Page 55 of One Night with the Forbidden Princess (Monteverre Marriages 1)

What the hell was Huisman doing here? Huisman was one of the people they were gathering intel on. Well, Tasha and the team were gathering intel on. The man wasn’t supposed to walk into his suite with Ian Taggart.

Why had he gone to Taggart in the first place? “I don’t understand. If you think I’m in some sort of danger, why wouldn’t you come to me?”

Tasha walked past Huisman, taking a place at Dare’s side, her hand sliding into his. “That’s an excellent question. I’d also like to know how he found my boss.”

“Your boss?” Huisman seemed confused for a moment and then he shook his head, his expression clearing. “Yes. Mr. Taggart is your boss. Of course. I wasn’t aware you were in his employ.”

Taggart’s eyes narrowed. “You know.”

Huisman flushed. “I know many things, but I would never blurt them out. I understand the delicate nature of your work and that you might want to keep your relationships private. And that is all we need to say about that. I told you, Mr. Taggart, I’m here to help you. I have no intention of obstructing your investigation. Not when I’ve recently discovered how dangerous Mr. Oakley is.”

“I don’t understand what’s going on.” Dare didn’t want to admit that fact, but he couldn’t stand being in the dark. Something had turned. He could feel it. A simple op had gotten extremely dangerous.

“Is our Canadian friend here?” Ian asked.

“He’s on the balcony. He can’t hear us,” Tasha replied and then turned Dare’s way, her voice going low. “I think what my father is trying to say is Dr. Huisman knows about our relationship. And I find that interesting.”

“As I stated, I have a connection to your family,” Huisman reiterated.

Ian crossed his arms over his broad chest. “A man who worked for me a long time ago was there the day his father was killed.”

“Owen Shaw did not kill my father, though I know he had reason to,” Huisman explained. “It was a man named Levi Green who murdered my father as I watched from the staircase. However, as I grew older I must admit to a fascination with everything that happened that day. I needed to understand, so I studied everyone who was there and who had a hand in shaping the day that shaped me. It led me to Shaw and his wife, Dr. Rebecca Walsh, and then to McKay-Taggart.”

“Apparently Dr. Huisman has made a study of our whole family.” And Ian Taggart wasn’t amused by that fact.

“I know your connections to the CIA and I would have happily left it all alone if not for two events,” Huisman explained. “I discovered Auggie Oakley isn’t the man I thought he was, and I figured out that Benjamin Parker infiltrated your group and his goal would be to poison you against me.”

“Why would he do that?” Dare asked. It was pretty much exactly what Ben had done, but it looked like Tash and her dad weren’t giving away information they didn’t need to, and he was going to go along with it. They were the experts.

Even as he said the words, he heard the door to the balcony opening and he turned.

“What the hell is he doing here?” Ben stood in the doorway that led to the balcony, a stark look on his face. “Dare, why did you let him in? I told you. He’s not who he seems to be.”

A long sigh came from Huisman. “Benjamin. It’s been a while.”

“Not long enough.” Ben stalked into the room.

Nate followed behind him, moving in close to Dare and Tasha. Dare wanted to tell Nate to protect Tash because suddenly this felt like a dangerous situation. There was an almost palpable hate coming off Ben. Huisman watched him with wary eyes.

“I believe I told you Manny is a dangerous person. This should prove it to you,” Ben said, crossing his arms over his chest. “He has connections you can’t imagine. I would bet he found you. Have you asked yourself how that happened? Unless you went to him.”

Taggart frowned, and it was easy to see how tense the man was. He was walking a fine line, trying not to give away names and ties and dots that Ben could connect. “I did not.”

Huisman frowned his way, but there was an almost sympathetic feel to the expression. “I have security, too, Ben. You made certain I needed it. When I found out you were likely here in Sydney, I asked my security team to check into everyone around Mr. Nash, and that led me to discover the Agency was in town. I suspected you were behind that, and I called in some favors so I could talk to the head of the team myself.”

Ben nodded as though the doctor had made his point. “You mean you called your cronies, the politicians you own.”