Page 13 of Missile Strike

Two weeks later

Danny pulled open the glass doors to Dìleas Security Agency’s Alexandria, Virginia headquarters and stepped into a lobby of pale gray walls, landscape oil paintings, and plants. Lots of plants—courtesy of Sophia Mackay, Dìleas’s petite, redheaded VP of Business Development and wife of Lachlan Mackay, the company’s president.

Last night’s phone call with Ryder replayed in his head.

Oh-eight-hundred. I’m sorry, I know I owe you time off, but Senator Strickland has requested you specifically for this job.

Breakfast had been a lost cause, and the coffee he choked down in his studio apartment a few miles from the office felt like battery acid in his esophagus.

His gut told him Senator Strickland’s request involved Bella.

He pictured the woman he’d seen on the yacht. Petite, around five-two. Maturity had given her curves she hadn’t had as a teenager. Dark blonde hair that had deepened to honey brown hung straight past her shoulders. Her lips were full and pink, and a labyrinth of secrets still shadowed eyes that reminded him of his favorite caramel candy.

She’d been his sister’s best friend. He was two years older and had tried to keep his distance, but from the moment he’d met her, there had been a fragility about her that drew out every protective instinct he had.

If Lucas Caldwell, Dìleas’s FBI contact, hadn’t alerted Admiral Dane that the Stricklands’ vacation plans had been leaked to a Hezbollah operative with close ties to Iran, Danny and his team wouldn’t have been in Greece two weeks ago. Wouldn’t have been able to stop…

The memory of what almost happened wouldn’t leave him.

He’d killed a man in front of Bella.

What must she think of him now?

Rubbing at the sudden bloom of pain in his chest, he let the door fall shut behind him.

Penny Turner, Dìleas’s office manager, sat at the gray wood-grained reception desk, flanked by even more plants. As usual, the older woman looked immaculate in a cream blouse and matching pearl earrings and necklace, her silver bob neatly styled.

“Good morning, Penny.” Danny leaned over the desk and slipped into the carefree persona he’d perfected. “How’s my favorite girl today?”

She smiled. “Hello, dear. Ryder asked me to have you join him in the conference room when you arrived.”

“Is Senator Strickland here yet?”

Penny nodded. “He’s meeting with Lachlan and Ryder now.”

A lead weight took up space in Danny’s stomach. “Great.”

Not great. He’d spent a sleepless night trying to come up with a reason he couldn’t take the job.

The conference room loomed ahead of him down the corridor, the door open. When he got close, he heard the rumble of conversation. Lachlan’s melodic Scottish accent, Ryder’s clipped English one. And a voice with a hint of the South.

The mint crunched between his molars. Danny squared his shoulders and stepped into the room.

The floor-to-ceiling exterior window provided plenty of natural light at this hour. Framed landmarks of DC, Paris, and London took up one wall, a large whiteboard the other, and in between, a long rectangular conference table where three men sat at the far end, deep in conversation.

All three heads swiveled in his direction.

Ryder rose first. “Danny. Thanks for coming in, mate.”

“Sure thing.” Danny nodded at Dìleas’s president, Lachlan Mackay. “Sir.” The tall, dark-haired Scot was former British SAS, like Ryder, and had become best friends with Nathan back when they were all running joint missions in Afghanistan.

Including the one that went sideways and got Danny’s teammate and several others sent home in pine boxes.

He banished that memory back into the mental lockbox he kept it in. The other memory he kept there threatened to escape now that he was standing in front of Bella’s father again.

Senator Strickland stood. Of average height, he was the shortest man in the room, but the former Navy fighter pilot still held a commanding presence. “Trip, I didn’t get the chance to thank you for rescuing me and my family. How are you, son? It’s been a while.”

Danny shook the senator’s hand. “Not since Jaynie’s funeral.”