Chapter 19
Nineteen
Hours later, Ian was still fuming with the need to beat the shit out of Michael Underwood. Lila had first been checked out by Jenner, then the EMTs. It was then that he found out that her father had slapped her twice. She had refused to go to the hospital.
“You can’t beat him up again,” Seth said as they stood on the other side of the two-way mirror.
“You should have just let me disappear him.” He was still formulating an idea that might work. Underwood needed to understand that he would never get near Lila again.
It had taken everything he had in him to get her out of the TFH headquarters.
Thankfully, his sister had played the pregnancy card saying she wasn’t feeling well.
It was the only way Ian could get Lila out of the building and far away from her father.
Part of that was to get her to rest. The other part was he was truly worried Lila would kill Underwood.
Seth rolled his eyes. “I get it, but we’re already on record for bringing him in. If he disappeared, then we would be on the line for him.”
Ian crossed his arms over his chest. “You don’t understand.”
“Excuse me?” Seth asked, his voice going lethally soft. A lot of people thought Seth was easy going. He was most of the time. But the former SEAL could be a dangerous enemy to have. “You do remember that I went through a similar thing with Autumn and that bastard of a cult leader?”
“I get that you had the same thing with my sister, but this is different. The CIA is going to disappear him, probably give him a new name, for any and all information. He’ll never have to pay for what he did to Lila’s family.”
“You should have more faith in your sister.” Ian slanted his brother-in-law a look. “She got hold of the FBI. They’re taking over the case. There’s also a story hitting the media about the agent who faked his own death.”
He blinked. That did sound like his sister. She could be vindictive in the best of ways. Still, covert organizations had their rules and regulations. “The CIA…”
“Will what? Want to admit they fucked this up beyond the worst FUBAR I have ever seen? Probably not, but the FBI wants him because of that crypto info, and they’ll go to war over him.”
A door opened in the interrogation room. TJ Callahan, FBI agent and husband to Charity, strode into the room.
“Finally. Are you with DC?” Underwood asked.
“No. I work here at our field office.”
“What?”
“Oh, I see.” Callahan gave Underwood a shark’s smile. “You thought I would be with the CIA. I’m not. The CIA will be informed soon, but not too soon.” He leaned closer to Underwood and chuckled. “Damn, Ian kicked your ass. Although, I understand your daughter kicked you in the balls.”
There was a long beat of silence.
“I want a lawyer.”
The next chuckle that slipped out of Callahan was perfect. Ian bit back a smile. The man definitely knew what he was doing.
“I would want one too. I mean, you have not only our government excited to question you, but man, UK wants your ass in court. Then…well, I guess we could talk about all that crypto you stole. I mean, some of that was Russian, right? Those bastards own a lot of the prisons. There’ll be hits put out against you, I’m sure. ”
“What?” Ian asked.
“He’s bluffing, but we want to freak him out. Him targeting you was a big change in his MO, and he probably didn’t think about what MI-6 would do when he targeted a former operative.”
“Why would UK want to talk to me? That bitch died of cancer.”
Ian frowned and looked back at the interrogation. What the hell was he getting at? Underwood did not look freaked out at all.
“Who?” Callahan asked.
“Judith. I didn’t kill her.”
His gut churned. Something wasn’t right.
“I’m talking about Ian Smith.”
Underwood rolled his eyes. “What the fuck does he matter? Well, other than the fact that my daughter has shitty taste in men.”
“Did you or did you not target him the last few months to get your daughter out in the open?”
“I did not. I had nothing to do with that. That plan would have too many variables.”
Ian blinked, his entire mind going blank for a minute. Why was he even talking? Didn’t he ask for a lawyer, but then again, the man was a narcissist. He would formulate what he thought was the best plan, and he was right about the attacks on him. There had been no guarantee that Lila would engage.
“He seems sincere,” Seth murmured.
“The man is a liar who killed his family.”
“True, but…”
Yeah, he got it. It wasn’t a good plan to use Ian to bring out Lila. It did slow down her investigation, but it wouldn’t have been a sure bet.
“We need to find out his movements through the last few months,” Ian said.
“I think Emily and Charity are working on it right now.”
Just like his worry earlier, he felt an icy finger at the base of his neck. It had been one of the things that had saved him in all his time at MI-6. But right now, he couldn’t seem to come up with the reason for it.
“Your daughter seems to think that’s what you were doing.”
The chair squeaked as Underwood leaned back. Lila didn’t resemble her father at all, definitely taking after her mother and grandmother. His eyes were too small for his face, his jaw soft, and even without the swelling from Lila breaking his nose, his nose was overly large.
“Then she would be wrong.”
Why was he talking? That thought kept coming up in his brain. “He thinks he’s getting a deal.”
“Yeah, I get that but let TJ do his thing.”
The door opened to their room. Emily held the door open for a very pregnant Charity, who held a tablet.
“Oh, damn, he started. I don’t get to watch him in action as much as I would like.”
She smiled at them and Ian blinked. The African American woman was definitely stunning, glowing with her pregnancy.
She always seemed to dress as if she were going to a convention of some sort and today was no different.
She’d dressed as Rosie the Riveter. It was one she had been sporting a lot in these last few months of her pregnancy.
“He’s so sexy when he does his FBI thing.”
“Have you two found anything out about his movements these last few months?” Ian asked.
“No,” Charity said. “We have his face now, though, so we have it running through facial recognition.”
His phone buzzed and he looked down at it with a frown. He didn’t recognize the number, but he had put out a call to his friend Bram to see if there had been any chance his files had been compromised. Maybe he was calling from a burner.
“Smith,” he said.
“Hey, Ian,” Vivian said. “I was wondering if you had time for me to pick your brain today about Dillon? I thought we could do lunch.”
It took him a second to remember that she had come for an interview with his boss. “Today would be difficult. When is your interview?” he asked, stepping away from the others. The only one that seemed to notice was Emily.
Vivian didn’t answer right away, then, “Next Wednesday. It was moved back because of an internal issue.”
His situation had probably been the internal issue. “Is this a permanent number for you?”
“Yes.”
“Good. I’m taking care of something right now, but I’ll call you in a day or two and we can go over some things.”
“That sounds great. Talk to you later.”
“Bye, Viv.”
He hung up and Emily looked at him sharply. “Is that the same chick who accosted you at your apartment?”
“She didn’t accost me.”
Before Emily could respond, his phone went off again. He glanced at it. He knew Bram’s number well.
“Bram, do you have anything for me?”
“Good afternoon,” Bram said. Abraham McClintock was an old friend of his who was still MI-6.
“Bram.”
“Fine,” he said, his Scottish brogue filling the word. “We’ve not picked up on any outside infiltration of our systems.”
That had been an odd way of putting it. “What aren’t you telling me?”
A long sigh. “Just what I said. No outside infiltration.”
There was something Bram wasn’t saying—couldn’t say. It had been a worry that MI-6 would call him back for his safety, and that was why he’d contacted Bram. He was one of the very few people Ian could trust.
“Have you had a run in with anyone from the organization recently?” Bram asked.
It was an odd question. “Viv is here for an interview.”
“Oh, damn, don’t hire that crazy nut.”
He blinked. “There was a problem with her?”
“She…let’s just say that she was a bit obsessed with you.”
“What? No. She came on to me once, but she’s over that.”
“I just know that she was always trying her best to find out all she could about you. Everyone else thought it was because she wanted to outdo you.”
He snorted. “Good luck with that.”
“And there’s the arrogance I know and love.”
“Did she really quit?”
A long beat of silence. Bram was a talkative bastard, so he was trying to be careful. “She was encouraged to.”
Which meant she had become a liability. Just what he needed. He was going to have to find out more and let Conner know.
“So, nothing else.”
“No. I take it you’re all safe and sound on your island.”
“As safe and sound as any of us can be.”
“Good. I’ve been meaning to come over and see you and that pretty sister of yours.”
“She’s married and pregnant.”
That got him a look from Seth, but Ian ignored his brother-in-law.
“That doesn’t bother me.”
“To a former SEAL who would kill you for flirting with her.”
“Boring. Okay, I have a job to get to. Stay safe, brother.”
“You too.”
Then he hung up.
“A friend of yours?” Emily asked.
“Yeah, he did some asking around.” Knowing Bram, he had hacked into the mainframe of MI-6. They were used to it and would allow him to do it happily, mainly because he worked for them. “Nothing on their end but that doesn’t mean anything.”
“He is that good from what I discovered on background,” Charity said, her gaze still locked on her husband, who was still trying to question Underwood.
“Yeah? I thought it was his wife who was a genius.”