Page 27 of Recovering Ivy (Red Team #4)

Fuck, that was a kick to the stomach having to admit weakness to my brother.

“If Ivy is who you think she is to you, you don’t have to know how to do it.

She’ll pull it from you. You’ll know she’s the one when you have her in your arms and the outside world ceases to exist. Everything falls away and the ache in your soul is soothed.

Don’t fight it; there’s so much more than all of this,” he said as he motioned around the room.

“You’ve proven yourself, Zane. You did it.

You took the poor kid from the trailer park, dusted the dirt off, and made a name for yourself; one that men admire and enemies fear.

But none of what you’ve accomplished means jack shit if you’re not happy.

Let the past go.” He didn’t wait for me to answer.

He stood and started for the door before he turned back and finished.

“Jasmin has four more weeks of working. I’d appreciate you having my six on that. ”

“Roger that,” I answered.

“And I want nieces and nephews and cousins for my kids. I want to give my children what we didn’t have.

That includes an uncle that is present in their lives.

You’re all I have outside of Jasmin and it’s been fucking killing me watching you abuse yourself.

I love you, big brother, but it’s time you get your head out of your ass. ”

Fuck. I had no idea Linc had been worried about me.

I honestly thought he’d been so wrapped up in Jasmin he hadn’t noticed.

The last two years since Russia had been a shit show.

Jasmin healing had been my concern. She’d held up like a fucking champ while Russian prison guards had tortured her.

She refused to give them the intel they were after.

There was a point I thought the two of us were going to die in that room, and as my life passed by I didn’t have any regrets.

At least I hadn’t thought I had, but that was before I knew the feel of Ivy’s presence.

If we had died that day, I would have gone to my grave never knowing the love of a good woman.

“She’s the one,” I blurted out before Linc could close the door. “She makes me want to be a better man, one that my family can be proud of.”

“We already are.” He looked back at me with a gleam in his green eyes and I knew the heart-to-heart was over. “I do expect to be the best man. And I want my sister-in-law’s ass planted at my table for dinner one of these nights.”

Fucker.

“I’ll see what I can do.”

Linc left and I remembered Colin wanted to talk to me before Declan and I left to check Forester’s warehouse.

When I entered my office, he was sitting on the couch with his jaw clenched tight, thumbing through an open file on the table in front of him. When he saw me enter, he quickly shut the file with more force than was necessary.

“What’s that?” I asked, gesturing toward the file while I took a seat in the chair next to him.

“We’ve got a problem,” he answered.

Of course, we fucking did. Was it too early in the day to start drinking?

“What kind of problem?” I reached my hand out and waited for him to hand me the file.

He reluctantly placed the file in my hand but didn’t let go. “These go no further than us. No one, not even the team, sees these.”

“Alright. ”

He let go and I opened the file and immediately closed it after a brief glance at the image inside.

“Where the fuck did you get these?” I growled.

A problem? This wasn’t a problem; it was a goddamn cluster fuck.

“The camera of the man I caught following Erin.”

He was referring to Erin Anderson, the first daughter.

The daughter of Tom Anderson, the President of the United States.

He’d uttered her name as if the photographs I held in my hand wouldn’t cause a firestorm even I wouldn’t be able to stop.

Tom Anderson was a man you didn’t cross.

He was a firm but fair man, except when it came to his family.

Photographs of his daughter naked was sure to make him see red.

“Motherfucking son of a bitch. When?”

“Two days ago.”

“How bad is it?”

Colin had been playing babysitter to Erin at the President’s request for months.

So far, the reports were coming back that Tom was being an overprotective father and Erin just wanted a little freedom.

Something the President should understand, considering he ditched his secret service detail more than any modern president.

“I thought I’d gotten through to her. When you guys went to Africa with Violet, I had a come to Jesus talk with Erin about her slipping her detail.

I reminded her about what happened to Olivia and how that did not end well for her.

She was taking ridiculous chances with her safety, ditching her protection detail more and more. It stopped for a while.”

Christ! I’d thought Tom was being over the top when he’d asked if Colin and Leo could stay behind and follow Erin.

It seems he was right to worry. Even as far back as when Olivia, Erin’s best friend, was taken, he was worried about Erin.

The first daughter traipsing around town unprotected and now being photographed could pose a threat to national security.

“What changed?”

“I told her no.”

“What?” I wasn’t racking how Colin telling Erin no would lead to someone getting pictures of Erin.

“She kissed me. More like a fucking sneak attack. I stopped her and explained all the reasons she was off-limits to me. She didn’t like my answer.

I mean, really didn’t fucking like it; she threw a goddamn lamp at me and called me a coward.

Before she left, she said there were plenty of men who’d love to fuck her.

I warned her spoiled ass not to do it. She told me I had no right to tell her who she could fuck; then this happened.

A goddamned charity event, with her personal detail at the event.

One second, she was dancing in her fancy ass dress in the ballroom, the next I couldn’t find her.

Her detail didn’t know where she went. I checked the perimeter and the guesthouse.

Some fuck stick had his camera pointed in the window and caught her getting undressed. ”

I blew out a breath and wasn’t sure where to begin.

Erin was for all intents and purposes an adult aside from someone photographing the exchange, she could indeed have sex with who she wanted.

Tom would be pissed as any father would I suppose, but Colin was angrier than a man who’d been given the slip by the person he was in charge of protecting.

There was something going on there and I didn’t want to know what that something was.

The pictures were the issue I needed to concentrate on.

“Any more photographs floating around?” I asked.

“There better not be,” he barked before he tried to relax.

“ Not that I’ve found. The photographer ran after I took his camera.

I didn’t bother going after him. When I got into the room where Erin was, I told her to get dressed, grabbed the guy’s cell phone, and took her home.

His phone was clean, so they hadn’t taken any pictures. ”

“And Erin? Where is she now?”

“When I left the White House, Gerald was sitting on her.”

“What does Tom want you to do? And has he seen these?” I asked and held up the file.

“Fuck no, I didn’t show him those. I don’t think either of us want to see him impeached and charged with murder. He wants me back in DC to babysit.”

I watched Colin closely. He was the most laid back, earning him the nickname Cool Breeze. But he didn’t look laid back now; he looked conflicted.

“Jesus Christ, this is a shit sandwich. Do you want me to send in Declan so you don’t have to deal with her?

I’m sure she’ll fixate on him in no time and you’ll be off the hook.

Hell, Dec hasn’t been laid in years, being undercover and all.

Maybe he can tame her ass so she doesn’t feel the need to run out and get some strange… ”

“Don’t fucking say it, LT. Swear to Christ, I’ve had it with the woman. She’s driving me crazy. The last thing she needs to do is fuck Declan…”

“Who shouldn’t fuck me?” Declan asked, walking in on Colin’s outburst.

“No one,” Colin seethed. “I’ll go back up to DC this afternoon if you don’t need me on the Forester case.”

I almost felt sorry for the guy. Erin had him tied in knots.

I wished I could tell him to go for it; he obviously cared for her.

The line between lust and hate was razor thin, and I didn’t think Colin knew which side he fell on.

Unfortunately for him, Erin was the President’s daughter.

I didn’t think Tom would take kindly to one of my men banging his beloved little girl.

“You good?” I asked.

“Five by five,” he answered.

There was nothing fine about him. I wondered if I should call and brief the President about Erin’s infatuation with Colin, but I thought better of it. Better to let the chips fall where they may.