Chapter 18 #2
“You have two in the kitchen, and one in the computer room. And I’ve tapped into the cameras. Underwood has Lila in a room. No other guards.”
She didn’t say anything else, and he sensed she was holding back on him.
“Ian, this is your favorite sister on the line.” Autumn was his only sister. “What she isn’t telling you is that he has a gun.”
Adrenaline spiked as a sense of urgency filled him. He had to get to Lila. He knew their time was running short if Underwood had a gun. This was the end game for him. But that wasn’t about to happen. Ian wasn’t about to lose her now.
“Emily, once we breach, direct Ian to the room where Lila is. Ian, you get to her. We’ll take care of the others,” Seth said.
“Copy that,” he said, determination filling him.
Within sixty seconds, they had breached the home without alerting the three guards inside the house.
All due to Emily suppressing the warning.
They were also watching a video loop of the security cameras.
Money could hire your security, but unless you checked them out, there was always a chance you would get idiots.
More muscle didn’t mean they were better at their jobs.
Seth and Rami took out the two guards in the kitchen, knocking them out cold without either of them making a noise. Ian moved on as Kap and Nikki breached the security room. He registered the man opening his mouth to shout, but Kap leveled a weapon at him.
Well, they were definitely not ready to die for Underwood.
“You’re gonna go down that hallway, Ian. It’s the last door on the left.”
He moved his way down the hallway, determined to save Lila or die trying.
“It was her fault. She was always whispering in your mother’s ear.”
How did she not see what he was when she was a girl?
She had always thought he was brilliant, if a little off.
His dismissal of Adam had hurt her heart, but she hadn’t had the emotional maturity to understand just what was happening at the time.
A lot of people didn’t like dealing with her brother and his eccentricities.
She didn’t care. She had loved him with her whole heart.
“So, nothing is your fault?”
The anger smoothed out from his face. “I knew you would understand.”
“It had nothing to do with the crypto you stole?”
His face went blank. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“Jesus, even now, when you are about to kill me, you can’t be truthful with me. I know you embezzled it. And you set up Hiller to take the fall.”
There was a long beat of silence, then his mouth curved. The smile he gave her had nothing to do with humor, just madness. It shown in his eyes. Michael Underwood was a freaking nut. And she was related to him. What kind of monster did that make her?
“I thought it hilarious that his uncle actually thought he was interested in your mother. I mean, shouldn’t the CIA know he was gay?” He shook his head.
“So, you used his body and did something in the computer systems to change the DNA.”
He nodded. “It was pretty easy. We were about the same height and sort of the same build.”
Why had she not even picked up on this during all her time investigating? Her blind spot for her father could end up with her death. Worse, he could have hurt Ian over the last few months.
“So, it was my grandmother’s fault that you suck.”
Even though she was braced for it this time, the slap still stung. She rose from the chair when he pulled a gun out from his waistband in the back of his pants.
“Did you think I would come in here without being armed? You’re the granddaughter of Judith Eddington and I’m not an idiot. Sit down or I’ll shoot you.”
“Go ahead. It’s not like I didn’t think you would kill me.”
“I’ll shoot your kneecap.”
She wanted to fight him on the order, but the gun changed things. Her head was still a bit fuzzy, her muscles loose from whatever drug they had given her, and she was still smarting from the slap.
She plopped down in the seat hoping against hope that Ian was close to figuring out where she was. She had to survive some way.
Lila tilted her head to the side. “Do those idiots know you’re going to kill them?”
“Why would I kill them?”
“Because you won’t want any witnesses left.”
He gave her that same smile that chilled her blood. God, the man was a menace with that freaking smile.
“They are stupid, aren’t they? But they’re good servants.”
“They’re local, but you won’t want anyone to know that you were here. If you leave them behind, they will get snapped up for something else. So, why not tell me everything you have planned and then you can kill me.”
Ian’s blood chilled, and he felt his icy demeanor from his Elite Eight days snap into place. Lila had just told her father he was going to kill her, and she said it in a calm voice. The fuck did she think she was doing?
“She’s playing him, Ian,” Autumn said. He knew he hadn’t said anything, but his sister knew him.
Eden and El were there to provide backup. He glanced at the twins. Jenner moved into his line of sight. They had tried to get him to stay behind, but the former medic had insisted that his medical knowledge would work better if he were with them.
Ian signaled that he was going to go in and El nodded. Having his team there, backing him up, was more important than he would have ever admitted. He was thankful that Seth had had his back, but his work family, they had restored his belief in good people.
“Go now, or he might escalate, Ian,” Emily said. “That was from Miko.”
He lifted his foot and kicked the door in. Underwood reacted immediately, grabbing Lila.
The moment his gaze landed on her, rage burned away the ice that had formed. She had definitely been roughed up. Her gaze softened as her body seemed to relax.
“Finally.”
Her belief in his abilities filled that one word.
“Sorry it took a little bit, love.”
He stepped closer to her, but Underwood was closer. He grabbed his daughter tighter and used her as a shield.
“Stop moving or I’ll kill her.”
Ian glanced at Lila, who rolled her eyes. He fought against the instinct to rush the bastard. He knew it was fear that was speaking to him at the moment, so he centered his attention on Underwood. If he looked at Lila, he might lose it.
“There’s no way out of this for you, Underwood,” he said.
“This is the guy?” her father demanded. “What is it with you and the Smith family?”
“Oh, I don’t know? Maybe it’s because they aren’t homicidal nut jobs?”
“Lila,” Ian said, without looking at her. He kept his gaze centered on her father, even while he sensed his team move into the room.
“It’s true. I mean, he killed my mother, brother, and a totally innocent guy so he had someone to frame, all because he felt the world owed him something.”
He glanced at her then and saw the intention in her gaze. She was trying to distract her father. He had to trust her, so he played along.
“Antagonizing him isn’t going to make him surrender any sooner.”
“He won’t surrender. He wants to go out in a blaze of glory. He wants me dead and he thinks he can shoot his way out of here.”
“Then he's an idiot,” he ground out.
“I am not an idiot,” Underwood said, moving to put the gun on Ian.
Satisfaction filled Lila’s gaze. She threw back her elbow, causing Underwood to loosen his hold.
“Drop, Lila,” he ordered even as she was already going down. He rushed forward, pulling her away from her father and pushing her behind him. Then he advanced on the bastard who had held a gun on her.
The man might have been in the CIA, but he had been an analyst and apparently did nothing to prepare to defend himself. Ian grabbed the hand holding the gun and twisted it.
“Argh,” Underwood shouted in pain. Ian did not let up.
With an uppercut to his jaw, Ian began to take out all the anger that had been simmering in his gut since he’d realized Lila had been abducted.
By the time El and Jenner pulled him back, Ian’s knuckles were bloodied.
Underwood was in a fetal position sobbing on the floor.
“We got him. Tend to Lila,” El said, shoving him toward Lila.
Her eyes were wide as she studied him. His heart broke.
The horror he saw there told him she was disgusted by what she had just witnessed.
The truth was if El and Jenner hadn’t pulled him back from Underwood, Ian would have probably beaten him to death.
He was still her father, and he had been ready to beat the man to death in front of her.
“Ian,” she said, her voice small. He waited for her recriminations, but instead, she stepped away from Eden and wrapped her arms around him, pressing her entire body against his.
“I knew you would come. You always come.”
Something settled deep inside of him. She had believed he would come for her, that he would save her. And for her, that was all that mattered.
“She will turn on you, just like that bitch of a mother and her grandmother,” her father screamed.
He tried to move away from her, but Lila was quicker. Ian reached for her, but she shook her head. Underwood’s hands were restrained in zip ties. El and Jenner were practically holding him up. Ian still wanted to snatch her back into his embrace.
Lila stood within a few inches of the man, the room quiet except for Underwood’s labored breathing.
With no warning, Lila kneed him in the groin.
“Oof!”
Then, she gave him another uppercut like Ian had, this time hitting his nose. The crunch of breaking bones made all of them wince. Blood went everywhere and Lila’s mouth curved into a satisfied smile.
God, he loved the woman.
“Don’t ever talk about my mother or my grandmother like that again, dick.”
Then, she turned and smiled at him as she stepped back into his arms.
“Thank you again for saving me.”
“Anytime, love.”