“Since when do you care about my love life?”
Michael grinned. He’d had a whole bunch of tequila. “Since you actually have one. Also, if you don’t want her, I’ll take her. She’s hot and I think she might be able to handle my momma. My momma looks sweet on the outside, but she’s mean. Don’t let that upper-crust British accent fool you. She’s got the Southern momma thing down. Many a woman has run from her. And I get shot way more than I like to think about. So skill with a medical kit is a real plus when it comes to looking for a bride.”
Yeah, all his friends would be after his girl. Damn, but that felt good. This time there were no lies between them. This time the only thing between them was his distorted view of her. He’d thought about it the whole time he’d cleaned up. As he rolled up bodies in tarps and mopped up blood, he’d given careful consideration to why he’d pushed her away in the first place.
She was rich and he wasn’t. She’d had a fiancé who looked like he fit more into her world than Case did.
That lawyer boy likely couldn’t handle Mia. And her world seemed to be a much more fucked up place than he’d imagined.
It was time to let go of his past. He wasn’t the poor kid from the other side of the tracks anymore. So what if she had more money than he did? Why the hell would that matter? If Drew Lawless wanted to think he was a gold digger, Case didn’t care. Now he couldn’t remember why he’d thought he cared in the first place. It was Theo. He’d been so lost without his brother. If Theo had been alive when he’d met Mia, he would have spanked her lying ass, slapped a collar around her throat, and dragged her off like a caveman without any thought to what her brothers would think of him.
He came from a long line of men born with very few fucks to give.
“I’m afraid she’s mine, Michael,” he said, glancing into the cockpit and catching a glimpse of her. She had headphones on and seemed to be swaying to some music.
Hutch looked up from his computer. “Told you he wasn’t that stupid.”
Case had no idea what they were talking about. “Stupid?”
“Michael thought you were a dumbass to let her go in the first place. All that ‘she lied to me’ and ‘she’s just a rich little princess who can’t handle a real man’ shit was just a big old front because you’ve never had a girlfriend before,” Hutch explained.
“I’ve had girlfriends.” It wasn’t like he was a virgin or anything.
“You’ve had Hooters girls,” Michael corrected. “You’ve had chicks you banged for a few months and didn’t think about them outside of banging, and the minute they started to get serious you would apply for the most dangerous duty in the world just to get away from them.”
“That was about protecting my country.” He definitely hadn’t taken that assignment in Fallujah for fun. Though he had to admit, it did get him away from a clingy hookup.
“That was about protecting your ass,” Michael shot back. “I’ve worked with you most of my adult life, Taggart. I see through you. You’ve always needed a woman who can set you on your ass. Soft and sweet wasn’t ever going to do it for you.”
But Mia could be soft and sweet when she wanted to. She could care. Mia might be the exact right mixture of crazy bitch and sweet sub he needed.
“This is exactly what I’m saying,” Fain interrupted. “You care about that woman. So I want to know why you’re letting her go through with this. You do realize she could have been killed.”
He knew that. It would likely haunt his dreams for a while. He would see Mia walking out of her hiding place like a sacrificial lamb, offering herself up to save his friends.
“He knows exactly what happened here,” Hutch snorted. “And he’s not letting her go through with whatever crazy assignment she’s on. Trust me. We’ll land in Colombia and he’ll throw her over his shoulder and haul her straight back to Texas. He’ll tie her up and do some nasty shit to her. I’ve already found a company who can turn this plane around in an hour. I’m still working on what to do with the bodies. Might be easier to leave them in Colombia, but you know Big Tag likes a present every now and then.”
“He’s not planning on turning around,” Fain said with surety.
Fain was sharp.
“Of course he is.” Michael sat back. “He’ll have her under lock and key until he figures out who tried to kidnap her and why. But we’re not going to tell her that. That honey can be a little mean. We’ve got to sneak up on her. Then we’ll rope her and take her down. You think she’s got a sister?”