Mason Alder gave his boss a run-down of everything that had happened. Poor Chip. That stupid bastard should have never volunteered for the job, but he’d wanted the huge payout. When thousands of dollars were on the line, it was hard to turn away from it. Especially someone like Chip with gambling debts.
At least the damned fool wouldn’t have to worry about that anymore.
With a severe concussion, the idiot came back to the house they were using at the moment. Mason glanced around at his opulent surroundings. He had done jobs like this for the last decade, and a staging house was never like this. The estate had views of the ocean, an infinity pool, and five bedrooms. It made him itch. This kind of house made a person stick out. Sure, you had a lot of land around you, but it could give you a false sense of security.
“Did you take care of the body?” his boss asked.
He pulled his attention back to the conversation. What Chip hadn’t understood was that failing at the job would mean death. Up until the moment the boss shot him, the idiot hadn’t realized what was going to happen.
“Yes.”
“Good. Do we know what happened to that woman?”
“No. We think she called in reinforcements.”
“Reinforcements? She has no connections. I have spent the last two years making sure of that.”
Again, he knew there was so much the boss was keeping from him. In a lot of cases, he didn’t need to know everything about a job. It was better that way, in fact. Mason was starting to worry that there was a good deal he didn’t know about this situation, and it would probably come back to bite him in the ass. Asking could turn deadly.
“We followed a trail, one that included a blood trail. There were her footsteps and then two other sets. Men, over six feet in height from their stride.”
He held his boss’s gaze, although it was difficult. Mason had thought he had seen evil before this job, but now he knew that it had been nothing compared to this kind of malevolence. This was someone who wanted to destroy the enemy by any means possible. It wasn’t his first time working for a nut job, but the boss was freaking scary. Most people would never know they were talking to a sociopath.
“Find her. Check out all the hospitals, quick clinics, and vets.”
“Vets?”
Those cold, grey eyes narrowed. “Veterinaries carry drugs that would help with any pain she is in. Do I have to do your job for you?”
“Absolutely not.”
“Then get your ass back out there and find her. If some good Samaritans found her, they probably took her to the hospital. Make sure no Joan Does have been registered in the last few hours.”
He nodded and turned to leave but his boss stopped him.
“Remember that I don’t like anyone who fails.”
With another nod, he headed out. How could he forget that lesson? He still had Chip’s blood beneath his fingernails.
Five
Lila woke, but didn’t move, keeping her eyes closed. She didn’t know how long she’d been out. She remembered hearing Ian’s voice as he talked to someone on the phone. He had been too far away and speaking too low for her to hear who he was talking to. She knew it couldn’t be that long because the protocol was that she had to be awakened once an hour or something like that. Unless she didn’t remember it, which worried her. That meant that this concussion was worse than the one she got after the fall.
Inwardly she sighed. She hated thinking of her fall from grace. She knew she wasn’t an enemy of the state, but the CIA disagreed. If she could figure out just who the fuck had set her up, she could expose them, then go rattle around at her grandmother’s estate.
Without opening her eyes, Lila formulated her escape. It wasn’t that she didn’t appreciate Ian coming to her rescue. If she were truthful with herself, she would say it made him even sexier.
Lila, you can’t think those things. You have too much work to do.
Dammit, she hated when her grandmother’s voice broke into her thoughts. It happened on a regular basis, but lately it had begun to annoy her.
Shoving her thoughts about her grandmother and her stupid attraction to Ian aside, she started to wonder what had woken her. She was not a light sleeper. One would think with her background she would be, but she slept like the dead, unable to hear anything. So something had caused her to wake up.
Then she heard it…the soft murmur of male voices. Panic rose up and clogged her brain. It took all her control to shove it back into place. Listening closely, she heard Ian’s voice. Again, he was too far away for her to decipher what he was saying, but his cadence was easy to pick up on. There were three male voices.
Then, they seemed to move closer, and she could hear them clearer.
“So, there were signs of the fight, but no attacker?” Ian asked.
