Chapter 8 #2
Then he hung up. The fact that his sister often did the same thing shouldn’t surprise him. Autumn was definitely rubbing off on her husband.
He heard a murmur of voices and knew that El and Jenner had arrived. “Come on. If we don’t get out there now, those two will steal all of Dad’s pancakes.”
“Who were you talking to?”
“My sister and then my brother-in-law.”
“About me?”
“About the situation, but it’s because they’re family.” He definitely didn’t want to tell her that he had been calling them to ask about their discussion. “And Autumn got sick halfway through the call.”
She nodded but said nothing else as she watched him with wary eyes. Those eyes…they would always get to him. They were unique, just like the woman.
“What?”
He shook his head. “Just thinking I like your eyes.”
“Well, that’s something. Some jerk in school called them devil eyes.”
“Tell me his name and I’ll hurt him.”
There was a beat of silence. “I took care of him. I broke his nose and then I got detention.”
Before he could respond to that, his father poked his head back into the room. “Come on. I told El and Jenner they couldn’t have any until you had yours first. Need to put some weight on you.”
Her face flushed, but she nodded and hurried out of the room. He went to follow her, but his father settled a hand on his chest to stop him.
“You need to watch yourself.”
He blinked. His own damned father was telling him what to do? Okay, most fathers would feel the need to tell their sons what to do, but this was different. He was warning Ian away from Lila and that ticked him off.
“Just what do you mean?”
He knew exactly what his father meant. Ian was still trying to deal with the revelation that Lila just might be a virgin, or at the very least, not very experienced. He was trying his best to get his head screwed on straight, and it just didn’t seem to be working.
“I don’t want you…just, she’s not like other people. She’s fragile.”
Oh, there was a part of her like that, but the woman had a tough exterior. “Are you afraid I would take advantage?”
“Not on purpose. She’s just different.”
Yeah, he got that. The fact that his father seemed to know so much about her was a little odd to him.
“And before you ask, I know because Judith kept me apprised of everything that was going on with Lila. Well, until she died.”
“When did that happen?”
“About two years ago.”
“About the time Lila went on the run?”
His eyebrows shot up. “You’re right. Maybe it was because I hadn’t heard about her being burned until months later.”
“You were getting ready for your transplant. That took up all of our time.”
“True. It still bothers me that I had no idea.”
He heard the guilt his father held and he could understand it. Autumn’s mother had never told Sam that he had a daughter, not until she needed to get her away from the cult. This probably reminded him of that.
“Come on, let’s eat and talk things over. I’m sure El has already lined up a flight set for tomorrow.”
He headed to the kitchen completely unprepared for the sight he would see. El had his arm draped over Lila’s slight shoulders as they leaned against the cabinet. She was sipping some coffee. The edges of his vision turned red.
El smiled at him. “Morning.”
Ian wanted to smack that damned smile off his face. Instead, he walked over and poured himself a cup of coffee, then pushed El out of the way so that he could take his place by Lila’s side.
El laughed, but Lila was looking at him as if he’d lost his mind. Maybe he had. Who knew? Either way, it was this or he beat the shite out of El.
“Lila should be able to fly by tonight,” Jenner said.
“Where are we going?” Lila asked.
“Oahu. Better to hide,” Ian said.
“True. I wouldn’t have come to Kauai if it hadn’t been for you. I do like this island the best though.”
He looked at her. “You do?”
“Less people. Oahu is best for hiding because the number of people on that island. Here, people notice. But I do love this island. It has feral chickens. How could I not love it?”
He felt the corners of his mouth curve. Her bicolored eyes sparkled as she took a sip of her coffee.
Ian’s entire body seemed tuned into her, but when she looked at him, he lost all thought.
Need rushed through him as his hand tightened on his coffee cup.
His father cleared his throat. Lila’s face flushed.
Ian gave his father a dirty look for embarrassing Lila. The stern expression from his father reminded Ian of getting caught doing things as a kid that he had been warned against.
“Breakfast. I assumed you would want to sit inside,” his father said.
True. He would rather be out back on the lanai. It was always gorgeous out there, but it would leave Lila exposed. Still, the idea of sitting there with Lila while they enjoyed his father’s pancakes would have been delightful.
What the bloody hell was going on in his mind? He couldn’t seem to go more than a few seconds before he started thinking about her naked. Or doing weird things like…wanting to hold her hand.
They all settled at the kitchen table. His father at the head. Lila sat down beside his father on his right. Ian sat next to her. Jenner and El sat opposite of the two of them.
As they dug into their meal, El talked about their transport off the island. “I called in a friend to get a jump to Oahu. He suggested we do it later in the day which is a good idea. It would be easier to sneak you into Honolulu.”
“Not a Dillon plane?” Lila asked.
“No. Although, Ian, boss wants to talk to you.”
That did not surprise him. “Luc or Conner?”
“Probably both, but that came from Luc.”
“You called him?”
“No. He called me because Em talked to him.” He looked at Lila and his gaze softened. That would not do at all. He didn’t need Elwood Carlisle getting ideas about his woman.
Fuck. When had he started thinking of her that way? Last night when Jenner had called her his woman, Ian had barely noticed it, but it seemed to be rooted in his head now. That was, fuck, insanely, he wanted it to be true. And that was a problem.
“You know Emily?” El asked.
“Yeah, you know I do. You should ask her out.”
He looked at El, whose face flushed. “Stop. You know that isn’t going to happen.”
“Yeah, Aaron would probably beat you over the head for that,” Jenner said.
“Men. You’re a bunch of neanderthals and if she wants to date him, she should. I mean, unless El is okay with another dude coming along and sneaking into her bed.”
“What the hell does that mean?”
“Scuttlebutt—” she broke off and looked at Jenner. “Is that the right word for gossip?”
Jenner nodded.
“Scuttlebutt is that there are a couple of guys from that Team Charlie who want to date her.”
Team Charlie was the newest team for Task Force Hawaii. They would be the terrorism unit, the one watching out for any threats and would work to coordinate between Homeland, state, and city. They were still in training.
“I think there are already bets on it,” she said.
He didn’t roll his eyes, but it was close. TFH was notorious for betting on just about anything, but mostly about each other’s sex lives. Apparently, things were moving beyond the parameters of just the team. Then it hit him.
“Are there bets about me?”
She shrugged. “I just heard a lot of talk about Emily. TFH would also steal her in an instant if they could.”
Ian wanted to demand an answer from her, but he knew that would be showing his hand. Also, he would get it out of his sister one way or another.
“While we’re eating, why don’t you tell us about some of the others you are interested in?” his father asked. Because he was being a professional even if Ian could not.
“Luis Schmidt.”
The name sent a rush of anger through Ian. “That bastard.”
She nodded. “I’m sticking to the three that have ties to your former employer.”
“What does this Schmidt have to do with MI-6?” Jenner asked.
Ian glanced at El and realized he would have heard the name too.
“He was in the drug trade, especially fentanyl,” Lila said. “Before it was so well known, he saw the uses in the illegal markets, and we think made a fortune on it. I was on his trail when I got burned.”
He glanced at her. Ian knew he was wanted by MI-6, but he had no idea he’d been in the business over a decade. “He’s been around that long?”
She nodded. “You didn’t know?”
Ian shook his head.
“And what tie did he have to MI-6? Was he an asset?” El asked.
“He killed one of my teammates. He didn’t have to, but he shot him and left him to bleed out.”
Tommy had been a new dad, and so excited about the future. It was one of the things that had him running from the service. That and he felt as if he was losing his soul. There were only so many jobs you could take before it started to seep into your personal life.
“Whereabouts are unknown, but there have been sightings here over the years. He has deep ties to China mainly because of the fentanyl, but he also launders a lot of crypto for them.”
“And the third?” his father asked.
“Hiroto Doi, aka HirDo online. Big in crypto early on, made his way up the ranks of Yakuza by helping them transfer a lot of their wealth into crypto. He owns several properties throughout the islands.”
El looked between the two of them. “And the connection to Ian?”
Lila looked at him, waiting. She would not reveal his secrets. Even here among friends, she gave him the lead on that. It shouldn’t have his chest warming, but it did.
“I may have something to do with his first lieutenant being dead.”
“And? There has to be more to the story.”
Ian sighed. “He was also his younger brother.”
“And an absolute bastard. He was running a lot of their human trafficking operations,” Lila said. “So those are the three that we have close connections to. Or at least, something connected to my mother and her work.”
“So, we get Em to start digging into these three men,” Jenner said,
“It won’t help. No offense to Emily, but if I couldn’t find it, then it isn’t there.”
Ian shared a look with his father. “We’ll work it out when we get back to Oahu.”
“And when is that?” she asked, turning to look at him.
He didn’t answer her for a long moment, once again mesmerized by her eyes.
“Ian?”
He blinked and ignored the knowing looks from his friends and father.
“El?”
“We’ll head out to the airport around seven tonight.”
He did glance at his friends then. “Who did you call in?”
“Devon Stryker.”
He wanted to groan. There was no way to call in a favor to anyone who wasn’t a billionaire, not when you needed a private plane and no questions asked.
“You don’t think it will alert people? He has ties to Dillon.”
El shook his head. “Devon was already coming over to the island for another meeting. He was planning on going home to Oahu tonight, so it works out. I thought about renting a plane.”
“But that would leave me open to a hit,” Lila said. “I take it Stryker probably owns his plane?”
“Of course he does,” El said, with a chuckle.
Devon Stryker was the tech billionaires all wanted to be but would never get to be. He had his fingers in a lot of pots, but he tended to stay out of the spotlight. He also worked behind the scenes with a lot of charities. There were rumors that Devon had a connection to the CIA.
“So, it’s set. We leave tonight,” Ian said.
“You should call Luc. He really wants to talk to you,” El said.
He nodded. Ian dreaded this talk because there was a good chance he’d get his ass chewed out. Luc was quiet until he was pissed off.
Pulling out his phone, he stepped away from the kitchen. His boss picked up on the first ring. The man never seemed to have enough time off.
“Warner.”
“Luc, it’s Ian.”
“Thanks for calling. Can you give me an update?”
“I would rather not say much at the moment. I need to install better digital blockers.” He had been meaning to get better digital security, but he’d been so damned busy. He didn’t think it was that important, but he had gotten lazy in the last few years.
The sigh he heard over the phone told him that his boss wasn’t happy with the situation. “Fine. I understand you’ll be back soon.”
“Possibly. El has a way off the island.”
“Just don’t stay too long.”
“The fact that no one has shown up is a good sign. They definitely would have breached the house last night.”
“Okay. I take it you want a safe house?”
“Yes. That new one with the good cover would be fantastic.” He knew they had just bought it, and under a name not linked to the company. “It isn’t just about keeping her safe. We’ll need to discover who is after her, so it is best if she stays away from the public right now.”
“Gotcha. See you later.”
Then Luc hung up. What was it about the people in his life that they just hung up on him? He shook his head and headed back into the kitchen.
Everyone turned to look at once.
“Everything is in motion. We’ll have a safe house when we arrive.”
“I still think it would be better to let me leave on my own,” the stubborn woman said.
He opened his mouth to refute that comment.
“Lila,” his father said, a gentleness Ian rarely heard from him. She looked at Sam. “I could not leave you on your own. Your grandmother would come back to haunt me. You also know it isn’t smart.”
She sighed. “Fine. But I reserve the right to change my mind and leave.”
“Overruled,” Ian said.
She frowned at him. Of course, that just sent another slap of heat through him. He said nothing, but again, let one eyebrow rise. Her face flushed and she looked away. Damn, she was cute when she blushed.
And when did a woman blushing become a turn on for him? Ian was starting to realize that just about everything about her turned him on.
“Fine,” she mumbled again.
“Good, now eat,” he said sitting down beside her.
“You’re not the boss of me,” she said as she shoved a piece of pancake in her mouth. Satisfied that she was eating, he dug into his own breakfast. Ian knew he had won the battle, but the war would be long.
“We have no idea where she is,” Mason said.
Those damned cold grey eyes studied him. Air seemed to back up in his lungs. His boss said nothing. Mason knew that could be a good thing, or a bad thing.
“But we have people watching the airport, including the private airstrips. I also have people at the ports, here and on Oahu.”
“Good. I know you’re just cleaning up Chip’s mess.”
Relief burst through him. He nodded. “I’m doing my best.”
Another long beat of silence. The smile sent his way had nothing to do with happiness. The warm comfort he had just felt seemed to dissolve, leaving him almost frozen.
“Just make sure you don’t fail. You know how I feel about that.”
With the wave of a hand, he was dismissed. Mason knew better than to respond to the dismissal. He hurried out of the room, planning his escape. This whole situation was going down, and he was not about to sink with the ship.