He glanced at his employee. “Very good. Better than your work on Kauai.”
There was a beat of silence and then the click of Mason’s swallow.
“I told you I was sorry about Chip.”
He nodded. “And I appreciate that. Let’s get geared up. It’s time I got a face-to-face meeting with Delilah.”
Once he took care of her, he would be gone, away from the bugs and locals, off to the estate he’d purchased over a decade earlier.
“We’ll have to catch them by surprise. They have her well-guarded,” Mason said.
“We’ll need Knox and Will,” he said. “I’ll be going too.”
Mason didn’t say anything at first, so he looked up at his employee. “What?”
He swallowed. “Sir, do you think you should go on an op like this?”
“I’ll handle jamming their electronics. You three will retrieve Delilah.”
Something seemed to relax in the giant. The man thought he would survive this. One thing Mason needed to learn was that in all the years he had been on the run, he had only left one person alive, and he was about to take care of that.
“Let’s get going so we can get this over with. I’d like to be on my way in the next twenty-four hours.”
“Of course,” Mason said, slipping out of the room and leaving him to his thoughts. Freedom was just a day away, so close he could taste it.
With a sigh, he decided to change and get ready for the op. Nothing would stand in his way this time, not even Delilah Eddington-Underwood.
Seventeen
Ian woke with a start, the nightmare he’d just endured a little too close to real life for him. Especially right now.
He looked down at the warm body wrapped around him. He smiled. In sleep, she looked so damned young, so peaceful. He wondered how often that happened for her. She was starting to look rested for the first time since he had seen her.
He glanced over at his phone and noticed that they had been sleeping for at least four hours. That was a good stretch for him. Since he knew the longer he spent in bed with Lila he would want to take her once more, he slipped out of bed as quietly as he could. He kept his gaze resting on the woman. She mumbled something in her sleep and claimed his pillow. With a sigh, she settled back down.
He dressed quickly, then pulled the sheet up for her. He really didn’t want to think about what would have happened to her if he hadn’t been on Kauai. It chilled his blood.
Knowing he should leave her alone, he leaned down and kissed her bare shoulder. Her eyes fluttered opened.
“Ian.”
Damn. Just hearing his name turned him on.
“I’m gonna check in with the team.”
She moved to get up.
“You can stay in bed.”
With a sigh, she shook her head. “I can help and you know it.”
“I do, but I have a feeling if they had something that could help, we would have heard from them. Why don’t you get that shower we never really took?”
After they had made love, they had dried off quickly and fallen into bed. The memory of being so deep inside of her…then he remembered something important.
“Love, we didn’t use anything.”
She sat up further, the sheet pooling at her waist.
