Stolen by Allison Brennan Page A

and too hard to put RCK in a position of importance, and he wasn’t going to let the whims of his little brother jeopardize a company that employed forty professionals, from computer wizards to bodyguards to security experts. They had a successful operation. Why didn’t Sean understand he couldn’t do whatever he wanted?
    There was a knock at Duke’s door.
    “Come in,” he said.
    It was Jaye Morgan, head of RCK’s IT department. Jaye was brilliant and gave Sean a run for his money. The only thing that Sean had on Jaye was confidence and speed.
    “I found something weird in the admin log.”
    “Weird how?”
    “I don’t know. I would have sent it to Sean, but—”
    “I’ll take a look. Thanks.”
    Jaye sat down, even though she wasn’t invited, and twirled her long brown hair around her finger. Nerves. Duke forgot sometimes how young Jaye was—she’d started working for them when she was nineteen. She was now twenty-seven.
    “Something else?” he asked, knowing what it was but hoping if he plastered his intimidating I’m too busy to talk expression on his face she wouldn’t ask.
    No such luck.
    “When’s Sean coming back?”
    “I don’t think he is.”
    “All you have to do is ask.”
    “It’s complicated.” More than a little complicated. “And even if I asked—which I’m not going to do—he doesn’t want to be here.”
    “Sean only wants to please you.”
    “That’s in the past.” Duke’s relationship with Sean had been difficult from the beginning. Sean had always been a borderline genius, but he ran wild when he was a parentless fourteen-year-old. Duke didn’t know how to control Sean, not when he could hot-wire cars as easily as he could hack into a bank. Duke had been twenty-five and should have been a brother more than a father. But he did the best he could with what he had. Liam and Eden had moved to Europe after their parents died, and Kane would never return home. Duke and Kane had started RCK with JT, but Kane’s specialty was foreign hostage rescue and he spent most of his time in Central America and Mexico. So it had just been Duke and Sean, and they seemed to constantly be in conflict.
    Duke had thought Sean had grown up. He’d fallen in love with a smart, driven woman. Duke had no doubt that Sean cared about Lucy, and until he did that job for Thayer, Duke had thought he’d never do anything to jeopardize the relationship. But Duke obviously didn’t know his brother. Or maybe he did know Sean, because he’d expected something like this.
    “I’m not saying it right.” Jaye grabbed more hair. It was going to be a knotted mess. “I mean, maybe Sean doesn’t know he can come back. Maybe you just need to open the door and say it’s okay and you forgive him.”
    “Jaye, I’m telling you this because you’re practically family. Sean crossed one of the few lines I have. He’s not going to admit he was wrong, and he can’t come back unless he not only admits it, but tells me how far he went over the line. Thayer is a criminal.”
    She frowned. “I guess—well—Sean always has a good reason for what he does.”
    Duke stared at her and said slowly, “Not this time.”
    Jaye obviously wanted to say more, but she left, the frown still clouding her face. Sean’s childish act of quitting had really strained relationships in the office. Some of the staff were relieved, because Sean always worked in the gray area and were nervous he would get RCK in trouble. And some of the staff felt a void, both personally and professionally. Sean was a charmer and had a lot of friends. They were practically in mourning. The staff who wanted Sean back and the staff who wanted him out created an unsettling friction.
    RCK was never going to be the same.
    The receptionist buzzed Duke. “What?” he snapped.
    “Special Agent Deanna Brighton with the Federal Bureau of Investigation is on the phone for you. She says it’s extremely important. I already tried to send her to JT, but she