Chapter 19 #2
“She was, and that’s probably why he had so many problems with her. He is very intelligent, genius level.” She shrugged. “It’s just that Eloise Eddington was smarter. Some men can’t take that. Thankfully, Hammer doesn’t have a problem with it.”
It took him a second to remember her husband’s nickname. Of course, with a first name of Thor, what else would he be called. He nodded, then felt Emily’s study.
“What?”
“What did your friend say about Vivian?”
“She was encouraged to leave MI-6.”
Her blue gaze narrowed as he she studied him. “I asked Junie. Your Vivian isn’t on the roster to be interviewed.”
“What?”
“She put in an application, sent a resume, then Conner talked to a supervisor of hers. Somehow, he had gotten hold of her psych evaluation. Girlfriend has an obsession with the man who trained her. Do you know who that may be?”
Fuck. Everything was swirling in his head as he tried to put it all together.
Underwood seemed sincere when he said he hadn’t been after Ian.
Vivian being on the island hadn’t really struck him as odd, but he had been too busy trying to get back to Lila.
Keeping her safe was more important, so he had pushed all thoughts of his former trainee out of his head.
But now…fuck. If she were after him for some reason, there was one thing she could do to hurt him, and if she had been studying him, she knew that hurting Lila would destroy him.
Ian hurried out of the room and tried to dial his sister’s phone, which went to voicemail.
Seth was hard on his heels. He might not know why, but his brother-in-law knew something was up.
He dialed his sister’s number again and it went straight to voicemail.
That never happened with his sister, especially right now, so he knew something was wrong.
Dread filled him when he saw Rami and Nikki walk into the common room of TFH.
“What the fuck are you doing here?”
Nikki blinked at his shout. Yes, they were accustomed to him being calm at all times. The shout might have been a little too much, but he didn’t give a flying fuck. Right now, that worry he’d had was full blown panic.
“Your sister sent us packing,” Rami said, his gaze narrowed. “And I think you need to watch your tone with Nikki.”
“Get bent Ramirez,” Nikki said. “I can stick up for myself.”
“I didn’t say you couldn’t.”
He ignored the two of them, as he headed for the front door. Seth caught up with him before he could make it out.
“What’s up?”
“My sister’s phone keeps going to voice mail and I think we have part of this wrong.”
“What do you mean?”
“I think Underwood is telling the truth. The man would never use a plan with so many holes. He would observe, and then steal his daughter, just like he did. Going after me only made sense if someone knew about our relationship.”
“Then who would do that?”
“I trained a woman to take my place on the team before I retired. She might be obsessed with me, and if so, she would have access to my files. You know they like to keep tabs on us after we leave, so she would have probably heard about the interaction with Lila.”
Seth’s face hardened. “Let’s go. Nikki, Rami, on our six. We might have a hostage situation with my wife involved. Kap, you brief the boss and Adam. If anyone follows us, no sirens. We need to make sure we don’t cause panic.”
Everyone moved to do what he ordered as they strode out of TFH. And for the second time in less than twenty-four hours, he had to save the woman he loved, even though he still hadn’t told her.
“I think I might want a boy. I think I would be a cool boy mom. Not like the psychos on social media who seem to want to date their sons,” Autumn said. “But I would be fun boy mom.”
They were sitting on the small lanai watching the city of Honolulu come alive for the day.
Lila had never really wanted to slow down and take time to enjoy the atmosphere of Hawai’i.
Well, that wasn’t true. She did, but she hadn’t had the time.
Now, though, she would be able to soak it in. That is, if she stayed here.
Truth is, if she squinted, she could see TFH headquarters.
“I get you, sister,” Autumn said.
“What?”
“You want to be at TFH. The only way that was happening was if Ian had been out of there. You being close to your father? That might cause him to beat the shit out of your father…again”
“He’s not the boss of me.”
“First, that was so mature of you.”
Lila rolled her eyes.
“Second, you need to rest. You have been through a lot and while I understand it is against your nature, resting will allow you to be in fighting shape faster.”
She couldn’t fault the logic.
“But not fast enough, I hope,” a very irritated British voice said from behind them. She glanced over her shoulder and saw a woman standing in the living room, holding a gun on them. She was medium height, dressed in a black shirt and black camo pants. She had her long dark hair up in a bun.
Fear lanced down her spine. Not for herself, but for Autumn. Her pregnancy made her fragile. Of course, the woman didn’t look fragile. She looked downright murderous.
“I know you,” Autumn said, rising from her chair.
“Indeed.” She glanced at Lila and motioned with the hand holding the handgun. “Inside.”
“What if I say no?” Autumn asked in a calm voice.
“I’ll shoot you.” The response came with no hesitation.
“Rude, but okay,” Autumn said. Usually, Lila loved the woman’s humor, but at the moment, Lila gave her warning look. Autumn just smiled at her.
“And you can leave your phones. I’ve blocked all signals anyway.”
Dammit. Well, the only thing Lila cared about was getting Autumn out of range of the woman.
Normally, she would welcome help from Autumn.
She was a smart operative, capable of taking this woman down.
With her being pregnant, it made her a target.
Lila knew she needed to find out just what this nut wanted and work it to save Autumn.
She could not let the other woman get hurt.
They filed inside and Autumn frowned at the woman. “I know you,” she said again. “Vivian, right?”
“Yes. I worked with your brother.”
Her voice softened on the word brother. “You know Ian, of course.”
She cut a sharp look at Lila. “We have a bond.”
That was news to Lila. She was pretty sure it was going to be news to Ian too. There was something…off about the woman. Her eyes were a little too bright. Her smile on the manic side.
“I doubt that you have a bond at all. All he did was train you,” Autumn said, dismissal filling her voice.
Vivian moved her gun to aim it at Autumn. Panic had Lila’s entire body icing over. Dammit.
“It was more than that. We connected on a different level. He just needed time to see it.”
Things were staring to fall into place, and none of it good. This woman wanted to kill anyone who she saw as a rival for Ian’s attention, even his sister. Lila stepped in front of Autumn, who made a disgruntled sound. She ignored her and kept her attention on the other woman.
“You can’t hurt her.”
She cocked her head to the side. Oh, yeah, this woman was crazy.
“Why not?”
“She’s pregnant with Ian’s niece or nephew. You wouldn’t want to upset Ian. It would be better if you put her in the bedroom, right? She can’t get anywhere from here since you’ve suppressed the signal.”
“Why would you want to save her?”
Because I’m not a nut job. “I would do it for Ian. I know he would appreciate it. He would definitely thank anyone who looked after his sister.”
Vivian studied Lila just long enough for Lila to worry she wouldn’t agree.
She nodded. “Yes. You’re right. Ian does like to take care of other people. Go.”
“Absolutely not,” was the response from behind Lila.
“Autumn, you need to go. All Vivian wants is me, so you can go. Please.”
She hoped that Autumn understood that Lila hardly ever said please.
“Fine. We’ll argue about this later.”
Then she stomped away.
“She would be dead if she wasn’t pregnant right now.”
Jesus, this woman. What was with her life?
She wanted one fucking day without a nut trying to kill her.
Now she just had to figure out how to tackle the woman without getting herself shot.
Her time was definitely running short because now that she had gotten rid of Autumn, Vivian looked ready to kill Lila.
“Before you shoot me,” she said licking her lips and fighting the nausea that statement brought about, “could you tell me why? That’s all I ask.”
A long sigh. “I guess I can give you that. You are in my way. The end.”
“In your way? Of getting to Ian?” She inched closer, trying her best not to make any big movements to scare the other woman.
“Of him realizing the two of us are perfect. I spent months putting this into motion, expecting him to call me for help. I mean, why wouldn’t he?”
Because you’re unbalanced?
“But you got in the way every bloody time. Every time!” Spittle flew out of Vivian’s mouth.
Ooookay. “I was just trying to keep him safe.”
She took another sliding step closer.
Vivian snorted. “He didn’t need your help.”
The woman had unleashed people who had wanted Ian dead and thought that it was no big deal.
“He did. Vegas was a close call.”
Vivian blinked. “That was unfortunate. That’s why I got more careful after that. It didn’t take much to let this or that person know where he was.”
“So you’re telling me that you risked his life and traded these secrets to adversaries to the Crown to get a man to notice you?”
Yep. She was definitely insane.
Her expression turned mulish. “It was a good plan.”
“It was a stupid plan.”
The woman’s eyes widened, the craziness taking over. Lila had one chance and that was to bum rush her and make a play for the gun.
Lila rushed forward, then jumped on the woman, tackling her, taking them both to the ground.
She once again hit her head on the wooden floor.
Fuck, that hurt. Then, they rolled over the floor, both of them struggling for control of the gun.
Lila got her hands on it, but not soon enough because it went off.
The burn she felt in her thigh was probably not a good thing.
But she ignored the pain. Adrenaline spiked.
She had untangled herself from Vivian just as the door burst open.
“Lila!” Hands pulled her off the floor and away from the nut with the gun. The world seemed to revolve as Ian lifted her up into his arms.
“Autumn!”
“Bedroom,” Lila said, as the room kept moving as if she were on a carousel, even though she knew Ian wasn’t moving.
The door to the bedroom opened and Autumn came running out. “She made me go. Blackmailed me.”
Autumn sounded really put out by that.
“I couldn’t let you risk the baby.”
“Ian! I am here to save you!” Vivian yelled out.
Ian blinked and looked at the woman as if he hadn’t registered that she was there. He said nothing to Vivian as she was pulled up off the floor.
“How did you know there was a problem?”
He turned to look at her. “Your father said he had nothing to do with the attacks against me, and then a friend told me that Vivian was fired from MI-6.”
“Anyone shot?” someone yelled out.
“No,” Ian said at the same time Lila said, “Me.”
“What?”
“My thigh, and while I don’t think it’s that bad, I’m not feeling really well at the moment.” Her head was spinning and everything seemed to be dimming around her. “I hit my head again.”
“Bloody hell,” he muttered.
She looked at the man who had saved her so many times in the last few days, and really…saved her from a lonely life. She cupped his face with one hand and looked into his beautiful blue gaze. The world was dimming around her, but she had to let him know. She had to tell him what was in her heart.
“Hey, Ian.”
“Yeah?” He sounded distracted, but that was probably because he was setting her down on the sofa and looking at her wound.
Another lick of her lips as she tried her best to keep the darkness from taking over.
“I just thought you should know I love you.”
His head shot up and his stunned gaze locked in on her.
“Don’t worry. I don’t expect you to…you know. Just thought you should know.”
Then his face started to dim…no, that was the entire room. It was as if someone was turning out the lights and leaving her in the dark. She opened her mouth to stay something, anything to avoid that pit of darkness. Instead, she blinked once…twice…then her entire world turned to black.