Eden

“Holy shit, you did!” Martin chimed in. “Damn, you’re good. Almost as good as me, in fact. We could use someone with your set of skills on the team.”

“Over my dead body,” Isaac growled. “And yours, too, for even suggesting it.”

“Sorry,” Martin mumbled. “My bad. I almost forgot about the caveman.”

“Yes, Martin. We have much better luck recruiting talented women before they find themselves married and knocked up by their very own caveman,” Evie drawled, making me giggle.

“What did you find?” Isaac asked, shifting his focus back to me.

“The owner of the Cayman bank account is none other than”—I paused for a moment when Martin tapped his fingers on his desk to make a drumroll sound—“Walter Morris, the CEO of SO&G.”

“Which explains why there are some serious discrepancies between the results the scientists noted in their files from the environmental studies and the published report. Several of the tests they ran found some scary shit, but the report gave SO&G a squeaky clean record,” Martin added.

“Because the first payment Whitney circled on the accounting sheets she brought home was a bribe,” I continued. “They must have decided he was too much of a liability and killed him to keep it from ever getting out.”

“When Whitney stumbled across the conspiracy, Morris must have put a hit out on her too,” Isaac deduced.

“There were only a few days between the second payment to the assassin’s account and her death. So the timeline definitely adds up,” I confirmed.

“That’s not all,” Martin added. “Turns out, the four other people on the research team have all ‘mysteriously’ died over the last six months. Each one coincides with another payment to the contract killer.”

Isaac scrubbed his hand over his face and shook his head. “Morris had multiple people killed to protect SO&G’s secrets. The last thing he cares about is sending an innocent man to prison. Framing my client was the easiest way to keep the company out of the investigation.” Isaac lifted me out of the chair and onto his lap, pulling me tightly into his arms. “And if he had his way, the body count would have been higher because you would have died in the explosion.”

“Actually, I think that might not have been Morris,” Martin interjected. “I think the assassin he hired went after her on his own because there’s no payment from Morris to him after Whitney’s death.”

“It’s entirely possible that his client told him about the intrusion on his account, and he decided to eliminate the threat for his own benefit,” Evie concluded. “It’s unusual to take on a hit without pay, but no assassin with his kind of reputation would be comfortable knowing there is a loose end which could lead the authorities straight back to him.”

Listening to Evie speak so matter-of-factly about the decisions an assassin would make was kind of surreal, considering the family lore that she’d been one herself. I wasn’t exactly sure how to process it since I was pretty sure she’d just confirmed that the gossip was true. Isaac didn’t seem to care either way, though, because he was focused on how what she’d said impacted my safety.

“Are you telling me that there’s an assassin out there who is so focused on killing my pregnant wife that he’s doing it for free?”

“And on that note, I’m going to sign off before the caveman loses his shit,” Martin muttered. “Evie, let me know if you need anything else.”

“Will do,” she answered, waving at the monitor before turning back to Isaac and me. “As dangerous as this guy is, he’s not going to find you here. And if he did, it would spook the shit out of him because he’d know Alex and I were involved.”

“Pun intended?” I giggled inappropriately. I couldn’t help it, not since spies were called spooks and I was exhausted. It was either laugh or cry, and I just didn’t have the energy for a sob fest at the moment.

“Not really, but now that you pointed it out—” Evie chuckled, earning both of us a glare from Isaac which wiped the smiles off our faces. “Alex and I aren’t going to let this guy get to Eden. We’re going to find him. Not only because he needs to be caught, but because we both love her like she’s family.”

“But—”

She didn’t let Isaac finish, putting a hand up and leveling him with a glare of her own. “Nobody fucks with our family because anyone who’s stupid enough to try it realizes the error pretty damn fast, and in a way that’s extremely permanent. Do you understand what I’m saying to you, Isaac?”

“Yeah, I hear what you’re telling me,” Isaac sighed, making me sag in relief.

Evie hadn’t come right out and said it, but I felt like she’d basically just told us not to worry because the bad guy was going to be dead soon. As much as Isaac was worried about me, I didn’t want him to push her on this. What I did want was for us to hole up in this apartment until the threat was over. For Isaac to have time to recover from his concussion. And for the tiny life growing inside me to be safe from any kind of harm. If it took a hit man dying for all that to happen, then I was okay with that. Maybe it was wrong of me to feel that way, but I didn’t care if it made me a horrible person. Karma was a bitch, and then hit men die and all that.

“If Eden is anything like me when I was pregnant, then she’s probably asleep on her feet. You two head to bed, but keep in mind that Isaac needs to wake up every three or four hours to make sure there hasn’t been any change in his symptoms.” She pulled a burner phone out of a drawer and handed it to me. “You can use this to set an alarm. I’ve got the number so I’ll be able to reach you while I’m out.”

“Where are you going?” Isaac asked, sounding panicked.

“You’re leaving us alone?” I wanted to know. I wasn’t exactly calm about the idea either.

“I won’t be gone long, and I’m leaving several agents behind,” she answered my question, but ignored Isaac’s.

I tugged on my husband’s arm, leading him towards the bedroom, figuring we were probably better off not knowing all the gritty details. “Be safe,” I told Evie softly.

“Always,” she replied.

Isaac and I were quiet as we got ready for bed. We showered together, helping each other wash, but without the usual sensual touches which would accompany the act. That’s how I knew the extent of Isaac’s pain since he never missed an opportunity to make me come when I was naked—and quite often when I was fully clothed. It didn’t stop him from making sure I was settled comfortably in bed, dressed in the scrubs top he’d been wearing earlier, before he climbed in next to me wearing the matching bottoms.

Leaning back against the pillows, he pulled me into his arms. Raising up on one elbow, I cupped the back of his neck and dipped my head lower. I softly brushed my lips against his, running my tongue across his bottom lip before nipping at it lightly. When his lips parted, my tongue dipped inside and tangled with his. It was a gentle kiss, and full of so much love it almost brought tears to my eyes when I eased away.

His eyes were glazed, the lids lowered halfway and his pupils dilated. With his cock tenting the scrub pants he was wearing, I knew he was turned on. But the dazed look in his eyes could also be from the concussion, so I settled myself against his chest, twining our legs together as I trailed my fingers up and down his arm until I heard his breathing even out.

“Please let this end soon,” I whispered into the dark as I tried to find sleep for myself.

It took me a couple hours, and the beeping of the alarm on the phone was a rude awakening only two hours later. Luckily, I drifted back to sleep right after Isaac was able to answer my questions when I shook him awake. I reset the alarm, planning to repeat the process in four more hours, but the phone chimed again in only three. It took me a moment to realize it was because I was getting a call.

“Hello?” I mumbled tiredly, trying to be quiet so I didn’t disturb Isaac’s sleep. It didn’t do me any good, though, because I felt his heat behind me before his arm reached over my shoulder to punch the speaker button on the phone.

“Sorry to wake you guys up, but I figured you’d want to know as soon as possible,” Alex apologized. “The threat against Eden has been taken care of. You’re both safe.”

“Thank fuck,” Isaac breathed out.

“And you’ll be pleased to know that we recovered enough evidence that you should be able to convince the judge to dismiss all charges against your client as well.”

“Even better,” Isaac replied. “I don’t know how you did it, and I don’t ever want to know, but I owe you big time. If there’s anything I can ever do for you, let me know.”

“Just keep Eden as happy as you’ve done since you came into her life, and we’re even.”

There was no doubt in my mind that Isaac would do exactly that.