Relentless (Option Zero 2)

The people assigned to watch over them would be discreet. No one needed to know what was going on. The less they knew, the safer they’d be.

Once her family was protected, she sent a mass text to her entire team and told them the project was on hold indefinitely. She had thanked them, assuring them she would send their pay for their hard work, but had encouraged them to take new jobs. She hated losing them, but not only did she want them free of danger, she knew word would spread throughout the industry that the project had been canned. Ferante and his people would assume they’d won.

They hadn’t.

If she stopped the project, evil won. A child rapist would get away with his crimes. If she had the means to put him away where he could never hurt a child again, how could she not?

She had done her first documentary on a shoestring budget with almost no help until it was time to distribute. She had rented her equipment and spent every waking hour for two years creating The Lost Ones. She would do that again. It would take her longer, but at least this way she wouldn’t put anyone’s safety on the line but hers.

Silly, really, but she found herself excited for the challenge. She needed the resulting insane schedule. If she didn’t keep busy, she would lose her mind.

Maybe if this insanity hadn’t been going on, she would have talked to Liam Stryker in a mature, calm manner. She would have told him about Syria and asked him if he was the man she knew as Lion. It should have been as simple as that. But because of the shock, the bubbling emotions, she’d let nervousness and fear stand in the way. With just a few words she could have known, once and for all, if the man she’d dreamed about for years was alive and well.

Instead, she had lost her nerve. Part of her had wanted to know, another part had feared the truth. What if it was him? What if he remembered her, but the things they’d shared had meant nothing to him?

That would mean she had

based her life on lies. Her career, who she was, and what she did were all influenced by those few days in a prison with Lion. If he wasn’t who she thought he was, what then? Was she going to start questioning her whole life?

A slight noise in the living room refocused her thoughts, reminding her she was not alone in the house. Gideon Wright and Eve Wells were two of the most confident and competent people she could imagine. An air of danger and sophistication surrounded them both. Having been with them for two days now, she had gotten to know them a little. Gideon had a wry and disarming charm. Eve, on the other hand, was a take-no-prisoners, no-nonsense person. She asked direct questions and gave Aubrey the impression that getting beneath her serious façade would take some work.

Gideon had no problem with his partner’s serious side, though. More than once she’d heard Eve break into peals of laughter at something Gideon said. The sound was a burst of joyous noise as if delighted to have been set free.

Despite Eve’s standoffishness, Aubrey knew that she could talk to her about Liam. She would listen, and she would care. And she would offer counsel.

Why didn’t she do that? Instead of standing here, staring at nothing, worrying about the should-haves and might-have-beens, why not go to a woman who knew him well and voice her suspicions? Eve might even know something about Liam’s time in Syria. Even though that subject seemed to be taboo, she could at least try.

Feeling immensely better, Aubrey finished the dishes in the sink. She would take some coffee into the sitting room and ask Eve to join her.

She opened the cabinet, about to reach for the coffee tin, when an achingly familiar voice behind her said, “Cat.”

Her heart stopped. She carefully shut the cabinet door. Turning slowly, Aubrey faced him. Lion, the man she had dreamed of for years, the man who’d saved her life, was Liam Stryker.

“It is you,” she whispered.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

“I didn’t know what to say, how to say it. I wasn’t completely sure. Your voice sounded so much like Lion but I couldn’t be sure. And it was so long ago. I thought you might have recognized me and just didn’t want to say anything. I was so afraid it hadn’t meant as much to you as it did to me.”

He shook his head. “I’ve been looking for you for twelve years.”

“I never really believed I’d ever see you. I thought you were dead.”

They stared at each other with new eyes. He was so strong, so handsome. Everything she’d always dreamed he would be. And he was standing only a few feet away from her. Aubrey’s heart beat so hard that she knew he had to hear it. What now? What would they say to each other? How did they go forward? Or did they?

Liam apparently had no such doubts. Striding forward, he was in front of her within seconds. About a half foot away, he stopped and held his arms open. Overflowing with emotions, a sob of joy breaking free, she ran into them. Breathing in his masculine scent, embraced in his warmth, Aubrey knew she had found her home, her heart.

His voice gruff and filled with emotion, he said, “I never thought I’d get to hold you.”

“I dreamed of you so much. Of those days together. Of your voice. If you hadn’t been there with me, I would have died. I know I would have.”

A noise at the kitchen door caught their attention. They both turned to see Eve and Gideon standing there. Gideon had a huge grin on his face, and Eve’s eyes were suspiciously bright.

“We’re going to take off now,” Gideon said.

Giving them a grateful smile, Aubrey said, “Thank you both.”

“Our pleasure.” Gideon’s gaze went to Liam. “Call us.”