Austin’s sixth sense vibrated again. She spoke like someone who’d truly been there, witnessed the devastation, just as her résumé claimed. What in the hell was it about her that kept lighting up his nerves?
He climbed the stairs again and paused on the landing, where he dialed Cooper, the member of his security staff Decker had dispatched for verification on Everly’s references.
“Hey, boss.” He sounded groggy.
“Sorry,” Austin said. “I just realized that I not only have no idea where you are right now, I have no clue what time it is there.”
“I’m in Kenya, and it’s not that late, but I was on a red-eye with wailing twins behind me the whole way.”
Austin commiserated with a groan.
“Was missin’ my killer seat on the C-17 surrounded by a dozen annoying teammates,” Cooper said. “What’s going on?”
“Just checking in.”
“So far, everything on her résumé is golden,” Cooper told him. “And I can’t find anyone to say one bad thing about her. It’s become my mission to get at least one. At this point, I’d be happy with ‘she’s a bitch when she’s on the rag.’ I can’t get anything. It’s annoying as hell.”
Okay, so he wasn’t insane. “
Here too. She’s just…”
“Too good to be true.” Cooper nailed it.
“Yeah,” he agreed, then rubbed his face. “Here’s to hoping we’re wrong.”
“Roger that.” Cooper laughed. “Would be nice to have some eye candy around that place. Getting sick of Decker’s ugly mug.”
“Thanks, man. Keep me updated, would you?”
“Sure thing.”
Austin disconnected and slid his phone into the back pocket of his cargo pants. A round of laughter floated up the stairs—Bella’s, Everly’s, and a few of the guys’.
She fit in too damn well. Excelled at everything too damn perfectly. Knew just how to snag his attention and approval.
Calculating. That was it. Everything she did felt too precisely calculated.
Another surge of laughter touched his ears. Austin heaved a sigh and started back down the stairs.
Maybe he was just too fucking jaded to appreciate a good thing when he found it.
5
Everly scanned the pool deck and the property beyond, all dark now at nearly three a.m.
It was her fourth day on the property. She hadn’t seen much of Hix except for breakfast, dinner, and Bella’s bedtime, when he deliberately made family time a priority. And if she were honest, that made her a little edgy.
She hadn’t had an opportunity to read his moods throughout the day or learn what was on his mind. She liked to keep her fingers on the pulse of her targets. Keep your friends close, your enemies closer. She’d been entertaining the idea of putting that motto into very real practice, only Hix, unlike the men he worked with, didn’t seem to be interested in her.
“All quiet here,” she murmured to Ian through the com in her ear. “How does it look on your end?”
“I’ve got eight slugs, all snug in their beds.” Ian had deployed a drone with thermal mapping capabilities and thought human heat signatures looked like neon slugs. In this case, the eight slugs included the five visiting soldiers, Hix, Mirabella, and Renalda.
She glanced at her watch just as the digital numbers glowed 3:00.
“And we have touchdown,” Ian said. “The last guard just returned from rounds. They’re sitting down to chow. Nothing like military precision in a schedule.”
“Ready.” Excitement hummed through her veins. “Tell me when.”