, but whoever’s controlling them wouldn’t allow it.”

“Hope McDonald. There’s no doubt in my mind that she’s controlling them all.” Ian started pacing, something Case had noticed he did when he was upset but trying to hold it together. “Mia, I’m going to need a full report.”

She held a hand up. “Liam already took it.”

“I left Li here with the rest of the crew and he and Michael should already have a preliminary report for you. They’re in the office, going over a few things. We’ve already discovered that the building has a path that leads to some hidden underground tunnels and shafts,” Alex explained.

“Very likely the cartel used them to move product around the city,” Mia continued. He couldn’t miss how tired she looked. She was still so fucking beautiful, but she needed sleep. Would she have nightmares about what had happened? Did she blame him? “As I noted in my report to Liam, Theo himself confirmed that they were working with the cartel. Ezra figured out which one. He’s got a report on that as well.”

“Excellent.” Ian ran his hand over his head. “Alex, I’m going to need you to get in touch with your contacts at the DEA and I’ll call Ten and see if he’s got anything on these guys. Maybe if we lean on a cartel member, they’ll tell us something. I’ll talk to Chelsea and see what the CIA knows.”

“Can we get into those tunnels?” Case asked. His brother might still be there.

“Already gone,” Fain replied. “O’Donnell and I went in early this morning. They’ve cleared out.”

Mia looked up at him, her face flushed. “I’m going to talk to Tony again. He was trying to figure out how and where they would be going.”

Ian’s shoulders were up around his ears, his jaw tight with tension. “Who shot you, Case?”

“It doesn’t matter.” He could still see Theo standing there. His brother hadn’t even recognized him. He’d simply lifted the gun and taken out the enemy. He’d been an empty vessel filled with Hope McDonald’s perverse will.

“Fuck,” Ian cursed. “It was Theo. He shot you.”

“He didn’t know what he was doing.” Theo wasn’t a lost cause. “Once we get him home and off those drugs and into therapy, he’ll be the same Theo he used to be.”

Ian shook his head. “Don’t be naïve. What that woman has done to him will change him forever. I’m not giving up on him, but we all need to understand how dangerous he is now.”

“He could have killed Mia,” Lawless said, his voice grave. “If you hadn’t gotten there in time, he likely would have.”

“No. He wouldn’t.” Mia kept her eyes steady on Case as though trying to make him believe her words. “He was ordered to kill me, Case. He stayed behind to do the job, but he couldn’t. I’ve thought a lot about what happened. He shoved me behind a shelving unit—the place you found me. Then he stepped out. I think there was a camera there and he wanted it to catch him. He fired twice, but into the wall. He wanted her to think I was dead.”

“Did he say anything?” He hadn’t gotten to talk to Theo. Mia had spent at least ten minutes with him.

“He recognized my smell,” she explained. “I’m wearing the same body lotion Erin uses. He plainly recognized it, but he wouldn’t believe me when I told him about her. It was almost like trying to think about her hurt him.”

“Conditioning,” her brother said with a frown. “She’s using techniques to trick the mind into associating certain thoughts with distaste. Some therapists use it on addicts. I suspect she’s using a harsh routine.”

“But it’s not anything that we can’t reverse,” Case insisted. “He had the chance to kill Mia and he didn’t.”

“He risked himself so I didn’t die.” Mia was still right there beside him.

Ian shook his head. “I’m going to read the reports. Get some sleep and we’ll reconvene in a couple of hours. I’m going to try to call in some favors and see if I can find any planes leaving Cartagena late last night or early this morning.”

“I’m already on it,” Fain replied. “Mia’s tried to reach out to some of her contacts outside of Santos. I’ll monitor all of those.”

Ian nodded and headed back toward the second bedroom. Lawless stared at Case from across the room.

Mia stepped in front of him, as if she could protect him from her brother’s very impressive stink eye. “Drew, we talked about this.”

“No, you talked about this. I said nothing. We’re going to have to choose to agree to disagree because I’m going to have a word with him. He nearly got you killed.”

“I brought him into this,” Mia pointed out. “This was my idea. He went along with it because he knew damn well I would go by myself if he didn’t.”

Case felt the need to defend his girl a bit. “You hired a bodyguard. He’s an asshole, but he’s fairly good in the field.”

Fain’s left hand came up, his middle finger pointing to the heavens, but he said nothing.

“It doesn’t matter. He could have called me. He could have stopped you,” Lawless insisted.

“I doubt that, but I am very sorry for what happened last night. Mia’s extremely competent, but I put her in danger.” He could still see her face when he’d been shot, could still feel the pain of knowing he might not see her again. “I did that and it ended with Hutch being taken, too.”

“He doesn’t need this right now,” Mia insisted. “He just had surgery. You’re not yelling at him until he’s at least had some sleep. Go on, Case. I’ll deal with my brother. We’re taking the adjoining room. I’ve already got your stuff in there.”

She was taking care of him and he’d been nothing but trouble for her.

“Mia, I think we should talk.”

She reached out and took his hand in hers. “After you rest. Drew, stay here because apparently we need to have another talk about you not intimidating my boyfriend.”

Her brother’s eyes rolled as she led him out of the room and down the hall. It looked like the Lawless siblings had taken up the entire top floor of the hotel. She led him past the room where Ian, Liam, and Michael were huddled together and to their personal bedroom.

“I don’t want you to worry about anything but getting better, Case,” she said as she ushered him in the room. “You need some sleep. It’s all still going to be here when you wake up. I’m also going to bring in a private doctor.”

“Mia, stop.” He squeezed her hand. “Tell me what he said to you. I need to know.”

She couldn’t look him in the eyes. “He was far gone. He didn’t seem at all like the man you described. It’s all in the report. I don’t want to think about it right now. I would rather concentrate on getting you better. We also have to deal with the fact that our brothers are going to try to ship us home as soon as possible. At least mine will.”

That had been his plan all along, but guilt made him back off. Her decisions hadn’t cost them. His had. “I’ll talk to Ian. He won’t send me away. He’ll make me endure a lecture that will feel like torture, but he won’t send me home. I’ll make it clear you stay with me.”

He owed her that. If she wanted to stay, he would make that happen. Ian would take over the op from here.

Her face turned up. “Thank you. Helping you is all I want to do. You can’t blame yourself for this.”

Oh, but he could. He could blame himself for all of it. “I thought if I could get close to him I could break through. I didn’t have the chance to even talk to him. If I’d been able to get close, he would have recognized me, like he knew Erin’s scent.”

“I don’t know about that. He rejected the idea that she even existed.”

“If I’d been able to talk to him, even for a moment, I would have gotten through. He’s my twin. We have a shorthand. We know each other like no one else.” But he’d blown the opportunity. “I just don’t understand how he got past me. I was up and on my feet pretty damn quick. I followed after you. I had to double back to find you but I never saw him.”

She leaned in, gently hugging him to her body. “I don’t know. It all happened so fast.”

“If I could have caught up with him, I had a tranq dart ready.” He’d come prepped.

“You did?”

“Yeah. I knew I would likely have to take him out in the beginning. He got the jump on me. But I was ready the second time. I just…he must have been too fast. It was like he disappeared.” Like his brother was only a ghost and he’d caught a glimpse of him before Theo had faded back into oblivion.

She went on her toes and kissed him briefly. “Please get some sleep. I’m going to talk to Drew and then I’ll join you. I promise, I’ll do everything I can to help you find him again.”

He didn’t deserve that, but he would take it. She’d been everything he could have hoped for in a partner. “All right. I’m sorry about our fight before.”

She nodded. “Me, too. I’ll be back in a bit. Do you need anything?”

Just her. Just for the world to roll back about twenty-four hours so he could have gotten up faster, gotten Theo in his sights.

Mia walked out and he was left alone in the beautiful room. He hadn’t provided her with this luxury. He’d given her a crappy motel room and ordered her around. She’d given him her trust and her honesty and he’d been a bastard.

He sighed as he looked around the room. He should take one of those pills the doctor had given him and go to sleep, but his mind kept churning. How had Theo gotten past him? Where had he been hiding when the police had gotten there?

One minute faster and he could have saved his brother, could have saved Hutch.

What was Hutch going through right now? Would Mia ever be able to look him in the eyes again? She’d been perfectly sweet and affectionate, but he’d felt a distance between them. Had he lost her trust?

He wasn’t going to be able to sleep. Not until she was back with him. He’d talk to her, tell her how he really felt and ask her forgiveness, and then maybe he would be able to sleep with her beside him. He walked back down the hall to where he’d last seen his brother. Yeah, he needed to apologize to Ian, too. And to Li and Alex, who’d had to leave their families on short notice.

He’d fucked up all the way around.

“Apparently the boy managed to get the cameras up right before he took off after Case.” Liam’s voice was soft, but there was no way to miss his lyrical accent. “I don’t know he even realized it was working at the time. Hutch had set his system up to search for CCTV feeds and record the ones he chose. I’ve been rolling through for hours. You looked good getting hauled out of there, boss.”

“Yeah, that might not have been my first prison rodeo,” Ian was saying. “Has Case seen this yet?”

“I wanted you to look at it first,” Liam replied. “Maybe the boy doesn’t need to see it, if you know what I mean.”

Case watched from the doorway. The screen was pointed his way with Liam sitting in front of the computer Fain had used and Alex and Ian flanking him, their backs to Case as they watched the scene from the camera play out.

“Damn it. There was a hidden door,” Alex said with a sigh. “She didn’t tell him. Do you think maybe she was unconscious and didn’t see Theo get away?”

“Not a chance. She’d seen the others take Hutch that way,” Li pointed out. “And see, she’s moving the minute that door closes. She knew. Poor girl. She had to be terrified. I wish I could hear what Theo said to her.”

“I think we can guess.” Ian’s voice was hoarse. “There’s Case. Damn it. He was seconds behind.”

Seconds behind. He felt a chill go through his body as he realized what he was watching. “Play it again.”

Ian turned, his eyes flaring and head shaking. “Can I have one fucking thing go right in this cursed day? You’re supposed to be sleeping.”

He wasn’t doing this dance with his brother. He looked directly at Liam, who was frowning fiercely. “Play it again.”

“Now, Case, there’s a reason I didn’t call you in here,” Li began.

“Play it or I’ll do it myself.” He didn’t give a shit that his whole body ached. He would fight to get to watch that tape, fight to get to see the truth.

Alex’s head fell back. “He’ll do it. He’s just like his brother. He won’t stop until he’s seen it and fucked up entirely.”