CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
“When we run into Bogdan, remind me to tell him how much the guys and I appreciate him putting this cookout together,” Lennox said as Talia led him around the side of the main house and into the backyard where the tables and chairs were still being set up for the party. “This last week at work has been ridiculous and something like this is exactly what we need to get our mind off the craziness.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll remind you,” Talia said with a laugh as Maria and Beverly ran past them and straight for the dessert table.
Lennox eyed the various cakes, cupcakes, brownies, and cookies like he wouldn’t mind sampling one—or more—of them himself but acquiesced as Talia tugged him for a turn through the gardens—and a little privacy. While the two of them had spent a lot of time together over the two weeks since he’d rescued them on the ship, she knew there’d been some things he hadn’t been able to tell her. She hoped that would finally change now that the police investigation at the docks had been officially closed.
“Is your boss still mad about what you guys did at the dock?” she asked.
Lennox glanced over as his Teammates started arriving for the cookout. “Officially, no one from SEAL Team 5 was within ten miles of the docks that night so technically, there’s nothing he can do about it. Unofficially, Commander Hunt is mostly pissed that I didn’t let anyone else higher up the chain know about what was happening so they could help. He’s not thrilled that we ran a covert operation on our own, but he understands why we did it.”
“That doesn’t sound too bad,” Talia said, some of the weight that had been bearing down on her shoulders disappearing. She’d had visions of Lennox getting locked in the brig—if that was really a thing.
“Unfortunately, while SEAL Headquarters is ready to move on, the same can’t be said about the CIA,” he continued. “Joe Hawkins and Elliot Boyd are both screaming mad at the other guys and me. To no one’s surprise but the Agency’s, no one from Sentinel has attempted to re-establish contact with Bogdan, McDaniel, Fredrickson, or any of the other power players in town, and every lead they had on the terrorist organization has also gone stone cold. Needless to say, the CIA blames me for all of that. They couldn’t care less about the fact that we rescued you and Maria.”
Talia shook her head at that. The CIA hadn’t ever cared about her and Maria at all. They’d been more than ready to sacrifice the two of them—and Bogdan too—as long as it got them closer to Sentinel. The CIA was so obsessed with the terrorist organization that they’d put pressure on Detective Green to bury the investigation of Anna’s disappearance and downplay the attack on Talia. When Keller had shown up at the Rybak’s the other night, the CIA had even instructed Green to steer the investigation away from the man.
“What about Anna?” Talia asked as they walked by a beautiful bougainvillea bush with lush pink blooms. “Has anyone figured out how she was involved and how she came to be working for Fredrickson?”
Lennox started to answer but paused as Maria and Beverly ran past them, cookies in hand and giggling like only little kids could. For the hundredth time, Talia was thankful that Maria didn’t seem to have experienced any PTSD from that night on the ship. She was a remarkable child.
“To answer your question,” Lennox said, letting out a laugh as the kids ran along the colorful path, “Joe was more forthcoming with information than Boyd was. According to him, Anna was apparently an operative for Sentinel. He thinks she came here to scout out powerful families to collect information for the organization. With her cover as an au pair, she gained complete access not only to Fredrickson’s private office, but also several other members of his social group. She had mountains of blackmail dirt on their targets before she ever brought Keller in to be the muscle.”
“I suppose that makes sense,” Talia said as they continued walking. “But if Anna was playing the role of an au pair to get access to our employer’s homes, why involve the other au pairs and me? Why tell me about her plans to search Fredrickson’s office? Why did Keller chase me outside her apartment building? And why the convoluted scheme to make it look like Anna had left the country?”
Lennox shrugged. “Joe thinks Sentinel placed Anna with the Fredrickson family to get access to his worldwide shipping fleet. Once she had that, she turned to their second most valuable target—Bogdan. The only problem was, she couldn’t slip into the Rybak family as an au pair with you already there.”
“Wait…what?” Talia said, stopping to turn and look at Lennox. “Are you telling me that Anna was…?”
“Going to have you killed?” Lennox finished for her, looking torn even saying the words. “Yeah, based on everything Fredrickson told them, the CIA thinks Keller was supposed to kill you that night so Anna could take your place. Once in the Rybak household, Anna was supposed to find the information needed to ensure Bogdan’s full compliance. Apparently, they deemed him critical to their plans to get McDaniel’s genome sequencing computer into the port and out of the country.”
Talia’s head spun. After what happened on that ship, she’d come to accept that the Anna she’d known had been a complete fabrication. Still, as deceptive as the woman had been, it was mind-bending to believe she could be so cold-blooded as to hang out with Talia while plotting her death.
“Have Joe and the CIA figured out why Sentinel wanted that stupid computer?” Talia asked. “And if that’s all they wanted, why involve all those other people we saw at the meeting at the office building, like the politician and the crime boss?”
“Joe tried to imply otherwise, but I don’t think the CIA has a clue what Sentinel had planned for that computer or any of the other people. With both Keller and Anna dead, I don’t know if they’ll ever find out.”
“And you’re absolutely sure both of them are dead, right?” Talia asked.
They’d talked about this a half dozen times already, but she needed to hear it again.
“I put two bullets in Keller’s chest at close range and you shot him at least once more then he fell over a hundred feet into water that would have felt like concrete from that height,” Lennox said.
“But you said the CIA never found a body,” she pointed out.
He nodded. “I know. But with the currents that night, they feel confident it got carried out into the ocean.”
Talia supposed that was possible. “What about Anna?”
The woman wasn’t in the cargo hold when she, Lennox, and Maria got back down there.
“You saw how much blood there was in the cargo hold, down the ramp, and onto the dock. She might have gotten far enough for someone to pick her up, but she wouldn’t have lasted long after losing that much blood.”
She didn’t say anything. While Anna would have had no problem killing her, Talia wasn’t sure how she felt about doing the same to her.
As if he knew what she was thinking, Lennox wrapped his arms around her, holding her close. The feel of his body against hers was calming, and she knew she’d never regret the decision to be with him. No one had ever made her feel this safe. This cherished.
“You know, we can bail on the cookout if you want,” he said softly, his breath warm against the top of her head. “Head back to my place for the rest of the day and hang out.”
Talia smiled, tempted by the offer. Over the past couple weeks, she and Lennox had spent all their free time together, mostly at her cottage, but sometimes, at his place too. That would change soon though since he’d already moved most of his stuff into her place—with the Rybak’s blessing. After all Lennox had done for them, they practically considered him family. And Bogdan and Vera had already told her that they wanted her to stay on as Maria’s au pair after she started elementary school. They insisted it was so their daughter would always have someone there to keep an eye on her after classes and help with homework, but Talia thought it was equally likely they made the offer out of love and loyalty. Not that she was complaining. She loved them just as much. Vera was also encouraging her to go back to college and get her degree, even insisting that Bogdan would pay for it. Not only that, but they’d bought her a car so she wouldn’t need to keep taking public transportation. She’d tried to tell them that she couldn’t accept such generosity, but Bogdan and Vera wouldn’t hear of it. With all that going for her, she’d be silly not to stay.
“While I’d enjoy hanging out alone with you, it’ll have to be after the party,” she said, pulling away a little to smile up at him. “The cookout is a thank you to everyone who helped that night at the docks and we have as much to thank the guys for as the Rybaks. So we need to stay. For a little while, at least.”
“Okay, I see your point.” He gave her a quick kiss then slid his hand down to take hers. “Let’s go get some food and join the party.”
There were two dozen banquet tables filled with food and drink, and behind each of them were smiling servers ready to help. Besides the table of gourmet sliders, there was the pasta bar, a potato bar, and a pizza bar complete with every topping under the sun, including caviar. There was also a salad bar, though Talia noticed most of the SEALs ignored it. And at the very end of the buffet, there were two tables devoted to desserts. She helped herself to a slider, some salad, and a cupcake while Lennox helped himself to everything. She couldn’t help smiling—and wondering how he could eat like that and stay so fit. It was unfair.
“I see Darwin and Simon invited the rest of their platoon,” Talia said as they stopped by a roving server carrying a tray of iced teas before making their way over to the tables. “Are those the other guys who didn’t get selected for that special training you mentioned?”
“Yeah,” Lennox said as they reached the table where Darwin and Katrina were sitting with Simon, Colt, and his girlfriend, Kira. “HQ finally decided to merge their platoon with ours until Kirk and the other guys get back.”
She looked at him in surprise as they sat down. “You say that as if it’s a bad thing?”
“It is,” Darwin muttered before Lennox could answer, then winced. “Or at least, it’s not very cool. Our platoon has been training and working together like a well-oiled machine for years and now, because of this stupid training, we get dumped on another platoon like we’re nothing but a bunch of red-headed stepchildren.”
Talia couldn’t help but notice as Katrina gave Darwin a little nudge of support with her shoulder, along with a quick flash of a smile. It was obvious to everyone that they liked each other and the chemistry between them was off the charts even if they hadn’t started officially seeing each other yet.
“But they’ll be back soon, right?” Talia said, sipping her iced tea. “Then you guys will be a platoon again.”
Simon let out a snort. “Yeah, in a year or so.”
“Wait,” Colt said a handful of waffle fries halfway to his mouth. “They’ll be on this training for that long?”
Simon shrugged, not looking up from his plate. “That’s what Kirk told me before he left. It was about all he could say.”
Talia wasn’t the only one who picked up on the anger in his voice. She still didn’t understand the animosity between Simon and Kirk simply because one had been selected for the training and the other hadn’t. Sometimes, men were like oversized toddlers. She was glad they’d set their issues aside long enough to help with the rescue at the docks. Although, according to Darwin, Kirk and Simon hadn’t spoken to each other the entire time, which was juvenile as heck.
Bogdan and Vera came over with Maria and Sofia a little while later to thank everyone for everything they had done. At that, the new guys from Darwin’s platoon were eager to hear details, which Maria was more than eager to provide. Talia, Lennox, and the other guys chimed in only when they needed to clarify something she was unsure about, which wasn’t much. She was quite good at telling the story.
“I have to interrupt for a minute,” Reese, one of the SEALs from the other platoon said, looking at Darwin and Simon as Maria told them what had happened in the cargo hold. “Where were you two guys and Kirk the whole time Lennox was stalling for time?”
“We surfaced with the extra gear bags right on time only to find that there were a couple members of the ship’s crew standing on the fantail deck smoking,” Darwin explained, picking up another gourmet slider from his plate. “That was our only way onto the ship, so we had to wait until the signal went out to evacuate the ship. We never heard anything over the radio and barely made it to the cargo hold to help.”
Colt picked up the story, explaining what he and the other guys had been doing while Lennox, Talia, Maria, and Bogdan were scrambling to escape, namely keeping all the other bad guys off their tails.”
“There were at least two dozen mercenaries running around the ship,” Simon added. “It was everything we could do to keep the majority of them occupied.”
Talia enjoyed sitting there with Lennox as Maria told the rest of the story. While she didn’t like being reminded of all the life-threatening danger or how close all of them had come to being killed, the knowledge that they’d all been there for each other meant everything to her.
“So where was your dad, Maria?” Reese asked with a curious smile, obviously realizing how much she enjoyed telling the story. “How did you get separated and how did you find him later after Lennox and Talia rescued you from the helipad?”
Maria loved being the center of attention and went into explicit detail about how Anna had stumbled over them as she and her father were trying to leave the ship.
“When I first saw Anna, I almost ran forward to hug her,” Maria admitted sheepishly. “But then she bopped Daddy on the head and shoved him in a room and locked the door. I tried to help him, but she caught me and dragged me off to the hold where Talia saved me.” She grinned at Talia. “But I already told you that part.”
Once again, Talia had the urge to check Maria’s birth certificate. She really didn’t act like any little girl she’d ever known. Vera must have been thinking the same thing if the expression on her face was any indication. Then again, maybe she was simply upset that Bogdan hadn’t told her any of these parts.
Maria finished her story by telling them how she’d had to lead Lennox and Talia back down into the ship to find her father. “Finding that storage room where Anna put him was harder than I’d thought it’d be, but then I remembered the stinky smell and that helped me find him. Then we all escaped the ship.”
“We met up with everyone else on the docks, where Kyla and Wes picked us up and we got away before the cops arrived,” Lennox added, smiling in Maria’s direction. “And that’s the whole story, start to finish.”
Beverly joined them just as they finished talking about what happened on the cargo ship and she and Maria told everyone about their trip to Legoland with Talia and Lennox the other day. When Maria started describing the conversation she’d had with people working there about the cost of a Legoland honeymoon package, everyone around the table burst into laughter. Maria didn’t understand what was so funny but didn’t let their amusement deter her. By the time Talia finished her cupcake, Maria had their wedding and honeymoon planned out, down to which Legoland characters would be part of the ceremony.
“I hope you weren’t freaked out by all that talk of weddings earlier,” Talia said to Lennox after everyone had left the party and they were walking to the cottage. “Maria can be a little bit over the top with these ideas of hers.”
Lennox chuckled, a hand slipping down to her hip to tug her close as they walked. “Are you saying you’re not looking forward to a Legoland wedding? Or is it the idea of having Emmet walk you down the aisle?”
The image of the Lego Master Builder walking her down the aisle made her laugh. Would Emmet wear a bow tie with his construction uniform or splurge on a tux?
“I’m being serious,” she said. “I don’t want you freaking out and thinking I expect you to propose.”
Lennox stopped walking, turning her to face him. “I’m not freaking out and I didn’t think that. I know we’re way too early in this thing between us to be talking about getting married, but I have to admit that the idea of marrying you sounds nice— really nice.”
The sudden flutter in her stomach made her realize there was a part of her more psyched by the idea of marriage than she ever would have imagined. Like Lennox had said, it was way too early to be thinking about this, but at some point in the future, she could definitely see it.
“Okay.” She went up on her toes to kiss him. “And just so you know, I’d be fine with Emmet walking me down the aisle, especially since I doubt my father will be available.”
He flashed her a grin. “I’ll keep that in mind. And Maria will be thrilled.”
“That’s important,” she said with a smile as they turned and continued walking hand-in-hand to their cottage. “Got to keep our number one fan happy, right?”
“Definitely,” Lennox agreed with a chuckle. “Since she’s the one who brought us together and all.”
Talia laughed. He was right. She did owe Maria for the best thing that had ever happened in her life.
* * * * *
I hope you enjoyed Lennox and Talia’s story!
Darwin Sutton is the next SEAL to fall in love and you won’t want to miss his story!