Chapter 4 #2
“Oh, shit, Dad’s on his way over.”
“Yeah. I was going to tell him to get off the plane, but he hung up on me.”
She chuckled, then sighed. “Do you need help?”
“Not at the moment. Jenner is on island and I found out El was too. They’ll help.”
“How bad is it?”
“She was stabbed in the stomach. She lost some blood, but Jenner was more worried about the concussion.”
“Keep me updated. We’ll head over if you need us.”
“Thanks. Although, it might be better if we got back to Oahu. Kauai is nice, but it will be easier to hide her on Oahu at one of the Dillon safe houses.”
“True. I wonder how she traveled over there. Hell, I wonder how she travels anywhere. She probably has some really good fake documents.” His sister sounded envious. “Also, you’re going to have to convince her to go to Oahu.”
“She’ll do what I tell her.”
She was now his charge, whether she liked it or not.
“I like that you think that.” The sarcasm wasn’t hard to hear.
He heard a murmur in the background and knew it was his brother-in-law. “Sam got hurt and Ian is playing nursemaid.”
Another murmur.
“No, he didn’t do it. At least that’s what he claims.”
Sisterly love. Nothing beats it. “You don’t believe me?”
“Sure.”
Her tone told Ian that she did not believe him at all. “She said someone was sent there. That this person has a boss. She was making very little sense. Which, now that I think about it isn’t that different from any other time we talk.”
“Hmm, you need to call Eden. She knows more about her background than any of us.”
“As does El.”
“Elwood won’t share. He’s too guarded.”
His half-sister had been raised in a cult, so she was a good study of people.
Even after his years in MI-6, he found that she was better at it.
If she said that El wasn’t going to share, she was probably right.
He was friendly with El, but he really did keep a lot close to his chest. The one person who was closest to him was Eden.
“That’s probably a good idea.”
“I always have the best ideas.”
He would refute that with the idea that she was ready to sacrifice herself to the former cult leader who had been obsessed with her. That would just end in an argument because she still didn’t think she did anything wrong.
“I’ll call Eden now. You also need to help me get rid of Dad. You know he doesn’t need this stress.”
“Gotcha, although if he thinks you’re in danger, he will not leave. Bye, Bro.”
Then she hung up. He knew she was right. Their father was a protector and would do whatever it took to keep them safe.
He stepped back into the room to check on her. She was sleeping still, her chest still rising and falling.
He decided to text Eden to make sure she wasn’t busy.
Ian: Got a minute?
Eden: Sure.
After another glance at Sam, he stepped back out in the hall and called his partner.
“What’s up?”
“Did your brother contact you?”
“No. Did something happen? Please tell me he’s not in the hospital again.”
El had been getting more and more reckless lately. Ian knew it was a problem, but he was doing all the typical adrenaline junkie activities some PTSD survivors did. He needed therapy, but since it didn’t cause problems at Dillon, it was hard to force a grown man into therapy.
“Your brother is fine. Sam was injured.”
“What the hell happened?” Finally, one person who wasn’t blaming him.
“We’re piecing it all together.”
“My brother was involved?”
“No. Not that I know of. I just sent him and Jenner to her house.”
Then he relayed to Eden what had happened. When he finished, she sighed.
“What has the girl gotten into?”
“No idea.”
“But she was on your island?”
“I don’t own the island.”
“You and I both know that someone in hiding would do better on Oahu. It’s easy to hide in plain sight when there 850,000 people.”
“That’s why I need to get her back to Oahu. I’m sure we can get a safe house set up for her.”
A moment of silence passed. He heard nothing and he started to wonder if the call had dropped.
“Eden?”
“Yeah, I’m still here. Just thinking. Did she agree to come back over here?”
“I didn’t ask.”
She snorted. “Oh, that’s going to go over well.”
“I could do more if you would just tell me her name.”
Her sigh was long and loud over the phone. “You understand why I can’t.”
She had promised. In the spy game, so many people lied and stabbed each other in the back.
Ian was starting to understand that the relationship Sam had with Eden and her twin was special.
They had each other’s backs. None of them were spies anymore, but he comprehended just how special it was.
The twin’s handler had sold them out and El had almost died.
Exposing him had gotten Ian shot and Kap had also been attacked and had almost died.
He didn’t, thanks to Sam, so that added even more loyalty from both twins.
“Yeah, I do. I just don’t like it.” Both of them were silent for a few moments. “How old is she anyway?”
“I guess that isn’t giving too much away. She turns twenty-six soon.”
Yeah, he was surprised to see how young she was.
“Was she really okay?”
“Yeah. If she hadn’t called me, it might have been really bad.”
“If you can get her over here, I will talk to her. She needs to trust more people than El and me.”
He grunted in response.
“You’re sure she’s okay.”
“She has a concussion, which she refuses to go to the hospital for. Jenner said that the stomach wound isn’t as bad as he first thought.”
“Good. Well, make sure you keep me updated. Do you want me to call Luc?”
He would have to tell his boss soon if he wanted a safe house, but he wasn’t ready.
“Not yet. I have to get my father sorted.”
“Why?”
“He’s on his way over here right now.”
“Damn, Mix, when you screw things up, you really screw things up.”
“Thanks for that. I’ll contact you as soon as we have plan.”
“Gotcha. Bye, Mix.”
They hung up and he walked back to his room, ignoring his large dining table.
It was where he had placed Sam so that Jenner could work on her.
He didn’t want to remember the tears that had leaked out of her eyes.
She had been unconscious, but apparently, she could still react to the pain of being sewn up.
He stood in the doorway and stared at her.
He needed to know exactly what was going on, but if she didn’t even know, that was bad.
Sam always seemed like she was five steps in front of everyone else.
The fact that the asshole got the drop on her wasn’t a good sign.
Was she slipping, or was she up against someone as smart as she was?
Grabbing a big chair he kept in the corner, he set it right beside the bed.
She had dark smudges beneath her eyes, and while he had never had a face-to-face encounter, he had seen her from afar. She had definitely lost a lot of weight. Someone got the drop on her? It just didn’t track.
What the hell was going on?
Mason Alder gave his boss a run-down of everything that had happened.
Poor Chip. That stupid bastard should have never volunteered for the job, but he’d wanted the huge payout.
When thousands of dollars were on the line, it was hard to turn away from it.
Especially someone like Chip with gambling debts.
At least the damned fool wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore.
With a severe concussion, the idiot came back to the house they were using at the moment.
Mason glanced around at his opulent surroundings.
He had done jobs like this for the last decade, and a staging house was never like this.
The estate had views of the ocean, an infinity pool, and five bedrooms. It made him itch.
This kind of house made a person stick out.
Sure, you had a lot of land around you, but it could give you a false sense of security.
“Did you take care of the body?” his boss asked.
He pulled his attention back to the conversation. What Chip hadn’t understood was that failing at the job would mean death. Up until the moment the boss shot him, the idiot hadn’t realized what was going to happen.
“Yes.”
“Good. Do we know what happened to that woman?”
“No. We think she called in reinforcements.”
“Reinforcements? She has no connections. I have spent the last two years making sure of that.”
Again, he knew there was so much the boss was keeping from him.
In a lot of cases, he didn’t need to know everything about a job.
It was better that way, in fact. Mason was starting to worry that there was a good deal he didn’t know about this situation, and it would probably come back to bite him in the ass. Asking could turn deadly.
“We followed a trail, one that included a blood trail. There were her footsteps and then two other sets. Men, over six feet in height from their stride.”
He held his boss’s gaze, although it was difficult.
Mason had thought he had seen evil before this job, but now he knew that it had been nothing compared to this kind of malevolence.
This was someone who wanted to destroy the enemy by any means possible.
It wasn’t his first time working for a nut job, but the boss was freaking scary.
Most people would never know they were talking to a sociopath.
“Find her. Check out all the hospitals, quick clinics, and vets.”
“Vets?”
Those cold, grey eyes narrowed. “Veterinaries carry drugs that would help with any pain she is in. Do I have to do your job for you?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Then get your ass back out there and find her. If some good Samaritans found her, they probably took her to the hospital. Make sure no Joan Does have been registered in the last few hours.”
He nodded and turned to leave but his boss stopped him.
“Remember that I don’t like anyone who fails.”
With another nod, he headed out. How could he forget that lesson? He still had Chip’s blood beneath his fingernails.