"Work faster. We don't have the luxury of time. Commander Jones called me after we landed. We have a mission. We leave in a week."
Liam rubbed theback of his neck. "Not the best timing."
"It never is. Do what you can. If she refuses to leave we can have the team take shifts to watch her."
Hannah opened the door and paused at seeing the two of them in an intense conversation. Ben’s stance relaxed at seeing her but went on alert again seeing her red eyes.
"Goldilocks, what's wrong?" He dismissed Liam and pulled Hannah close to him.Seeing her cry was like taking a bullet to the chest.
"I tried to warn her to leave but she refused. I told her what happened to me. I didn't mention Alejandro." She shuddered against his chest. Ben pulled her closer to him as if it would protect her. "Liam will protect her, won't he?"
"With his life," Ben answered without hesitation. "For now, we are going to stay at Hound’s until this isover. Someone has been watching our house and Cora's."
Hannah pulled back to look up at him. "What about Cora? She's refusing to leave."
"Liam is trying to convince her. If he can't we'll all take shifts watching her."
"I'm scared, Ben."
Ben pulled her back to his chest resting his chin on top of her head. "There's nothing to fear. He'll never take you again. I'll always protect you, Goldilocks.I would die for you.”
“Don't even joke about that.”
“Who's joking?” He wasn’t. He would take a bullet for her. No questions asked. She was everything to him.
“Ben,” she choked. “I'd rather you live.”
“And that's what I intend to do. I won't let anything happen to you, Goldilocks.” He stroked her hair, soothing her fears. She didn’t doubt his skills to fight Alejandro’s men. She was justtired of living in fear. He would put an end to that soon. “You're not getting rid of me that easily.”
Hannah squeezed him tight around his middle. “I don't want to get rid of you. I want us to grow old together.”
Ben kissed the top of her head. “I have every intention of doing so.”
"And if you have to leave on a mission before he's captured?" Now there was the million-dollar question. Onehe didn’t have an easy answer for as they did, in fact, have a mission they were leaving for in a week. “You are leaving soon. Aren’t you?”
He couldn’t lie to her. He would never lie to her. “We are. I’m going to call Bulldog and see if he can help us. He wanted in on the capture of the mole but the timing didn’t work out.”
“Bulldog?” Hannah asked in question. “Was he part of the other teamthat was there when you rescued me?”
“He was,”
“If you trust, I trust him.” Ben smiled down at her. What did he ever do to deserve this woman? Her unwavering faith in him never ceased to amaze him. He knew she had to be scared and yet she was putting on a brave face for him.
“It’s almost over, Goldilocks. And when it is I promise you. We’re going to take a long vacation.”
Hannah liftedon her tippy toes to kiss him. “I’m going to hold you to that.” Hannah slipped out of his arms and headed upstairs to pack. Ben remained downstairs to make a few calls.
~
Three days ago, Hannah and Ben left to stay with Adam “Hound”. His house was heavily secured and contained more arson than most military bases. She had met Adam a few times while dating Liam. He was a giant of a man but wasquiet and kept mostly to himself and stared at computer screens more than she did. Security was his top priority and a hobby. It seemed a little overkill in Cora’s opinion but whatever made you feel safer. Since the night her office window was broken, there hadn’t been any sightings of cars in front of hers or Ben’s house. She hadn’t seen much of Liam. He said he was preparing, whatever that meant.She only saw him coming or leaving. That should make her happy, instead it made her sad. What was wrong with her? She didn’t want Liam back in her life. She should be glad he was gone.
After three days Cora was starting to relax, and things were starting to feel normal again. Liam had tried calling her several times telling her he had to talk to her about something important, but she ignoredhim. She still didn’t want to talk about her clients. He came to her office too, but she conveniently was always too busy to talk to him. One she didn’t want to talk to him, and two, she was swamped with work. Hannah was still trying to convince her to leave, but Cora refused. Her parents had taught her young to never retreat and always stand your ground. This was her home, and she wasn’t leavingit. She pushed away from her desk needing a break after working almost non-stop since the incident. Alejandro had only called her once in the past few days to tell her he was impressed with her work and might have some new clientele for her. She was ecstatic at the prospect of building her clientele list. When she had first started, she only had one client. Now, she had well over thirty that sheworked with on a continuous base.
Cora went to the kitchen and realized her short break would be longer because she was out of groceries. After her grocery run, she would finish running a diagnostic check on Alejandro’s security. Someone kept poking their nose in her security, and no matter what she did she couldn’t keep them out. They never got far before she blocked them, but she didn’t wantto give Alejandro cause to doubt her work again.
It felt good to get out of the house. It had been a few days. She made it a point to get out every few days, so she didn’t feel so cooped up and get grocery shopping out of the way. Her foot was starting to feel better, but she kept it bandaged and stayed off it as much as possible.
Cora was returning home when she felt something was off whenshe pulled into the driveway. Nothing looked out of place. Her office window had been fixed yesterday. Something still felt wrong. The hairs on the back of her neck were standing on end. Her parents had warned her to never ignore her intuition. If something felt off, it probably was.
