They followed her in. “I followed him from Dillon through traffic cams. I love arrogant assholes. They do not think we’ll catch them, and it makes it so easy.”
Her laptop showed a man who looked Hawaiian, driving Michael Underwood.
“I watched him go there twice and leave once. There’s a lot of land there, and it’s about ten minutes from here.”
That was good luck at least. He was already formulating ways to kill Underwood. The closer he was, the sooner he could get his hands on the bastard.
“I need aerials of the house on the land. They have to have something,” Seth said, as his team gathered round the table.
They were all there. Kap Hanson, Eden’s man, a strong silent type, who was usually smiling, but the former NCIS agent had his game face on. Next to him stood former LAPD Ryan Morrison, their dog handler. His canine partner Maya sat patiently beside him. Rounding out the team were Robbie “Rami” Ramirez, a former SEAL, and Nikki Kekoa, a former Coastie, and the only locally raised of the team. They were the premier search and rescue team on the island.
There was a ping on Emily’s phone, then on everyone else’s. She smiled and clicked a few keys, and a rather large plantation style house came up. It figured a man like Michael Underwood would go for a house like that.
“Typical narcissist,” Miko muttered, voicing Ian’s thoughts. “I would assume it would be better to stay in some little hovel somewhere, right?”
“Depends on if he was trying to keep his neighbors from hearing anything,” El said. He glanced at Ian and grimaced. “Sorry.”
“No. I think we have to be truthful to who this bastard really is.” Even saying the words left him off-centered. Lila had become his entire world.
He was a man who had killed his family, framed someone else for it, then spent the last few years hunting his daughter.
“Normally I would want to go in with a copter, but that could end up with Lila getting hurt,” Seth said as he texted. “Gonna have Team Alpha there for backup. It will take them a little bit to get there, so for now, it’s just us.”
Ian nodded. The need to rush there and breach the house burned in his gut. He knew they needed a plan, but everything in him wanted to see Lila to ensure himself she was okay. In a very short time, she had become his whole world. How he’d let that happen, he had no idea, but months of phone calls and only a short couple of days together, and he knew that he wouldn’t ever want anyone else.
“Do we know what kind of security system they have?” Rami asked.
Emily giggled. They all turned toward her, and Ian knew he had a scowl on his face. “Emily.”
“Okay, sorry.” After one more little snort, she said. “Underwood is only renting the place and apparently didn’t know that Dillon installed the security. I’ll be able to hack into it and shut it all down.”
“Like you said, thank God for arrogant bastards,” Ian said.
“I didn’t say that exactly, but we’ll go with it. Go get him, Ian.”
Nothing but sincerity filled her expression with a bit of determination. He glanced around at the members of Team Bravo and his own team from Dillon. He had been a member of MI-6 for longer than he had been working for Dillon, but these people were family to him. Ian was starting to realize just how much all of these people meant to him.
“Thanks, Emily.”
“Anytime, Mix.”
Her phone went off. “Luc is on his way over.”
Of course he was. That’s what family did.
“Okay, let’s get our teams set up for the breach and then get over there and save my brother-in-law’s woman,” Seth said. “We’ll solidify the plan on the way over.”
“You don’t look surprised,” her father said as he looked at her as if she were some sort of experiment.
Lila didn’t respond to him, but she remembered that particular look. Even at the age of twelve, she had known there was something off about her father. When her brother had been diagnosed on the spectrum, he had written Adam off. Anyone her father saw as less than perfect didn’t matter to him.
“Of course not. You have my intelligence.”
She snorted. As if. The man couldn’t hold a candle to her mother. But knowing him and what would drive him crazy—and hopefully get him to make a mistake—she still didn’t respond. He always wanted to be the center of attention, and that was one thing she knew he hated about Eloise Eddington. She walked into a room, and everyone noticed.
“Let me help you up,” he said reaching for her. It took everything in her not to shrink away from the man. He was a monster, but she couldn’t let him think she thought of him that way. Fear would be too powerful to use against her.
He helped her up off the concrete floor and into a wooden chair.
