Burned

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Prologue

Her life was over.

Lila Underwood stared out the window at the blur of English countryside with that one thought rolling through her brain over and over. The gentle hills dotted with sheep and other farm animals didn’t seem to register with her. She couldn’t seem to focus on anything at the moment. Her entire life had become a puzzle with missing pieces. Her father would be so disappointed in her. He had told her to always pay attention to the smallest of details.

But a dead man can’t be disappointed.

“Your grandmother is ecstatic to see you,” the man sitting next to her said.

She turned to look at him. Samuel Smith. He had been there for her family’s burials. Not her grandmother. Not anyone else. She couldn’t have her friends with her. Just her, Sam, and a ton of protectors.

He had kind eyes. Blue and they sparkled when he spoke. He had been nothing but compassionate since she’d met him. He treated her as if she were breakable. What he didn’t understand was that a person like her didn’t break. It just wasn’t allowed.

“Let’s not fool each other, Mr. Smith. If she cared, she would have been at the funeral.”

Those kind eyes widened. “You think she didn’t come because she doesn’t care?”

She nodded and looked outside the car once again. It was a fancy car. Leather seats and a privacy screen. Her grandmother had more money than God. At least, that is what she’d heard her father say. A sob clogged her throat, but she pressed her lips together and fought it down.

“I thought you knew why she didn’t come.”

“I assumed. You know that Judith Eddington doesn’t explain herself.”

He grunted, telling Lila that he did, indeed, know her grandmother well.

“I told her she should come, but…”

The hesitation pulled her attention away from the scene beyond her window.

“What?”

“What do you know about your family? What your parents did?”

“Did? You mean the fact that they worked for the CIA? I know that.”

“What about your grandmother?”

“She’s rich and just hangs out in that fancy house.”

Her mother had always called it The Manor. Pain pierced her heart just thinking about her mother. Her smart, beautiful mother was gone. As was her brother, Adam. He had been so excited about his upcoming soccer game. Her father, mother, and brother had left her. Not by their choice, but it still felt as if she had been abandoned.

“I see.” He studied her and sighed. “Your grandmother can’t travel that far. At least not at the moment.”

She frowned. “Is she ill?”

“No. It’s dangerous for her to travel.”

Interesting. Of course, it could all be BS. She’d heard one of the guys in her Algebra class use that phrase. She shrugged and looked out the window once more.

“I’ll talk to her for you. Make sure you understand why she couldn’t attend. I’ll make sure everything is right as rain before I head back home.”

She said nothing, because nothing in her life was ever going to be right again. They drove up the road to the massive house that her grandmother lived in. Lila had been here before. It still stunned her that she would be living there now. As the driver pulled up to the massive set of stairs that lead into the house, the door opened and her grandmother stepped out.

It had only been six months, but her grandmother looked older…smaller. Lila understood. Her world had imploded just like Lila’s had. When the people you loved most in the world were killed, your world shrunk into a dark hole.

“Are you ready, Delilah?”

She glanced at Samuel again. He was offering a gentle smile. Tears burned the backs of her eyes, and she blinked to force them away. A girl with her background didn’t get to cry.

Intelligent people don’t let emotions cloud their life.

Her father’s voice filled her head and she shoved it aside.

“As ready as a person whose whole family got blown up can be, Mr. Smith.”

“You can call me Sam.”

“And you can call me Lila. No one calls me Delilah.”

“Your grandmother does.”

“Yeah. She does.”

Then she opened the door and stepped out. The air was cooler…fresher than it had been in Virginia. Even with the clouds heavy with rain, the atmosphere didn’t feel as humid as back home.

Sam walked up the stairs beside Lila. When she reached the top of the stairs, she saw the woman who looked so much like her mother. Eloise Eddington-Underwood had been an almost carbon copy of her mother. Lila looked like her mother. Same hair color, same build, and the same bi-colored eyes. One brown and one green. When she had been in the fourth grade, some idiot named Jesse had said that she had devil eyes. She had punched him in the nose and gotten detention.

“Delilah,” she said, gently pulling her into her arms. Everyone was being so careful. It was freaking her out. Still, she wrapped her arms around her grandmother, the scent of Chanel No. 5—something her mother favored also—surrounded her. “I am so very glad you made it here safe. Thank you, Samuel.”

“You know I would do anything for you, Judith.”

When Judith pulled back, Lila looked at Sam. “I know you need to get home to Autumn and Ian.”

Sam looked down at Lila. “Are you okay with that?”

No, she wasn’t. She wanted to slip back in that car with Sam and go to the house with happiness. It sounded like there was a lot of love and joy back in his house. She knew that it wasn’t for her, so she nodded. “Thank you, Sam.”

He hesitated, studying her.

“Go on, Samuel. If we need you, I won’t hesitate to call,” her grandmother said.

“Of course. Goodbye, Lila.”

“Bye, Sam.”

She stood next to her grandmother on that top step and watched him leave.

“He was trying to tell me you were in MI-6,” Lila murmured.

“He’s a good man. The best I ever trained.”

She looked at her grandmother. “I assumed he was MI-6, but I also thought he could be private security.”

She was twelve, but she understood more about the world than some thirty-year-olds. When your parents worked for the CIA, you tended to gain a unique knowledge of all things espionage related. Or at least, she had.

“One thing I want you to know is that you can always trust Samuel. I can’t say that about every person I trained, but Samuel is a rare man. Trustworthy and loyal. I hope he’s raising his son the same way.”

“Do you keep an eye on them?”

“Always. I believe in protecting my loved ones. He has lost so much, but he has his children.” She took Lila’s hand. “I’m sorry about what happened to your family.”

Pain dripped from every word, shimmering through the syllables and reaching out to Lila. Her bottom lip quivered. She bit it to stop it from showing.

“They were your family too.”

She cupped Lila’s face. “Yes, but I’m an old woman. I’ve buried a husband and many friends.”

Lila blinked away the tears once again. All she could do was nod because speaking around the knot in her throat was too much.

“Now, let’s have some tea and biscuits,” she said pulling Lila through the front door of her house.

“It wasn’t your fault,” she said, her voice small and her spirit ragged around the edges. She wasn’t sure if she would ever recover. She definitely wouldn’t be the same person before her family was murdered.

“I should have insisted on better security. Your parents were just analysts for the CIA, but I knew I had enemies.” She led Lila into the sitting room. “So, one thing we need to do is get you prepared.”

“Prepared?”

She nodded as she led Lila to the small table sitting in front of the bay window. The scene of rolling hills dotted with sheep usually made Lila happy. They didn’t spend a lot of time in England, but she had always loved this view. She would sit there for hours thinking about codes. Did her grandmother realize that?

“You need to know how to deal with what could come after you. Your mother was trained, but in the end it wasn’t enough. I will not let that happen to you.”

She turned back to her grandmother. “And find the person who killed our family?”

Judith Eddington, former MI-6 spymaster, smiled at Lila. Her eyes lit with a fire that spoke of her need for revenge. It was the type of smile that probably scared most people, but Lila found it comforting. “If it takes me the rest of my life to find the bastards, I will do it.”

With a nod, Lila looked out the window once again. Another thing she had in common with her grandmother: the need to avenge her family’s murder burned inside of her and would until the day she died.

Chapter One

Ian Smith had stared down some of the worst monsters in the world. He had been trained by one of the best MI-6 agents to ever work the spy game. While he had been in MI-6 himself, he had been part of a team of assassins most of the world didn’t know existed. So the idea that this pop girlie with her bad temper and even worse personality was pushing his buttons was embarrassing.

“I’m not in the mood for a meet and greet,” their client said.

He called on every bit of his tact and found that he had none. He was at his wits’ end and had nothing left to give her. No grace. No coddling.

“It’s. Time. To. Go.” Each word spoken from behind clenched teeth.

“I think that maybe you should be happy that I lowered my standards and hired Dillon Security,” Rachel Richards, aka Raquel to her thousands of fans, said as she tossed her bleached blonde hair over her shoulder.

“Excuse me?”

He felt rather than saw his partner Eden Carlyle’s glance. His partner probably recognized his tone. It’s the one his sister called his “Don’t Fuck with Ian” tone. Autumn wasn’t known for her tact, but she was correct. This little dictator wannabe was about to learn a very real lesson. There was a long beat of silence where he tried to grab onto his legendary calm. His nickname had been Ice when he’d worked for MI-6. He was known as being so detached that people thought there was something wrong with him.

Spoiler alert: there was.

He was definitely a sociopath, but he didn’t know many in the spy business that didn’t exhibit at least a few of those tendencies.

With all of that in mind, this pain in the ass’s blue eyes blazed with pure hatred. She settled her hands on her hips. “I don’t think I stuttered.”

Why was he even on this assignment? He had been a member of the Elite Eight. He slipped into countries, killed the bad person, and disappeared without anyone knowing. People feared him at one time. Now he was guarding a woman who was a terror. From the moment they’d met her private jet, she had driven everyone at Dillon Security insane.  Correction, she had been a terror since he’d told her that there would be no way he would play into her bodyguard fantasies. He would rather be back on the set of Task Force Honolulu.

He opened his mouth to blast her, but thankfully, his parter was keeping her cool.

“Raquel, we need to get going because you have a meet and greet with your fans before you leave Oahu,” Eden said, her voice softer than it normally was. Definitely playing to the client. And, yes, he could usually do that. Not with this client. As Americans liked to say, he was sick of her bullshit.

“I said that I wanted to go to the beach.”

They had spent hours at the beach. Granted, they were in Hawai’i and that’s what most people who came to visit wanted to do. But she had a private appearance, one they had suggested she cancel. There had been credible threats against her. After spending three days in her presence, Ian understood those threats. She was a nightmare to everyone.

They had five hours and thirty-two more minutes to deal with her. Normally, she had a regular security team, but that had changed when an email had threatened her with insider knowledge of her private meeting schedule along with her reservation information. A brief investigation found that one team member had been selling her information. Of course, they had no idea to whom, and with only ten days before her trip to Hawai’i, the record label had been desperate.

“We’re not going to the beach. You’re going to meet with these fans who paid a fortune to meet with you.”

Her eyes narrowed as her face flushed with anger. Most people would say the woman was pretty. And yes, she was physically attractive, but she seemed shallow and demanding. Besides, he liked a woman who helped other people, even if she did have a smart mouth.

Fuck, he needed to keep his mind in the game and not on the woman who had been driving him crazy. It was bad enough she had been slipping into his dreams at night.

As if that particular woman could hear his thoughts, his phone vibrated. He knew without looking who it was. Damn the woman. She had been under his skin for years, and now he knew exactly when she was calling. She had been very good at predicting trouble the last couple of months.

“You probably need to get Melanie,” he said to Eden. She nodded and left to find the other woman. She was sort of her handler as her mother, Francine, who acted as her manager wasn’t on the trip. He drew in a deep breath, then clicked on his phone.

“Have you ever had a dog?” Sam asked.

It was always like this. Most of the time, he felt as if he’d walked in on a conversation already in progress. “Did you just call me to ask that?”

“No.”

Then nothing. He sighed.

“Yes. We had dogs when I was growing up.”

“Hmm. I think I would like a dog.”

“Is that why you called me?”

“I just told you no. Did that concussion mess with your memory?”

He closed his eyes and counted back from ten. Yes, he’d had a concussion a few weeks ago thanks to a blow to the head on an assignment for Dillon. It had been slight and he’d been fine for weeks. Sam mentioned it every time they talked. She seemed particularly worried about his well-being.

When he felt calm again, he opened his eyes.

“Why are you calling?”

“You got trouble coming.”

“What?” he asked as Eden came in, a frown marring her face.

“You got problems. That client of yours is a nightmare, and she doesn’t fall that far from the mama tree. You have two assholes coming up in the elevator. Not very smart, but I think they’re lazy.”

“Get Raquel. We have two threats coming up in the elevator.”

Eden nodded and headed to the bedroom.

“Do you want me to stop the elevator?”

“You can do that?”

He knew she had the skills, but she wasn’t always someplace where she could access it.

She snorted and his dick twitched. “In my sleep.”

Why was she so attractive to him? He had yet to meet her face to face. The only time he saw her was from afar, so it had nothing to do with her actual looks. Her confidence about her tech skills and the way she stood up to him left him slightly aroused after every altercation. It wasn’t like him. He liked smart women, but ones that got under his skin? No, thank you. He didn’t trust other spies—even former ones. And he knew how hypocritical it was, but he knew the beast because he was the beast.

“What’s going on?” Raquel said, resisting Eden who was dragging her out of the bedroom.

“Put me on speaker.”

“That isn’t a good idea,” he said.

“Come on. You know I’ve saved your ass multiple times in the last two months. Plus, that terror needs to understand that she’s in danger.”

That was true. Still, he hesitated.

“Ian Charles Smith, put me on speaker or you will regret it.”

Heat wove through is blood. What the fuck was actually wrong with him that her using all three of his names turned him on?

With a sigh, he clicked the speaker on.

“Hey, Rachel,” Sam’s voice said.

“The name is Raquel.”

“It won’t matter if you’re dead.”

The same weird arousal surged. If anyone else spoke with such bluntness, he would admire it, but he definitely wouldn’t be sexually excited by it. He liked sweet women, not ball busters like Sam.

“There are two men coming up there to abduct you or maybe kill you. I don’t care. I do care about Eden and Mix, so that’s why I’m saving your ass today. Make sure you don’t have heels on and go with the nice operatives, or I’ll suggest they both leave your cranky ass there.”

“Excuse me. And who the hell is Mix?”

That was the nickname everyone called him thanks to another operative at Dillon. He’d hated it at first, but lately, he had started to like it. Not that he would ever admit it to anyone. It was definitely better than Ice.

Sam’s long frustrated sigh was easy to hear over the speaker. “Jesus, get a grip. Two men are coming to get you. Make sure you have flats on and get ready to run because you might need to do that. Too bad you can’t knock her out and just carry her.”

Raquel’s eyes widened. “Is she serious?”

“Yes,” both Eden and he said.

“Okay, the assholes coming up are locked between your floor and the one below. And I have delayed the help they’d normally get. I’d suggest you go now. I’ll switch to your earpiece.”

Then she hung up. He pocketed his phone and took lead. For once, it looked like their charge wasn’t going to argue with them.

“The stairwell is clear, so you can go down a couple of floors,” Sam said in his ear. “That floor is clear.”

With his gun out, he opened the door to the suite, then led Raquel to the stairwell. Eden protected the rear.

After opening the door and double checking that the assholes weren’t on the stairs, he motioned with his head for Eden and Raquel to follow him. They hurried down the stairs.

“Dammit.”

He paused, causing Raquel to bump into him.

“What?”

“Get the fuck out of there. They must have outside help. Someone overrode the elevator controls. They’ll figure out you’ve bugged out pretty fast.”

He started down again going as fast as he could. They were two floors down when he heard the door open above them.

“Where the fuck do you think you’re going, asshole?”

Was the guy serious?

“What the hell is that? Did he actually yell at you? Amateur.”

The disdain in Sam’s voice would normally make him smile, but he had to get Raquel to safety.

A gun shot sounded hitting the wall just above his head.

“The fuck?” Sam exclaimed, anger filling her voice. Then, muttering as she tapped on the keyboard. Ian didn’t have time to deal with her. He needed to get his charge to safety.

“What the fuck are you doing, Vic? We won’t get paid if we hurt her.”

Ian made a note of that argument between the abductors, but his focus was still getting them to safety. He busted through the stairwell door onto the floor.

“Elevator should be there.”

As usual, Sam was right. She probably had something to do with it, but he wasn’t going question it. They hurried onto the elevator and the doors closed just as he heard the clatter of the bastards following them.

“What the hell was that?” Raquel asked, her voice sounding a little shellshocked. When he glanced at her, he realized her face had lost a lot of its color. Her breathing was shallow and her pupils were dilated.

“Hey, take deep breaths,” Eden said.

They reached the first floor and as they stepped out into the lobby of the resort, he saw familiar faces walking toward them—one of them his sister. Task Force Hawai’i had arrived.

“Oh, forgot to tell you that I made sure both TFH and Dillon got the call. You’re welcome.”

Before he could say thanks, she had signed off and was gone.

“Howzit, bro?” Autumn asked. “Got a call from your bestie. You just couldn’t let my last week in the field be normal, could you?”

His sister and brother-in-law both worked for the elite Task Force Hawai’i. She worked on Team Alpha and Seth was the captain for Team Bravo. She was taking a temporary role in the office because of her pregnancy.

He rolled his eyes. “We have two kidnappers on their way down.”

“Yes. I hope I get to hit someone.”

“Autumn,” Adam Lee said. He was the commander of Alpha Team, and Autumn’s boss. “What have I told you about that?”

“Thinking those things are okay. Say them out loud and we end up in court.”

“And we know you hate court,” her supervisor said.

“We’ll get another room and let y’all know where we are,” Eden said, her Texan accent thicker than normal. They were met in the lobby by the resort manager. He was about an inch or two shorter than Ian, with a balding head. He was wearing the white pants and Hawaiian shirt all the staff wore.

“Mr. Smith, we have a conference room ready for you.”

“Let me guess. You got a call from a woman?”

He nodded and led them down a maze of halls. If he didn’t know better, he would think this guy was in on the abduction, but he got it. Places this resort featured were out of the way rooms for the rich and famous…or just rich people who were meeting in private. It took them just a few minutes before they were ushered into an empty conference room.

“Thank you.”

“Do you need anything else?”

He glanced around the room; took in the long table, the coffee, tea, and water set up and shook his head. “No, thank you.”

“What did those men want?” Raquel asked once they were finally alone.

“Not sure,” Eden said. “Did Sam say anything?”

“No,” he said, but that was a lie. Sam had said something that was nagging at him. She doesn’t fall far from the mama tree. “Your mother didn’t come with you on this trip?”

She shrugged. “She was sleeping with Chuck, so she was pissed when the record label fired him.”

Chuck the security dude who was canned. Great. This seemed like a set up, and worse, it seemed her mother might have been in on it. She put her own child in danger. He shared a look with Eden and knew she was thinking the same thing.

“I think you might want to have a conversation with your mother.”

“What? Why?”

“Just call it a hunch, but she might know how those guys found out your information.”

***

“So, another satisfied client,” Luc Warner, managing partner for the Dillon Pacific office said. The former SEAL sported a close-cropped beard that was peppered with grey. He still kept his hair military short and, from the looks of it, kept up with the same physical workout regimen as when he was in the Navy.

“It was FUBAR from the beginning. I can’t even imagine having your mother sell you out,” Eden said with a shake of her head. The former CIA officer was his partner most of the time, and they worked well together. They came from similar backgrounds and understood each other. She also didn’t take crap off anyone, including him.

“The question is how long has this been going on?” Luc shook head. “The label told me that there had been problems for months. Press kept finding out where she was, things like that. Seems that her mother wanted more money for Raquel’s next album.”

“I take back everything I thought about Rachel/Raquel. Well, most of it,” Eden said with a smile.

“You two definitely earned your time off this coming week. Just make sure to file your reports by Friday.”

“Gotcha,” Eden said as they walked out. He held the door open for her, and they stepped into the outer office.

“That was fast,” Junie said, smiling at them. The petite woman was the executive assistant to Luc, and she ran the office. Well, she ran all of the Pacific offices. Dillon was actually a massive company, with the primary offices in Miami. When their boss, Conner Dillon, had fallen for a woman who lived on Oahu, he had decided to open an office on the island. It made sense since it was a good staging ground for any jobs they had in the Asian theater.

Junie had been a fixture since Ian was hired. Ian knew she had a connection to Conner from his time at the FBI and that she was an only child with both of her parents gone. Luc followed them out.

“Junie, I told you to go home,” Luc said. He must have heard her voice.

“Meow.”

Ian looked down. Junie also brought her cats Harold and Maude in to work a lot, and for some reason Maude always had to sit in front of Luc and meow.

“She has a crush on you,” Junie said with a laugh.

It wasn’t the first time she’d remarked on Maude’s weird fascination with Luc. Harold hissed at him.

“All of you, go home. Remember to write up your reports by Friday. Otherwise, I don’t want to see or hear from you.”

“You heard the dictator. Get out of here,” she said. “After the week you two had, you definitely deserve your time off.”

“Junie, it’s after nine. Go home,” Luc said, then turned and went into his office, shutting the door quietly behind him.

She rolled her eyes. “He’s annoying.”

“Have a good weekend, Junie,” Eden said.

“You two have a great week. Make sure you take the week to rest. We only have two weeks until the Pan-Pacific Business Council and we will be busy.”

He nodded to Junie, then followed Eden out of the office. As they were walking down the hallway, Eden of course had to bring up Sam.

“She’s saved you tons of times in the last few months. Seems like she contacts you more than she contacts me. Or anyone else for that matter.”

“Jealous?”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re still mad I won’t give you her real name.”

Not mad but irritated. Sam and Eden had both worked at the CIA together. Both Eden and her twin El refused to tell Ian Sam’s real name. She’s the one who gave herself the Sam nickname. For years, they had sparred online. There was a lot of rivalry between MI-6 and the CIA—spy shit. She also had another nickname—The Barracuda. And yes, he was the one who gave her the name. Unfortunately, that hadn’t irritated her. In fact, she had mentioned that the name delighted her.

“No, I’m not.”

The smirk she sent his way told Ian she didn’t believe him.

“Do we have anything we need to go over?”

“Got a hot date?”

She gave him a wide smile. “Just a night in with Kap. You can come over if you want.”

Kaplan Hanson was Eden’s partner and a member of TFH Team Bravo, their search and rescue team.

“No, thanks for inviting the third wheel over, but I have plans.”

“Do tell.” She pushed the button for the elevator.

“I’m heading over to Kauai.”

“Nice. We’ve been talking about going over there, but Kap has to work next week. So, you aren’t going out?”

He blinked. “What?”

“It has been ages since I have seen or heard about you dating someone.”

“What is it about people that when they get serious with a partner, that we all need to do the same? I am perfectly happy with my lot in life.”

He had too many enemies in his past and he knew that one day it would come to back to bite him in the arse.

She rolled her eyes. “I’m not saying you should get serious, but maybe…you know…”

She made a motion with her hand.

“What is that?”

“Sex is good for you.”

Her face had turned bright red and he laughed. “Say hi to your man for me.”

“My man.” She laughed, delight filling her expression. “I will.”

Then she stepped into the lift and headed off for her weekend of bliss. He didn’t begrudge her the happiness they had both found, but damn, he was starting to feel a little envious. Which was odd for him. He wasn’t one to think of settling down. He’d lost his mother when he had been barely eleven, and he didn’t want to go through the hell that had caused both he and his father. But lately…he just felt as if something were off.

Pushing aside those thoughts, he walked down the hall to his office. He still had a few things to do before he could take off to Kauai. He settled behind his desk just as his phone vibrated.

Unlisted.

Heat flared through his entire body. Of course.

“What do you want, Sam?”

“You’re welcome.” He opened his mouth to answer her, but she beat him. “Again.”

“You don’t have to watch over me. I can handle my own life.”

There was a beat of silence. “Is that a fact?”

Something was off in her voice. There was no biting sarcasm, or even playful mocking. There was not one ounce of emotion. It left him feeling cold.

“Yeah. You probably have all kinds of things to do.” He powered up his laptop and punched in his code. “There’s no reason to watch over me.”

“That’s where you’re wrong.”

He paused for a long moment waiting to see if she would expound on that. Silence greeted him. “What the bloody hell does that mean?”

“Let’s just say I’m fulfilling a promise.”

That was more than she had ever told him about why she always seemed to guard him. He hadn’t noticed it at first, but then, he realized that she had seemed to step in whenever he needed help. And that had started before he’d left MI-6 a couple years earlier.

“Why don’t you tell me what you’re hinting at?”

“Can’t. Not safe.”

That had him pausing again. “For you?”

“Hmm, for a lot of people. Listen, I just wanted to make sure everything is okay with you.”

“You know everything is okay.” Normally, she would just contact him, save his ass or give him information he needed, then she would disappear. This was something new. “Sam, what’s up?”

“What do you mean?”

“Sam.”

She sighed. “There’s nothing up. Just, I’m glad you and Ed are okay.”

“Thanks to you.”

“I helped, but even if I didn’t say anything, you would have been able to get out of there. I mean, you did have Ed, although that Rachel chick was a pain in the ass.”

He grunted in agreement. “Is there anything else?”

“No.” More silence and he waited. “So you don’t have any pets now?”

He frowned, then he remembered her first question on the phone earlier. “No. I travel too much, although Dad is thinking about getting a dog.”

“Like one of the ones you had as a child?”

“How do you know what kind of dogs I had as a child?”

“You mentioned them.”

Did he? He knew he mentioned having dogs, but he didn’t think he mentioned what kind of dog.

“I don’t want a hunting dog though. Once I live in a house again, I’ll get one. Not a cat for obvious reasons.”

He leaned back in his chair trying his best to follow the conversation. “What obvious reasons?”

“They always have a preferred human, and they would rather everyone else died.”

He thought about Maude’s affections for Luc and smiled.

“Anyway, I have to go now. Have fun on your vacation,” she said, and the phone clicked off.

He turned off his phone and tossed it onto his desk. She had been the bane of his existence for the past several years. Actually, it had started a few years ago when he was still with MI-6. She’d butted into one of his investigations, mocking him the entire time, and saving his ass. Since then, she had always popped up when he needed help or did most of the time. Now, it seemed that she was obsessed with keeping him alive.

And yes, he knew what an ass it made him that he bitched about a woman saving him. But he couldn’t help it. Every time he talked to her these days, he was left slightly aroused. Worse, he hadn’t had interest in other women. He had started to compare every date he had to a woman he probably wouldn’t recognize if he passed her on the street.

Maybe a week in Kauai working on his house would get his head back in the game and off a woman he didn’t really know.

End of Excerpt