Chapter 14 #2
“It’s the middle of the night,” Lila said.
Miko smiled. “I have a feeling you know exactly what she’s like. She was looking over the investigation into your family’s death. Did you know they suspected Lance Hiller?”
Lila shrugged. “They could never really pin it on him. I think they were just trying their best to pin it on anyone they could. No spy agency wants to admit that someone got the drop on them and killed two of their analysts.”
“Who is Lance Hiller?” Ian asked, his gaze still on Lila.
“He worked with my mother.”
He nodded. “We should do a deep dive on the man.”
“I already did,” she said. “There’s nothing.”
“Did they question him?”
She shook her head.
“Why not?”
She shrugged. “He disappeared off the face of the earth.”
“Why isn’t he on your list?”
“Listen, the guy didn’t have it in him. I met him a few times, and I never thought he had the connections to kill my family and then go on the run.”
“Why do you say that?” Miko asked, her voice soft.
With a sigh, Lila walked over to the coffee maker and started to make coffee.
“Mom always had geeky boys—her term not mine—who looked at her like she was the Aphrodite of coding.” Once she had the coffee brewing, she turned to face them, “You saw the way Stryker acted. It’s been years, and he was still going on about my mother.”
“Do you think that it could have been twisted?”
She glanced at Miko. “Do you mean like an obsession for my mother led the guy to blow up our house? Doubtful.”
“Why do you say that?” El asked.
She sighed. “I get that he might have been infatuated with my mom, but it can’t be him. Even if he did go that way, he didn’t have the connections to be on the run all of these years. The person hunting me has to be able to float around the world and this person has skills and money.”
“He was working with your mother on that crypto investigation,” Miko said. Not a question.
Ian’s mind was starting to make the connections.
“You think he could have stolen the money and Eloise realized it?” he asked.
“Yes, but…I’m not sure about what is going on right now. It seems…off. Did you get too close? Did something change?”
Lila shook her head. “As I said, I hit a plateau a few months ago. Everything seemed to be swirling around Hawai’i which makes no sense.”
“You’re here,” Miko said, her voice serious.
“But I was drawn here because of my investigations.”
“What drew you here to Hawai’i?”
“Hiroto Doi. He was reported to have been here. Also, Luis Schmidt owns some property in the area.”
“You were working for Jin at the time,” he said.
“Yeah, I wondered if one of her investigations had hit on one of the crypto suspects, but it was just a normal drug deal and murder thingy.”
He would not smile. It was hard not to with Lila. Even with the serious investigation and someone wanted her dead; she could make him laugh. And she had done it on purpose, from the sparkle in her eyes.
“So, you originally came over here to work for Jin,” Miko said.
“No. I was working on the mainland. Sort of a virtual assistant kind of thing.”
“Let me get this straight,” Miko said. “You are considered one of the best analysts the CIA has ever had, and you were working as a VA?”
She shrugged. “She needed help more with organizing research and doing the research. I am very good at both.”
“So that first brought you here, the investigation.”
“No, some dumbass was targeting her, and they tried to kidnap me. They were stupid. I mean, I hid on the roof of the house and they couldn’t find me. I helped her out and then mostly stayed here.”
That caught his attention. He had wondered how often she’d left the island.
“What were you doing this last year?”
“I told you. Investigating and looking for Doi.”
“What aren’t you telling me? What else were you doing during the last year?”
“Nothing to do with the investigation.”
“You don’t know that.”
Her spine straightened and she crossed her arms beneath her breasts. And, of course, that brought is gaze down. Ian would be the first to admit that he was a slave to his need for her—a first for him.
“I do.”
“Lila—”
“Ian, we don’t have time for that,” Miko said interrupting the spat, her calm voice rubbing up against his senses. She looked at Lila. “Can you give us an idea of why you left the island?”
She sighed. “It’s an old source but I wasn’t asking questions. He’s in a home and I visit from time to time. I haven’t been back in months though.”
There was a shimmer of truth in her words, but he knew she as lying about something. Or at least shading the truth to fit the discussion. He gave her a pointed look to let her know they were not done with this.
“Well, we do have a problem. Something changed recently, something that made your target ramp things up. He’s tried to snatch you.”
“Why would he do that? It would be easier to kill me.”
The way she said it, her tone steady and her entire demeanor calm. It was like she was talking about the chance of a big winter storm kicking Oahu’s ass.
“He doesn’t know what you know. He also doesn’t know who you told.”
There was a long beat of silence following Jenner’s comment. Ian glanced at Miko, who didn’t hide her surprise. The former medic shrugged.
“You’ve been saving Ian’s ass the last few months. That might have nothing to do with him and everything to do with you.”
Ian glanced at Lila, who shook her head, but when Ian looked around the room, he realized they were starting to agree with Jenner.
“That can’t be true,” she said, her words tinged with horror.
“When did you sense you were being followed?” Ian asked.
“Always,” she said, then sighed. “But it seemed to get really bad the last six months. I think part of that had to do with El.”
“What was that?” Miko asked. Being new she didn’t know all of their backgrounds yet. He was sure she had a dossier on each of them and would know more too.
“I was hunting the person who set me up in the CIA. Lila was a target because of that.”
“That’s not true. They didn’t know who helped you,” Lila said.
“You were burned right after that,” he said, crossing his arms over his chest.
“It was weeks after that. It had been coming for a long time.”
“What do you mean by that?” Ian asked.
“I get that El and Eden have guilt over that, but I’ve said that my burning had nothing to do with them.”
“They used it to revoke your access to their computers and kick you out of the CIA,” El countered.
She snorted, amusement easy to see her in bicolored eyes. “Fat lot of good that did them.”
“Do not say anymore,” Ian muttered.
“Hey, I don’t work for the government anymore. I know exactly where she’s coming from,” Miko said, a small smile playing about her mouth. She looked at Lila. “So you think someone had been setting you up for a while?”
She nodded.
“What made you think that?” the former profiler asked. He didn’t like the woman’s tone. He got it though. She would always be a profiler, but for some reason, he didn’t like the idea of her doing it to Lila.
He opened his mouth to say just that, but Lila stopped him. “Don’t worry, Mix.”
Miko looked between them, her eyes widening when she took in his expression.
“Seriously, it’s okay,” Lila said.
“What’s okay?” Miko said, playing dumb.
When Lila didn’t answer right away, he glanced at her. A small smile played about her lips, and he wanted to kiss her. Then he wanted to strip her down and taste every inch of her. He shifted his weight trying to ease the tightness of his pants.
“I know you’re working on a profile. I’m okay with that. And yes, I do have a sixth sense about these things.”
“You think you have a sixth sense?” Miko asked. There was no condemnation in her voice.
“Sure. I guess that’s what you would call it. I notice little things. Like how three of my neighbors seemed to move out suddenly, replaced by what can only be described as suspiciously neighborly.”
“You think it’s suspicious that your neighbors were suspicious for being nice?” Jenner asked.
“Of course. I lived in DC, downtown in a condo where almost everyone worked for the government. Also, the assholes always seemed to be around when I was. They were not very good at what they did.”
“Are you fucking kidding me, Lila?” El demanded, anger dripping from his voice.
Ian was up and out of the chair before anyone had a chance to blink. He did not like the way the former CIA agent was acting towards Lila.
“You need to control yourself, El,” he said, his voice controlled, but he was sure the threat was easy to hear.
“Mix, don’t threaten El.”
He glanced over his shoulder at the woman who had become the center of his universe.
“He needs to watch his tone.”
Her eyes widened. “It’s okay. I know why he’s mad.”
“And why is that?”
When she didn’t answer, he looked back at the agent who still wore a thundercloud expression, then at his twin.
“She thought someone was targeting her and she took a chance helping Ed find me.”
“I couldn’t let you die, El. That would have destroyed Eden.” Her voice was soft, apologetic.
Ian turned to face her. “You keep putting yourself in danger, Lila. That ends now.”
The finality in his voice made the entire room go quiet.
“Or what? I’ve been in danger since the moment I watched my entire family get murdered in front of me.” She stood, her face flushing in anger, but beneath it he saw the pain. It was in her gaze, and it dripped from every word she spoke. “I protect people I care about. I need a break.”
Without another word, she turned and headed out of the kitchen. There was a long uncomfortable silence filling the room.
“That is exactly what I thought,” Miko said.
He looked at the former FBI agent. “What?”
“Her need to protect people was solidified at the age of twelve. She puts herself in danger because she feels guilty for being late. For being the one survivor.”
Ian knew that. Anyone who knew her story would understand why she behaved the way she did.
“I’ll check on her,” El said.
“Bugger off,” Ian said, which drew a laugh from the operative. “I got this.”
And he did. He headed back to the bedroom, wondering if she would lock the door.
He let out a sigh of relief when he twisted the knob and the door easily opened.
She was standing at the window looking out.
He wanted to tell her to step away, but he knew she was safe.
It was one of the reasons they’d picked this house.
Still…his need to protect her overrode most of his logic.
He walked toward her, his steps sure. She didn’t acknowledge his presence, but he knew she knew he was in the room.
“Do you want to tell me what that outburst was about?”
She closed her eyes and drew in a deep breath. “I led them to you, Ian. All my stupid interfering led the bastard to you. It’s all my fault.”
“Actually, it’s the fault of the person after you.”
She opened her eyes and looked at him. Unshed tears shimmered. His father had always said that when a strong woman cries, it’s painful to watch. It went beyond that. She was shattering his fucking heart.
“But he would have never gone after you if I hadn’t been digging.”
“We don’t know that. And if it is one of these three people or groups, there was always a chance they would come after me.”
She drew in a long breath as one tear escaped.
“Lila, I need you to quit crying.”
She blinked and another tear rolled down her cheek. That simple little action seemed to break his resolve.
“Right now.”
“I…I…”
Then she burst into tears. Horror washed over him. Ian had faced some of the worst scum. He’d hunted them down, set them up, and killed them without a second thought. It was his job, his duty. It was why he had been labeled with the Ice nickname.
But nothing had prepared him for this. It took all of his control to stay rooted where he was and not flee those tears. She needed him.
So, instead of running away and hiding, Ian grabbed her and pulled her into his arms. “I’m sorry, love.”
He kissed her temple.
“I never cry,” she said, taking another shuddering breath.
“You’ve been through a lot.”
She pulled back, her face ruddy, her eyes still filled with tears. She was a mess, and he realized in that instant, that he would never be able to walk away from her. He was in love with Delilah Eddington-Underwood.
Bloody hell.