“Nobody with whom you need to concern yourself,” the Brit said, angling his head to watch Millie. “Anything?”
“Not done,” Millie called back, shimmying beneath the SUV with a long metal pole.
Angus whistled for Roscoe to leave her alone.
It was nice having the woman back in the fold, and he hadn’t yet grilled her on where she’d gone. Millie was in her mid-twenties but sometimes seemed younger to him, even though she was a genius with all electrical devices and weapons. Her blond hair was streaked with blue dye, giving her the look of a college coed. Her small form disappeared beneath the large vehicle. “Should you be on a blanket instead of the ice?” he yelled.
“No,” she yelled back.
Jethro sighed. “I don’t want her to fall ill.”
Angus rolled his shoulders in his heavy leather jacket. “Listen, Jethro. I’ve already scanned the preliminary police report and saw that you took out three guys.” Tate had texted him what he’d known so far, so that could count as a prelim report. Probably. “Why would your brother play games like this?”
Jethro shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s been imprisoned for several years, so perhaps he wants to draw this out. Putting a bullet between my eyes might be temporarily satisfying, but he’s had a lot of timeto plan this.”
“He’s a lawyer?”
Jethronodded. “Yes.”
“When you caught him and he went to prison, why wasn’t there a trial? Or at the very least a newspaper report?” Angus had never looked into Jethro’s previous life, but now he had no choice. “I had Brigid scour the archives, and there was no word of a trial. His colleagues believed he’d left the country to learn to paint and find a new life.”
Jethro remained silent.
Angus kept his cool. Hitting Jethro wouldn’t help and Millie hated violence, so he’d just tick her off. “You know that Wolfe considers you his best friend.”
Jethro twitched. Finally. A reaction.
Angus barely kept from smiling. “Yep. Clarence Wolfe thinks you’re brothers, man. So it’s time you let us in completely, or things are goingto get messy.”
Jethro finally looked at Angus, his eyes veiled as usual. “We had one op together.”
“Apparently that’s all it takes with Wolfe,” Angus said easily. “He’s been occupied with Dana’s pregnancy, but she’s feeling better now, and he’s going to turn his attention to you. I learned the hard way that it’s better to keep Wolfe involved than to try to push him away. There’s no dissuading that guy, and he’s all in with family. Like it or not,you’re family.”
Jethro’s nostrils flared. “I don’t have family.”
“Stop being an ass,” Angus snapped. “Seriously. I’m going to let Wolfe loose if you don’t knock this off. From what I can tell, your blood brother is here taking hit jobs, making money, and involving you each time. Does he always disembowel his targets?”
“No,” Jethro said. “That’s his preferred method of killing, but he only uses that if it’s up to his discretion. He’s more than capable of making a murder look like an accident.” Jethro straightened. “In fact, you should investigate other deaths in the area for the last month. Or have Tate do it.”
“Already on it,” Angus said. It wasn’t like he was anovice either.
His phone buzzed and he lifted it to his ear. “Force.”
“Hi. It’s Nari.” The sweet sound of her voice calmed him like nothing else in the world. “I’ve been pulling strings with my dad and he finally got back to me.” Her father was the head of an elite force at the Homeland Defense Department and now their boss. “From what I can tell, Jethro wasn’t just MI6. He was inThe Increment.”
Angus stiffened. “That unitreally exists?”
“Unconfirmed rumors,” Nari admitted. “But there’s more. His brother wasn’t a barrister. Well, he was, but that was a cover.”
Angus lifted his chin, looking directly at Jethro. “Jet’s brother was in The Increment as well?”
No reaction. None. Jethro didn’t even tilt his head. Fuck, he was good.
“Maybe,” Nari said quietly. “That would explain a lot, don’t you think?”
Unfortunately yes. The Increment was only a rumor. An SIS-run unit that was a secret cadre within MI6, working under the radar in so-termed deniable operations. “Thanks, sweetheart,” he said, ending the call. “That’s interesting.”
Jethro remained silent.
