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It was good to know he wasn’t the only one his mother treated like a child.

Maybe it was time to accept that the worry came with the love.

He would worry about sending Nina to deal with the spy. Yes, she was competent and capable, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t worry. “All right. Know that I promise to be careful. Dad, you’ve had time to think about this. Do you have any ideas who this could be? I know the list of suspects, but I have trouble believing any of them would steal this way.”

“You’re too trusting,” his father replied. “Honestly, it could be any one of them. I would hate to find out it’s Deanna, but she lied about being in Houston.”

“There could be reasons for that,” he countered.

“I don’t understand the appeal.” His mother shook her head and walked over to the small bar. She poured two glasses. “She’s a harpy.”

“Yes, so JT doesn’t have to be.” His dad frowned as his mom passed one glass to JT and kept the other for herself. “If Michael had taken his place in the company, he could have been the bad guy. Someone has to be.”

“Good god, are we on this again?” Michael walked into the room, straight past JT to the booze.

“Hey, son,” his dad began.

“Nope.” Michael poured out a single glass. “I’m way more scared of Mom than you, and has anyone considered the fact that I didn’t go into the family business because I was tired of always being the bad guy? Also, I never considered myself the bad guy. I was the rational, logical guy. When you think about it, it all worked out because Deanna loves to be the bad guy. She’s good at it. As for her being our spy, I doubt it. I know my initial instinct is that I don’t like her so it’s probably her, but she’s been loyal to the company.”

“She didn’t have a reason to be in Houston,” his mother pointed out.

But he could think of a few. “Have we checked to see if she interviewed with any of our competitors?” It was something he’d been pondering since the moment he’d realized her name was on that list. Houston was the headquarters of many an oil and natural gas company. “She’s getting impatient. When she started with me, she told me her five-year plan was to move into management. It’s been seven years and I haven’t moved her where she should be for the simple fact that I need her. She does exactly what you said she does. She’s a brick wall between me and the hard decisions.”

“Well, I never said she wasn’t smart.” His father frowned at him. “You need to find a place for her. She’s valuable and she knows the business every bit as well as you do.”

“I can’t stand that woman.” His mother took a long swallow, proving she’d learned how to drink like a true Texan.

“You don’t have to like her to admit she’s effective.” He couldn’t see this being Deanna, though she had set a PI on him. “She hired a PI to follow me.”

Michael huffed a laugh. “She doesn’t need a PI to track you. No one does. Deanna was tracking Nina. She’s trying to prove she’s not who she says she is. And she isn’t, so that’s a problem. Tag is probably talking to Nina right now about the fact that we’ve got a real pro looking into her cover.”

His gut tightened. “Another investigator?”

Michael shook his head. “Another spy. Likely the one we’re dealing with, the man who’s planning on turning over your prototype to North Korea.”

The one who had probably killed Bill. He was looking into Nina.

Michael pointed his way. “This. That right there. That’s why I think you should back out of this op. You think it’s becauseI’m worried you’ll fuck it up, and you’re right. But you’re wrong about the why. I don’t think you’re incapable. I think you’re in too deep with Nina and that will put you both in danger.”

“In too deep?” His mother had perked up considerably. “With that lovely British girl?”

“She’s hardly a girl, and this is none of Mike’s business.” The last thing he needed was his mom to start getting visions of grandbabies in her head. He was trying not to scare Nina off.

“It is exactly my business since she’s my team member,” Michael insisted.

“I thought you never met her.”

“That doesn’t mean she’s not on my team. I know this business, brother. It can be hard to have a partner in danger, much less someone you have a romantic attachment to.”

“Romantic attachment?” His mother had forgotten about the Scotch. “I thought you only met her recently.”

“A man knows when it’s right,” his father declared, reaching for her hand. “I knew the minute I met your momma that I would marry her. Where’s my future daughter-in-law? I want to see her.”

JT sent his brother a stare that he hoped properly expressed how much he wanted to murder him. “I wasn’t planning on telling them Nina and I are seeing each other.”

“Are you? Does she know?” his father asked.

“How can she not know?” His mother had taken his father’s hand, as though awaiting some tragedy. “JT, you have to tell women you like them. You can’t expect them to read your mind. Flowers work.”