“Was going to ask Jamie.”
Liam waved off the words as he picked up his wineglass. “While I know Jamie can afford it, consider this an additional wedding present from me. I owe—”
Alexei grabbed Sean by the arm and yanked him off the couch even as he launched himself over the low table at Liam. “Down!”
Sean phased instinctively, the bioware in his left forearm and his comms both going dead as bullets cut through the couch where they’d been sitting. Alexei’s hand slid through his phased body, grasping at nothing. Sean scrambled to his feet, legs passing through the low table as he reached for where Alexei and Liam had taken cover on the floor. He solidified his hands long enough to grab Alexei and Liam by the arms and pushed his phase power into them.
“Bloodyfuckingarseholes!” Liam snarled as half his body phased into the floor. “I’m going to murder the lot of them!”
“Need to find them first,” Sean bit out as he hauled both of the other men out of the floor.
Alexei had more practice working within Sean’s phase field and managed to get his feet underneath him in seconds. Liam kept reacting as if the floor was solid underneath him and kept putting his feet through it rather than hovering just above it.
Alexei jerked his head at the door. “Need to check on the others, Senya.”
Liam swore, nearly pulling out of Sean’s grip in his rush to get to the other room. Sean had to yank him around, glaring at Liam. “For fuck’s sake, let me lead. You step out of my phase field and you’re going to have half your body stuck in the goddamn couch.”
Liam looked down at the piece of ruined furniture he stood in and winced. “That would be a tad awkward to explain to my mum.”
“How’d you know, Alexei?” Sean asked as he pulled the other two men after him.
“Saw reflection on scope before the muzzle flash,” Alexei said through gritted teeth.
“Aiming for us or Liam?”
“Does it matter?”
There were numerous bullet holes peppering the furniture in the room, and the window was a broken mess. Sean could admit it really didn’t matter who had been targeted.
He phased them through the wall and nearly phased them right through Oliver, who was risking a lunge at the door. The MI6 agent stumbled but managed to catch himself, still crouched low to try to stay out of sight lines.
“Stay down,” Liam snapped.
“You weren’t answering your comms,” Oliver shot back.
“My power kills anything electronic. We’ll need portable comms if we can’t get the internal nanotech ones replaced,” Sean said.
Liam gazed around the open area and the agents hunkering down behind what cover they could find. “Anyone hurt?”
People called out their status, but the general consensus was everyone was still alive and kicking. Sean couldn’t hear any sirens, but he had no doubt the island’s private security would be on its way up soon. Whether they could trust them or not was a bigger question.
“Does the French government know you’re running a mission on their soil?”
Oliver’s mouth thinned into a hard line, which Sean took as ano. “The intel came through MI6, not INTERPOL.”
Sean sighed, catching Alexei’s eye. “I don’t miss the dick-measuring contests of rival intelligence agencies. We’ll say we’re the targets, and Liam can claim diplomatic immunity to keep them out of the rooms.”
“Who we say want us dead?” Alexei asked.
“The Irish mob. I’m pretty sure I still have a hit out on me.”
“At least two,” Oliver said. “One from the Irish mob and one from the Reborn IRA.”
“You married a popular man, Alexei,” Liam said.
Alexei scowled at the room at large, gray eyes flinty. “Not funny.”
“It’s a little funny.”
