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I grabbed his shoulder with my other hand and squeezed, delighted. Kian knew more about being a bodyguard than I ever would. He was going to be invaluable. And it was great that Emily and Stacey had come. It was rare that we had a job that let them stay close to their men. I’d figure out shifts so that everyone got some downtime and the couples could enjoy being together. “Okay,” I said, finally nudging the door closed with my foot. “Now that we’re all—”
“Ow!” The door bounced open again, revealing a figure in aviator sunglasses rubbing her nose. “Don’t shut me out of the party!”
“Gina?” Even our grumpy but lovable pilot had come. I pulled the door open and carefully checked the hallway in case there was anyone else, then finally closed it and turned to look at them all, amazed. "You all came?”
“‘Course we bloody did,” said Danny. “Now do you want to tell us what we’re dealing with?”
Lorna excused herself and went downstairs to work. And I started at the beginning and told the team everything: Mexico, Russ’s death, the shooting, Poland and the two of us nearly drowning the night before. When I’d finished, Gina raised her hand. “So there’s a kid? Can I go on record as saying I hate children?”
Colton sidled over to the floor-to-ceiling windows, took a cautious look out and grimaced. “Did she have to live so fucking high up?”
Cal was leaning against a wall: even leaning, he was taller than the rest of us standing straight. “Who do you figure’s trying to kill her?”
“Best guess is this son of a bitch, Sebastian van der Meer,” I said, showing them a photo. “He wants to buy the company and break it up. Lorna’s dad wouldn’t sell, neither will she.” I rubbed the back of my neck, embarrassed. “I thought Lorna’s brother was working with him but I was wrong.”
“And you and Lorna?” asked Gabriel.
I did my best poker face. “Me and Lorna?”
Gabriel lifted his eyebrows just a little.
“Goddammit,” I muttered. “When did you know?!”
“The moment I walked in the door,” said Gabriel. “The body language. The way your voice goes soft when you talk about her.”
“No it doesn’t,” I snapped.
Everyone nodded sadly. Yes it does.
“Goddammit!” They all knew?! I sighed and glowered out of the window. “I got…attached to them. Her and the kid.” I caught sight of my reflection in the glass and glowered harder. “It was a mistake.”
“You sure?” asked Kian gently.
I nodded firmly. “We’re gonna protect them. We’re gonna find out who’s behind this and stop them. Then we’re out of here.”
And I gave them all their orders.
Two hours later, I was pacing the penthouse, on the phone to Callahan. “C’mon,” I pressed. “There’s got to be something you can do about van der Meer. Can’t you get a warrant or a subpoena or something?”
Callahan sighed. I could hear office noise in the background and imagined him lounging at his desk in the FBI building. “Look, this guy’s smart. Too smart to leave anything pointing to him. There’s nothing tying him to the boat explosion or the shooting at the speech. The SUV that rammed you into the water was stolen, so no clues there. And as for Poland, van der Meer does business over there, but he does business everywhere.” He lowered his voice. “I even took a chance and got my girlfriend to take a look at his bank accounts. The guy likes his $5000 cognac and his Rolls Royces but there’s nothing criminal there. I agree, he’s our best suspect. But we don’t have anything we can pin on him.”
I cursed, thanked him and ended the call, then went to check how everyone was doing.
I started down in the underground garage. The leasing company had just delivered a new Mercedes to replace the one that the police were lifting out of New York Harbor with a crane. Danny was elbow-deep in the engine, getting everything tuned to perfection in case we wound up in another chase. From now on, he was going to handle all the driving.
Erin was sitting in the driver’s seat so she could run the engine when he needed her to. Her laptop was on her lap and she was typing furiously between tests. “I’ve put cameras in the lobby and motion detectors in the stairwells,” she told me. “We’ll be able to monitor them on this laptop, or even on a phone. Then I’m going to upgrade the security on the elevator so you can’t hack it like I did. No one’s getting upstairs without us knowing.”
“Try it now,” Danny told her.
Erin fired up the engine. It roared like a raging lion, then settled down to a softly purring cat. Erin leaned out of the window and she and Danny fist-bumped. I smiled. The two of them made a good team.
