By the timeLiamcame back downstairs, Cora was fully engrossed in her work. It was one of the things he had always admired about her. She was just as dedicated to her job as he was to his. Cora thought she was sneaky when he first came through the door and didn’tthink he would notice she had been waiting for him. For one thing, once she started working you couldn’t get her to stop. Another clue was that he could see her hands were clenched when he first walked in and suddenly started moving the mouse as he walked towards her. The last clue was that she refused to look at him and she was typing randomly. He hadn’t been offended she wanted him to leave.He was unnerving her.Liamknew Cora didn’t really want to break up with him five months ago. Things had been going great between them. He had been staying with her more than he had been at his own house. The sex had been amazing and she had accepted his job without any issues. Cora still cared for him and now they were in the same space together again. Neither knew what to do to close the distance.Cora wanted answers he wouldn’t give her. Unless he was willing to cave, he didn’t think he would ever get back with Cora. Were his secrets worth it? Cora had accepted everything else about him, but his secrets were a hard burden to bear, and it wasn’t her problem to bear them.
Liamwalked away from Cora and headed for the kitchen. After running for fifteen miles, he was a little hungry. Hewhipped up some pancakes and eggs, and poured himself a cup of coffee. He ate quickly and called up Hound to make sure Cora had decent security soon. Cora was right in saying he couldn’t be with her all the time. They still had to be ready to go out on a mission that was coming up. He hadn’t brought it up to Cora, but he wanted the security in place, so she didn’t worry. He debated calling her dadto see if her parents could stay with her, but he knew Cora wouldn’t appreciate that. She wanted to be as independent as possible. He respected that about her, but she had to know asking for help every now and then was okay and not seen as a weakness. He even had to ask for help from time to time. The whole team was willing to help watch Cora and Midas’s house until Alejandro was apprehended. Houndand his FBI contact Blade were using all their contacts to try and locate him, but after killing Commander Brady, Alejandro had gone underground. Cora was their only lead on the guy.
“What’s up, brother?” Hound asked as soon as he picked up.
“He made another play for Cora last night. Disabled the alarm again and tried picking her locks.”
“I take it Cora called you?” Hound grounded out.No one was as pissed as Hound for not being able to find the guy.
“I had just left so I was the closest to her; otherwise I’m sure she would have called the police.”Liamhated being the second choice, but the result was all that mattered.
“Since you’re not here, I’m going to guess they got away?”
“They did, they had a car waiting a few houses up, but I managed to get the license.”Liamgave Hound the license plate number.
“I’ll see what I can find on it. It just might be the thing Blade and I need to track this guy down finally. Have you talked to Cora about the fact she’s working with him?”
“Sounds good. I have, it’s the only reason I’m still here. She knows that he is behind the break-ins and the broken window. I told her to cancel her contract with him after we trackhim down. She has his personal number. How soon do you think you can get some equipment here to watch Cora’s house? The fact it’s been broken into twice doesn’t bode well for us.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Between Midas trying to keep Hannah in the bunker and me running the computers I’m a little thinned out.”
“No rush, I’m not going anywhere.”
“And when we go on a mission in a few days?”
“I’ll call one of the other teams to watch over Cora. From what I hear Bulldog is upset that he wasn’t part of taking Commander Brady down.”
“I heard the same; it wasn’t like we had a lot of warning ahead of time.”
“I’m sure he knows that. But this is the closest they’ll get a chance to evening out the score.”
“I’ll call over to Bulldog and see if he and his team can come out. Keep an eyeon the girls and help locate Alejandro.” Hound didn’t sound optimistic. Bulldog, a Delta Force operative from Fort Sam in Texas, may want to come out, but they may be running missions themselves. They couldn’t just drop everything and come out. “Any chance you can convince Cora to come out here? Hannah, I’m sure will appreciate the company when we leave.”
Liamdoubted it, but for Hannah, shemight consider. “I’ll run it by her. It would make life easier if we could protect the women from one location instead of two.”
“Let me know. She can always do her work from here. It’s not like I don’t have computers and the internet galore to help her.”
“I’ll let you know. I’ll tell her about the mission here today, so we can get everything in place.”
“Good luck.”
“Thanks.”Liamhungup. He was going to need it.
Liamwhipped up some more pancakes and eggs, and brought it to Cora. Women were always more reasonable when they had a full stomach.
~
“No, absolutely not. I told you I would not go into hiding.” Cora yelled at Liam as she set her plate in the dishwasher.
“Cora, be reasonable. No one will be here to protect you.” He couldn’t guarantee if Bulldog and his teamcould make it before they left, and he didn’t trust anyone to watch her that he didn’t know personally. “What if Alejandro attacks you again while we're gone?”
“There’s a little thing called the police,” Cora said slowly as if talking to a child.
“They would never get here fast enough. That’s why you called me instead of them.”
“That’s not fair. You had just left, of course you were closer.”
“And what have the police been able to do for you? I haven’t seen them doing drive-bys.”
