Liam cracked a smile as he merged over to the fast lane, the other SUVs falling into line behind him, forcing traffic to accommodate them.“Jamie is quite the arsehole when he wants to be.Must be why we’re mates.”
“Must be why you’re both terrors and prone to giving me a migraine any time the two of you are within shouting distance,” Katie replied.
“You sound like you’ve missed me.”
“Like I’ve missed a twenty-klick hump, then sure.I’ve missed you.”
Liam laughed.“Ouch.”
“Be nice, Katie,” Jamie said, swallowing back his laughter.
“What are you on about?Thisisher being nice!Sod all you mouthy NCOs; you never change.”The smile on Liam’s face faded, expression turning troubled.“To be honest, I am glad you’re here, Katie.Having a telepath about will make this mission loads easier.”
“So long as you clear me,” Katie warned.
“Paperwork’s being pushed through today, and the queen was informed of the decision to allow an easement of the telepathy restrictions for a foreign agent.She’s not particularly pleased about it, but I swore to her over breakfast this morning you’re one of the most honorable people I’ve ever met and you won’t abuse your power.”
“You had breakfast with the Queen of England?”Kyle asked, side-eyeing Jamie as he spoke.
Before Jamie could answer, Sean beat him to it, speaking up for the first time in hours.“Liam is thirteenth in line to the British throne.It’s why the UMG isn’t taking lead on this mission.”
“Twelfth, actually,” Liam corrected, eyes narrowing a bit in the rearview mirror.
“Thirteenth.Your cousin Alice is pregnant, though she hasn’t announced it yet.”
The friendliness in Liam’s voice disappeared.“That’s information you shouldn’t be privy to.”
“Sean is ex-CIA and the one who orchestrated this mission,” Jamie said with an apologetic sigh.“I’d be more surprised if he didn’t know that information.”
Liam scowled.“Ah, he’s a spook, then.Never quite cared for those types.”
“No one does,” Kyle muttered under his breath.
Jamie put his hand on Kyle’s knee, squeezing gently, the action hidden from everyone in the car except Liam.“You said you’ve been to Vesuvius before, Liam.Ever run into Jansen while there?”
“Can’t say that I have, and I’m quite the catch, you know.Never got approached, though I’ve seen others get singled out and plied with his attention.I don’t think you’ll have any trouble catching his eye, Jamie.Me?I got a title and a trust fund.Maybe the title’s worth fuck all to the likes of them and I just don’t have enough zeroes in my account, but he’ll come crawling to you without question,” Liam said.
Jamie grimaced, looking out the window at the cramped outer districts of the London megacity pressing up against the M4.The walls separating the highway from the buildings glowed from the countless advertisements flowing across them, the holographs chasing them into the city center.
“We can only hope.”
* * *
Kyle thought he was done being impressed with Jamie’s wealth.
Turned out he wasn’t.
Standing in the front living room of an eleven-room gated property in the ultra-wealthy Kensington district in London proved to Kyle that he was way, way out of his league.Tucking his hands into his jacket pockets, he rocked back on his heels and stared up at the delicate light fixtures extending from the ceiling, listening with half an ear as the rest of the team hauled everything in from the SUVs and deposited them in rooms they had no trouble finding.Liam had confirmed that UMG agents had cleared the house of any possible electronic surveillance, which was great, but that was one less thing Kyle could’ve helped with.
He’d offered to help unload the vehicles and been shut down by everyone.Carrying his own weight was, apparently, not something he was supposed to do anymore as Jamie’s arm candy.If he were honest, Kyle really didn’t like that.
He’d spent a good chunk of his childhood relying on himself because he couldn’t rely on his family before they’d died.The years he’d lived with the Dvorkins showed him a family that pitched in with everything and shared whatever they had, even when they didn’t have much.Going into the Army and, later, into Strike Force was a master class in learning to rely on yourself and your brothers and sisters in arms.Standing on the sidelines like he was useless was pissing Kyle off.
“>” Alexei asked in Russian as he came over to Kyle and slung an arm over his shoulders.
“>”
Alexei peered around them at the open layout filled with expensive furniture and pricey artwork, the stairs that led up to the second and third stories, and the glass french doors that opened out into an actual garden.The house extended two levels into the ground to get around the height restrictions for residential building codes.It was not at all what they were accustomed to.They’d both grown up in cramped residential towers in Boston, and Alexei remembered a time when his family lived out of honest-to-God tents in a refugee camp before getting transferred into one of the many refugee cities that had popped up over the last century in the Eastern European contested region.
