Chapter Forty-Two
Leland
Months turned into more than a year living in the quiet of my Montecito home, a recluse from the world and no longer the chic face of Jensen Global Enterprises.
The ongoing operations I had laundering money were taken over by Wilcox and his team. The longer I was sidelined, the more I worried it was only a matter of time before an assassin came for me.
CIA.
Mossad.
Someone.
That fear was enough to get me to marry Jamie. It was an act of stupidity born from necessity. Ella adored him and he was the only familiar thing from her life in Mexico City I’d brought back to California with us. I needed someone there for her if the agency decided against letting Leland continue to breathe.
I was short on options or I wouldn’t have done it. But it expedited him adopting Ella so he could step in as her guardian for me if required. Once all the necessary papers were complete, I paid him a hefty sum and promptly divorced him.
I didn’t want a man in my bed or my life. I doubted I’d ever want a man again after Richard. Jamie served a limited purpose until I could devise a better solution.
I devoted my days to my daughter, and thankfully she asked what had happened to Mommy and Poppy Richard less and less. In time, she wouldn’t remember them at all. Only it wasn’t happening quickly enough for me. Every time she asked it was like a dagger had been sunk into me.
As I stared out across my back lawn waiting for my housekeeper, Lauren, to bring Ella home from school, as she always did, Jena appeared as if from thin air to plop down on the chair across the table from me.
She pouted. “Cheer up and relax, Lee. No one’s coming for you. I told you that before you married that idiot. I wouldn’t lie to you. You know that.”
Everything’s a lie. I shrugged. “A father has got to do what he needs to for his children.”
“Well, not that.” She looked disgusted. “Jamie? You couldn’t find a better man?”
“It needed to be solved quickly, I don’t have anyone else, and I don’t get out much anymore, Jena. Remember, I’m supposed to lay low and keep my head down. Wasn’t that what you advised? Why aren’t you thrilled I’m at last listening to you?”
“Because you do dumb things with the good advice I give you.” She made a face at me, and I managed a small laugh. She smiled. “There. That’s the Lee I know. You’re fit. As handsome as ever. Stop moping over Richard. He doesn’t deserve it. Or have you forgotten he tried to kill you? Get out of this house. Go meet someone and start living again. You’d be your old self if you let yourself.”
I rolled my eyes. “God, why would I want to be my old self? He was a fool in every way.”
“He was fascinating. Brilliant. Charismatic. The best fucking man and NOC I’ve ever known. And—”
I held up my hand. “Stop with the pity props. What do you want, Jena? It has to be something or you wouldn’t be here otherwise.”
“So suspicious.”
“No. I know you.”
Her eyes began to sparkle. “I managed to convince Wilcox to let you back into the game.”
“No, no, no,” I protested, shooting upright in my chair. “Why the fuck would you do that? I’m not coming back to the agency. Not ever.”
Her face contorted with annoyance. “You owe it to me, Lee. And I need you on this. I’ve got a big operation with your ole pal Hector. I need your eyes on him in Mexico, and there’s no one else who understands the complications there.”
“No.”
“I’m not asking. I’m telling. We’ve got a terrorist cell preparing to run dirty bombs into the US and you’re the only man I’ve got who knows all the players. You go into Mexico, pick up your life, and the good guys win. Otherwise…” She let that dangle.
“I’m not leaving Ella.”
“Bring her with you.”
“It’s too dangerous. I won’t do it.”
“Not dangerous at all. I’ve got a solution. You hire her a bodyguard, and I’ve got the perfect man for you. Trust me, no one will ever harm that girl if Carson is guarding her.” She yanked a file from her satchel and slapped it on the table between us. “Ex-Special Forces. Decorated. Congressional Medal of Honor recipient. Ten years in the military. Five years deployment in Afghanistan. Fifteen high value target Special Forces operations. The agency had him on contract for a year after he resigned his commission. Never failed at a mission in his life. They don’t get any better than Graham Carson. And he’s a current employee of a friend of yours, Alan Manzone. That should tell you that he’s the best of the best.”
My jaw tightened as I raked back my hair. “Even if I could get him as a bodyguard for Ella, that doesn’t mean I’d go back into a field operation again.”
Jena pursed her lips. “Dirty bombs, Lee. Thousands killed. Women. Children. All across the US. Little girls like yours. And you can prevent it from happening by being you in Mexico. I know you. You wouldn’t be able to live with yourself if you didn’t do everything you could to stop it.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. Fuck. Both Jena and Mossad, it seemed, knew how to pull Leland’s heartstrings.
“Just read his file, Lee. You’ll see I’m right. No risk to Ella. I promise. There isn’t a man on this earth I’d trust more with my life than Graham Carson.”
She pushed the folder across the table to me.
“And don’t think I wasn’t thinking of Papa on this. He’s gorgeous and gay.”
“Fuck you, Jena.”
“I don’t play to lose.”
Well, true that. I told myself not to reach for Carson’s file but I did anyway. As I flipped it open, the picture attached on the left side jumped out at me.
Black hair.
Strong handsome face.
Piercing gray eyes.
My gaze narrowed.
Oh fuck, I’d seen him before.
Why was he familiar?
Leaning back in my chair, I started to read his confidential CIA file. Nope, never done a mission with him. Resided in Sacramento, California with his partner, though he had a house in Newport Beach. No family other than a mother. One sister, Olivia, murdered at the age of eighteen after being brutally raped.
Raised in La Habra.
Private military academy for school then West Point.
Graduated top of his class, retired from the army as a captain.
Nicknamed by his men: Blood and Guts Carson.
Operations handle: Hound.
Thirty-six.
Six feet four inches.
Identifying marks: One tattoo across his heart, an infinity symbol in memory of his twin sister.
No children.
As always, Jena’s notes were thorough and complete. After reading the last line of his fitness report I glared at her. She was such a clever bitch. Listed as Carson’s one weakness: overactive sexual drive. Yep, Jena knew what made me tick.
Oh fuck, why does it feel like I’ve seen him before?
I sank back in my chair and stared at his photo. He wasn’t the type of man I’d forget, and in fact I hadn’t; I just couldn’t place him.
An ex-lover?
I scratched that thought for the idiocy it was. No man would forget going to bed with him.
A party?
Strike that. I’d have worked all my magic and gone to bed with him.
When? When? When had I seen him?
A faint memory finally answered, came into sharp focus, and my lids flew wide. He was that hottie Richard had caught me ogling at Butterfly Beach that day long ago before the first time Richard and I had ended.
Jena’s red nail tapped on his face. “What did I tell you? Get him, and nothing will harm Ella.”
Get him. Not sly at all, Jena. Of course, I knew what she was doing. Graham Carson was a Leland weakness and a solution to both her getting me back in the espionage game and my worries for Ella.
The question was how to hire him away from Alan Manzone and get him working for me without tipping off Carson I was a NOC. He wasn’t stupid like Jamie; I was sure of that.
My formerly lackluster mental processes began to churn and burn. Carson was a co-owner of Black Star Security. His partner, Jared, and I were friends. Alan and I were friends. That was something to work with.
Jena did need me and she wasn’t wrong; I was positive after reading about Graham’s sister and the tattoo across his heart. Nothing would ever harm Ella if Carson was near.
A better solution in every way than Jamie. And fuck, Graham was gorgeous.
I slapped shut the file and pushed it across the table to her. When I dared to lift my gaze, she was smiling. “Glad to have you back with the good guys, Lee.”
“I didn’t say I was coming back.”
“Didn’t have to. I watched you study and learn Carson. You’re making a run at him. That means you’re coming back to work for the CIA.”
Damn her. But like I’d said, it was hard changing your ways when someone dangled a prize in front of you not to.