Chapter 17
Seventeen
Ian woke with a start, the nightmare he’d just endured a little too close to real life for him. Especially right now.
He looked down at the warm body wrapped around him. He smiled. In sleep, she looked so damned young, so peaceful. He wondered how often that happened for her. She was starting to look rested for the first time since he had seen her.
He glanced over at his phone and noticed that they had been sleeping for at least four hours.
That was a good stretch for him. Since he knew the longer he spent in bed with Lila he would want to take her once more, he slipped out of bed as quietly as he could.
He kept his gaze resting on the woman. She mumbled something in her sleep and claimed his pillow. With a sigh, she settled back down.
He dressed quickly, then pulled the sheet up for her. He really didn’t want to think about what would have happened to her if he hadn’t been on Kauai. It chilled his blood.
Knowing he should leave her alone, he leaned down and kissed her bare shoulder. Her eyes fluttered opened.
“Ian.”
Damn. Just hearing his name turned him on.
“I’m gonna check in with the team.”
She moved to get up.
“You can stay in bed.”
With a sigh, she shook her head. “I can help and you know it.”
“I do, but I have a feeling if they had something that could help, we would have heard from them. Why don’t you get that shower we never really took?”
After they had made love, they had dried off quickly and fallen into bed. The memory of being so deep inside of her…then he remembered something important.
“Love, we didn’t use anything.”
She sat up further, the sheet pooling at her waist.
“Use anything?”
One thing about Lila that he was starting to discover was that she could pop up and get going after waking up, but her brain lagged a little.
“When we made love. I didn’t wear a condom.”
“Oh.” She shrugged. “We should be fine.”
“I’m clean. I just had a checkup. I do apologize.”
She giggled, the light sound filling his chest with happiness. “You sound like you killed my dog or something. And no worries. I’m clean too.”
God, she was sitting on the bed, naked and warm, smiling up at him and he just wanted to crawl back into bed with her. But they had work to do. They had to eliminate the threat to her life.
So instead of giving in to the temptation she posed, he leaned down to brush his mouth over hers. Just the small taste tempted him beyond his control, but he knew he needed to check in. With considerable effort, he pulled away.
“Take a shower and I’ll see what we have here to eat.”
He walked to the door and turned around to see her still watching him with those sexy eyes of hers.
Once again, he had to order himself to leave.
The murmur of voices reached him when he was about half-way down the hall.
He had insisted that Lila be given a room far away from the main part of the house.
Dillon safe houses were always filled with operatives, and he had wanted to make sure she had peace and quiet to sleep.
Of course, now he was glad they had had some privacy.
Although, when he stepped into the kitchen, the looks he got from his co-workers told him that they didn’t have to be close to know what Lila and he had been doing.
“Where’s Lila?” Jenner asked.
El said nothing. He just continued staring at him.
“She’s taking a shower.”
“I thought you took one earlier.”
He felt a wash of heat fill his cheeks.
“Oh. My. God. You’re blushing!” Eden giggled.
“I am not.”
El blinked, his expression going from dark to almost blank.
“You are. Aren’t you some super spy?” Eden asked, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
His eyes narrowed as he studied his partner. She was like the extra sister he never wanted at times. They had clicked as partners from the time they were first thrown together. But right now…she was annoying.
“Fuck off.”
The bark of laughter that filled the kitchen came from El.
“Oh, damn.” He looked at Eden. “You were right.”
She rolled her eyes. “I am normally.”
“No. Most of the time you are not.”
“Oh, please, tell me when I’ve been wrong about something.”
“How about when we were ten and you thought it would be cool to drive the truck?” El asked, crossing his arms over this chest.
“We would have been fine if you hadn’t driven into the ditch.”
The twins squabbling was normal. The two of them tended to fight about lots of things that weren’t important. Just last week, they argued about who was better at skipping stones over water. For close to an hour. Something that had amused him, but right now, his nerves were on edge.
“Cut it,” he said from behind clenched teeth.
They both stopped arguing.
“Damn, I’ve been trying to get them to shut up forever. That was impressive,” Jenner said.
“You haven’t said a damned thing,” El said.
“Exactly.”
Ian could sense another argument starting, this time between El and Jenner. He didn’t have the time or the patience for that.
“Any news?”
Eden’s smile faded a bit. “No. It’s annoying.”
“Who is on rounds?”
“Miller, Brown, and Ellison are on overwatch,” Jenner said.
Ian nodded, then rubbed the back of his neck, frustration filling him.
He liked action. After years in his job for MI-6, he should be good at waiting.
But he wasn’t. Not anymore. Maybe it was spending time around his sister, who seemed to always be in motion.
Or maybe he had just grown sick of the game of being a sniper. Stalking a target could take weeks.
Or maybe it was because of the woman currently taking a shower.
“Something about this is bothering me,” Jenner rumbled out.
“There’s a lot that bothers me,” he said sarcastically.
“Yeah, I get that your woman is under threat.”
Ian opened his mouth to refute the your woman claim, but no words came out.
“Can’t say it, can you?” the former medic asked.
Ian crossed his arms over his chest and scowled at him. “Did something happen?”
The smirk Jenner sent his way told him he wasn’t buying Ian’s diversionary tactics.
“We said no. Miko finally went in to take a nap,” Eden said.
She made some kind of face and motioned with her head at Jenner, who was grumbling under his breath.
“What’s that about?”
She leaned closer to Ian and said in a stage whisper, “Our medic has an issue with our shrink.”
“She isn’t a shrink. She’s a profiler.” Then, apparently realizing he gave into her bait, Jenner said, “I don’t have a problem with Andersen.”
Ian, happy to not be the person on the hot seat at the moment, decided to play along. After studying Jenner for a moment, he looked at Eden, who was grinning at him.
“Yeah, why do you think he has a problem with Miko?”
Eden shrugged. “Not sure.”
“Hey, assholes, I’m right here.”
They both looked at him, then turned back to each other.
“Seems to be protesting a little too much for someone who doesn’t have a problem with our newest team member,” Ian said.
“Both of you can get bent.”
“Jesus, you people are loud,” Miko said. “I thought all of you were spies at one time?”
“I was not a spy. Ever,” Jenner said, his voice filled with irritation.
“As nice and growly as your voice is, it wasn’t the loud one. It was the two partners we have here.”
“I guess I’m the only good spy, then,” El said.
“No. You just stopped speaking,” Miko said with a huff. “Where’s Lila?”
“In the shower.”
She nodded. “Good, because I’m having an issue with her parents’ investigation, and I wanted to talk to you first before we talk to her. How does she feel about her father?”
“This is important to your profile on our perpetrator?”
She sighed. “No. On Lila.”
He opened his mouth to defend her, and he noticed that Eden did also. Miko stopped them by raising her hand.
“I do not suspect her of anything. Well, I’m sure she’s bruised a law or two to keep herself safe, but I don’t really give a damn about that.”
“Aren’t you with the FBI?” Jenner asked, sarcasm filling his tone.”
“It might have escaped your attention, but I am no longer with them.” She never took her gaze away from Ian. “So, her father? Has she said anything?”
“Not really. She has mentioned that her mother was promoted above him and that created some tension. She was sure a divorce was imminent.”
The front door beeped before he could answer.
“That’s Emily,” Eden said.
“Oh, good you’re all here. I came because Miko touched on something and I thought it would be better if I were here so we could run down this insane theory.”
Miko sniffed and straightened her spin. “It is not insane.”
“I think it is, but I like insanity, so that’s okay.” Emily set her laptop down on the table. “We are going to need a lot of coffee.”
After giving that order, she plopped down into a chair and powered up her laptop.
“I think we are going to need a little more information,” Ian said, as Jenner sighed and rose to make the coffee.
“It is a theory that started to take hold about an hour or so ago. I might be too tired, or I don’t know,” Miko said. He studied the former profiler. She had dark circles beneath her eyes, and while there wasn’t a wrinkle in any of her clothes, her shirt wasn’t as starched as it had been before.
“Girlfriend, I told you that it was a good theory. Especially after I started to look into the man they were trying to pin this all on,” Emily said as she tapped on her keys. “So, Miko called me with her idea. That maybe Lance Hiller hadn’t been the culprit. That maybe he had been a victim too.”
Ian blinked, looking from Emily to Miko, then back to Emily. “Wait, what?”
She sighed. “Hiller hasn’t been seen around, but there are problems with the theory The Company came up with for this crime.”
“That Hiller was obsessed with Eloise?” Ian asked.
“Yes. He wasn’t obsessed with her on a personal level. There were no signs of it at all,” Miko said. “You would think that he would maybe stalk her or show at least a little bit of an obsession with her. There was nothing.”
“Still, some people are good at hiding that, right?” Eden asked.