The trouble was she was fairly certain he didn’t mind two of the three descriptive words in that sentence. She could remember him vividly grinning at her and calling her a crazy bitch. He’d given her the hottest, sexiest smile and he’d almost kissed her.
It was the rich part that seemed to bug him. It didn’t matter that it was her brother who was insanely wealthy. All that mattered was he apparently thought she was spoiled and entitled, and all because she might have lied to him the slightest little bit. It had been a teeny tiny lie that had nearly gotten his friend’s brother incarcerated for several murders he hadn’t actually committed, but she’d meant well.
“You’ve got a bodyguard?” Bran seemed to breathe a sigh of relief. “That’s good. That’s exactly why we’ve been in talks with McKay-Taggart, but you do understand Drew’s trying to keep that under wraps, right? He and the big, scary Taggart are working on something. I’m not sure what.”
She knew. They were working on trying to find a woman named Hope McDonald. Once Ian Taggart had figured out that her brother wasn’t working for the shadowy group known as The Collective, he’d enlisted Drew as an ally. Unfortunately, she was fairly certain they were looking in the wrong place and she had contacts that might pan out. One of them had sent her a photograph a few hours before.
The trouble was this guy was a paranoid weirdo freak who would bug out if commando dudes showed up at his place. Tony was the sweetest man, who also likely had several mental health issues he should deal with, paranoia being the chief among them. If she showed up with an army of ex-military men, he would likely shoot himself then and there.
If those ex-military men allowed her to go at all. They seemed to be taking a very hard line on protecting the women and children on this op. For all she knew, Erin Argent had no idea the Taggarts believed her lover was alive.
If she’d gone to Drew with her intel, he would have passed it on to Ian Taggart and Taggart would have left her out. Tony would run and her best shot at finding Theo would be gone.
Her best shot at proving to Case that she was more than a rich brat would be gone.
Maybe it made her a stupid girl, but she couldn’t handle not knowing. She had to know if it could work with him because her brain wouldn’t think about anything but the way it felt when his hands were on her.
She hadn’t even slept with the man and she was running off to Colombia to try to save his brother from the clutches of an evil corporation, and she was probably going to get shot, but it might be worth it.
She really was a crazy bitch.
“I’ve got a bodyguard and it’s going to be okay.” Unless her bodyguard took exception to her breaking and entering and kicked her out on her ass. In that case, she had two guns, a pocket Taser, and some nasty pepper spray. And she knew damn well how to use them. “I’ll call when I get back. It shouldn’t be more than a few days.”
“What’s his name? The bodyguard’s? I’ve talked to a couple of them. I liked the Cajun guy. He seems solid. I want his number.”
Why? Why did her brothers have to be overgrown guard dogs? Sure their childhood had been marred with murder and tragedy, but damn it, she needed them to not give a shit for a few days. “I’ll have to get back to you on that.”
Once she was in the air, she would be safe.
“Mia, I need a number or I’ll have to tell Drew,” Bran insisted. “Riley’s in New York checking out something but I’m sure he’ll be interested, too.”
She cursed in her head and kicked at the bike stand in front of the building. And fuck all that hurt. “Fine. It’s Case.”
There was a long pause on the line. “Case, as in the guy you want to sleep with but he’s a manwhore douchebag and you’re too smart to sleep with him Case? That Case?”
Hypocrite. “If women used that line of thinking on you, Bran, you would never get laid, and yet I happen to know that you do. How many strippers have you gone through? Is there one left in the Austin area who hasn’t seen your penis?”
He chuckled over the line. “Probably. I have to hope so or I’ll need to move.” His voice went deep again. “And that simply proves that I know what I’m talking about when I talk about manwhores. He might be a good guy, Mia, but he’s not going to love you. He won’t let himself love you. He’ll use you and walk away, and while he might feel like shit if he’s got a conscience, he won’t change his mind.”
“You met him once, Bran.” They’d met in Austin a few months before. Ian Taggart had come down with his wife, Sean and Case, and a man named Liam O’Donnell, who seemed to be doing much of the legwork on the operation. She’d sat by utterly fascinated with the group she’d met while tracking a killer a few months back. The man who had killed her college roommate and had nearly taken out Kori and Sarah was now dead, and the friends she’d made at Sanctum had forgiven her, but Case Taggart had barely spoken two words the whole time he’d been there.