Page 70 of Rescuing Erin

“And the other 229 million from the contract? Where did that go?” Zane asked.

I’d completely missed the extra money. It was a damn good thing Zane had the ability to keep his emotions in check, because right then, I was too angry remembering the look on Erin’s face when Warren told her he was going to kill me. How she’d endangered herself to come to my rescue while the pussy needed me chained up in order to beat me. But more than all that, I was concerned Erin had watched me kill him. I hadn’t brought it up or asked her how she felt about it. I was too afraid. The last thing I wanted was to draw attention to what she’d witnessed but I needed to.

“Hasn’t been found,” Tom told him.

“Are you sure you don’t want to wait and stay—”

“No. Business as usual.” Tom remained firm in his response.

Damn stubborn man.

“Change of topic,” the president announced. “I hear the women are upstairs planning your upcoming wedding.”

My five teammates chuckled. I had to admit I was happy I wasn’t involved with the planning. I didn’t care where or when. As far as I was concerned, the sooner the better.

“I’m happy to hear that.”

“Any requests?”

“Twenty-four hours’ notice so I can get my parents here.”

“And your sister?”

“Deployed with her ship. I doubt her command will fly her home for a wedding. We know the drill.”

“More than most,” the president agreed.

My parents did understand more than most. With two children who served they had no choice but to learn to go with the flow. Sometimes leave was scheduled and then was taken back. Deployments came to end, until they were extended. The assholes in the world didn’t care about things like holidays, birthdays, weddings, or babies being born. Bad people didn’t take a vacation just because the calendar said so. Keira would be sad she missed my wedding, but she’d do what she always did while she was deployed—her job. She was a great sailor, and even if she wasn’t there physically, she’d send her love. She always did.

Chapter 25

“Let me guess, this is why you bought this house,” I said to Colin as we walked through the wooded area of his property.

“It is. We have fifteen acres back here.”

There it was again—we. He now did it with everything. We have a house in Texas. Our car, our hot tub, our life. Each and every time he said it, I wanted to pinch myself to make sure I wasn’t back in my D.C. apartment dreaming all of this up.

“As much as I love it here, and spending time with you, I know you brought me back here for a reason. What’s wrong?”

He stopped walking but didn’t let go of my hand. Not only had I had an MRI today, but the doctor had taken off the stupid bandage on my right hand. The cut I had on my palm was healing nicely and didn’t hurt. I wouldn’t be swinging across monkey bars on it anytime soon, but everyday activity didn’t bother it.

“You didn’t ask about my meeting today.” Before I could remind him, he’d told me not to talk about anything important he went on. “But I know you’re interested and I told you I’d tell you what I could.”

His blue eyes bore into mine, and he looked extremely uneasy.

“What happened? Is everything all right?”

“We’re getting closer to puzzling everything out. Remember the man Warren, the one I . . .” His words trailed off.

“Yeah, of course I do.” Colin winced, and I wondered why he’d flinch thinking about a dead man who’d tried to kill him.

“We were the reason you were taken. My team and I. Warren was obsessed with Zane and was hell-bent on some sort of sick revenge. He knew if someone threatened you, your dad would hire Z Corps to protect you. He used the people he was working for, convinced them to take you and, in the process, me, too.”

“That seems like a lot of work to get revenge. Wouldn’t it have been easier to hire someone to just kill you?” Shit. That came out wrong. “I didn’t mean—”

“I know how you meant it, sunshine. Do you know what the going rate for a hit is?”

“Hmm, that would be a no. I’ve never tried to hire a hit man.”