Page 23 of Sweet Little Spies

Kenzie’s pink ponytail shook in the negative. “It’s too muchof a coincidence.”

The gang was all here, with a couple of extras. The big bosshad opened up the room to Sean and Grace and Liam and Avery. Tristan hadprotested when Ian wanted to bring in his parents. He’d told Big Tag he wasn’ta fucking civilian and he didn’t need mommy and daddy here with him. Or hispapa.

So his parents were pissed at him, too. Everyone was. He wasthe bad guy, and there was nothing he could do to change it. The only thing hecould do was embrace the role.

“Huisman is a world-renowned neurologist.” Aidan sat next toCarys, but it was clear they hadn’t hashed it out yet. She wouldn’t look athim. She’d ridden over with TJ and Lou, and Aidan had come with his father,leaving Tristan to ride with Big Tag, who’d spent the hour and a half tellinghim what a dumbass he was. “Beyond his medical work, he runs the foundation.He’s literally known for his philanthropic work.”

“And he knows Aidan because of our ties to Owen Shaw and hiswife, Rebecca,” Liam pointed out. “Rebecca speaks highly of him. Ian, what’sgoing on?”

“She speaks highly of him because I asked her to,” Ian said,sinking into his seat at the head of the table. “They work in the same field,and Dr. Walsh-Shaw is something of a legend. There would be talk if she had aproblem with Huisman. I don’t need problems right now. At this point, the warhas been kept to the shadows. Li, I didn’t tell you because you’re not involvedwith that part of the business. You and Alex pretty much run this place now. Ididn’t want to overload you.”

“And it’s classified.” Aidan’s father waved off the issue.“I don’t expect to be kept up to date on Agency matters, Tag. But you mightgive me a heads-up to watch certain situations more closely.”

Big Tag’s gaze slid Tristan’s way. “Well, up until a fewweeks ago I didn’t understand the situation. For the most part my team worksdirectly under me, with Drake and Taylor Radcliffe acting as our Agencyliaisons. The twins, Tash, and Lou don’t work with anyone else. Cooper rarelytakes other assignments. Zach will occasionally work with military intelligenceor Special Forces teams. But this one loves to spread his talents around. Howmany different Agency teams are you working with, Tris?”

The man made him sound like a cheating lover. “I work wherethe Agency needs me to work. In this case I’m working with a small team inconjunction with military intel. It’s about a project I started over two yearsago. I actually worked on this before I started with the Agency, and Itransitioned it over when I joined the team.”

“No, you didn’t because I never got the memo,” Big Tag shotback.

“Neither did I.” Kala looked at him like she was sizing himup.

Of course he’d fucked over her beloved cousin, and neitherof the twins were known for letting things go. He glanced over to Carys, whosat between Aidan and her dad. She hadn’t looked at him. Not once. What thehell was going through her head? He knew it was bad because she’d shut downutterly. He could handle a raging Carys. This closed-down woman scared the hellout of him.

“I didn’t transition it to your team. I brought the casewith me, though. It was supposed to be nothing more than retrieving intel. Afew years ago an arms dealer named The Jester came onto the radar. He moved alot of guns out of the Philippines in the beginning, but after making enoughmoney, he started dealing weapons of mass destruction, as we like to callthem,” Tristan explained. “The Jester worked mostly on the Dark Web, and no oneknew what he looked like or where he physically resided.”

“Until you found him,” Big Tag said.

He somehow managed to make it sound like a bad thing. “Yes,I managed to track down one of the world’s most infamous arms dealers when noone else could. Well, no one except the man who killed him. Luckily I took himout before he could report back to the man who’d paid him. I killed theassassin and then sat down at the arms dealer’s system and sent the group amessage.”

“Let me guess,” Sean said, eyeing him like he was going touse one of his fillet knives soon. The Taggarts had intimidating stares down.“You walked in, ready to arrest him, found him dead, and decided the smartestthing for you to do was to take over his identity.”

“Yes, I did.” It was obvious this was a trial of sorts, andhe was guilty. “I took over his identity on the web and managed to take overhis whole business. It wasn’t even hard since no one really knew what he lookedlike. He hid in the shadows. I unfortunately also discovered he had somedealings with government entities. I’ve been trying to track those down, and Ithink I’m close. Which brings me to the mission I was supposed to clear withDrake and Taylor this weekend.”

“Oh, it’s my turn to guess.” Ian took a long breath. “Is itto infiltrate an upcoming medical conference?”

Tristan barely managed to not wince. “I was going to ask ifwe could find someone who was going and send Kara in with him. I thought maybeDare would know someone. I don’t think we should send Dare in since we stilldon’t know how much Huisman understands about how we work.”

“He knows everything,” Kala assured him.

“He’s met Dad and Tash,” Kenzie hedged, proving she wasn’tentirely in step with her twin. “He definitely knows who Dare is and hisconnection to our team.”

“He knows I run this company,” Ian said. “We’re a privatefirm, but it can’t be too hard to find out who works here. And he knows I workfor the CIA. He’s got the money and the resources to figure it all out. Heabsolutely knows Tasha is Agency. I have hopes he doesn’t know about the twins.They managed to avoid him entirely while we were in Australia. The question ishow did he figure out Tristan has taken over The Jester’s business?”

Grace shook her head and leaned forward, a worriedexpression on her face. She glanced toward her daughter before posing thequestion to Ian. “I don’t understand what’s going on, but I know after today wehave to think someone is coming after Carys or Aidan. They need to be in a safehouse.”

“Grace,” Aidan began.

His mother, Avery O’Donnell, shook her head. “No. I don’tcare about your career, Aidan. You’re going to do whatever Ian decides isbest.”

Aidan’s eyes closed—a sure sign he was trying to get controlof his emotional state. He opened them and looked at Ian. “Fine. Where is thissafe house? If we’re going to burn down both our careers so Tristan can get theglory, we might as well start here and now.”

TJ had been sitting next to Lou at the far end of the table.He raised a hand. “Uhm, or it could be me they were trying to get.”

“So there’s another possible explanation,” Carys saidquietly.

“The best option is a safe house while they figure thesituation out,” her father insisted.

“For how long?” Carys turned to her father. “I know you wantto protect me, but I can’t trust there’s some timeline that could save mycareer. I didn’t go to school for all those years to watch it go down thedrain. So the obvious thing to do is Aidan and I go to the conference and weprovide cover for the team.”

---