Chapter 5
Five
Lila woke, but didn’t move, keeping her eyes closed.
She didn’t know how long she’d been out.
She remembered hearing Ian’s voice as he talked to someone on the phone.
He had been too far away and speaking too low for her to hear who he was talking to.
She knew it couldn’t be that long because the protocol was that she had to be awakened once an hour or something like that.
Unless she didn’t remember it, which worried her.
That meant that this concussion was worse than the one she got after the fall.
Inwardly she sighed. She hated thinking of her fall from grace. She knew she wasn’t an enemy of the state, but the CIA disagreed. If she could figure out just who the fuck had set her up, she could expose them, then go rattle around at her grandmother’s estate.
Without opening her eyes, Lila formulated her escape. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate Ian coming to her rescue. If she were truthful with herself, she would say it made him even sexier.
Lila, you can’t think those things. You have too much work to do.
Dammit, she hated when her grandmother’s voice broke into her thoughts. It happened on a regular basis, but lately it had begun to annoy her.
Shoving her thoughts about her grandmother and her stupid attraction to Ian aside, she started to wonder what had woken her. She was not a light sleeper. One would think with her background she would be, but she slept like the dead, unable to hear anything. So something had caused her to wake up.
Then she heard it…the soft murmur of male voices.
Panic rose up and clogged her brain. It took all her control to shove it back into place.
Listening closely, she heard Ian’s voice.
Again, he was too far away for her to decipher what he was saying, but his cadence was easy to pick up on. There were three male voices.
Then, they seemed to move closer, and she could hear them clearer.
“So, there were signs of the fight, but no attacker?” Ian asked.
“Right. Something happened there, we just don’t know what,” El said.
When did El show up? Why was he there?
“Thanks for checking that out for me.”
“Any idea on who was attacking her?” another voice said. Who was that? Oh, the Boston dude.
“No.”
“I’ve got Emily looking into any kind of surveillance she can find on the island. It would help us if we could find out where she had been the last few weeks. Or even days,” El said. “We brought her some clothes. Oh, and we found a blonde wig too.”
There was a long pause. “Did you bring it?”
“Yeah. Along with all the post it notes she had in the kitchen. Your woman was in full on crazy mode,” Boston said.
Asshole. She wasn’t crazy. Her grandmother had had her tested. All those doctors said she was normal. Mostly.
She heard the rustle of a bag.
“Son of a bitch,” Ian muttered. “I was right.”
“What?” El asked.
“I ran into her today, but she was using an excellent Russian accent.”
“Sam’s always been good with accents. She approached you?” El asked.
“No. She turned and ran into me.”
“At least that will give us a jumping off point,” El said. “We’ll be able to trace her movements so we can check out any surveillance video along the route.”
After Ian gave them the information, she heard El walk away and start talking on the phone.
“You know this is a mess, right?” Boston asked.
“What would you have me do? Turn her in? That would get her killed.”
“Naw, I know better than to think you would do that. I just wanted to know if you knew how FUBAR this is.”
Ian grunted and she found even that sexy. Her concussion was really screwing her up. Grunts weren’t sexy. They were annoying.
“Believe me, I do.”
“I’ll check in with El and see if he needs anything.”
Then she heard his footsteps as he walked away. She sensed rather than heard Ian walk closer. Freaking spy.
“You know I know you’re awake, right?”
Ugh. She opened her eyes. He was watching her.
“Do you know how creepy it is to watch someone when they sleep?”
“You weren’t sleeping. Also, you have a concussion.” He was frowning at her. “You should probably be in a hospital. Do you have any aliases we can use to get you checked out?”
She sat up and instantly regretted it. The room spun, her stomach revolted. It was all she could to do keep the burger she’d eaten down. She fought it back, barely.
“No. They will look at the hospitals.”
“Who?”
Unable to fight against the pain and nausea, she laid back down and closed her eyes. “If I knew that, I wouldn’t be in hiding.”
She felt his hand against her head. She jolted and opened her eyes again. He shook his head.
“Easy, just making sure you don’t have a fever.”
“No fever,” she said as warmth flashed through her. It had been so long since someone had taken care of her…it was nice. And she couldn’t handle nice. “Turning soft on me, Mix?”
He pursed his lips. It was a sure sign that she’d pissed him off.
Over the years she had learned all the different ways he showed his emotions.
When his eyes narrowed, she knew for sure she had accomplished her goal.
She could not have Ian being nice to her.
People being nice to her made her long for a normal life.
That was something she would never have.
“Self-preservation.”
“How is keeping me from having a fever keeping you alive?”
“There are about five people who would kick my ass if anything happened to you.”
She snorted. “What? Mr. 007 can’t handle himself?”
“Against most of them. But one in particular is married to your boss, and I have a feeling that Adam Lee could probably kick my ass.”
That was true. Jin Lee was a podcaster who covered true crime and Lila was her assistant. Well, she had been, but lately, she had been preoccupied with the people coming for her. Jin’s husband was a massive Hawaiian. He would definitely kick Ian’s ass.
“My sister also accused me of hurting you.”
He seemed put out by that. Actually, he sounded as if he was pouting over the matter, and most of the time, she wouldn’t be attracted to a man who did that. With Ian, it seemed that her dreaded attraction let things like that slide.
“Unfortunately, my father is on his way over here.”
And that was another reason she needed to disappear.
Sam could not see her. It would put everyone else in harm’s way.
The twins knew her name and some of her background.
She had kept the most dangerous information close to her chest. Not because she didn’t trust them, but because she would rather stab herself in the eye than have one of them get hurt.
“So, you ran into me at the burger joint?”
She rolled her eyes. “I was hungry and wasn’t paying attention.”
“Is that how this guy got the drop on you?”
“No…although, I’m not sure. He came through the back of the house. I don’t think he was there when I came home, but I might be wrong. I was so preoccupied that I forgot to set the alarm after I came in.”
“What were you preoccupied with?”
She glanced up at him. He wasn’t being coy. “Nothing, just thinking about things.”
And she was still trying to figure out why she didn’t check the house. Even with the alarm system, she always checked the house. Running into Ian had left her flustered. That had to be the reason and that was not good, especially since he was insisting that she stay in his house.
“Did he say anything to you?”
“Yeah. Said he had a boss. Made a few gross statements, then we had the fight, and he got hurt.”
His eyes narrowed as he studied her face. “What kind of gross statements?”
Dammit, she was going to blame her concussion and the fact that Ian was so pretty on that slip.
“Nothing really.”
He crossed his arms over his chest and frowned at her.
Dammit. That made him even more attractive.
Again, what was it about him? Why did she find every little thing he did sexy?
Was it the concussion? No, if she were honest with herself, her attraction to Ian started a long time ago.
Lila was sure there wasn’t a heterosexual woman who wouldn’t find him attractive.
“Fine. He said that he wasn’t told that I was good looking.”
A long beat of silence as he studied her. “That’s not all he said.”
Just remembering the comments made her feel sick. “He was trying to drag me to the bedroom.”
Anger blazed in his blue gaze. Her breath tangled in her throat at the intensity.
“He’s a dead man.”
His voice was low, gravelly, and his British accent dripped heavily from every syllable. God, that was sexy. And that’s how messed up she was because she found his anger and comment attractive.
“He’s probably already dead.”
“Why do you say that?”
“He hit his head. I didn’t notice his chest moving. Also, even if he survived, his boss probably wouldn’t be happy with what happened.”
He wanted to say something else. She could tell from the way his eyes still lit with the need to make someone pay. Lila knew better than to argue with him on this fact, but most people got away with their crimes. Or it felt that way these days.
Thankfully, his phone buzzed. He looked down at it, then muttered.
“What’s wrong?”
“My father just landed.”
Fear slapped through her entire body. “Tell him he can’t be here.”
“I did. He ignored me.”
Dammit. She needed to get out of there and fast. The only two people who knew who she was were El and Ed.
They would keep her secret, but if his father popped up, her cover would be blown.
That would put all of them in danger. She had kept her promise all these years, and she would not let her grandmother down now.
“Did I hear Boston say they brought me things?”
He glanced at her. “Yeah.”
“I’d like to clean up a little bit.”
“Okay.”
She was so surprised that she must have shown it in her expression.
“What? I’m not heartless. I’ll go get the bag and be right back.”