Chapter Nine
Cora was cursing herself ten kinds of stupid as she made up the spare bed. It was next door to her bedroom and was used more for storage than for anyone sleeping. She didn’t have many guests come over. How did she let Liam convince her to let him stay? Because he turned those baby blues on you and said he wanted to protect you.
Gullible.
It wasn’t that she didn’t think she was in danger. She knew she was after all the recent break-ins; she just didn’t see the point in having a guard dog sleeping in her spare room for who knew how long. A guard dog that she used to sleep with. This was not going to end well. Not at all. You did say you wanted a guard dog. She just didn’t think it would come in a six-foot-tall broody soldier. Who was all bite and little bark.
Cora busied herself making up the spare room and getting Liam towels for the en-suite bathroom while he checked her house and made sure it was secure and grabbed his duffel bag out of the trunk of his car. How long would he stay here with her? Cora felt uneasy with Liam sleeping only five feet away from her door. She didn’t want or need him here. He was just as capable of protecting her staying at Ben and Hannah’s. It wasn’t like he was going to be here during the day with her while she worked on her computer. He would be on base training or preparing for missions. He couldn’t be planning on staying with her 24/7, could he?
Cora was leaving the towels on the bathroom sink and turning around when Liam walked through the bedroom door. Cora sucked in a breath. Did he always have to look so good? He was in a plain gray t-shirt and jeans. He wasn’t wearing anything special, he didn’t even wear cologne, but she still wanted to jump him. Liam must have sensed her thoughts because his eyes turned molten and skimmed her from head to toe. Cora was still in her shirt and jeans, but she might as well have been naked the way he was looking at her.
Cora cleared her throat, hoping to get a better control over herself. “This really isn’t necessary, Liam. I am more than capable of taking care of myself.” She had to try at least one more time to convince him to drop this foolish mission of staying with her under the guise of protecting her.
Liam didn’t say anything. He just slowly walked up to her and stopped when they were mere inches apart. “I already told you I’m staying. Those men will keep trying to get to you until they either have you or we put them down. I won’t risk losing you.”
“I’m not your responsibility, Liam.” Cora tried to argue. She didn’t want him here making her feel like she was a job. She didn’t want him here period. She knew it had been a mistake to call him. It had been a random impulse to call him. She should have called the police; then she never would have been in this mess.
“You may not be my responsibility but that doesn’t mean I don’t care and I don’t want to see you hurt.” Liam looked her dead in the eye so she knew he meant every word he said.
Cora’s anger deflated. It was then she realized he still cared for her. She always thought he never told her his big secret because he was bored with her and wanted an easy out. That he was sneaking off somewhere so that eventually she would get angry enough to leave him. That he couldn’t love her the way she loved him. But that wasn’t the case at all. He never stopped caring for her just as she never stopped caring for him. “And what about during the day when you’re on base? You can’t watch me all the time.” She had to make him see this was a bad plan.
“The guys can go in shifts. Hound put up security around the neighborhood and in front of Midas’s house.”
“Why would he need to do that?”
Liam signed. He knew he had to break the news to her and she couldn’t throw him out this time. He knew Cora. She would be in denial about it, but he had proof. These recent attacks showed him that Alejandro knew exactly who Cora was and that she was connected to them. He was fucking with them all. “Cora sit down.” He sat on the bed and patted the spot next to him. Cora popped her hip against the door frame and looked at him. He tried not to smile at her rebellious streak. “I know you don’t want to talk about your client’s. Every time I try you kick me out. No, let me finish.” He rushed out when she opened her mouth most like to argue. “I need to talk to you about your new client Alejandro Ferrera.” He continued before she could argue with him. “Alejandro is a criminal. He is an arms and drug dealer as well as a trafficker.”
“I don’t believe you,” she said with no conviction. Liam knew he had shocked her.
“I’m many things, Cora, but a liar isn’t one of them. I may keep things from you but not something like this. I don’t know if Alejandro knows of your connection to us but with the break-in and trying to access your computer, it’s a safe bet that he knows and is now coming after you.”
Cora scuffed. “Do you know how ridiculous you sound? People are coming after me. I do computer security, what reason would anyone have to come after me?”
“You have access to Alejandro’s bank accounts.”
“How do you know that?”
“Hound has been watching his accounts. He saw when a large amount got moved to the states. It took him a little bit longer to figure out who was protecting the money. I always knew you were good at security. It takes crazy skills to keep Hound out as long as you had.” Liam stood up and stepped in front of her. She still had doubt in her eyes. “With access to his accounts, you could take all his security away and leave him exposed to his enemies, and believe me he has many. He’s a wanted man in several countries.”
“I-” Cora’s eyes shuttered closed, and she laid her head back against the door frame. “I never knew.” It was the first hint of vulnerability he had heard from her. It broke his heart that he did this to her.
“I know. That’s why I’m telling you now.”
“Is he…” Cora licked her lips nervously. “Is he the one who held Hannah?”
Every instinct Liam had told him to lie. But he had told Cora he wasn’t a liar. He omitted or changed the subject, but he never outright ever lied to her. It may be a breach in security, but she had to know. “Yes,”
Tears pooled down her cheeks, and Liam pulled her into her arms. “I’ve been aiding a man who…Hannah will hate me when she finds out.”
“No,” he snapped at her and pulled back from her, so he could see her face. “Hannah could never hate you.”
“I’m protecting his money.” She said slowly as if he didn’t understand. He understood perfectly.
“Not anymore. Tell him you quit, and we’ll put you in hiding.”
“No, I refuse to hide from him.” Cora worried her lip then snapped her fingers after a moment. “I have it. I’ll lure him.”
A small v formed between his brows. “How?” He didn’t like her using herself as bait. He had seen the condition of Hannah after being at the hands of Alejandro. The last thing he wanted was for Cora to be within grasp of him.
“I have his contact information,” she said hopefully. “I can set up a meeting with him. When he shows up, you’ll get him.”
Alejandro hadn’t gotten as far in life as he had by being an idiot. “It’s too dangerous.”
Cora looked up at him crestfallen, and he felt like he had been kicked in the gut. He had taken that joy away from her. “But it’s a good plan.”
“It is,” he quickly assured her, “but Alejandro is sending men after you which means he knows you are connected to us. He’s having people watch your house. He’s not going to trust you to set up a meeting. He’ll know it’s a trap.”
“Then what do you suggest?” She huffed, her anger quickly returning.
“Since you refuse to leave, I’m going to stay here with you. When I can’t be here one of the guys will stay, or they can sleep out in their car or at Midas’s.”
“So, if they have to sleep in their cars or at Ben’s why can’t you?” Cora knew she sounded like a broken record by now. But he obviously wasn’t taking the hint she didn’t want him sleeping under her roof. She didn’t care what kind of threat was looming over her head.
Liam’s nostrils flared. He was getting irritated. “Because they don’t have a history with you. I want to stay close to you because they seem focused on your house, not Midas’s. You don’t like it, tough, but it doesn’t matter what you say, I’m not leaving.” To emphasize his point, Liam crossed his arms over his chest. The action caused his biceps to bulge, and Cora’s eyes drifted down to them. Her fingers itched to touch them. She remembered what it was like to feel them around her. Enfolding her. Protecting her.
Cora took a step back. “Fine, stay. Do whatever you want. You always have.” Cora marched out of the bedroom and raced to her room and slammed the door. She collapsed on her bed and buried the pillow over her head. She could do this. She could handle having Liam back in her life and temporarily in her home. She could pretend he wasn’t there. Simple.
~
The next day Cora was feeling refreshed. Last night she had been tired, and adrenaline had worn off. Now, she was feeling better. She would pretend Liam was not here and she would go about her day like she always did. She would shower, have coffee, then work at her computer. Nice normal day. After showering and getting dressed Cora walked past Liam’s room and saw the door opened. It didn’t surprise her. He had always been an early riser. She made her way down to her kitchen and smelled it before she saw it. The coffee had already been made. Her favorite coffee cup was sitting out with a single daisy in a vase next to it. So much for pretending he wasn’t here. Cora fixed her coffee and ignored the flower and went to her office.
If Cora thought it would be easy to pretend Liam wasn’t there she was mistaken. She found herself listening for when he came home, which had been shortly after she ran to her office to work. She had stared at a blank screen for thirty minutes until she heard the front door open. She had purposely left the curtains closed in her office, so she wouldn’t be tempted to look out the window for him. Now that he was here, she quickly turned on her computer and made it look like she was working. She kept her eyes glued to her computer as he stepped in and paused at her doorway.
“Good morning, Cora.” He purred.
Cora’s hands clenched and was thankful he couldn’t see them. “Morning,” she needed to focus on her work, not him. He had a job to do, and so did she.
“Have you called Hound yet?” He asked as he came over to her desk.
Cora’s software was just opening when he came to stand next to her. Cora started typing randomly while he looked over her shoulder. “Not yet, I just got up.”
“I’ll give him a call. He can come by sometime today or tomorrow to set everything up.”
“That’s fine.” Cora kept staring ahead.
“Are you okay, Cora?”
“Fine, why?” Why was he still there?
“Because you are only looking at the screen and just typing. You’re not even in an account. And that’s not a code.”
Cora looked at what she had been writing and saw that it was in fact just random letters. Busted. “It’s an exercise I do in the morning before I get started. Stretch out the fingers.” She was so lame. “How do you know it’s not in an account?”
“I’ve told you before I notice everything about you. It doesn’t hurt we dated for over a year. I’ve seen you work. I may not be able to understand it, but I can tell when you are in an account or not. Can I get the contact information you have for Alejandro? I want to get it to Hound.” Cora stopped pretending to type.
“I can’t contact him, but Aaron can?” She asked incredulously.
“Hound won’t be contacting him. He can trace the phone number, and we might finally know where he is.”
Cora didn’t say anything as she scribbled the information down before thrusting a sticky note in his direction. She still refused to look at him when he reached for the sticky note and let their fingertips graze. “I’ll see you later.” He turned around before he let her see his smile.
“Where are you going?” She asked before she could stop herself.
“Don’t worry, I’m not leaving you. I need to shower and make some calls.”
Cora was about to snap at him about not worrying about him, but she looked up at him, and the words died on her tongue. He had sunglasses propped on top of his head keeping him unruly locks at bay. His t-shirt clung to him like a second skin and rivulets of sweat rolled down his neck and arms. And that was why she avoided looking at him until now. All his sensual muscles were on display. Was there anything that could make this man look bad? “Just get cleaned up quick. I don’t want all your sweat all over my floor.” Cora turned back to her computer and erased everything she had been typing and opened a client’s file. This time she was focused on her work and missed Liam smile at her before he ran upstairs to shower.
~
By the time Liam came back downstairs, Cora was fully engrossed in her work. It was one of the things he had always admired about her. She was just as dedicated to her job as he was to his. Cora thought she was sneaky when he first came through the door and didn’t think he would notice she had been waiting for him. For one thing, once she started working you couldn’t get her to stop. Another clue was that he could see her hands were clenched when he first walked in and suddenly started moving the mouse as he walked towards her. The last clue was that she refused to look at him and she was typing randomly. He hadn’t been offended she wanted him to leave. He was unnerving her. Liam knew Cora didn’t really want to break up with him five months ago. Things had been going great between them. He had been staying with her more than he had been at his own house. The sex had been amazing and she had accepted his job without any issues. Cora still cared for him and now they were in the same space together again. Neither knew what to do to close the distance. Cora wanted answers he wouldn’t give her. Unless he was willing to cave, he didn’t think he would ever get back with Cora. Were his secrets worth it? Cora had accepted everything else about him, but his secrets were a hard burden to bear, and it wasn’t her problem to bear them.
Liam walked away from Cora and headed for the kitchen. After running for fifteen miles, he was a little hungry. He whipped up some pancakes and eggs, and poured himself a cup of coffee. He ate quickly and called up Hound to make sure Cora had decent security soon. Cora was right in saying he couldn’t be with her all the time. They still had to be ready to go out on a mission that was coming up. He hadn’t brought it up to Cora, but he wanted the security in place, so she didn’t worry. He debated calling her dad to see if her parents could stay with her, but he knew Cora wouldn’t appreciate that. She wanted to be as independent as possible. He respected that about her, but she had to know asking for help every now and then was okay and not seen as a weakness. He even had to ask for help from time to time. The whole team was willing to help watch Cora and Midas’s house until Alejandro was apprehended. Hound and his FBI contact Blade were using all their contacts to try and locate him, but after killing Commander Brady, Alejandro had gone underground. Cora was their only lead on the guy.
“What’s up, brother?” Hound asked as soon as he picked up.
“He made another play for Cora last night. Disabled the alarm again and tried picking her locks.”
“I take it Cora called you?” Hound grounded out. No one was as pissed as Hound for not being able to find the guy.
“I had just left so I was the closest to her; otherwise I’m sure she would have called the police.” Liam hated being the second choice, but the result was all that mattered.
“Since you’re not here, I’m going to guess they got away?”
“They did, they had a car waiting a few houses up, but I managed to get the license.” Liam gave Hound the license plate number.
“I’ll see what I can find on it. It just might be the thing Blade and I need to track this guy down finally. Have you talked to Cora about the fact she’s working with him?”
“Sounds good. I have, it’s the only reason I’m still here. She knows that he is behind the break-ins and the broken window. I told her to cancel her contract with him after we track him down. She has his personal number. How soon do you think you can get some equipment here to watch Cora’s house? The fact it’s been broken into twice doesn’t bode well for us.”
“I’ll see what I can do. Between Midas trying to keep Hannah in the bunker and me running the computers I’m a little thinned out.”
“No rush, I’m not going anywhere.”
“And when we go on a mission in a few days?”
“I’ll call one of the other teams to watch over Cora. From what I hear Bulldog is upset that he wasn’t part of taking Commander Brady down.”
“I heard the same; it wasn’t like we had a lot of warning ahead of time.”
“I’m sure he knows that. But this is the closest they’ll get a chance to evening out the score.”
“I’ll call over to Bulldog and see if he and his team can come out. Keep an eye on the girls and help locate Alejandro.” Hound didn’t sound optimistic. Bulldog, a Delta Force operative from Fort Sam in Texas, may want to come out, but they may be running missions themselves. They couldn’t just drop everything and come out. “Any chance you can convince Cora to come out here? Hannah, I’m sure will appreciate the company when we leave.”
Liam doubted it, but for Hannah, she might consider. “I’ll run it by her. It would make life easier if we could protect the women from one location instead of two.”
“Let me know. She can always do her work from here. It’s not like I don’t have computers and the internet galore to help her.”
“I’ll let you know. I’ll tell her about the mission here today, so we can get everything in place.”
“Good luck.”
“Thanks.” Liam hung up. He was going to need it.
Liam whipped up some more pancakes and eggs, and brought it to Cora. Women were always more reasonable when they had a full stomach.
~
“No, absolutely not. I told you I would not go into hiding.” Cora yelled at Liam as she set her plate in the dishwasher.
“Cora, be reasonable. No one will be here to protect you.” He couldn’t guarantee if Bulldog and his team could make it before they left, and he didn’t trust anyone to watch her that he didn’t know personally. “What if Alejandro attacks you again while we're gone?”
“There’s a little thing called the police,” Cora said slowly as if talking to a child.
“They would never get here fast enough. That’s why you called me instead of them.”
“That’s not fair. You had just left, of course you were closer.”
“And what have the police been able to do for you? I haven’t seen them doing drive-bys.”
“Because I refused them just as I refused your protection.” Cora marched out of the kitchen and headed back to her office.
“Walking away from me is not going to fix this,” Liam yelled after her.
Cora stopped and turned back to face him. “I don’t want to leave my house,” Cora said evenly.
“I know that, and it wouldn’t be permanent. Just the length of time we are on a mission. Hound said you could use his computer for work, if needed. Hannah, I’m sure could use the company.”
“That’s not fair to use Hannah against me.”
Liam pinched the bridge of his nose fighting a growing headache. He really liked this woman, but she could be the most stubborn at times. Liam took a deep breath and counted to ten. “I’m not using Hannah against you. All I’m saying is she is going to be as alone as you are while we’re gone. Midas’s last mission she had you to keep her distracted. Now she is going to be alone probably worried about Midas’s safety and yours.” So maybe he was using Hannah against her but if it got the result he wanted so be it. She would be much safer at Hound’s house anyway.
Cora looked away and tapped her foot. “It’s just until you get back?”
Liam kept his face neutral, so she didn’t see the look of triumph on his face. “Only until I get back, then you can come right back here.”
“I don’t like this, Liam.”
“I know you don’t.” He said as he pulled her into his arms and hugged her. “I know how much this house means to you.” Cora’s grandmother gave it to her when she passed. Her grandparents had built it from the ground up. Since Cora’s parents had been deployed a lot, she spent a majority of her youth at her grandparent’s house. When they had gotten sick, Cora had moved in with them to care for them. This house meant everything to her. It was her connection to them. He didn’t fault her for wanting to stay, but her safety was a risk here.
“When do you leave?” Cora’s words were muffled from being buried in his chest. She didn’t want him to know she was crying though he could feel the tremors in her body.
“Four days.”
“Alright, tell Aaron I’ll stay there. Temporarily.” She said pulling away from him and giving him a pointed look.
“Thank you, Amazon.” Liam tilted his head, so he could lay his head on top of hers. Why did he have to go on a mission now? She was just starting to warm back up to him.