Intelligent people don’t let emotions cloud their life.
Her father’s voice filled her head and she shoved it aside.
“As ready as a person whose whole family got blown up can be, Mr. Smith.”
“You can call me Sam.”
“And you can call me Lila. No one calls me Delilah.”
“Your grandmother does.”
“Yeah. She does.”
Then she opened the door and stepped out. The air was cooler…fresher than it had been in Virginia. Even with the clouds heavy with rain, the atmosphere didn’t feel as humid as back home.
Sam walked up the stairs beside Lila. When she reached the top of the stairs, she saw the woman who looked so much like her mother. Eloise Eddington-Underwood had been an almost carbon copy of her mother. Lila looked like her mother. Same hair color, same build, and the same bi-colored eyes. One brown and one green. When she had been in the fourth grade, some idiot named Jesse had said that she had devil eyes. She had punched him in the nose and gotten detention.
“Delilah,” she said, gently pulling her into her arms. Everyone was being so careful. It was freaking her out. Still, she wrapped her arms around her grandmother, the scent of Chanel No. 5—something her mother favored also—surrounded her. “I am so very glad you made it here safe. Thank you, Samuel.”
“You know I would do anything for you, Judith.”
When Judith pulled back, Lila looked at Sam. “I know you need to get home to Autumn and Ian.”
Sam looked down at Lila. “Are you okay with that?”
No, she wasn’t. She wanted to slip back in that car with Sam and go to the house with happiness. It sounded like there was a lot of love and joy back in his house. She knew that it wasn’t for her, so she nodded. “Thank you, Sam.”
He hesitated, studying her.
“Go on, Samuel. If we need you, I won’t hesitate to call,” her grandmother said.
“Of course. Goodbye, Lila.”
“Bye, Sam.”
She stood next to her grandmother on that top step and watched him leave.
“He was trying to tell me you were in MI-6,” Lila murmured.
“He’s a good man. The best I ever trained.”
She looked at her grandmother. “I assumed he was MI-6, but I also thought he could be private security.”
She was twelve, but she understood more about the world than some thirty-year-olds. When your parents worked for the CIA, you tended to gain a unique knowledge of all things espionage related. Or at least, she had.
“One thing I want you to know is that you can always trust Samuel. I can’t say that about every person I trained, but Samuel is a rare man. Trustworthy and loyal. I hope he’s raising his son the same way.”
“Do you keep an eye on them?”
“Always. I believe in protecting my loved ones. He has lost so much, but he has his children.” She took Lila’s hand. “I’m sorry about what happened to your family.”
Pain dripped from every word, shimmering through the syllables and reaching out to Lila. Her bottom lip quivered. She bit it to stop it from showing.
“They were your family too.”
She cupped Lila’s face. “Yes, but I’m an old woman. I’ve buried a husband and many friends.”
Lila blinked away the tears once again. All she could do was nod because speaking around the knot in her throat was too much.
