Mark Vincent has risen from senior special agent to Director of Interior Affairs in the WBIS. Lately, life has been sweet for him -- in addition to his promotion, he's found a partner in Quinton Mann, who can almost match his ability in the intelligence field, in spite of the fact Quinn's CIA. Mark has also found a condo in Alexandria with the help of Portia Mann, Quinn's mother, and it's closer to Quinn's town house than Mark's present apartment. Sweetest of all, Mark plans to take Quinn to his island in the Caribbean for the holidays.<br><br>Quinn's glad he has the holiday with Mark to look forward to -- something is going on at Langley, and he feels he's being kept out of the loop. To make matters even worse, useless missions and sleepless nights filled with nightmares are leaving him exhausted. But then his mother's life if threatened, and Quinn discovers the accident that resulted in her hospitalization was no accident. The obsessively self-absorbed Senator Wexler is involved, and while Quinn considers himself a civilized man, now he's out for blood.<br><br>Up until this point, Mark has stayed out of Quinn's CIA business. But hurting Quinn and those he loves isn't a smart move, and Mark has every intention of seeing Wexler pays. Quinn demands to come along, and while Mark isn't happy, he finally agrees, and they set out together to deal with the senator. There's just one catch: this will be the first time Quinn sees Mark at his deadly best, and Mark isn't sure how his lover will react.

Forever

“In that case I don’t suppose it’ll help to ask for a room away from all the noise.” Mark gave a rueful grin, the epitome of the good old boy, and I waited to hear what kind of story he would tell. “Ol’ Danny Boy here, he needs his rest. Five kids, all under five.” He leaned an elbow on the counter and said in a conspiratorial tone, “His old lady was supposed to pop out their fifth this weekend, today, as a matter of fact, and we didn’t think we’d be able to make it, but she surprised us by having it last week.”


I coughed, an attempt to conceal my amusement at the very large family I had suddenly acquired, and Mark gave me a bland stare and continued.


“Her mother was supposed to come take care of the kids while Nell was in the hospital, but she got tied up at home, and we weren’t sure…. And then on top of that, we really had to scramble to get tickets.”


“Our seats are in the nosebleed section,” I added helpfully.


The clerk looked confused. “But the arena isn’t—”


Chapter 129