She hoped her cousin didn’t get all kidnapped and shit again. It was getting to be a real habit for Devi and one she wanted to break.
Eve sighed. “Yeah, I think your father and I are going to take avacation for a week or so, too, just to be careful. Everyone needs to be careful. Right now they’re after Ian, but when it becomes clear they can’t get to him, they might start looking at the rest of us as a way to draw him out.”
“I think we should fake his death,” Kala said loud enough for their dad to hear them.
“I’m not faking my death,” he shouted back. “Get in here. We have a plane to catch.”
That was news to Kenzie. And not good news. If they got called into DC, she wasn’t sure Ben could come with them. She strode into the conference room. “Uh, I’m going to the club tonight, Dad. Tell Drake we can do a Zoom.”
She had plans, and they included getting her brand-new Dom on the dungeon floor and seeing if she could open him by allowing him to torture her in the sweetest way.
“We cannot do a Zoom because you’re horny, Daughter,” her father shot back and grimaced before looking down at his leg. “Aren’t you done yet?”
Aidan O’Donnell’s head came up, and he stared at her dad. “I would be if we were in a proper ED and you weren’t such a stubborn asshole, Uncle. You know I never wanted to be some kind of mafia doctor. Oh, I know you’re not mafia, but this feels like Bratva to me.”
Aidan was a trauma surgeon, but for the last few months he’d also kind of been the team’s on-call doc, along with his wife, Carys.
“He goes into the hospital, I assure you there’s someone waiting for him,” Ben said as he held out a chair for her.
He was a little standoffish, and she couldn’t figure out if it was because he was upset with her or because this was how he was when he was working. She’d hoped he would warm up after they put their relationship on a good footing.
Were they on a good footing?
“Which is why I’ve got my family fleeing right now,” her father explained. “Theo and Erin already agreed to join the boys for a trip to the cabin. I called Case to let him know to up his security. I’ve got bodyguards on Sean and Grace, and Aidan and Carys are staying at their house for a couple of weeks because Tris is going to be in DC with Drake and Taylor working on some project Taylor has going.”
Drake and Taylor Radcliffe were technically their CIA handlers,though they were given an enormous amount of latitude.
“Is this about the thing Tim found?” Ben asked as she settled in beside him.
“Tim found something?” She had not been informed.
Kala sat across from her, one brow raised. “You didn’t read the report? Ben’s boss sent it two days ago.”
She frowned and pulled out the phone she used for work. Sure enough, there were actually several emails that needed her attention. She gave her dad her best “sorry, Dad, but I’m still you’re baby girl, right” wince. “Technically, I took a couple of vacation days.”
Her father looked at her like she’d lost her mind. “There are no vacation days in the CIA.”
He was forgetting some things. “Uh, tell that to my sister and her brand-new husband, who are currently enjoying a few weeks in Loa Mali.”
“Keep looking at your email,” he said as he hissed. “Hey, kid, gentle, please.”
Aidan huffed but Kenzie was wincing again because this morning her newlywed sister had sent her several updates and new analysis of the data they’d taken from the Nepal site and some reports on the recent anthrax attacks they were attributing to Dr. Huisman.
Tasha was always perfect. Always. Now she couldn’t even use the excuse of the wedding. But sometimes she needed a couple of days to figure things out. Some people did that in thoughtful meditation. Kenzie did it with sad-girl rock, Ben and Jerry’s Tonight Dough, and whatever shitastic reality dating show had recently come out. She could always watch those and think at least she hadn’t dated one of those assholes.
“You were brooding,” her twin accused.
Yeah. That was pretty fair.
“Please read the files. We’re going to forgo the debrief on the properties because Drake has asked us to work with another team to start investigating those, so I’ve asked Eve to talk to our new friends and tell me if they’re lying and planning on killing us all,” her dad said.
Aidan put his bag on the table as he got to his feet. “You’re stitched up. Someone needs to change the dressing twice a day, and keep it clean and dry. Do you want to go to your office for the antibiotic? No, I am not writing a prescription because you won’t takeit. So I’m not leaving here until I shove this needle into your ass and push the plunger.”
Kenzie breathed a sigh of relief. She might be able to get through a couple of Tasha’s so important she wrote them on her honeymoon emails while Aidan was making sure her dad didn’t go septic.
Except her dad simply stood on one leg and shoved his slacks down.
“Dad!” She and Kala managed that duo in-synch stereo thing they could do when they were truly outraged.
