“He had a crush on my mom. I met enough of them when I worked for The Company.”
He blinked, and that’s when she noticed his insanely long eyelashes once again. What was up with that?
“Really?”
She nodded. “I have a feeling she would have been pretty high up if she hadn’t died. She trained a lot of analysts though. Also, from what El and Ed have said, he’s insanely in love with his wife.”
He grunted his response, so she figured that was the end of the discussion. All of a sudden, the last couple days caught up with her once again. With a sigh, she settled against the chair and decided to at least grab a cat nap.
Ian was happy that Lila finally settled down and was getting more rest. Also, he was thrilled she couldn’t ask him any more questions. He couldn’t explain why he was so damned pissed at Stryker. The man did nothing and had been nothing but pleasant to all of them. His territorial feelings where Lila was concerned were becoming a problem, but he really didn’t know what to do about it.
El tapped him on the shoulder. “Stryker wants to talk to you.”
He glanced at Lila, worried about leaving her. Stryker was about twenty feet away, so he knew he was being insane, but he hated leaving her. If she woke up, he wanted to be here.
“I’ll sit next to her,” El said. “Also, we’re on a small plane and no one is getting to her here.”
He heard the exasperation in his friend’s voice, so Ian undid his buckle and rose from his chair.
“Are you okay?”
He realized that El was worried about him. “Fine.”
Then he headed to the galley to talk to their host.
“Thank you again for the use of the plane.”
“No problem. How is she?”
“She’s better than she was yesterday. She had a pretty bad concussion.”
He nodded. “I didn’t mean to step on any toes. I mean, if she worked for me, she would still probably work for Dillon.”
Surprise lit through him. “You want to hire her?”
“Yeah.” He sipped his coffee. “I’ve seen some of her coding. She’s a genius.”
“You’ve seen some of it?”
Devon rolled his eyes. “Let’s just say The Company isn’t that great with their cyber security at times.”
“Her employment has nothing to do with me.”
“Oh, I thought…” He broke off, then his mouth curved. His gaze carefully studied Ian long enough to be uncomfortable. “So, it’s personal.”
Not a question. Ian shifted his weight and glanced back at her. He could only see the back of her head, but El was there.
“Smith?”
He glanced at the other man. “Yeah, it’s personal. She’s been…well, I guess my guardian angel for a while now.”
“So, that’s all it is?”
Ian didn’t answer that question.
“Take it from a man who almost lost the love of his life because someone wanted her dead, if you’re interested in her, make sure you keep close.”
Ian knew the story through rumor. Devon’s wife was former MI-6, who had been in hiding with their child for years. Instead of some foreign agent, it had turned out to be a cousin.
