“Kyla, my friend, Katrina,” Talia introduced. “She’s an au pair for the McDaniels and knows about Anna.”
Kyla held out her hand, shaking Katrina’s. “Nice meeting you. The guy in the kitchen making coffee is my boyfriend, Wes.” At the sound of his name, Wes gave them a wave. “He’s on the SEAL team with Lennox, while I work with Navy Intelligence. I don’t know how much Talia had already told you, but I’ve been using my contacts in the Navy to try and figure out what happened to your friend, Anna Medina.”
“Could we wait for a few minutes before we get too deep into this?” Wes said, popping his head out of the kitchen to interrupt before Talia could jump into her list of questions. “Some of the other guys are on their way over and will want to hear this too. They should be here any minute.”
Talia wondered who he was talking about, but before she could ask, a knock sounded at the door. Wes came out of the kitchen to answer it, mumbling something aboutperfect timing.
The moment he opened the door and she saw Lennox and Colt standing there, Talia’s heart started thudding in her chest. Both of them looked exhausted but weren’t injured that she could see. That was all that mattered.
Lennox walked over to her, mouth curving into a gorgeous smile. Around her, everyone else seemed to disappear.
“What are you doing here?” Talia asked a little breathlessly, fighting the urge to step forward and throw her arms around him. “When did you get back?”
“A little while ago,” he said. “I was about to call and let you know but Wes texted to say you were on the way over to talk to Kyla, so I decided to surprise you instead.”
“Okay…yeah…you definitely surprised me,” she stammered, unsure what to say now that Lennox was right here in front of her. “But, how did you get home so fast? I thought you wouldn’t be getting in until later this evening?”
“We got lucky enough to find some seats on a commercial cargo flight heading direct to San Diego.” He gazed down at her, the warmth in his blue eyes doing funny things to her. “The company doesn’t normally carry passengers, but if you know the right people, it can save you a lot of time.”
Talia didn’t know what Lennox meant when it came to commercial cargo flights but could only assume that he and the other guys had talked their way onto a UPS or FedEx plane. Not that she cared one way or the other. Lennox was back, and she found herself breathing easier than she had in a week.
He reached out and took her hands in his, fingers lightly tracing the ridges of her knuckles. “You okay? Even though I couldn’t have done anything differently, I’m still sorry I had to leave on such short notice the other day.”
“I’m better now that you’re back,” she murmured, caressing the palms of his hands, absently noticing how rough his skin was. “And, while I don’t think I’ll ever be okay with you having to leave like that, I do understand why you have to.”
It was then that Talia realized she and Lennox were standing in the living room by themselves and that everyone else had escaped to the kitchen, probably assuming they needed time alone to talk. Of course, now that he was here in front of her after worrying about him all week, she had no idea what to say.
“I guess we should go into the kitchen,” she finally said, motioning in that direction with her head. “I’m sure they’re all waiting for us.”
Lennox glanced that way then nodded. “You’re probably right.”
All that said, it still took them a few moments to make their way there.
In the kitchen, everyone was crowded around the small table. Talia expected someone to ask what took them so long, but nobody said a word.
Lennox pulled out the two remaining chairs, holding one for Talia as she sat, then slipped into the other one beside her. It was such a simple thing that he probably didn’t even realize what he was doing, which made it even nicer for some reason. She was still smiling as Wes brought out two mugs of coffee for them. She added sweetener and cream to hers then took a sip of the caffeinated brew.
Talia glanced covertly at Lennox as she drank her coffee. While he still looked tired, he seemed physically okay with no obvious injuries. Maybe she and Maria had been wrong. Maybe Lennox and the other SEALs hadn’t been involved in anything dangerous at all. She let the thought go with a silent sigh, just glad that he was home.
“I was talking to Maria yesterday,” Talia said, setting her mug on the table. “It turns out that she’d developed a habit of eavesdropping on people, including her father’s business meetings.”
On the other side of the table, Katrina stared, stunned. “Seriously?”
Talia nodded. “Seriously. Don’t worry, I made her promise to stop. However, if it wasn’t for her, we wouldn’t know that Bogdan Rybak and Dayton McDaniel have been meeting with a man named Mason Keller, who is probably the same man who chased me the other night.”
Talia went on to provide details about exactly what Maria had seen, including the physical description of Keller and howit matched the man she’d seen outside Anna’s apartment. Then she recounted the stuff Maria had heard about Bogdan’s European contacts and what she assumed was Keller’s interest in McDaniel’s bio-medical research firm.
“What does all that mean?” Katrina finally asked. “I get that it’s bad, but what do we think that Mr. Rybak and Mr. McDaniel are involved in? And what does it have to do with Anna?”
“That’s what I’m hoping Kyla will be able to tell us.” Talia glanced at the young Navy intel analyst. “Please tell me you found out something about this Keller guy.”
Kyla grinned. “I did.”
Getting up, she went into the living room, coming back a few seconds later with her laptop. Setting it on the table, she flipped it open and booted it up.
“You might not think it, but Mason Keller isn’t exactly an uncommon name,” Kyla said as she clicked away at the keys on her laptop. “But that stuff our newest little spy, Maria, picked up about him being from the U.K. but preferring to live in Spain made all the difference. Is this the man you saw outside Anna’s apartment?”
She spun the laptop around so Talia could see the screen, revealing a face she was unlikely to ever forget. Even in the darkness that night, she’d gotten a close enough look at the man to memorize his face.
