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She almost prayed they ended up taking Michael with them. If they managed to convince JT to go through with the mission, she would have to hold hands with him and look like they were in love.

It would be torture.

“I’ll take the smaller bedroom.” At least they were in a ridiculously large suite and she had options.

“You can have the master,” JT replied.

“Thank you.” She turned away because she wasn’t about to argue.

JT staredout over the lights of Dallas and tried to find any beauty at all in them. It was three in the morning and he hadn’t found a second of peace since that moment when he’d realized someone was trying to kill him and that person might get Nina instead. It was hard to believe he’d stood in this same spot mere days before and thought it was the most beautiful place in the world. But then Nina had been here with him.

“I would tell you to move away from the exposed window anyone could snipe you from, but I suspect you wouldn’t hate that at this point,” a familiar voice said.

He wished the voice wasn’t so familiar but was at least relieved it wasn’t Tag. He turned from the floor-to-ceiling windows with a sigh and took in Alex McKay, who was down to his slacks, undershirt, and socks. The sight of McKay’s gun in a shoulder holster reminded him why McKay was here, and it wasn’t simply to avoid stinky diapers. “Sorry. I’ll keep away from the window, though I don’t see how anyone could get me this high.”

McKay glanced out. “I’ve got four perches I could use, and then there are always helicopters, though those will give you a bit of a warning. You would be surprised how many people don’t take a good warning though.”

“Yeah, I got that.” He crossed to the bar and poured himself a Scotch. It was his first since Nina had looked at him with wounded eyes. He’d forced himself to stay away from it because he’d needed to think. He was tired of thinking. Thinking got him nowhere. Thinking had left him with nowhere to sleep. “Tag kick you out of bed?”

McKay chuckled and sat down at the bar. “His snoring sure did. Let me tell you I do not miss having to share a room with the big bastard. When we first started the company years ago we did it on a shoestring budget and had to share hotel rooms, and they did not always have two beds. The funny thing is he’scompletely silent when we’re on surveillance. I swear that man can sleep with his eyes open and not make a sound. But when he’s comfortable, he can scare off an elephant. I don’t know how Charlie does it.”

“It’s good that he’s so comfortable. I could have been comfortable if he’d kept his mouth shut.” Nina hadn’t given up on him until Tag had outed his tiny omission of truth.

Alex slid him a sidelong glance. “I doubt that. I don’t know what conversation you were having last night, but it was not going well.”

“I could have saved it. I could have made her understand, but Tag had to open his mouth. I tell you I was disappointed. I kind of thought we were friendly. I didn’t expect he would out me like that to Nina.” It had bugged him all night. She never had to know how they’d met. It didn’t change anything.

Alex chuckled and poured himself a couple of fingers of the excellent Scotch the hotel stocked for the Malones. “Oh, that didn’t surprise me at all. Look, Ian’s got a code and he’s got a bunch of circles with which he applies that code. And he would blow a whole lot of that code up if he thinks a guy is fucking a woman over.”

Then Tag didn’t know him at all. “I am not trying to hurt Nina. I am trying to keep her safe.”

“You started the relationship by lying to her. That was always going to come out. You’ve been lucky so far. I assure you at some point Genny would have asked Nina about you and it would have come out. But you can’t expect Ian to pick you in this fight. She’s his employee, and he takes that seriously. Also, I know Ian seems like he’s all about protecting the women, but half the time he’s got a woman watching his back. He’s kind of surrounded himself with badass women, and he doesn’t like it when they get marginalized.”

What the hell was Alex talking about? “I wasn’t marginalizing her. I was trying to put her first. That’s what I don’t get. I’m literally willing to give up millions of dollars so she can be safe and somehow I’m the bad guy.”

This was what he’d been up thinking about all night. He had no idea how he’d been on the losing side of this fight. He was putting her first, putting her above money, the company, hell, according to Tag and Alex, he was putting her above the country. He didn’t get what he’d done so wrong, why she’d looked at him like he’d torn her apart.

Alex’s expression turned slightly sympathetic. “I wouldn’t say bad guy exactly, but you’re definitely the asshole. You’ve been around Nina for a week now. I would assume you’ve talked to her. Or have you just spent time in bed?”

He’d spent more time with her in the last week than he’d spent with anyone in years. “Of course I’ve talked to her. I’ve gotten to know a lot about her. You might think I’m an asshole, but I care about her. I care about her more than I would have expected. Hell, I’ve spent days trying to figure out how to keep her here with me after this mission thing is over.”

“Then you should know about her last job.”

He sighed in pure frustration. The last thing he wanted to talk about was the asshole who’d gotten her fired from Interpol. “I’m not using her. I’m not lying to her to try to get something out of her. I know I didn’t tell her I knew who she was, but I saw her and I wanted her more than I’ve ever wanted a woman in my life. I asked myself why it mattered that we would be working together.”

“Then shouldn’t you have made that argument to her?” Alex asked.

He’d thought about this, too. “I didn’t want to risk it.”

Alex nodded as though that was exactly the answer he’d expected. “Then you lied to her because you wanted to manipulate her into doing something. Namely you.”

“It’s not the same.”

Alex took a short drink and seemed to savor the Scotch. “Okay. Well, then you’re in the right and she’s overreacting.”

JT sank onto the seat beside Alex. “That’s not what I’m saying either.”

“Then you should say what you mean to say.”