“What’s worse than a stuffy Brit?” Alex asked.
“Canadian,” Ian retorted. “With their politeness and weird bacon. I fear the Canadian more than any other.”
Charlotte was the one rolling her eyes now. “Can we cut the kid talk and focus on the actual Brit in our midst?”
Big Tag grinned. “Nina’s not stuffy. I heard she took her last bullet like a champ. Avoided the roofie the bad guy slipped into her tea but took one to the chest.”
“Well if I’d known he was going to shoot me, I would have had the tea,” she admitted and held up the wine she’d taken from one of their suspects. “Speaking of drinks, I’m not about to drink this. It’s probably fine, but once roofied, twice shy and all that.”
Charlotte took the glass from her. “I can find something for you. This house has a bar in almost every room. I’ve always liked the Malones. How is it going between you and JT?”
“We get along quite well,” she replied.
“How was the shopping?” Charlotte asked, expectation in her tone.
“It was fine. We’ve been three times this week. Apparently, I need a lot of clothes.” It had been paradise. Everywhere they’d gone the world had opened up and invited her in. Or rather JT. Back in London, she could barely get the bloke who ran the register at Tesco to look up from his phone. “We got everything we need for the retreat. Well, everything we need that we can get at a shopping mall. I assume Sandra and Hutch have all of our equipment, including my gun. I don’t want to take it with me in case security decides I look sketchy.”
Charlotte studied her for a moment and then sighed. “I hate it when Ian’s right.”
Ian smirked. “I told you she was into him.”
“I’m not into him.” She wasn’t about to tell the man she’d slept with the client all week.
Charlotte shook her head. “If you weren’t into him, you would have been more excited about the shopping. Unlike Alex and Eve, Ian and I have spent time with you. You flipped out when you got to escort that pop star around Harrods, and you didn’t even get to buy anything.”
It had been such fun to watch the young woman shop. She’d been bright and peppy and kind. She really should have enjoyed the shopping more, but every time they went to a store her mind had been on JT. “I’m not into him.”
“I wouldn’t be surprised if you were,” Eve said from her place next to her husband. “JT is one of the nicest men I’ve ever met. Knowing what I know about him and what I know about you, I would say you’re a decent match on paper.”
“I’m still confused about how we went from Nina going in as an assistant to fiancée. I get that she couldn’t go in as JT’s assistant, but fiancée is a big leap,” Alex said.
Ian waved that off. “I can tell you what happened. JT saw her and decided he wanted in her pants. Excuse me. Knickers. He got all flusterpated, and next thing you know they’re engaged. Is everyone buying it?”
“They seem to be,” Charlotte replied. “Ava is selling it, though you should know they’re talking about you being a gold digger.”
She shrugged. “That was inevitable. It’s good because at least they’re not talking about me being a former Interpol officer. Is my Nina Banks ID holding up?”
Big Tag seemed to get serious, and he crossed to the bar where he opened the bottle of Scotch. “So far it’s solid, but Adam is worried because someone used that name on the Deep Web. He’s got some contacts he keeps up, and someone is looking to break your cover. They don’t have anything yet, but it definitely goes beyond what the PI did. From what I can tell he ran a skip trace on you and spent that first afternoon tailing you. Has he followed you since?”
“I haven’t seen him again,” she promised. She didn’t like the idea that someone was going deeper. “It could ruin the whole op if they connect me to Interpol.”
“Yeah, well I have no one else to send in,” Tag said, offering her a glass. She took it. This one she would drink. “Everyone knows Charlie and Eve, and Erin was willing to go but Theo was a whiny manbaby.”
“She just gave birth, Ian,” Charlotte pointed out.
Big Tag’s lips quirked up. “Two weeks ago. She’s already bugging me to send her on assignment. You can’t keep that chick caged, but she’s got a problem. Unfortunately, despite his maternal nature, Theo can’t actually produce breast milk, though he’s got some solid B-cups after all that sympathetic eating.”
The women all frowned Tag’s way, but Alex had a solid laugh.
“Sorry,” Alex said in a not-sorry way. “Theo was insufferable. It makes me almost glad he was dead the first time around.”
Eve rounded on her husband. “Too soon, Alex. It will always be too soon to joke about that.”
Alex held his hands up like he was warding off an attack. “I said almost. Come on, angel. Theo’s been obnoxious. He was a walking, talking encyclopedia of pregnancy, and he lorded it over everyone. Like the rest of us haven’t been around pregnant women. I had to deal with your surprise pregnancy and we had an infant. There’s barely nine months between Hunter and Vivian.”
Eve’s lips curled up as she turned Nina’s way. “I didn’t think I could get pregnant so
