Read Online Three the Hard Way by Sydney Croft - Free Book Online Page A

wall and dragged his warm tongue up his throat, and his defenses had taken another hit. Justice had owned him at that moment, and he’d known it.
    Justice had to have known it too.
    “Good to know,” Ian said casually, but there was a note of anger in his voice that Tag hadn’t heard before. “Come to Tag’s rescue, and get paid with sex.”
    “Takes balls for a Seducer to criticize sex as currency.” Tag struck his mark again, and this time, the hurt remained in Ian’s expression. Good. Bastard deserved it.
    “I’m sorry.” There was an emotional hitch in Ian’s voice that Tag had never heard. “It’s just . . .” He swallowed. “I’ve never been jealous before.”
    Tag thought his eyes might bug out of his head. “Jealous? You have no right to be jealous.”
    Turning suddenly, Ian banged his fist against the side of the building, and the metallic echo bounced around in the frigid air. This was as angry as Tag had ever seen the normally unflappable man. Tag supposed it could be an act, a Seducer game, but what would Ian have to gain from showing a bit of temper?
    Ian tested the strength of the metal with his fist again. “No right to be jealous? You think I don’t know that?” Ian wheeled around to face him again. “But what I know and what I feel are two different things, and seeing you with Justice . . . it was like taking a bullet. And you know what the really fucked-up thing about it was? I wanted to kill him, but I knew doing that would hurt you.”
    “Yeah, you’re a real stand-up guy, caring for my feelings like that,” Tag muttered, and this time when he saw the pain in Ian’s eyes, he actually felt guilty. The worst part of it was that he wanted to grab Ian by his shoulders, haul him up against him, and kiss away the hurt. Maybe if he did that, his own pain would ease.
    Except it wouldn’t. It hadn’t worked with Justice. He’d kissed him. Touched him. Made him come.
    And now Tag felt worse than ever.
    Somehow, Ian knew. He always did. “Justice shouldn’t have said what he did.”
    Tag closed his eyes, but the darkness behind his lids didn’t hide the truth. “Justice was right. It’s my fault our mothers are dead.”
    Ian blew out a long breath. “Knowing what you know now, would you have joined ACRO with Justice to protect your parents?”
    Swallowing, Tag opened his eyes. “Yeah. I’d have done anything to keep them safe.”
    “Then let it go.” Ian’s voice was low, soothing, and Tag found himself drifting toward him, had to force himself to stop. “You couldn’t have known. It wasn’t your fault.”
    “Justice thinks it is. No wonder it was so easy for him to leave me—” He broke off as the horrible truth blindsided him.
    Suddenly, Justice leaving Tag all those years ago made sense. Yeah, Justice had always wanted to join ACRO, and maybe he would have eventually, even if Tag’s plan for college and normal jobs and a normal life had panned out.
    But instead, Itor had found them. Killed their mothers. And it was all Tag’s fault. Of course Justice had wanted to break all ties with the person responsible—ACRO had just given him the means to do it.
    Oh, God. He wanted to throw up.
    The guilt over their mothers’ deaths had always haunted Taggart, even if he hadn’t wanted to acknowledge it, but the idea that Justice thought the same, that he’d actually abandoned Tag because of it . . . Jesus. Tag should have known, should have seen it, but somehow, he’d never let himself go there. That would have meant he’d lost Justice for nothing. Every drop of pain he’d experienced would have been laid at his own feet.
    I’m not only responsible for the deaths of our mothers, but I’m responsible for Justice leaving me, too .
    “Justice is wrong,” Ian insisted. “And if he doesn’t come around, he’s an idiot.”
    “Don’t,” Tag growled. “Justice is a lot of things, but he’s not an idiot.”
    Ian sauntered over, halting within reach. Not long ago, Ian