by Lora Leigh
For all her Irish heritage she could be as rude as any American.
“Is there a problem, sir?” Travis ignored the Elite Two co-commander as he turned back to the senator.
“Elite Command has received word that Jared Harrington flew to Russia last week in an attempt to meet with one of the other agents Lilly worked with, Nissa Farren.”
Travis’s brows arched. Nissa had been assigned to America’s embassy in Russia as one of the assistants working in the ambassador’s office.
“Why Nissa?” Travis asked.
“We’re not certain, but there’s no doubt it’s in connection to his sister. We’ve sent Shea Tamallen to England to connect with Harrington to learn how he found out about Nissa and exactly what he’s after.”
“How does that affect our operation here?” Travis asked.
“As a warning,” the senator informed him. “As well to let you know that should you or Lilly find yourselves in need, then I’ll be in town. You have only to contact me. Elite Command may be forced to make decisions that often seem cold or uncaring of individual agents, but we still try to do all we can to ensure not just your safety, but also your trust in us.”
“Trusting shadow groups that look at the money line rather than the personal line isn’t always easy, Senator,” Travis stated.
“We understand that,” the senator sighed. “But that’s what we’re aiming for.”
“Thank you for the information, sir, as well as the explanations.” Travis nodded. “If we’re finished?”
“We are indeed.” The senator nodded as well. “I have some things to discuss with Santos and Rhiannon if you don’t mind us using your limo. We’ll vacate the vehicle soon, though.”
“Take your time,” Travis offered as Nik opened the limo door and stepped out.
Moving to the house, Travis could feel an edge of wariness tightening his nape now.
“Get with our contacts in London,” he ordered Nik. “Find out what the fuck Jared Harrington is up to before Shea finds her ass on the line as well.”
“I’ll take care of it at first opportunity,” Nik’s voice was a growl now. “He’s moving up on my list of suspects, Trav.”
“Yours and mine both,” Travis all but snarled. “Trust me, Nik, yours and mine both.”
Chapter 12
it was closer to one before the party began winding down, as Lilly had predicted. The couples left were those spending the night in the guest rooms, and there were plenty enough of those to go around. The additional wings to the three-story mansion as well as the guesthouses behind it provided sufficient room for the large parties and crowds of guests who often stayed there.
He watched as Lilly quickly shed her ballgown for the black, snug jeans, T-shirt, and boots. His dick throbbed, hard as hell, as she slid a dagger into the side of her boot. Her hair was quickly released from the pins holding it, then scooped back into a ponytail that fell past her shoulders in a thick, sleek ribbon.
He was going to fuck her the minute he got her back to the her bedroom, he thought. He was going to put her on her knees, grip that damned ponytail, and ride them both to exhaustion. He should do it now, before she managed to get either of them into a mess tonight.
“I still highly advise against this,” he commented as he drew his t-shirt over his head before sitting on the bed and pulling the light hiking boots he preferred over his feet and lacing them.
“I’m certain you do.”
She kept patting her thigh as though she knew something was missing. The holsters she wore strapped to those sleek thighs were missing. She never went on a mission without going fully armed. The action was telling.
Santos and Rhiannon had watched her carefully after their meeting with the senator tonight, as had Ian and Kira Richards, and Jordan Malone. All eyes had been on Lilly, and everyone was seeing changes in her.
For those who had believed she had been dead, they watched her warily now, sensing that dangerous side of her. For those who knew the dangerous woman she was, they sensed the simmering volcano within her.
“Let’s go then.” Rather than going to the bedroom door, she headed to the wide French doors and the balcony outside.
And damned if he didn’t follow her. For six years one of the highlights of his life had been watching Lilly move while she was on a mission.
“I need my weapons.” She swung a leg over the iron railing of the balcony as she stared back at him. “We both know just how illegal they are, don’t we?”
The two modified automatic Glocks she wore strapped to her thighs were her babies. She was beyond armed and dangerous with those bad boys. Even more, she was beyond hotter than fucking hell. His dick got harder, if possible, just thinking about it.
A sigh slipped past his lips as he followed her over the railing and dropped to the ground behind her. He let her lead this time, simply because he loved watching her ass. That and the fact that the threat of danger was minimal. No one had ever said he wasn’t an overprotective male chauvinist when it came to a woman and a mission.
Slipping around the back of the house, he was surprised when she found the concealed window into the underground garage. Opening it smoothly, silently, she shimmied inside and disappeared into the darkness of the garage.
Travis followed, wedging his shoulders through the narrow opening and grimacing at the snug fit. Even wearing the black slacks and t-shirt, he found the opening was barely wide enough for him to get through.
Dropping to the cement floor, he landed as silently as she had as he surveyed the area quickly with the night vision glasses he’d slid over his eyes before leaving the room.
“Unoccupied.” Her voice came through the small earbud receiver at his ear as he located her on the other end of the cavernous parking area.
The garage wasn’t filled with vehicles, but it was damned close. Guests’ vehicles driven personally had been stored in the underground garage for their convenience and to keep the smaller parking area outside free. Each vehicle was worth a damned fortune, if he wasn’t mistaken. Not that he was surprised, just rather amused as usual.
His Viper was parked in a far slot, the valet that had parked it obviously enamored of it, as he had made certain that the spaces beside it were empty.
“How many guests were here last night?” Travis asked, his tone soft as he flipped the night vision glasses to the top of his head and slid out the small flashlight he carried in his back pocket.
“When I left here this morning and headed to your place, the three guesthouses were already filled, and half the guest wing,” she answered, her voice a breath of sound at his ear. “This garage was three-quarters filled at that time.”
“Plenty of hands to do the devil’s handiwork then.”
A light laugh escaped her lips. “That’s funny. I remember someone else who used to say that.”
“I doubt they said it as well as I,” he grunted, though he hoped he managed to pull off a casual tone.
He was going to have to start watching himself closer. He had known her before his “death.” Not so much personally as socially. As Lord Xavier Travis Dermont, the heir to the Dermont legacy, he had attended many of the events Lilly had.
“His name was Travis as well,” Lilly stated, causing him to grimace though he knew there was truly no way for her to make the connection between Travis Dermont, MI6, and the Elite Ops.
“He was a good man then.”
“Yes, he was a very good man.”
Travis paused, his gaze finding her shadow as she set the small motion alarm at the entrance to the garage to alert them if anyone entered.
“You knew him well?” he asked her.
“He was married to a faithless little whore,” she said, sighing in regret. “The bitch was killed in the explosion that she set to get rid of him. She betrayed
his mission and his cover to a particularly nasty set of criminals and actually thought she could survive it.”
He didn’t have to fight back the rage and pain anymore. He’d buried that part of himself long ago. His wife had destroyed him, there was no way to fight against it. Unlike Lilly, there was no going back for him. There was no rebirth.
“Was he a good friend of yours?” The hatred in her voice when she spoke of Katy surprised him, though. She’d always been cordial, friendly, despite his dead wife’s ignorance whenever she was around.
They hadn’t been friends, though, not she and his wife, nor he and Lilly.
“No, but I thought well of him.” The reservation in her words had his gaze narrowing on her then.
“You were in love with him?” he asked, barely managing to hide his incredulity. How the fuck had he managed to miss that?
“ ‘Love’ is a strong word to use.” She sighed. “I was incredibly drawn to him, though. Remember, it’s been six years since I disappeared, and he died two years before that. So I was very young and he was very married.”
And she had never displayed her crush, nor attempted to gain his attention at the time. Travis nearly shook his head at the thought.
“I danced with you once, you know, just before your disappearance.”
“When?” She was moving along the far edge of the garage then, her own penlight trained on the ground as he moved to do the same.
“The party you disappeared from. I was there with another agent. We danced the waltz. You were dressed in a soft autumn brown ballgown with tiny silk leaves cascading through your hair.”
He could almost feel her thinking. “I don’t remember you.” The edge of regret in her voice was stronger than the one she had used to voice her memory of his past identity. “There’s a lot I don’t remember of that night.”
“You were beautiful that night, Lilly. You danced like a dream, and your smile was as bright as the sun.”
She was silent for long moments. He’d learned over the years that Lilly didn’t accept compliments as an agent nearly as well as she had as a socialite.
“Did Nik figure out the makeup of the explosive used?” she asked, ignoring his compliment as she moved closer to the slot the motorcycle had been parked in.
“He knows it misfired,” he stated. “The metal explosive cap wasn’t intact. If it had been, it would have exploded while you were on the interstate.”
“Wow, there would have been no coming back from that one, huh?”
Travis made his way to her, sweeping the light over the cement floor as he searched for even the smallest trace of something that could have come from the cycle or the explosive.
“You have a problem taking compliments from me, or just anyone, Lilly?” he asked her as he stooped and began searching under the vehicles that surrounded the area where the cycle had been.
“Pretty much just anyone,” she answered blithely, her voice muted as she bent down to check beneath a sleek, metallic red Lamborghini.
Once, she had been smooth, charming as hell. Not that she couldn’t be charming as Lilly Belle. She could be, but that charm was usually layered with a frozen smile and ice chips in her gaze. And more often than not, one of those damned dangerous modified Glocks was in her hand.
“Who else beside Desmond was in the house today that could have wanted me dead?”
Lilly lay on the cement floor to shimmy as far as possible beneath the Lamborghini, which truly wasn’t far, and shine the flashlight over the area, especially around the tire areas.
“I should be asking you that question. You live here.” Travis slid beneath a Hummer, his own light scanning the floor thoroughly.
“Don’t play games with me, Travis.” She rolled to the next vehicle, slid beneath it and searched again. “Tell me what I need to know.”
What the hell was she remembering?
Travis stared at the glimmer of her light as suspicion began to form inside him.
“Now isn’t the time to tell you what you want to know,” he finally told her. “Suffice it to say, I’m having several of your guests investigated.”
“And you didn’t tell me,” she stated.
“I haven’t yet had time.”
Their voices were still barely high enough for the comm devices they were using to pick up the sound.
“Perhaps you could find the time later?” she suggested, and Travis almost smiled.
That sounded more like an order to him than a suggestion.
“Perhaps I could.” They both rolled to the same slot at the same time.
The motorcycle had been parked close to the entrance to the main house. The space was currently occupied by a Lexus SUV. The four-wheel-drive luxury vehicle sat high enough from the ground that they were able to slide easily beneath it, both lights gleaming on the small spot of fluid below where the cycle’s motor would have been located.
“The explosive was placed in the oil pan?” She rubbed her fingers against the fluid before bringing it to her nose and sniffing slightly.
Travis did the same, then rubbed his fingers together to test the feel of the fluid.
“That’s not gas or oil,” she stated.
“Nope. Not.” His eyes narrowed on the spot before he reached to his front jeans pocket and pulled free a sterile bag and swab.
Tearing the swab open, he rubbed it against the spot, then pushed it into the small bag and sealed it. He was aware of Lilly watching, her eyes narrowed, her posture cautious, before she began to scour the garage floor beneath the Lexus for anything further.
Remaining quiet, Travis did the same. He was moving his light over the floor where the tires of the SUV sat when he heard her murmur a little hum.
“You have another of those bags? Tweezers?” She was tense, her light trained on a metallic glimmer as he pulled the required sterile bag and the tweezers from his back pocket.
“At least one of us came prepared,” she murmured as she accepted the items.
Travis watched as she picked up the metal and slid it into the bag before sealing it and handing it to him.
“Nik gets that?” she asked, nodding toward his hand where he was tucking the bag in his pocket.
“He’ll take good care of it,” he promised her.
“Interesting.” Her expression, from the dim light he had to see by, was equal parts confusion and suspicion.
“Interesting in what way?” Travis asked, often intrigued by the fact that Lilly was more open now than she had been during her years as an agent.
She was still Night Hawk, but not as hard, not as distrustful as he had been over the past six years.
“Interesting in the fact that he seems a jack of all trades.” She shrugged. “Yet, none of those trades really ring true. Tell me, Travis, exactly who is Nik Steele?”
He grinned. “A jack of all trades, essentially. He’s a mercenary, in fact. I’ve been lucky to purchase his time over the past six years, though there are occasions when he takes other jobs to break the monotony of working with me.”
Suspicion filled her gaze now. “Sure, Travis,” she finally muttered. “That’s as good an explanation as any.”
It wasn’t a lie, exactly. That was Nik’s cover, and he was damned good at playing his part.
“Remind me to be sure to check any further facts you give me on my own life, okay? I have a feeling that the line between truth and lie with you can get rather blurred.”
There were times, he would completely agree with her.
He was in a hell of a position. He knew the truth, he had the answers she wanted. If she hadn’t remembered who and what she was, she at least suspected there was a hell of a lot more about her than she was being told.
How could she help but resent him for not telling her the truth? The truth co
uld kill her, though.
“Is it the explosive cap that was missing from the cycle?” she asked as she stared back at him.
“I’m not sure.” He shook his head, staring back at her. “I’m into negotiations, baby, not explosives.”
“I’m sure I knew that,” she said as she began to slide out from under the SUV.
They both froze at the sound of the small beep of the alert Lilly had programmed that signaled that the door into the house had opened.
He hadn’t thought about setting an alarm there, but she had.
That signal had most likely saved their asses.
“The cycle was parked over here,” Desmond’s smoothly accented voice commented harshly as the door closed. “Did you bring the flashlight?”
“I have it, Lord Harrington.” Light gleamed on the floor and moved closer as Lilly and Travis quickly rolled from beneath the SUV and moved several car lengths away.
They each took a position against a tire of a Hummer, crouched and listened closely.
“When did you hear about this?” Desmond’s tone was furious.
“I received the report an hour ago,” his bodyguard answered. “The man we had on her lost her once she left the house, but he had a fairly good idea that she was headed to Caine’s house. He arrived after the explosion and it took a while for him to learn the reason for the commotion after he arrived.”
“Were the police called?” Frustration and disgust filled Harrington’s voice.
“No, sir,” Isaac answered as they stopped next to the Lexus SUV. “No police were called, but a team moved in. Black vans and identities hidden by black masks, no identification. The vehicles they arrived in were registered as rentals, presumably still on the lots they were registered to. We were able to get no information on them.”
“Did anyone attempt to follow them?” Harrington barked.
“Yes, the investigator followed one while his partner moved in on another. They were professionals, Lord Harrington. My men weren’t able to keep up with them.”
Desmond cursed furiously. “Son of a bitch, what the hell is that girl going to get into next?”