Burned (Dillon Security #1)

Prologue

Her life was over.

Lila Underwood stared out the window at the blur of English countryside with that one thought rolling through her brain over and over.

The gentle hills dotted with sheep and other farm animals didn’t seem to register with her.

She couldn’t focus on anything at the moment.

Her entire life had become a puzzle with missing pieces.

Her father would be so disappointed in her.

He had told her to always pay attention to the smallest of details.

But a dead man couldn’t be disappointed.

“Your grandmother is ecstatic to see you,” the man sitting next to her said.

She turned to look at him. Samuel Smith. He had been there for her family’s burials. Not her grandmother. Not anyone else. She couldn’t have her friends with her. Just her, Sam, and a ton of protectors.

He had kind eyes. Blue and they sparkled when he spoke. He had been nothing but compassionate since she’d met him. He treated her as if she were breakable. What he didn’t understand was that a person like her didn’t break. It just wasn’t allowed.

“Let’s not fool each other, Mr. Smith. If she cared, she would have been at the funeral.”

Those kind eyes widened. “You think she didn’t come because she doesn’t care?”

She nodded and looked outside the car once again. It was a fancy car. Leather seats and a privacy screen. Her grandmother had more money than God. At least, that is what she’d heard her father say. A sob clogged her throat, but she pressed her lips together and fought it down.

“I thought you knew why she didn’t come.”

“I assumed. You know that Judith Eddington doesn’t explain herself.”

He grunted, telling Lila that he did, indeed, know her grandmother well.

“I told her she should come, but…”

The hesitation pulled her attention away from the scene beyond her window.

“What?”

“What do you know about your family? What your parents did?”

“Did? You mean the fact that they worked for the CIA? I know that.”

“What about your grandmother?”

“She’s rich and just hangs out in that fancy house.”

Her mother had always called it The Manor.

Pain pierced her heart just thinking about her mother.

Her smart, beautiful mother was gone. As was her brother, Adam.

He had been so excited about his upcoming soccer game.

Her father, mother, and brother had left her.

Not by their choice, but it still felt as if she had been abandoned.

“I see.” He studied her and sighed. “Your grandmother can’t travel that far. At least not at the moment.”

She frowned. “Is she ill?”

“No. It’s dangerous for her to travel.”

Interesting. Of course, it could all be BS. She’d heard one of the guys in her Algebra class use that phrase. She shrugged and looked out the window once more.

“I’ll talk to her for you. Make sure you understand why she couldn’t attend. I’ll make sure everything is right as rain before I head back home.”

She said nothing, because nothing in her life was ever going to be right again.

They drove up the road to the massive house that her grandmother lived in.

Lila had been here before. It still stunned her that she would be living there now.

As the driver pulled up to the massive set of stairs that led into the house, the door opened and her grandmother stepped out.

It had only been six months, but her grandmother looked older…smaller. Lila understood. Her world had imploded just like Lila’s had. When the people you loved most in the world were killed, your world shrunk into a dark hole.

“Are you ready, Delilah?”

She glanced at Samuel again. He was offering a gentle smile. Tears burned the backs of her eyes, and she blinked to force them away. A girl with her background didn’t get to cry.

Intelligent people don’t let emotions cloud their life.

Her father’s voice filled her head and she shoved it aside.

“As ready as a person whose whole family got blown up can be, Mr. Smith.”

“You can call me Sam.”

“And you can call me Lila. No one calls me Delilah.”

“Your grandmother does.”

“Yeah. She does.”

Then she opened the door and stepped out. The air was cooler…fresher than it had been in Virginia. Even with the clouds heavy with rain, the atmosphere didn’t feel as humid as back home.

Sam walked up the stairs beside Lila. When she reached the top of the stairs, she saw the woman who looked so much like her mother.

Eloise Eddington-Underwood had been an almost carbon copy of her mother.

Lila looked like her mother. Same hair color, same build, and the same bi-colored eyes.

One brown and one green. When she had been in the fourth grade, some idiot named Jesse had said that she had devil eyes.

She had punched him in the nose and gotten detention.

“Delilah,” she said, gently pulling her into her arms. Everyone was being so careful.

It was freaking her out. Still, she wrapped her arms around her grandmother, the scent of Chanel No.

5—something her mother favored also—surrounded her.

“I am so very glad you made it here safe. Thank you, Samuel.”

“You know I would do anything for you, Judith.”

When Judith pulled back, Lila looked at Sam. “I know you need to get home to Autumn and Ian.”

Sam looked down at Lila. “Are you okay with that?”

No, she wasn’t. She wanted to slip back in that car with Sam and go to the house with happiness. It sounded like there was a lot of love and joy back in his house. She knew that it wasn’t for her, so she nodded. “Thank you, Sam.”

He hesitated, studying her.

“Go on, Samuel. If we need you, I won’t hesitate to call,” her grandmother said.

“Of course. Goodbye, Lila.”

“Bye, Sam.”

She stood next to her grandmother on that top step and watched him leave.

“He was trying to tell me you were in MI-6,” Lila murmured.

“He’s a good man. The best I ever trained.”

She looked at her grandmother. “I assumed he was MI-6, but I also thought he could be private security.”

She was twelve, but she understood more about the world than some thirty-year-olds. When your parents worked for the CIA, you tended to gain a unique knowledge of all things espionage related. Or at least, she had.

“One thing I want you to know is that you can always trust Samuel. I can’t say that about every person I trained, but Samuel is a rare man. Trustworthy and loyal. I hope he’s raising his son the same way.”

“Do you keep an eye on them?”

“Always. I believe in protecting my loved ones. He has lost so much, but he has his children.” She took Lila’s hand. “I’m sorry about what happened to your family.”

Pain dripped from every word, shimmering through the syllables and reaching out to Lila. Her bottom lip quivered. She bit it to stop it from showing.

“They were your family too.”

She cupped Lila’s face. “Yes, but I’m an old woman. I’ve buried a husband and many friends.”

Lila blinked away the tears once again. All she could do was nod because speaking around the knot in her throat was too much.

“Now, let’s have some tea and biscuits,” she said pulling Lila through the front door of her house.

“It wasn’t your fault,” she said, her voice small and her spirit ragged around the edges. She wasn’t sure if she would ever recover. She definitely wouldn’t be the same person as before her family was murdered.

“I should have insisted on better security. Your parents were just analysts for the CIA, but I knew I had enemies.” She led Lila into the sitting room. “So, one thing we need to do is get you prepared.”

“Prepared?”

She nodded as she led Lila to the small table sitting in front of the bay window.

The scene of rolling hills dotted with sheep usually made Lila happy.

They didn’t spend a lot of time in England, but she had always loved this view.

She would sit there for hours thinking about codes. Did her grandmother realize that?

“You need to know how to deal with what could come after you. Your mother was trained, but in the end it wasn’t enough. I will not let that happen to you.”

She turned back to her grandmother. “And find the person who killed our family?”

Judith Eddington, former MI-6 spymaster, smiled at Lila. Her eyes lit with a fire that spoke of her need for revenge. It was the type of smile that probably scared most people, but Lila found it comforting. “If it takes me the rest of my life to find the bastards, I will do it.”

With a nod, Lila looked out the window once again. Another thing she had in common with her grandmother: the need to avenge her family’s murder burned inside of her and would until the day she died.