Chapter 17
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
After showering that Sunday morning and putting on clean clothes, plus a touch of mascara and some ChapStick, she left her room to find out if the team had learned anything new.
She hadn’t expected to find the main room crowded with five other men. She recognized the guys, but she didn’t really know them. Not even by name. Well, she knew Wyatt—but he’d made a point to get to know her by shamelessly flirting a couple of times—right in front of Liam, too.
“Hi.” She lifted her hand in greeting when she entered the room and everyone turned to look at her.
Computers, wires, all kinds of tactical gear, as well as other stuff she didn’t recognize cluttered the table now.
Were they prepping for war? Did they have news?
The feeling when you’re walking down a hall wearing squeaky sneakers or noisy heels, drawing eyes—that’s how she felt right now. Like all eyes were on her, and they weren’t enthused about having an outsider present.
“Hey, beautiful,” Wyatt spoke up.
Unlike the rest of his buddies who were in plain tees, he had on a black shirt with a skull holding a SEAL trident in one hand and flames spiraling around it which read: “Brotherhood Forged by Fire.”
“How are you?” Wyatt motioned for her to get out of the doorway and come into the room.
“Okay. Uh, where’s Liam?”
“He’s checking on Elaina,” Wyatt replied.
“Oh. Maybe I’ll do the same.” She quickly turned and left the room before anyone could object, then pressed her back to the hallway wall once the door had shut.
“Hi, Emily.”
She turned to see Liam and Elaina walking hand in hand her way. She tucked her hair behind her ears and pushed away from the wall.
“How’d you sleep?” Liam shot her an innocent smile once they stopped in front of her.
“Better than I expected.” No bad dreams, which was surprising. Given the fact she’d killed a man thirty-six hours ago and an FBI agent pointed a gun at her head.
She pressed her hands to her thighs and leaned forward to connect with Elaina’s eyes. “And how about you?”
“I’m good,” she said, her tone almost upbeat. “I like being here. I’d like to stay in America.”
“You don’t want to live with Maria?” She wrapped her hand over Elaina’s shoulder but switched her focus to Liam, wondering if the same rush of concern moved through him at her words.
“She doesn’t want me.” Her words were flat. Just so matter-of-fact. Like she’d come to terms with the truth and had moved into the acceptance phase.
“I’m sure that’s not true.” Emily’s heart shattered, the shreds like broken glass puncturing her lungs, making it hard to pull in a deep breath.
“Can I ask you something?” Liam voiced the question slowly. Elaina’s gaze wandered up to his face, and she nodded her permission. “Did anyone ever run tests on you, did they—”
“You mean my mommy, right?”
“Yes,” he said, but it was as if the word pained him to say it.
“She said my brain might be able to help people get their brains back. Memories, I mean.”
“Did she teach you how to memorize stuff? Is that how you remembered those numbers?” Elaina had been spot on about the two ports, which had blown Emily’s mind.
“She didn’t teach me how to remember stuff.
I just can. She did teach me how to tell what people are thinking by the faces they make.
” She looked to Emily. “Like, I know that every time you scrunch your eyes, it’s like you’re trying really hard to be okay when you’re not.
And whenever Liam squeezes the back of his neck, he’s worried about something. Maybe you, Emily. Maybe me.”
Emily forced herself to stand all the way upright and released Elaina’s shoulder.
“You like him a lot, don’t you?” A smile touched Elaina’s lips. “I don’t blame you. He’s very handsome.”
Emily fought a nervous laugh bubbling in her throat. “We should probably—”
“See what the team has to say,” Liam finished for her, never losing his hold of Elaina’s little hand. “You sure you want to come in there with us?”
“I can wear the headphones.” She started to walk to the door, forcing Liam to move, too.
He looked back at Emily from over his shoulder and mouthed, “Wow.”
Yeah, she felt the same.
Her mind switched gears once they were back in the room, though. How could it not with what they were facing?
“I just got off the phone with POTUS,” Jessica said straightaway. “Someone tipped off the Argentinian government that Americans took Elaina. They’re calling it a kidnapping.”
“Shit.” Liam let go of Elaina’s hand, and with a tilt of his head sent a silent request to Emily to distract her at the whiteboard like yesterday.
“President Rydell denied everything, of course. But we don’t need the extra heat, or any added tension between our nations,” Asher said. “It’s probably Carballo pushing the government to get her back.”
Emily helped Elaina put on her headphones, then she handed her a marker. They were both out of place in there, weren’t they?
Elaina deserved to have the life of an eight-year-old. A chance to have fun and be carefree.
“Looks like more people are coming out of the bloody woodwork,” Wyatt said, his British accent thickening.
“Mercenaries and other freelance blokes are flooding the States since the Argentinian president went on TV to announce Uncle Sam has Elaina.” He paused for a moment.
“Speaking of which . . . heard of Brittany and Henry Simpson?”
“A married couple in their thirties or forties, right? Canadian? Work together as a hit team?” Liam asked, and the idea of such a team had her stomach turning.
Of course, Anthony and Mickey Lamond were brothers, and also a killing duo. Thank God they couldn’t hurt anyone else now.
“The border patrol picked them up when they crossed the Canadian border into New York near Niagara Falls an hour ago,” Wyatt said.
Emily kept drawing on the board, but she pivoted to the side to observe the group, her curiosity piqued.
“Who knows they’ve been detained?” Liam’s hands went to his hips.
“It’s not been made public yet.” Wyatt flipped his screen toward Liam, and Emily craned her neck a touch to try and get a view of the man and woman.
“I’ll go to Chile as Henry,” Liam said a beat later. “I’ll use one of his aliases to travel, and maybe I can—”
“Get the drop location from the buyer,” Jessica finished.
“Can’t we just ask this couple for the location?” Emily set the marker down and looked at the group.
“We’ll see what they know,” Jessica said. “But there’s no way the buyer provided a location without evidence Elaina’s in their custody.”
“But now we might have a way to reach out to the buyer to let them know we have her,” Asher explained.
“I want access to everyone the couple has been in contact with,” Jessica instructed to Harper. “Pull everything from their phones and any other records you can find.”
“Won’t it be weird if Liam travels alone considering they, uh, work as a husband-and-wife team?” The focus whipped Emily’s way once again, and she could feel it . . . the wheels of their minds turning. Ideas spinning. “You all need to stay here, right? To track down leads.”
“You’re not suggesting you go as Liam’s wife, are you?” Asher’s arms went across his chest in a defensive position.
You could hear a freaking pin drop in the room.
“I, uh.” She wet her lips and blinked, summoning the words.
Elaina pulled on her hand, and so she looked down at her. “You should go with him. I think he needs you. I think he needs you more than I need him.”
When Emily looked up, Liam stood mere inches away, his eyes steady on her. “Can we talk in private, please?”
She dragged in a breath, not so deep she’d become lightheaded, then followed him out into the hall.
“Are you out of your mind?” Throwing his hands up, he did a three-sixty as if he didn’t know which direction to face, before settling on a stance dead-center in front of her. “You’re not an operative. You can’t just run off to Chile disguised as a fucking hit woman and—”
“And what?” she challenged.
“You’re a lawyer, Emily. A lawyer.”
“I know that. You don’t need to remind me. This is just an intel op, right? You’re going to see if Maria knows anything that could shed some light as to why someone’s after Elaina. But Maria may be skittish around you. She may not even speak English. I can help.”
“So, you speak Spanish?”
He let go of a heavy breath and placed his hand on the wall above her shoulder, caging her in without actually touching her.
“Yes.”
He was quiet for a few seconds as if contemplating the idea of her coming along. But then he said, “No. I can’t let you do this. If I pick up a tail, or someone is watching Maria, you could get hurt.”
“It’s Chile, not Argentina.”
“That doesn’t mean Carballo won’t have his people there waiting for someone to show up. Or whoever this buyer is might have someone waiting as well.”
“Then why are you going alone if it has the potential to be so dangerous?”
“Because this is what I do,” he said, his voice almost hollow.
The man put himself in danger all of the time. Something could happen to him.
She knew that. Understood it. But the normalcy of it didn’t soften the blow. How could it ever ease the pain of what could possibly happen to him or someone on his team?
A loss. It’d be an unbearable loss.
“And you really think there’s something in Chile that might help?” she asked, needing to redirect her thoughts to what was at stake right now. “Why not wait and see if we can get a drop location from the buyer first by—”
“While the team is working on that, I can make use of my time by gathering whatever intel I can in Chile.”
She placed her hand over his fast-beating heart, but kept her gaze on her hand instead of looking into his eyes. “I don’t want to be here without you.”
“Elaina needs you.”
“You need me,” she said without thinking her words through. But she was right, wasn’t she? “Please. Let me go as your wife on this trip.”
“You are my wife,” he said in a near whisper.