You Only Love Twice by Lexi Blake Page A

eyes closed again and the van got quiet. Suddenly Jesse
could feel three pairs of eyes on him.
    “She’s an operative, Jesse,” Adam said quietly. “Very well
trained.”
    “She nearly killed me,” Jake complained.
    Tag shook his head. “It’s not even broken. Fatherhood made
Dean grow a pussy.”
    Phoebe frowned, her eyes glassy. “Pussies aren’t weak. I’d
like to see Tag shove a baby out of his penis.”
    He’d never seen her drunk. She wouldn’t ever have more than
one margarita or glass of wine. She seemed like a fun drunk.
    Adam laughed and shook his head when Tag sent him a
forbidding look. “Sorry, Tag. She’s got a point.”
    “She should be out,” Tag complained. “You didn’t dose her
properly.”
    “I gave her enough to put down a freaking horse,” Adam
replied. “Which means she’s likely been taught to counter the effects, and we
all know that’s what the pros do.”
    “She’s involved in something we don’t understand,” Alex
said, sympathy in his eyes. “You can’t pretend she’s Phoebe Graham anymore. You
have to change your thinking about her. She isn’t the woman you care about.
That woman doesn’t exist.”
    “And you’re a goddamn idiot for thinking she did,” Tag said.
    Phoebe’s legs started moving. Her head came up slightly and
her eyes were about half open. “Fuck you, Tag. He’s not dumb…not stupid. You
stupid. Dumbass.”
    She sounded so drunk and yet the words were sweet to Jesse.
Maybe he was stupid, but she was drugged . She didn’t
have any defenses but she was defending him. What was he supposed to do with
that?
    He’d heard her yelling at him. He’d heard her telling him to
get down.
    What the fuck was he supposed to believe?
    He couldn’t help himself. His arms tightened around her.
    Tag’s eyes closed and there was no way to miss how his fists
clenched. “You know I don’t think you’re stupid, right?”
    He knew it on an intellectual level. “Sure.”
    Taggart ran a frustrated hand through his head. “Damn it,
Jesse. I think everyone’s a dumbass. Ask Adam.”
    “He’s an asshole,” Adam agreed. “He’s kind of a bully, but
the dumb kind who pays really well and watches your back when you need it. I
still fucking hate him. And love him. At the end of the day, he’s my brother.
My brother whose shampoo I will change for Nair when he expects it least.”
    Tag sighed and ignored Adam. “My point is, you don’t get to
do what you did. Goddamn it, Jesse, you practically begged her to shoot you.”
    “And she didn’t.” She’d yelled something at him. She’d run
from her room and he hadn’t noticed a gun in her hand. He’d glimpsed her before
Simon had used his massive British body to tackle him down to the concrete.
    “Well, we had broken into her room by then,” Alex pointed
out. “She used her placement on the balcony to get away from us.”
    Who did she work for? His brain worked overtime, but he
could really only come up with one person. She would want to get away so she
didn’t have to admit why she was here. He couldn’t imagine Phoebe working for
The Collective. She wasn’t the type to do something bad for a mere paycheck.
He’d watched her babysit. When she picked up Carys or Tristan, she glowed in a
way a woman who was doing it for underlying reasons never could. She kissed and
loved those babies. She sang to them and held them close and when she thought
no one could hear her, she prayed for one of her own. He’d caught her walking
out of Aidan O’Donnell’s room with tears in her eyes. It was always there, that
deep well of pain he understood so well.
    She didn’t work for a paycheck. She worked for a cause.
    “She works for Ten.” He smoothed back her hair and noticed
the blood on her shins. Her skirt had hiked up and he saw gashes on her knees
and the lower part of her legs. “Think about it for a second and it makes
sense. He’s always hated me. She tried to run? Is that why her knees are