Chapter 18
Eighteen
It seemed to take Team Bravo forever to get to the house.
He knew he was being an ass, but he didn’t care.
The woman he loved was out there in the hands of a narcissistic killer bent on taking her out.
The idea that he had abducted her didn’t sit well with Ian.
If he just wanted her out of the picture, he could have blown the entire house up.
It wasn’t like it had been hard to fight him off.
Their security was top notch, but Ian’s insistence on being at this particular house had been a mistake. They had just purchased it, and the security upgrade had been ongoing. That had allowed Michael Underwood a way to fuck with their alarms.
Also, all three of their overwatch guys had been knocked out with some kind of drug.
Two SUVs stopped at the bottom of the stairs. As the team members slipped out of the vehicles, Ian noticed one familiar face that was not part of Team Bravo.
He jogged down he steps.
“Autumn, what are you doing here? You need to be far away from this.”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not going out on the search. I offered to run point here with Emily. Also, you’re my brother, jackass. I was going to come regardless.”
His chest warmed as he pulled her into his arms. “Thanks.”
She hesitated for a second. Autumn sometimes had issues with physical demonstrations. “We’ll find her. You have to believe.”
He nodded, although he knew that every minute that ticked away, there was a chance Lila would be killed. Michael Underwood wanted that end tied up in a nice big bow. Ian refused to let that happen. He had just found Lila, and he wasn’t letting her go.
“Hey, I think I found out where they are staying,” Emily called out, as she motioned them all into the house.
They followed her in. “I followed him from Dillon through traffic cams. I love arrogant assholes. They do not think we’ll catch them, and it makes it so easy.”
Her laptop showed a man who looked Hawaiian, driving Michael Underwood.
“I watched him go there twice and leave once. There’s a lot of land there, and it’s about ten minutes from here.”
That was good luck at least. He was already formulating ways to kill Underwood. The closer he was, the sooner he could get his hands on the bastard.
“I need aerials of the house on the land. They have to have something,” Seth said, as his team gathered round the table.
They were all there. Kap Hanson, Eden’s man, a strong silent type, who was usually smiling, but the former NCIS agent had his game face on.
Next to him stood former LAPD Ryan Morrison, their dog handler.
His canine partner Maya sat patiently beside him.
Rounding out the team were Robbie “Rami” Ramirez, a former SEAL, and Nikki Kekoa, a former Coastie, and the only locally raised of the team.
They were the premier search and rescue team on the island.
There was a ping on Emily’s phone, then on everyone else’s. She smiled and clicked a few keys, and a rather large plantation style house came up. It figured a man like Michael Underwood would go for a house like that.
“Typical narcissist,” Miko muttered, voicing Ian’s thoughts. “I would assume it would be better to stay in some little hovel somewhere, right?”
“Depends on if he was trying to keep his neighbors from hearing anything,” El said. He glanced at Ian and grimaced. “Sorry.”
“No. I think we have to be truthful to who this bastard really is.” Even saying the words left him off-centered. Lila had become his entire world.
He was a man who had killed his family, framed someone else for it, then spent the last few years hunting his daughter.
“Normally I would want to go in with a copter, but that could end up with Lila getting hurt,” Seth said as he texted. “Gonna have Team Alpha there for backup. It will take them a little bit to get there, so for now, it’s just us.”
Ian nodded. The need to rush there and breach the house burned in his gut.
He knew they needed a plan, but everything in him wanted to see Lila to ensure himself she was okay.
In a very short time, she had become his whole world.
How he’d let that happen, he had no idea, but months of phone calls and only a short couple of days together, and he knew that he wouldn’t ever want anyone else.
“Do we know what kind of security system they have?” Rami asked.
Emily giggled. They all turned toward her, and Ian knew he had a scowl on his face. “Emily.”
“Okay, sorry.” After one more little snort, she said. “Underwood is only renting the place and apparently didn’t know that Dillon installed the security. I’ll be able to hack into it and shut it all down.”
“Like you said, thank God for arrogant bastards,” Ian said.
“I didn’t say that exactly, but we’ll go with it. Go get him, Ian.”
Nothing but sincerity filled her expression with a bit of determination.
He glanced around at the members of Team Bravo and his own team from Dillon.
He had been a member of MI-6 for longer than he had been working for Dillon, but these people were family to him.
Ian was starting to realize just how much all of these people meant to him.
“Thanks, Emily.”
“Anytime, Mix.”
Her phone went off. “Luc is on his way over.”
Of course he was. That’s what family did.
“Okay, let’s get our teams set up for the breach and then get over there and save my brother-in-law’s woman,” Seth said. “We’ll solidify the plan on the way over.”
“You don’t look surprised,” her father said as he looked at her as if she were some sort of experiment.
Lila didn’t respond to him, but she remembered that particular look. Even at the age of twelve, she had known there was something off about her father. When her brother had been diagnosed on the spectrum, he had written Adam off. Anyone her father saw as less than perfect didn’t matter to him.
“Of course not. You have my intelligence.”
She snorted. As if. The man couldn’t hold a candle to her mother.
But knowing him and what would drive him crazy—and hopefully get him to make a mistake—she still didn’t respond.
He always wanted to be the center of attention, and that was one thing she knew he hated about Eloise Eddington.
She walked into a room, and everyone noticed.
“Let me help you up,” he said reaching for her. It took everything in her not to shrink away from the man. He was a monster, but she couldn’t let him think she thought of him that way. Fear would be too powerful to use against her.
He helped her up off the concrete floor and into a wooden chair.
She still said nothing and just stared at him. Discomfort passed over his expression. Her silence was starting to get to him. Good.
“You’ve caused me quite a bit of trouble,” he said.
He hadn’t changed that much. Granted, it looked like he’d had a little work done, just enough to ward off any facial recognition. It had been over a decade since he had “died” so she wondered if he’d had it done right away.
“Nothing to say? Interesting. You were always so full of words when you were younger.”
Her stomach clenched at the fondness in his tone. For years, she had worried if she were like him. He had shown affection in his own way, but now she knew it was a lie. There was no way he cared for her or anyone else. He had mimicked emotions like a good sociopath always does.
“So, I’m guessing you want to ask a lot of questions.”
She shrugged and looked away, dismissing him. She needed a way out of there, or a way to stall him until Ian could come get her. There was no doubt he would. She just had to hold on until he did.
“I take it that bitch Judith taught you how to be quiet.”
She slanted him a look as anger took hold of her. She owed her grandmother everything and she would not let him disparage her. “Don’t call my grandmother a bitch.”
“Finally,” he breathed out, his voice evening out in relief. She wanted to kick herself. “And she was a bitch. She’s the reason my marriage was falling apart.”
She snorted once again. “I think it’s because you’re a malignant narcissistic asshole, but what do I know?”
Lila didn’t expect the slap. That hadn’t been something her parents had ever done to them, so when he backhanded her, shock came first. Then tears filled her eyes, but she blinked them back.
She would not cry in front of him. She gritted her teeth, promising herself that she would make him pay for all of it.
It had been easy to gain access to the grounds of the house. Underwood had very little protection, which had told Ian a couple of things.
First, the man didn’t trust anyone. Second, he was an arrogant bastard. Most narcissists were, so it made sense. He had had only two people patrolling the grounds. They were knocked out and tied up. As they approached the house, Emily continued to chatter away in his ear.
“I cannot understand how he could have missed this. I mean, if he was targeting you to bring out Lila, don’t you think he would have checked out who handled his security?”
Yes, that was true, but at the moment, he couldn’t question that.
His entire focus was on getting to Lila.
Why hadn’t he told her how he felt? He had been a coward, not able to tell her he loved her.
But there was one thing he would do the moment he got his hands on her, and that was tell her how he felt.
Then, she would just have to deal with it.
As Emily kept talking about how stupid Underwood was, he could hear her tapping on the keys.
They were within fifty yards of the house when she squealed.
“Eureka!”
He stopped his forward progression. He had worked with Emily enough to know that she would have information for them.
“Okay, you have three guys left in the house. I’m sure he has more than five working for him, but they’re absent at the moment.”
“Are you sure you haven’t missed anyone?” Seth asked.
“As if, and no. There is no one. I had Charity double check for me.”
Charity Callahan was the forensic tech for TFH.