Page 53 of Deny Me
“Morning.”
Saint started to return King’s greeting.
“Saint, give us a minute,” Dain said without looking up from the reports in his hand.
Ouch. “Dain—”
That got his team lead looking up, but King quickly wished he hadn’t. Dain’s eyes blazed.
Worse than he’d thought. The least Elliot could’ve done was warn him. For a second his gut clenched and he wished he could erase that look from Dain’s face—not just anger, but betrayal. He’d compromised the team’s position on this op, he knew that.
Was Charlotte worth it? Every last bit.
Saint rounded the table, sympathy in the curve of his mouth as he gave King’s shoulder a brotherly slap on the way past. His best friend would always have his back. That didn’t mean he’d taken the best route. He should’ve warned Dain last night.
He should’ve done a lot of things last night. The only thing he’d cared about was being with Charlotte, making sure she was safe, making sure he was as close to her as he could possibly get. That wouldn’t appease his boss, but it was the truth.
“At this rate I’ll be running out of team members to take over as second in command,” Dain bit out. King had taken over for Elliot when she’d been given a six-month demotion. He guessed he was next in line for that honor. “What do you think Saint’s offense will be? It’s only a matter of time, right?”
King’s body automatically fell into parade rest.
“I mean, Elliot is the best of the best when it comes to fighting, but she’s always been a wild card and we all knew it.” Dain shoved his hands into his pockets, but it couldn’t hide the fact that they were balled into fists. “But you… I never once figured you’d go so far as to sleep with a client.”
“Dain—”
“Do not”—Dain pointed a finger at King’s chest—“make a single fucking excuse for what you’ve done.”
The trembling in Dain’s voice wasn’t weakness; it was rage. And he was right. King had known he was breaking every vow of integrity he’d ever given to his team, his company. He’d known that.
But Charlotte came first.
“I love her.”
Dain’s dark eyes narrowed, and for a moment King thought he’d launch himself across the table. King wouldn’t fight him. Whatever Dain needed to do to punish him, he’d accept.
“Fuckin’ A!” His boss whirled around, one hand digging hard into the Mohawk cleanly slicing across the crown of his head. “It was bad enough with Elliot, King. But here, with this family? We didn’t already have problems between her and the client.”
“Not until we uncovered them later, no.” It was a jab and they both knew it. No one but Dain had known that Elliot was the daughter of the man trying to kill their client and his little girl. Their team lead had kept Elliot’s secret despite knowing what it could mean to the op.
Dain jerked back to face him. “That is beside the point. I warned you to stay away from her.”
“Then threw me in with her whenever you could, just to get us ‘used to each other.’” King shrugged. “Honestly, Dain, it wouldn’t have mattered. Keep us apart; put us together. What is, is.”
He was right. Dain knew that even if he hated acknowledging it.
“Is that what you plan to tell Ben Alexander when he finds out?”
King didn’t tell Dain they’d already had a face-to-face with Kim that hadn’t gone well. No, they hadn’t been together at the time. That didn’t mean either of Charlotte’s parents wouldn’t blow up when they discovered their daughter was back together with the man they blamed for her inability to have children. Or maybe it was for getting her pregnant in the first place. That final piece of the puzzle had slotted itself while he was in the shower this morning. The over-the-top hostility hadn’t made sense until now.
Now…well, he didn’t like it, but he understood it. If they needed to blame him, he’d let them. But he wasn’t walking away from Charlotte because of it.
He should really share what he’d learned with Dain, but throwing fuel on his boss’s current fire didn’t seem wise. “Look,” King said, trying out a calm tone in hopes his boss would follow his lead, “I’m sorry I put you in this position. I’m sorry they might be offended. If it helps, I have no intention of upsetting the apple cart around here while we’re still in the middle of this investigation.” Being discreet, at least around her parents, wasn’t the same thing as being sorry.
“But you do intend to keep sleeping with her?”
“I intend to do whatever I need to do to keep her safe,” King said. “The rest is up to Charlotte.” Since they hadn’t had time to discuss it this morning—never mind what they’d been using their time forinstead—he wasn’t going to presume to speak for her.
Dain had started to speak when the door popped open. “Quit ragging his balls, Daddy,” Elliot said as she breezed through, teasing Dain with his call sign. “We won’t rat him out to the parents, and he won’t make out with their daughter in the middle of the front sitting room for them to see. Everyone’s happy.”
