The Taggarts had done well for themselves. She found herself walking by what Charlotte called the main conference room. It had glass walls, and she could see Beck sitting there with Ian, Alex McKay, and Liam O’Donnell. She didn’t let herself stare at him, but she noticed that Roman waved at his dad.
“This is lovely, Charlotte,” Ezra said. “It’s a nice place to work. And I thank you for my room at the club. It’s got everything I could need. And I deeply appreciate the bible. I had to leave mine behind.”
Charlotte gave him a warm smile. “If you need anything else, Father, please don’t hesitate to ask. I wish I could send you to church. I truly do, but it’s dangerous right now.”
“Don’t tell anyone because I might get fired for saying this, but God doesn’t need us to be in church to hear our prayers,” Ezra replied.
She would have to find some time to ask him about the club later on. Her level of curiosity was high given she was due to go to Sanctum in a few days.
“Well, that’s the basic tour. I’d like to talk to Solo for a couple of minutes before we join Beck in the conference room,” Charlotte said. “Roman, I think they’re about to have a midmorning snack in the kids’ club. And then they’re doing a pretty cool science experiment.”
“Really?” Roman asked.
Charlotte nodded. “Yes. I told the teachers that you love science, and they thought you might help them make volcanoes today.”
“I love volcanoes. Let’s go.” Roman dropped off his uncle’s back.
Ezra took his hand. “I’ll go sign him in and meet you back here.”
She kissed Roman’s forehead. “I’ll be here all day.”
Roman nodded and strode away without looking back.
“He’ll be fine,” Charlotte said, stepping into the hallway. “Come with me for a minute. I want to show you your office.”
That was a surprise. “I have an office?”
“Well, you didn’t think I was going to let you sit at home, did you? You’re Solo. I can use you here. I know you haven’t done Agency work in a long time, but I would bet your instincts are still good.”
“I do have some work to do on Levi.” It would be nice to have an office, to get out of the house every once in a while.
“Yes, I’m sure you’ll do that, but I’d like your thoughts on a couple of open cases we have.”
“I’m not a private eye.”
“No, you’re better,” Charlotte insisted. She stopped in front of an office. “This is you. Beck is across the hall. I don’t have an office with a window right now.”
She was used to working in the shadows. “I don’t need a window. Just a laptop and Internet access.”
Charlotte’s nose wrinkled. “Oh, we do better here. We’ll talk about redecorating to your specifications later. I recently did Beck’s office if you’d like to see it.”
Without waiting for an answer Charlotte opened the door, and she couldn’t contain her curiosity. She walked into the place where Beck had worked for the last seven years. It was funny because she’d never seen him in an office. He’d been in the field most of the time she’d known him. She would have said he would hate being stuck in an office, and any work space he had would be utilitarian because Beck liked the adrenaline of being out in the field. Even after he’d left the Agency, he’d taken the first dangerous job he could find—guarding the Lost Boys.
His home had been fairly utilitarian. Not that it wasn’t nice, but it lacked the comfort of décor and plants and pictures. Not so with his office. His office was beautifully masculine, with a big dark wood desk and elegant bookshelves that contained a combination of fiction and reference books.
“When he takes a break, he tends to read,” Charlotte said. “He always volunteers to work late if we need someone here at the office. I think he spends way more time here than he should, but then he’s been lonely.”
Charlotte could clear up something she’d been thinking about for days. “He really hasn’t dated? He told me he hasn’t…been in a relationship since we were last together.”
Charlotte’s eyes lit up like she loved to gossip, though Kim rather thought she would only do it in the kindest ways. “Beck goes to the club and he’ll scene, but that scene never involves sex. I’ve known some Doms who won’t have sex with subs, but Beck won’t even get one off, if you know what I mean. Sorry. I’m not sure how into the lifestyle you are.”
“I’m not completely ignorant,” she admitted as she strolled around his office. There was a warmth to it she hadn’t expected. As though Beck was at home here and his actual home was merely a place to sleep and eat. “And I’m sure you’ll find out that he’s bringing me on Friday. We have a bargain, he and I.”
Those eyes lit up even brighter. “You have a sex bargain? Because those are the best bargains. It’s harder when you have kids, but trust me, you can make it work.”
She let her eyes roam across the books on his shelves. He still liked reading historical books and thrillers, but it looked like he’d added in a bunch of self-help books, and that didn’t seem like the Beck she knew. A lot of them seemed to deal with anger. “He thinks I’ll forget all the years before if I spend three months with him. But I have to do it quietly because I don’t want to confuse Roman.”
“Like I said, kids are resilient when they’re loved,” Charlotte said.
“Mom?” A teenaged girl
