The Men With the Golden Cuffs(11)
Grace smiled brightly at her husband. “I look forward to it.”
“Get in here now!” Ian’s bark resounded through the bar. Jake could have sworn every sub in a mile radius hit her knees, though Grace managed to stay standing.
Adam frowned. “I think we fucked this one up royally, brother.”
Jake followed Adam and Grace into the conference room. He thought about telling Adam that it hadn’t been his fault, but the truth was they had both mishandled the situation. Adam, in his own way, had come on far too strong. And Jake had pulled away too hard. Jake had misread the situation.
Ian Taggart stood in the center of the room, his arms across his massive chest. He might have let his hair grow out, but he still looked every inch the Lieutenant Commander of a Green Beret team. He hadn’t been in command of Jake and Adam’s team. That had been his brother, Sean, but there was enough military discipline ingrained into Jake’s brain that Ian’s stance had him at attention.
“What’s up, chief?” Adam had always had a bit of trouble with authority. Where Ian’s anger would make Jake more professional, it would bring out Adam’s sarcasm.
Jake sent Adam a stare. It was Jake’s “let me handle this” look. “I take it this is about the Serena Brooks case? We were planning on presenting it to the group in the morning.”
It was nothing less than the truth. He had all the notes on his laptop. He’d intended to go over everything later in the evening after he’d burned off some of his anger. He’d intended to run all of Serena’s information and have a perfectly polished PowerPoint presentation for the morning meeting. He’d planned on recommending that they take the case and then have Liam handle the whole thing.
He hated getting blindsided.
“Derek Anderson saved my life and the lives of three of my men, giving his own in the process. He was under my charge in Afghanistan. He was my responsibility. His sister was his only family. I owe her. She has asked me to do one thing in ten years. One fucking thing. She asked me to take care of her client who is being stalked and harassed. She asked me to take care of a single female in a professional fashion. Do you want to explain to me what the problem is?” No one in the whole world could ice over words the way Ian Taggart could.
“She did come in early,” Eve pointed out. “Not a one of us knew what was going on. You might have at least let Grace in on the situation.”
“I sent her an e-mail.”
Grace frowned, obviously not allowing Ian’s tone to intimidate her in the least. “Which I got about thirty minutes after Serena Brooks ran out of the office. Don’t you try to pin this one on me. I handled it the best way I knew how. The minute I found out she was dealing with a stalker, I called in Jake and Adam. They’re the close contact guys. They’re the only ones here who can do twenty-four seven since you put Liam on the Black case.”
Ian’s mouth turned down. “Well, the last information I have is that the bastard is in Europe. Liam has better contacts there than anyone else.”
“And I’ve contacted them. Now all we can do is be patient. But the big bastard here doesn’t do patient well. I can handle more than one case at a time. Especially when all I’m really required to do is keep my ear to the ground,” Liam complained.
Alex sat back in his chair, his hand scrubbing across his face. “I can handle it, especially if Liam can back me up.”
“Not the way we can,” Adam interjected. “And you have that corporate case you’re working on.”
Ian held out a hand and everyone shut up. “I always meant to put Jake and Adam on the case. Jake and Adam handle close contact, Eve profiles the asshole, and Liam can be the backup. From what I can tell, the cops assume this is a domestic dispute and are trying to stay out of it.”
Eve sat forward. The former FBI profiler pinned Ian with a stare. “Why do they think her husband is involved? Is there a history of violence? Do we have a file on him?”
Alexander McKay passed her a file folder. “I pulled together what I could after I talked to Ian. I knew you would be interested in this particular case. This is personal, more up your alley.”
Her warm brown eyes turned to her ex-husband. Jake didn’t know why the couple had broken up, but there was no doubting that they still cared. There was also no doubt that there was a wall between them. As Eve’s hand went for the file, she carefully avoided contact.
“What was your take on the husband?” Eve asked, her eyes sliding away from Alex’s.
Alex cleared his throat and sat up straighter, his usual professionalism back in full form. “I’m not half the profiler you are. I would rather you formed your own opinions. And he’s her ex-husband. They divorced years ago. He filed. She didn’t contest it.”