Yes, it was. It was. So he needed to get himself together. And fast.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Lianna woke up to Henry whispering her name in an urgent tone.
“I have to pee,” he whispered, dancing around by the door. “But I don’t know where to go.”
Lianna was out of bed and to the door in a flash. She didn’t even worry about the fact she was in pajamas as she ushered Henry out the door to the nearest restroom she’d been shown last night.
Henry swooped in and closed the door, clearly making it in the nick of time. Lianna let out a breath of relief. Which ended on an inelegant gasp she couldn’t hide when she looked up to see Reece in the hallway, walking toward her.
He was wearing shorts and a sweatshirt, clearly having had some kind of workout, as there was a ring of sweat around his neck. His face was dripping, and he looked at her with a wariness she didn’t fully understand.
Much like she didn’t understand the shiver of attraction that ran through her when he was grimy and sweaty. It should be a turnoff, but she found herself thinking things she definitely, majorly shouldn’t. Especially with her son just on the other side of this door.
“Morning,” he offered.
“Good morning. Uh. How’s your friend?”
“He’ll be fine,” Reece said gruffly. “He’s always just fine.”
The door shot open and Henry came out already talking a mile a minute. Lianna stopped him by shooting her arm out to stop his forward progress. “Wash your hands.”
Henry groaned and threw his head back, making an epic drama over the short, barely satisfactory handwashing he then performed. Lianna winced at the way he got water everywhere.
“Can you play in the arcade with me today?” Henry asked Reece, practically jumping up and down.
Reece’s grave expression softened into an affectionate smile. “I will a little bit later, buddy. I’ve got some meetings this morning. So does your mom.”
“Does that mean I can play with Sabrina?” Henry asked hopefully.
“I think Betty is going to play with you this morning. I hope you’re ready. She’s a tough one to beat.”
“I can do it!”
“What about breakfast?” Lianna asked.
“There’s a little breakfast buffet of sorts set up in the kitchen. Feel free to help yourself once you’re...” He trailed off, his eyes taking such a quick tour of her body she almost thought she’d imagined it. “Dressed.”
Heat stole up Lianna’s cheeks as she became expressly aware that she wasn’t wearing a bra. She tried to casually cross her arms over her chest, but it was of no matter. Reece had his eyes on a door farther down the hall. “Take your time with breakfast,” he was saying. “We’ll meet in the conference room around nine.”
Lianna didn’t say anything to that. There was no point when he’d disappeared into a room and shut the door.
Henry had already bounded back into the room they were staying in. He was chattering about video games as Lianna handed him his clothes from yesterday to change into. He’d need a change of clothes. Little boys were too smelly to wear the same clothes two days in a row.
But that was a problem for later. She changed back into her own clothes from yesterday and tried to forget everything about Reece and focus on the task at hand. On what she had to do.
She had an idea, but she wasn’t sure how to convince Shay and especially Reece it was a good one. A necessary one.
She wrangled Henry to breakfast and fought with him over how much he had to eat before he could play arcade games. It amazed her that even in these circumstances he could be such a...carefree boy.
Thank God for small favors.
At nine, Lianna left Henry in Betty’s care and headed for the conference room, pulse beating too hard in her neck. Shay and Reece were already in the room, and Elsie was tapping away at her computer, giving Lianna the impression she hadn’t left at all since last night. Sabrina and the man from yesterday—what was his name? Holden, maybe—were sitting at the table, conversing in low tones.
Everyone grew silent when she stepped into the room. It made her feel even more out of place than she already felt. Like she was to blame for all this, when she knew she wasn’t. Neither Todd’s choices nor this group entering her life were her fault at all.
But that didn’t ease her discomfort at being the center of attention.
Reece pulled a chair back from the table and gestured for her to sit. She tried to arrange her face into a semblance of a smile as she took it.
They already had the game room up on the monitor, though the sound was off. Still, she could see Henry dancing around a game while Betty’s focus was on the screen of the game.
“We have a variety of options here,” Shay said, bringing the meeting to order with an air of control and leadership that impressed Lianna. Everyone’s attention was on Shay, and Lianna had little doubt everyone in the room would follow her orders without question.
“None of them are set in stone. We’re still in the brainstorming phase, of course.”
Lianna didn’t have time for brainstorming. Not when Henry needed home and school and...a life. “They think I know something, and unfortunately, me knowing Todd’s real name probably only reinforced that belief.”
“Yes, we agree. Which puts you in a lot of danger, especially since you don’t know the information they’re looking for.” Shay paused for a moment. “Right?”
Lianna nodded. “I’ve told you everything I know. Unless they’re looking for his real name or two of the many groups he was involved with, I’m at a loss.”
“And whatever group this guy was working for is...beyond secretive,” Elsie said, gesturing at her screen though Lianna couldn’t see it from her seat. “Even with the guy’s real identity, I’m not digging much up on the group he works for.”
“There’s nothing your husband might have left you...a banking number, a deposit box key...anything really, that someone might be after?”
“No. I never went through Todd’s things. I just tossed them. When Henry and I moved to Denver, I paid someone to get rid of whatever was left. I wanted a fresh start.”
“Still, there could have been something in his belongings that connected to them. They could think you have it.”
“Maybe, but... Obviously I don’t know who came and asked me questions after the murder. Aside from the FBI. But there weren’t questions like those. It was always people quizzing me on what I knew about his work.”
Shay drummed her fingers on the table.
“This group had listening devices all over that inn. It’s possible they never sent people to question her directly. If they’re this concerned about secrecy, maybe they didn’t want to risk even asking questions,” Reece said, appearing much calmer and more detached than he had at any point yesterday.
Lianna envied him that control.
“If they got devices in the inn, who’s to say they didn’t have devices everywhere else she lived?” Sabrina suggested.
“But a year of listening to someone is a little over-the-top, even for this kind of a group,” Holden pointed out. “They’d want to act. Why haven’t they acted?”
Lianna closed her eyes. Her thoughts had been going in the same relentless circles for days. “This is the problem. We don’t know. We don’t have anything to go on. Which is why...” Nerves assaulted her, but she linked her fingers together and focused on the end result.
A safe, happy life for Henry.
“I have an idea. I’m sure you’re all experts at...tactics and whatnot, but I’m an expert at, well, me.”
Shay leaned back in her chair. Lianna didn’t dare look at Reece. She knew she wouldn’t be able to keep the aura of detached calm she so desperately wanted to portray.
“I want to go back to the inn. As soon as possible. No matter what, even if
I knew his name, they think I’m stupid. They think they can win. Which means I have to play that role. Just like I did for the FBI and everyone else. The stupid, manipulated wife who didn’t even know her husband was some dirty operative for who knows how many criminal groups.”
“You aren’t that, and you’re not going back alone. That’s suicide,” Reece interrupted. With none of the calm he’d just been using.
“No, I don’t want to go alone.” Lianna blew out a breath in an effort to settle her nerves. She turned to Reece’s dark, furious gaze. “I want you to go with me.”
* * *
REECE OPENED HIS mouth to tell her there was no way in hell she was going to do this, but then her words sank in.
She wanted him to go with her.
“You see, if I did it once, why not again?”
“Do what once?” Shay asked. Reece didn’t like that look. Like she was considering this insanity.
“Fall for a guy. Let him manipulate me into being whatever front or disguise he needed. If I go back to the inn with Reece, and we play it up for the listening devices—that he’s trying to get information out of me by pretending to be interested—they’ll eat it up.”
“They won’t come near you knowing Reece is there,” Holden said, but it wasn’t as dismissive as Reece would have liked. It was more the way they often hashed out a plan.
“If it was only him? Why not?”
“They’re patient. Clearly.”
“Sure, but I imagine me knowing Todd’s real name will speed things along. Especially if we act like I’ve told Reece something important.”
Shay blew out a breath. “I have the utmost faith in my operatives, Lianna, but if they did send in a team to get you—it would be a team. And Reece couldn’t fight off an entire team of bad guys, even if he wanted to.”
“Depends on how many,” Reece muttered. If it had been another assignment, he might have pushed that plan, but this was Lianna. How could he possibly take chances with Lianna?
“You’ve thought this through,” Sabrina said thoughtfully. “You’ve got a ruse. You’ve got a well-trained guy to play it out with you. What about the kid?”
“I want him as far away from this as possible,” Lianna said firmly. “At first I thought to have him go to my grandparents in Denver, but that would put my grandparents in danger, too, wouldn’t it?”
Shay nodded. “Would your grandparents be willing to come here? Normally I’d set everyone up in a safe house, but until Elsie identifies this group, I don’t want to take that kind of chance.”
“I think they would. If I could speak to them first.” Reece watched her shake away the glimmer of doubt. He wished he didn’t understand so well that she thought her grandparents might hold her to the mistake she’d made with Todd, might think she was being taken in again.
Because she’d said as much last night. She could put her trust in him, but everything that had happened with her dead husband made it hard to trust herself.
Yet she was the best mother he’d ever seen. Strong in the face of what must have been a yearlong nightmare for her.
“So the plan would be to send you and Reece back to the inn. Playact for the mics that you know something. And wait for them to show up. Then what?”
“Sabrina and Holden can be nearby,” Reece said, the plan taking shape in his mind. He still didn’t like it. He’d rather Lianna and Henry stay carefully holed away for, well, forever. But he understood Lianna’s desire to give Henry a real life. Back to school, back to the home he’d only just gotten accustomed to. They both deserved a real life free of Todd Kade and all he’d wrought. “Carefully placed, but near enough to close in once a detail shows up. Return ambush. We’re the ones getting intel from them.”
“It could work,” Holden agreed with a nod.
“With that hole in your gut?” Sabrina asked with a smirk.
Holden only grinned at her. “I could take you down with a hole in the gut. Why not some secret group?”
“In your dreams.”
“Children,” Shay said mildly to Holden and Sabrina. She turned to Lianna specifically. “It’s not without risks.”
“I understand that,” Lianna said. Her hands were clasped so tightly in her lap her knuckles were white, but she pressed on with an impressive outward calm. “I don’t think there’s a course of action here that doesn’t have risks. There’s one wrinkle. The listening devices. I imagine they know I know about them. I did take one off the smoke detector.”
“Do a sweep and miss one,” Elsie suggested, her eyes never leaving her computer. “Make it look like you just didn’t know about it.”
“That could work,” Reece said thoughtfully. “The ones in the common areas were on the carbon monoxide detectors. If they can buy Lianna being dumb, I’m sure they can buy us being inept enough to only find the ones specifically on smoke detectors.”
“Risky. They might read through that,” Shay pointed out.
“Might. But I’m willing to bet they’re going to underestimate until they have reason not to.”
“Reece is right,” Sabrina agreed. “Besides, if they do read through it, that doesn’t change much. They know Lianna knows something. They know she’s involved with some other group. To my way of thinking, the worst thing that happens is they don’t come after her and we need a new plan.”
Reece could think of a lot worse outcomes, but he kept those to himself. Because he’d do everything in his power to make sure none of them became an eventuality.
“So? We do it?” Lianna asked. She looked around the room, but clearly everyone was waiting for Shay to agree.
After a pause—dramatic, in Reece’s estimation—Shay finally nodded. “We’ll make the arrangements with your grandparents and work from there.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Lianna talked to her grandparents and parents on Shay’s secure phone line that was supposed to be completely unable to be tapped on either end. Because apparently they were worried about her family being monitored.
Lianna tried not to let her fear thread through her voice as she spoke with them. As she explained the situation. As she silently willed them to believe her, not question her decision.
They had every right to be skeptical of her judgment after what she’d gone through with Todd. But they weren’t. They asked questions, they expressed worry, but they didn’t act like she was a fool for trusting these people.
“So we’ll do a switch,” Shay was saying, walking Lianna somewhere deeper in the house. Lianna didn’t know where they were going, but she didn’t ask. “Your grandfather is going to go shopping. One of our men will meet with him, switch clothes, and that way Henry will have a family member here, and your family will have an operative with them keeping a watch on things.”
“How many operatives do you have?”
Shay smiled, opening a door and gesturing Lianna inside. “A variety. Full-time. Part-time. Not as many as we used to, but I have a lot of contacts. I know it’s harder to trust someone you’ve never met, but Sabrina and Holden and Reece are the most experienced operatives I have, and I want them where the potential for danger is the highest.”
Lianna tried to find some comfort in that, but she was sending a stranger to stay with her grandmother and parents. Who did that? Who—
Lianna’s thoughts stopped short as she realized Shay had brought her into a bedroom. What must be Shay’s own bedroom.
“I wanted some privacy. In other words, somewhere Reece wasn’t going to come along and interrupt with his macho show of overprotection.”
“Oh, he doesn’t mean...”
“I know exactly what he means. Reece is a good guy. He cares about you, and before you start protesting that, too, it’s obvious. The only person who’s been here even close to as long as I have is Reece. I’ve seen more emotion out of the guy in the past week than I hav
e in something like seven years.” She paused before continuing. “A few years ago, our first leader was injured. A guy Reece really looked up to. I know it hit him hard, but I never saw it hit him hard. If you know what I mean.”
“I don’t...”
“He’s a tough guy. They’re all tough guys here. They’re also good guys, which means sometimes they get all uppity about protecting the womenfolk, but it comes from a good place, an honest place. Even when that makes me want to punch them in the face, I get it.”
Lianna was at a complete loss.
Shay glanced at her and seemed to read that. “My point is, Reece will do everything and anything to protect you. As he should, feelings or no. He’s a trained soldier and operative, and you’re not. That’s how it works. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t have the means to protect yourself, as well. Do you know how to shoot a gun?”
“Well, yes. My grandfather insisted I learn before I moved to the inn. He taught Henry the basics, too.”
“That’s good. Do you have a gun?”
“Yes. At the inn. I...keep it locked away and hidden. I don’t really want Henry knowing it’s there, but you know, safety in such an isolated area and...”
“That’s fine for when Henry’s there,” Shay said dismissively. “But when it’s just you and Reece, keep it on you. No matter what Reece says.”
“You don’t think he’ll want me to carry a gun?”
“He’s just going to think he can protect you on his own, and he’s probably right. But this is about...”
Finally, Lianna was starting to understand what Shay was trying to get across. “It’s about standing on your own two feet.”
“Exactly. He’s going to have a hard time understanding that. Not because he’s a pigheaded man, but because he has a deep instinct to protect. He’s conditioned to protect. It’s what we do. But being a woman, I know that... It’s not always the most effective mode of feeling safe. So you carry the gun around.”
Shay rummaged around in a drawer and pulled out what looked like a sidearm holster. “Take this one. I assume you don’t have anything like that.”
Harlequin Intrigue May 2021--Box Set 2 of 2 Page 31