You Only Love Twice by Lexi Blake Page B

banged
up?”
    Tag’s eyes flared. “No. Ten wouldn’t.”
    Alex sat back. “I don’t know. It kind of makes sense.”
    “If Phoebe belongs to him, then he’s hidden it from
Chelsea,” Simon pointed out. “Though honestly, the fact that we imbedded
Chelsea with his group should lend a certain credence to him putting a spy in
ours. Think about it. She’s smart. She’s American and educated and we can’t
break her cover. That means some serious backing.”
    Jesse knew truth when it struck him in the forehead. Phoebe
moved again. This time she jerked like she was having a bad dream. He cuddled
her close, trying to calm her. “She’s Agency. You can’t hurt her, Tag.”
    A certain peace fell over him. Tag couldn’t shoot her and
dump her body somewhere. Jesse didn’t doubt for a second if he found out she
was a Collective agent who could hurt them all that Tag would do exactly that.
Tag could pull the trigger and not feel a moment’s regret when it came to
protecting his crew. But if Phoebe was Agency, she had a level of protection
around her.
    “Why the fuck would Ten imbed a long-term operative?” Tag
let his head fall back, his eyes closing in obvious weariness.
    “Me. He wanted to watch me.” There was no real reason to
watch Taggart, and Phoebe hadn’t honed in on anyone except Jesse. “He wanted to
see if they turned me. No one believes I made it out whole. I didn’t.”
    “You’re not a traitor,” Simon said as he turned on to the
freeway. He would drive for a while before heading to the office again. “The
Army cleared you.”
    “The Army got rid of me. An honorable discharge on the basis
of mental capacity doesn’t mean they believed me. It means they didn’t want to
deal with me anymore.”
    “Jesse, no one here believes you had anything to do with the
deaths of the members of your unit. No one,” Alex said in a fervent voice.
    He looked down at Phoebe. She sighed as she nuzzled his
neck. Now she got affectionate. Story of his life. “She does and so does
Tennessee Smith. Hell, so much of those months are a jumble in my head, I don’t
even know.”
    Part of his torture had been using hallucinogenic drugs that
put him into a dreamlike state. When he would wake up, his chief tormentor
would try to convince him he’d done all manner of hideous crimes. He’d woken up
next to a girl one morning, her throat cut and her eyes open.
    Only through working with Kai Ferguson had he come to accept
that he hadn’t killed her. Through hypnosis therapy he’d been able to remember
the truth. She’d been dead when they’d placed her in the room. Somewhere in the
daze of drugs they’d given him, he’d been able to remember the door opening.
    This is a gift for you, my dog.
    He felt the edges of his vision start to go dim, the way it
always did when he had an episode.
    “Jesse?”
    Phoebe’s voice brought him back from the edge. He took a
deep breath and let go. He wasn’t going to freak out. He didn’t have to listen
to that voice. He could listen to his own. Calm. Patient. He could be the man
he wanted to be. “Yes, sweetheart?”
    The man he wanted to be was good, even to his enemies. But
damn, she didn’t feel like an enemy cuddled so close to him.
    Her eyes were dazed, and it was so obvious she was fighting
the drug with everything she had. “You need to hide. Don’t know who the order
came from. Promise me you’ll hide.”
    “Who are you working for?” Tag asked.
    The interrogation wasn’t starting now. No way. “Back off,
Ian. I get why you drugged her, but you’re not going to use it to manipulate
her. I won’t fucking have it. If this is how you do business, then you should
let me out here and now and I’ll take her with me. She’s my problem. Mine.”
    Taggart sighed. “No one lets me torture anyone anymore.
Fine. We’ll wait until she’s awake. And I can figure out if she’s one of Ten’s
really fast.” He slid his finger across the face of his cell and put it to