Had everyone in the room lost their goddamned minds?
“He isn’t trained,” I reminded everyone.
“You don’t need training to seduce an asshole,” Kyle remarked. “We hire prostitutes to do the same thing all the time.”
“Then we find a prostitute.”
“This is the easiest play we can make,” Mick followed.
Ty finally piped up, “I can do it.”
Everyone turned to him. The expression on his face as he glanced between us made it clear he knew how in over his head he was. Seemed to be the new normal for him.
“Ty, don’t encourage them. This is not the way we’re going about this.”
“Come on, Liam,” Mick said. “You’ll be there to make sure he’s safe. Kyle makes him look more like his type. Ty puts on a bit of charm. We get Lez on his own and take him out. Then we can wrap this up.”
I sighed. “This is a shit idea.”
“I really don’t mind,” Ty added, which only pissed me off further.
Of course he wanted to help. I could tell by the way he’d been for the past few days that he wanted to do anything he could.
But just…not this.
“It would be a good strategy, and help us pull Lez away from the other bodyguards,” Tara said. “We saw how easily distracted he can be.”
The worst idea ever, but I could tell I was outnumbered. I didn’t like it, but a part of me knew they were right.
After what felt like a solid minute of silence, I finally said, “Then just remember that I’m going to be right at his side while all this goes down.”
“Affirmative,” Mick said.
As Kyle’s gaze caught mine, I could sense his concern. I didn’t think it had much to do with Ty’s safety as it did with my reluctance to go along with the plan. Just because they had a point didn’t mean I had to like it. Fortunately, they dropped the subject as we continued reviewing the rest of the plan.
It didn’t keep me from stewing, though. I had to get Ty on his own…talk some sense into him. We could come up with another way.
When the meeting came to an end, I approached Ty in our room. “You okay with this?”
“Yeah, I want to help you guys in any way I can.”
“Ty, it’s not your job.”
“It wasn’t my job before all this started, but now it is.”
A part of me appreciated his desire to help, but another part feared he didn’t understand the consequences of his actions. If something happened to him—if he got hurt—it would destroy me.
“I’d rather be with you anyway,” he said.
He’d be safe, I reminded myself, because I would keep him safe. But it didn’t make me feel much better about it.
At the same time, this looked like our shot to take Junior into IPB custody. Using Ty as a distraction wouldn’t be any different than hiring some prostitute for the same purpose, which I’d seen happen plenty in my past.
I took a breath. “Well, it might get a little dicey, but if we follow the plan strictly, everyone should be safe and we should come out of there with the person responsible for it all. After that, I can ensure your safety, which right now is the most important thing to me.”
I reached up and stroked my knuckles up and down his cheek. “I’ll keep you safe, Ty.”
My gaze fixed on his mouth, on those tempting lips. The more time we spent together, the harder it became to keep from kissing them, but for now I could settle for putting my cock between them.
And that night, I did just that.
