Chapter 13
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
He’d lost his mind. The boys were going to have a field day the second they saw him and Emily together. If Jessica and Asher hadn’t yet spilled the news to the team, they’d figure shit out and fast just by how he acted around Emily.
The woman was like no one else he’d ever met.
Smart. Beautiful. So damn funny.
And honest. The kind of honesty you don’t find in many people anymore.
They were friends. Only supposed to be friends.
“Sam practically threatened to cut off my balls if I ever made a move on you,” he admitted.
“I get she’s protective, and you went through hell with that asshole last year”—a man he wished he could bring back from the dead right now just to kill again since he’d slept with Emily to get to her best friend, resulting in a bullet through Emily’s window—“but is there more to it than that?”
She pulled her silky hair into a ponytail, and he’d give anything to tug on it while devouring her mouth.
“We both have our pasts, right? Mine has shaped me the way I’m sure yours has. Plus, Sam’s protective like a sister.”
And now, he was trying to protect Emily, too.
You’re not mine. She couldn’t be. He’d only screw with her head and rip her heart to pieces. Or maybe she’d even destroy him, too. He wasn’t so sure. Love wasn’t in the cards for him, not now, at least, and that was the only truth he knew.
He glimpsed his cell when it began ringing, but he couldn’t bring himself to answer.
“It says Pops on the ID, so you obviously know the number this time. Not going to answer?”
He switched the call to voicemail and clutched the wheel with both hands, irritation springing to the surface as he remembered the reason why his grandfather would most likely be calling. “He’s trying to apologize. I’ll call him back.”
“For?”
“Ambushing me with a visit from my brother back at his home the other day,” he quickly rushed out.
She was quiet for a minute, probably absorbing his words. “You don’t have to talk about it. You’ve probably maxed out on your honesty for today.” He could hear a tiny smile in her tone. “At least you took my advice. You know, testing out telling the truth without the use of alcohol for courage.”
He almost laughed. Shit. This woman.
“My brother married the woman who left me standing at the altar when I was younger.” The words flowed from his mouth before he could catch them.
“I, uh, don’t understand.”
“Yeah, sort of the problem.” He gripped the wheel even tighter. “Neither do I.” And that’s all he’d be saying for now.
They were two klicks from their destination.
Jessica, Asher, and Knox were going to be meeting up with them at the safe house, and he had no choice but to reset his focus to the mission. Somehow. Someway.
He wasn’t sure what to say to Elaina, to the girl who’d lost her mother only to be kidnapped and sold by Ricco freaking Carballo.
“What will happen when we get to the safehouse?” she asked as they took a left onto the last road leading to their destination.
“We’ll bring Elaina to a new location, one that’s off the map and no one in the CIA or FBI knows about.”
“I’ve worked with Jared Morgan and Don Hopkins,” she said. “They’re honest guys. They’ve wanted to bring Carballo down for some time now.”
“That’s good to know.” Harper had vouched for Jared in Chile. Emily vouching for both men gave him a sense of relief he hadn’t realized he needed.
“And what does Jessica have to say about me being with you, especially since she knows we’re married?”
“She’s not exactly excited about bringing you in, but she also knows Sam would kill her if we let anything happen to you, so it’s best you’re under our protection.”
“Does she know we haven’t had a chance to sign the it-never-happened papers yet?”
“I didn’t bring it up,” he said as he parked the Suburban, then removed his sunglasses.
She reached for his hat and took it off, then mussed up his hair. “You look less intimidating this way.” She gave a small shrug. “Is that why you decided to dress like you’re at a beach instead of going into a war zone? For Elaina?”
He hadn’t thought about it like that, but maybe he had. “Guess so.”
“Aside from Jessica, who else from your team is inside?”
“Asher and Knox. The rest of my people will meet us at the next site.”
He killed the engine, and she reached for the door handle. “What happened in Argentina that made Elaina only want to talk to you?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. When we handed her over in Chile I gave her a coin.”
“What kind of coin?”
“It was my great-grandfather’s. He carried it through World War Two, then passed it on to my pops, then it came to me.”
Her lips lifted at the edges. “That was nice of you.”
“She was scared. I was trying to make her feel better.”
“Well, clearly that’s why she asked for you.” She pushed the door open but looked back at him. “For the record, you make me feel better, too.”
He gripped the wheel, giving himself a second to collect his thoughts, then headed outside. “We’ll leave the rest of our stuff in the car since we won’t be here long.”
“Okay.” She slung her purse strap over her shoulder and tucked her hands in her pockets as they walked alongside two other vehicles to get to the house.
It was a yellow two-story colonial. White picket fence. Tire swing hanging from the oak tree off to the side. Honeysuckle plants and pops of wildflowers. A normal-looking place and not the front for a CIA safe house in Charleston, West Virginia.
Jared was the first to greet them once inside. “I didn’t expect to be seeing you so soon after Chile.”
“And I was kind of hoping never to see you again,” Liam said, only half-kidding.
“Hey, Emily.” Jared’s eyes rolled like a wave over Emily’s body as if assessing her for damage—or checking her out. “Damn. You okay? I heard about what happened to you.”
“It’s hard to believe someone from your team would hire people to come after us.” She folded her arms, an unease crossing her face as she stood before Jared. “Any ideas who’d sell us out?”
Jared closed and locked the door then faced them, still hanging back in the foyer. “Must be FBI. I personally handpicked my people from Langley for the op. They wouldn’t roll on us for ten mill.”
“Yeah, well, what about for thirteen?” Jessica spoke as she came down the hall.
“What are you talking about?” Jared asked.
“Looks like the price tag on Elaina’s head got bumped to thirteen million since Carballo didn’t come through.” Jessica started to reach for Emily’s hand, but then blinked a few times and pulled her in for a hug instead.
Damn, the woman was changing.
The Ice Queen had melted.
“Glad to see you’re okay. Thank God Liam happened to be with you.” Jessica released her hold of Emily and looked over at Liam. He saw the question in her eyes—were they still married?
“Can you track the source of the bounty?” Liam asked.
“Unfortunately, no. Whoever wants Elaina went old school like Carballo. Zero communications online. All by word of mouth.” She motioned for them to follow her.
They walked down a hallway, and she pointed to the last door on the right. “Elaina’s in there watching TV.”
“Alone?” Emily asked.
“Don’s with her,” she answered as they entered a different room where Asher and Knox were working on laptops.
“Emily.” Asher rose and pulled her in for a giant bear hug, then Knox gave her a quick one-armed hug next.
“Glad to see you don’t have any bullet holes in you.” Knox sat back on the couch and pulled the computer onto his lap.
Liam was pretty sure Asher and Jessica hadn’t spilled the news about their accidental marriage. That was a relief.
“So, if the bounty is all word of mouth, how do we know it’s true?” Liam motioned for Emily to have a seat on the chair off to the side of the couch by Knox.
“Because I’m good at my job.” Jessica glimpsed him out of her peripheral view and remained standing at his side. “Hired mercenaries and assassins began gearing up all over the world today. Our mystery buyer might not use the internet, but everyone else does, and word spread online fast.”
“So, we’re going to have a ton of people gunning to get to Elaina first?” Emily placed a hand over her chest as if trying to process the news.
“Yeah, which is why I’d like to get out of here and to the next location as soon as possible,” Jessica said. “Echo Team’s already there setting up for us.”
Asher tipped his chin. “Maybe now’s a good time to say hi to Elaina, so we can get on the move.”
“Right.” He wiped his hands on the sides of his shorts, his palms suddenly sweaty. Why was he nervous to talk to a kid?
He left the team, and when he opened the door to Elaina’s room, he found Don sitting on the couch opposite of Elaina with a phone in hand.
“Hey.” Don tucked his phone into his pocket and stood. “You’re here.”
Elaina looked away from the TV and hopped to her feet at the sight of Liam. She was in jeans, a tee, and a pair of bright-orange Chucks. Jared or Don must’ve gone shopping for her. At least they were taking good care of her, that was something.
“I’ll go meet up with the team.” Don left, and Liam approached Elaina.
“You came.” She reached for his hand, and the gesture had his heart fracturing into a million pieces for some reason.
“Of course, I came.” He resisted the impulse to rub at the growing ache in his chest.
He gently wrapped his hand around hers, afraid he’d hurt her. Her hand was so damn small compared to his.
“I want you to have this back.” She unfurled her free hand and showed him his coin. “Having you here is better than this, and I feel like you might need it for luck.”
He smiled but didn’t take it from her. “You can have both. The coin. Me. Whatever makes you feel better. Safer.”
“I want you safe, too.” She lifted her palm, encouraging him to take it.
“Are you sure?”
Her big brown eyes widened with a plea. “Please.”
He took a steadying breath and reached for it, the memory of his grandfather giving it to him before his first deployment skirted the front of his mind.