Chapter 22
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
“You’re back,” Elaina whispered in a sleepy voice when Liam entered her room around two in the morning on Tuesday.
“I didn’t mean to wake you.” He squatted by the bed.
“I’m glad you came to see me. I missed you.” Her lids were heavy, and her long lashes fluttered with the weight of exhaustion.
“Missed you, too.”
She smiled. “How was Maria?”
His conversation with Maria crashed through his mind like a wrecking ball at Elaina’s question.
He tried to force away the stir of emotions rising. “She’s okay. Worried about you, though.”
“Can I stay with you forever?” Her eyes dropped closed, and he nearly fell back onto his ass at her question.
“Elaina?” he whispered, but when she didn’t answer he realized she’d fallen back asleep, saving him from having to disappoint her.
He left the room, quietly closed the door, and found Emily waiting for him out in the hall.
“She okay?” She leaned against the wall with eyes pinned to him.
“You could’ve come in.”
“I wanted to, but—”
“You’re becoming attached to her, and it’ll be hard to walk away when this is over, right?” At least, that’s how he felt. When Maria had divulged the truth about everything back in Chile, he’d been walking a tightrope of control, trying not to fall.
“Elaina must know she has a dad. No way does a kid like Elaina meet Hans at the lab and not put two and two together.”
The idea had buzzed around his mind on the flight home, too. “She didn’t want us to know.”
“Because she doesn’t want to live with him.”
“Which means I already don’t like the fucking guy, but let’s focus on getting her out of harm’s way right now.”
Knox peeked his head outside the makeshift command center. “Hey, we finally have news. You’re back just in time.”
“Be right there.” Once Knox disappeared behind the closed door, Liam reached for Emily’s bicep. “I’ve mapped out the possibilities in my head of what could happen to her, and everything ends the way it should.”
“Oh, you see the future?” Her lips twitched into a smile, her dimples popping. Goal achieved.
“I do.” He returned her smile with an even broader one, then slid his hand down her forearm to take her hand. “Let’s go.” He guided her to the control room as if she could somehow get lost.
Jessica, Asher, and Knox were working at the table.
“Where’s everyone else?” he asked.
“We’ve been taking turns sleeping,” Knox replied, looking up from his screen.
“You find out if Maria’s story checks out?” Liam eyed his teammates.
“Yeah, from what we can tell she told you the truth.” Jessica removed her black-rimmed glasses and motioned for Liam and Emily to have a seat. “But I’ve got bad news,” Jessica began, “and then some even shittier news.”
“Which should I hear first?” He pulled the seat out for Emily, then sat next to her. He reached for her hand, which had become second nature lately, and focused on Jessica across the table.
“Hans is working on a top-secret project for NORAD out in Colorado,” Jessica dropped the metaphorical bomb of the century into the room. “Looks like he landed the gig in January.”
“NORAD?” Emily gasped. “As in the North American Aerospace Defense Command? They oversee and defend U.S. and Canadian air space and respond to unauthorized air activity—missiles, nuclear attacks, right?”
Knox nodded. “Hans is a computer engineer and mathematician. German-born but an American citizen now.”
Liam had done his research on Hans when they were en route back to West Virginia. Of course, the NORAD part hadn’t been disclosed online. It explained why the government sent a bodyguard with him.
“This conversation is going to get worse, isn’t it?” Emily asked, and Liam gently squeezed her hand, hoping to reassure her.
Asher stood from his swivel chair and crossed his arms. “The president couldn’t go into too much detail because of the classified nature of the project, but all we know is Hans’s work involves the field of artificial intelligence.”
Liam tried not to squeeze Emily’s hand too tight. “Is he still planning on going to that upcoming event?”
“Yeah,” Jessica said. “The Golden Minds Gala is being held at a convention center in London Thursday, and he’s currently on a plane heading there now.”
“Is his bodyguard with him, too?” Emily asked.
“He’s less of a bodyguard and more there to ensure Hans doesn’t leak intel,” Jessica explained.
“Did he have the same detail with him on his trip to Chile?” Emily was in lawyer mode, and Liam couldn’t help but smile.
“No. They rotate them.” Jessica checked her computer. “The man with Hans for this trip is a former Marine. A stand-up guy.”
“So, probably not a threat then,” Emily said.
Liam knew what she was getting at. If someone had learned about Elaina as a possible weakness to use against Hans, it had to have happened right after his trip to Chile. “Is Hans’s phone tapped?”
“Yeah, but not by the bad guys,” Jessica responded. “NORAD has him under full surveillance because of the secrecy of the project. Emails, calls, his mail—everything is monitored.”
“Let’s just say he can’t take a piss without Uncle Sam knowing,” Asher added.
“Then who found out Hans has a daughter?” Liam voiced his thoughts. “He only just learned a few weeks ago himself. Regardless, it’s the only thing that makes sense to me . . . use his daughter to get to Hans.”
“Someone’s been keeping tabs on our boy, Hans. Gotta be a friend or colleague he trusts that lives out in Colorado. I doubt NORAD’s got a traitor on the inside.” Knox braced the table with both palms.
“Not unless someone in NORAD is being blackmailed, the same way Don was, and they’re being forced to keep tabs on him,” Emily said, and Liam was damn impressed. “If Hans was under surveillance and received a threatening call or whatnot about Elaina, NORAD security would’ve intercepted that.”
“Which means the information and threat were most likely delivered in person.” Jessica sat. “Someone who knows the location of the surveillance cameras and how to avoid being seen talking to Hans. The person could’ve shown Hans a video of Elaina as proof they have her.”
“If Maria hadn’t brought Hans to Chile, Elaina would still be safe, and none of this would’ve happened,” Emily said under her breath a moment later.
“We don’t know that for certain,” Jessica said. “And they probably would’ve found another way to get to Hans.”
“And just like Talia, Hans has no other family,” Knox noted.
“Family,” Asher commented in a low voice, his eyes pinned to the woman he loved. “They’re always the easiest target.”
“What kind of father goes on a scheduled trip after his daughter goes missing?” Liam slipped his hand free of Emily’s, an uncomfortable pain stretching through his chest.
Emily stood. “Hans must’ve told someone about his daughter when he got back from Chile, someone he trusted.”
“But would Hans risk everything for a daughter he just discovered existed?” Knox asked, playing devil’s advocate.
Liam thought back to what Maria had said about his work-focused life. “Maybe for her brain he would.”
“Whatever these people are after has to be big. Thirteen mill to use Elaina to force Hans’s hand isn’t chump change.
” Knox shifted his swivel chair from left to right, clutching the chair arms. “And maybe whatever they need requires Hans to be on-site in Colorado because why not just take out his bodyguard and grab Hans on his field trip to Chile last month?”
“Clearly, someone wants Hans in London. Maybe threaten to kill Elaina if he doesn’t go back to NORAD and complete whatever the hell it is they want.” Liam’s blood heated at the idea, even though his team had already spoiled the buyer’s plans by rescuing her.
“They’ll put a cap in his ass after. No way do they let Hans live when they’re done with him,” Knox said.
Liam turned away from the team, and when his eyes fell upon the whiteboard his arms dropped to his sides.
Elaina had drawn a picture of herself flanked by a man and woman holding her hands. And he was pretty sure the people were Emily and himself.
He pressed two fingers to the dull pain blossoming in his right temple.
“I’ll do my best to get a list of employees at NORAD who Hans interacts with, but it may not be easy,” Knox said, a grim tone to his voice. “We may have to turn that over to POTUS.” He leaned back. “I don’t want to end up in jail for hacking our nation’s air missile defense center.”
True. Liam shifted around toward Emily. Her brows were drawn inward. Concern, maybe fear, created bracketed lines along each side of her mouth.
“I’m sure this buyer will be at the event in London,” Liam stated. “We need to let Hans know Elaina’s safe.”
“Does this mean we’re going to London?” Emily asked.
We? Shit. How could he let Emily or Elaina out of his line of sight—but what if bringing them also put them in the crossfires of danger?
“Elaina should go with us,” Jared announced, and Liam turned to find the spook creeping on them in the now open doorway.
“We might need to prove to Hans that Elaina is safe and with us if we’re going to get him to talk,” Jared said, edging farther into the room. “I don’t like it, but I don’t think we have an option. Another video of the kid might not work.”
“We’re telling Hans we have her then? We’re going to approach him?” Emily folded her arms.
“We have to assume Hans is being watched, so we’ll need to be careful how we go about it,” Jessica replied. “They’ll probably wait until the night of the gala to make their move. The place will be crowded. Lots of exits. They’ll have him ditch the bodyguard.”
“Plus, they’re still waiting for Elaina to arrive in London,” Knox pointed out. “What happens when they discover Patty can’t deliver?”
“I don’t know, and I don’t want to find out.” Liam stabbed at the air. “This needs to end Thursday night. I want the target off Elaina’s head.”
“I’ll see about getting us tickets to the event,” Jessica said. “Maybe we can catch a military flight out of Dover to the U.K.”
“Not commercial?” Liam asked.
“I don’t like flying commercial if Elaina’s with us,” she answered.
Knox leaned back into his chair and peered at Jessica. “If NORAD has been compromised, how do we know who we can trust over there to alert them to the mole?”
“Rydell will have to tell the general in charge what’s going on so they can beef up security,” Jessica began, “but until we find out who our suspect is and what they’re after, the general will have to keep the information on the DL.”
“Plus, whatever Hans is working on, Rydell doesn’t want any other nations knowing about it, which means we can’t alert the British about the mission,” Asher pointed out. “Unless we have absolutely no choice but to bring them in, it’ll be Bravo and Echo Teams only.”
“And one spook.” Knox jerked a thumb Jared’s way.
“You need me,” Jared said with a shake of the head.
“Well, I think Owen should come with us, too,” Liam added. “We may need a pilot.”
“What about Sam?” Emily turned toward him.
“We’ll have people from Scott and Scott protect her. We’ll make sure she’s safe,” he told her. “We telling Luke yet?” he asked Jessica.
“I’ve got to call him. I can’t keep him in the dark any longer. Honeymoon or not.”
Honeymoons. Weddings.
Now he was focused on thoughts of Vegas and Emily and their night together.
But then Jessica looked straight at him with narrowed eyes as if trying to do some sort of Jedi mind trick on him.
And he was pretty sure he was receiving the message loud and clear: don’t break Emily’s heart.