Dead No More
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To who she had been.
She was 67’s best agent. And how could she not be? Both her parents had served Unit 67 before their untimely—and classified—deaths. Though it had snatched Lily’s family from her, she’d never given leaving this life a second thought—she’d been part of the black-ops world since her birth. It was part of her, entangled in the deepest recesses of her DNA. Had she been studied by psychologists, she would have blown the whole nature versus nurture argument straight to hell, because she wasn’t just one, she was both. She knew it well, becoming another person. Transforming to learn vital information, in order to protect and to serve.
Lily had loved every second of it.
Until Jackson.
The lonely melody of the piano matched her mood.
She let the last note slip quietly into the night, then reached for the goblet of Merlot and let the tart liquid wash over her tongue. She closed her eyes and opened her heart to remember her father’s calm voice. Once an agent, always an agent, sweetheart.
Lily swirled the crimson liquid in her glass. She wished things were different. But they weren’t. She wished she were different.
She wasn’t.
Dakota leaped to his feet, growled and rushed the front door. Setting the wine down, Lily grabbed the .45 sitting on the edge of the piano and flipped the safety. Gun drawn, she moved to the wall monitor and peered into the screen. George’s face stared back at her. Strange. Why hadn’t he just called up? She lowered the gun and pulled open the door. “George, what’s up?”
He held out his hand. “Another note from our friendly little stalker.”
“Don’t be a smart-ass.” She took the note, her curiosity sparked. “What did he say this time? Another apology?”
“He walked in with roses—”
“Roses?” Lily managed to choke out.
“I pitched them.” He smiled, his dazzling white teeth a stark contrast to his deep brown skin, and winked. “Didn’t figure you’d want them.”
She snorted. “You figured right.”
He grew serious. “He wanted to see you. I told him you weren’t available. The guy simply nodded, handed me the flowers and asked that I make sure you got them.”
“Ballsy.”
“I talked to Ben.”
Lily’s eyes narrowed. Of course they’d talked. They were both former 67, but the lifetime commitment that most agents made ran true in both men. Unit 67 trained them to be lone rangers, to think on their own and for their own, but every so often, a tight-knit group of lone rangers banded together—and Lily had found herself in the middle of one such phenomenon.
George—giant, scary-as-shit George—decided Ben Tinsdale, his newest trainee, was part of the family when the twenty-something, pissed-off ex-ranger had shown up at Unit 67, hell-bent on avenging the death of his unit. Ben had been looking for a fight, but instead, George introduced the young warrior to Lily’s parents, and just like that, a family of misfits had formed. It wasn’t unusual for them to check in with each other, especially when it came to her.
“Oh, yeah?”
“Yeah. And I don’t like it, or this Moretti guy, for that matter. This place—” George gestured into her loft “—has been off the radar far too long for some maverick to come along and jeopardize life as you know it.”
Resisting the urge to roll her eyes, Lily leaned against the door frame and let him talk. The man was worse than a Sidewinder missile when he’d locked on to something. Which, by the determined look in his eyes, was now.
“George, I know.”
“Your father would be livid to know his daughter’s safe house had been compromised.”
Oh, dear lord, how long was he going to go on about this? She’d figured Derek dropping in on her would rattle George just as much as it had her, but she was a grown woman...and a trained operative. “I get it. And I haven’t agreed to anything yet.”
He crossed his arms over his chest. “Well, are you going to?”
“I don’t know.” And that was the honest answer. She didn’t. “But it beats the alternative.”
“Which is?”
“Sitting on my ass for the rest of my life. I loved my life, loved everything about it, and though I will be forever grateful for you and Ben, I can’t sit back and do nothing. Jackson may have boxed me into this corner, but maybe this thing with Derek is my ticket back into the game.”
“Do you trust him?”
She considered that for a moment. “Kennedy may be on my personal shit list for making me stand over Jackson’s fake grave, but I still trust him. If he sent Derek here, then he trusts him, and one thing I know about Kennedy is that he knows how to read people.”
“Except Jackson.”
She cringed. That would always be the one black mark in all their files. “We all fell for Jackson. I can’t fault the director for that, not when I fell for it, as well.”
“I still don’t like it.”
Lily pushed off the door frame, stood on her tiptoes and kissed George on the cheek. “I hear you.”
He nodded and grunted an acknowledgment, turned and walked away.
She shut the door, then reached for the tiny note tucked in the envelope. Tugging it out of its hiding place, she read the smooth, controlled handwriting.
For the second time in just as many days, I apologize. I didn’t mean to insult your character or your intelligence. If you aren’t interested, I understand. But if for some strange reason you are, you know where to find me.
Derek
Lily flopped down onto her oversize white sofa, let its soft, brushed microsuede envelop her. As angry as she was for the disruption in her quiet—granted, ridiculously mundane and yawn-inducing—life, a feeling that had been a stranger to her for the past year reemerged.
Excitement.
Suddenly feeling energized, she stalked to her room, threw the note onto her bed and went to work on her computer.
She spent several long hours back-channeling into 67’s computer mainframe, researching and vetting Derek Moretti, filling the recesses of her mind with every detail she could find as her eyelids grew steadily heavier. She finally signed off her computer, padded to the bathroom and flicked on the lights, and stared at her reflection in the mirror.
“You took an oath to serve and protect.” She dared the soft hazel eyes returning her gaze to disagree. “Who are you kidding? This is your chance to get back to the life, and work, you love...without having to crawl back to the director with your tail between your legs. You’d be an idiot not to take it.”
* * *
DEREK WAITED UNTIL the lights in Lily’s loft went off before moving from his perch. He yawned and stretched, then checked his watch. Two-thirty. Damn, woman. No rest for the weary, eh? She had no doubt spent the past several hours drilling down into his file as far as she could go—which, knowing her, was down to whether he wore boxers or briefs.
Rubbing his hands over his face, Derek walked into the kitchen, searched for a glass and, once finding a clean one, filled it with water. His computer had pinged every time she’d broken through the next level of his encrypted files. It had only taken her four hours to track down just about everything. He downed the water and set the glass on the counter.
He hoped she liked what she saw. If she didn’t, his mission was dead in the water.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Wednesday, September 17, 10:00 a.m.
LILY STUDIED HER MARK from the trees along the running path, hidden within their shadows. Dakota sat obediently on her right side. She reached down and stroked the soft fur on the top of his head. He pushed her hand with his wet nose. Her eyes wandered behind her dark, oversize, oval sunglasses, traveling down Derek’s powerful back to his defined legs. With every stride, his quads tightened and straightened. The muscles in his back strained against the running shirt, which was dark from sweat.
She had to admit, she enjoyed the view.
Derek turned and ran toward her. Dakota got up as Derek stopped in front of Lily.
“Morning, sunshine.” He smiled at her, then bent down and rubbed Dakota behind the ears. “Hey there, handsome.”
Dakota nuzzled Derek’s neck and Lily’s mouth dropped open. What the...? She’d never seen Dakota take to another person like he’d taken to Derek, not even Jackson. She trusted her dog’s intuition more so than her own...he’d never gotten into bed with the enemy. Dakota nuzzled Derek’s neck again and she cleared her throat. “I’m here to talk to you about your proposition, Derek.”
Looking up, he grinned. “I was hoping you’d say that.” Straightening, Derek ran his hand through his short brown hair and tipped his head toward the water. “Walk with me?”
They veered off the running path and headed toward the river walk, making their way to the farthest bench overlooking the river. Lily peeked up at her companion. At five-nine, she wasn’t short for a woman, but his large build dwarfed her and—yep, damn it—he was still as smoking hot up close as she’d remembered. Sinking down onto the worn wooden bench, she turned slightly to keep her line of sight open.
“I see you haven’t lost your instincts.”
“No, I haven’t, which is the only reason I’m willing to listen.” She crossed her legs and bounced her right foot. It was a bad habit she had when she focused, one she’d never been able to break, no matter how much she’d tried. “There are no ears here, so start talking.”
“No, there are not.” Laughter played in Derek’s eyes. He hooked his hands together and leaned his head back. “I work directly for John Elsworth, CEO of ARME Industries—”
Lily stopped bouncing her foot and whistled. Nearly every advance in modern warfare and weaponry during the twenty-first century had its genesis within ARME’s walls.
Derek glanced at her. “Heard of him?”
“Not him, no.” She shook her head. “But I wouldn’t know my stuff if I didn’t know that ARME is our leading weapons manufacturer.”
He lifted his face toward the sun. “Exactly. ARME and John are one and the same. When one is threatened, the other is, and vice versa. I’ve been working this case undercover for almost a year now as Elsworth’s security adviser.”
“Unit 67 has you working as a glorified security guard.” Lily smirked and went back to bouncing her foot.
“Easy, tiger.” Derek gave her a sideways glare. “Not all assignments are the glamorous kind.”
“Ain’t that the truth. But I can’t help it—just calling it how it is.” She shrugged and winked at him.
He did a double take, his eyes growing wider at her unexpectedly playful response. Seeing him caught off guard only made Lily want to laugh that much more—served him right. He caught her eye and they stared at each other for a moment. The wind fluttered, whipping her dark hair around her jaw, and he smiled, his expression softening. Lily sat back. Wow. Time to rein it in, Andrews.
“Sorry, please continue,” she said, smiling wryly.
“There’s been chatter that his COO, Rowland James, is working behind the scenes on certain business deals that could put the company, and subsequently the family, in harm’s way. My objective has been twofold—protect Elsworth and his family, and gather as much intel on Rowland James as possible to put him away and neutralize any possible national security threat.”
“Wait.” Lily’s brows pinched together. “Couldn’t the local cops take care of protecting his family? It seems a bit extreme to bring in black ops for babysitting duty.”
Derek hesitated.
The muscles in Lily’s shoulders constricted. She didn’t have time, or the mental energy, to walk into anything with less than complete transparency. Fair? Hardly. But he’d come after her. The ball was squarely in her court, and she wasn’t waiting around to see if Derek would play nice. Not this time. She jumped up.
“Lily. Wait a minute. Where are you going?”
“If you won’t be honest with me, then this partnership—or whatever you want to call it—is over.” She turned to leave.
He reached for her hand, wrapped his fingers around her wrist. She jerked away and glared at him.
“Read me in. Now. Or I’m gone.”
“Damn, woman. You’re impatient.”
She was running on a short fuse, no doubt. She tilted her head to the side, stared him down.
He sighed. “Rowland James is a known associate of multiple enemies of the state—”
“What?” She paced, her mind crunching Derek’s information. She glanced over her shoulder and frowned. “Then why in the world is he allowed anywhere near ARME?”
“He hasn’t broken any laws. Until he trips up and does something quantifiably targeting the United States, our hands are tied.”
“Why can’t John fire him?”
“It’s not that simple. Over the last two years, Rowland has been quietly buying up stock and currently owns 30 percent of ARME’s stocks. The board would have to have a majority vote to oust him from his position, but he could still use his controlling interest in the company to get some of his own people on the board.”
She shook her head. That made sense, but damn, she hated political bullshit. “Unbelievable. And the rest of this happy equation?”
“As you already know, ARME is one of our government’s leading suppliers for all things military and its top research facility. If John was out of the picture, Rowland James would be the most likely candidate to replace him.”
“Which is a huge problem.”
“Exactly. He’d have complete access to all of our top-secret projects.”
Now everything made sense. Lily sat.
“Obviously, that’s something the US government would like to prevent—at all costs. That’s where you come in.” He motioned toward her. “Not to whore yourself out, which is crude, by the way...”
Lily cringed, her cheeks growing warm. Though it had saved her on more than one occasion, her Spanish feistiness also got her in just as much trouble. Case in point? Yesterday.
“But with the way you’ve been trained...get inside his inner circle, find the evidence we need and put him away. Permanently.”
“If this Rowland James character is so hard to get near, how do you propose I do it without raising his suspicion?” Lily reached for Dakota and stroked the soft hair on his ears. Without giving Derek a second to respond, she continued slowly. “Because he will be suspicious.”
“All we have to do is find the right opportunity for you to be in the same room with him, and he will come to you.” Derek turned, pinning Lily with those damn eyes of his. She all but forgot to breathe. “Guaranteed.”
Bouncing her foot, she tried her best to push back the flutter in her stomach. Her nerves tingled in anticipation. “And when will such an opportunity arise?”
“Saturday night. There’s a black-tie event at the Joslyn Art Museum for the who’s who of Omaha. Rowland will be attending.” Derek stared straight ahead. “How’s your calendar looking Saturday?”
Her calendar was wide-open—had been for months—but she shook her head. “I can’t just waltz into this event and saunter up to someone like Rowland. It’ll raise too many red flags...if I can even get close enough to him.”
“I know. That’s why I’m going with you as your date.”
“Wait. What? You’re going...” The bouncing halted. Lily glanced over at Derek, who silently stared out over the river. She tried to play it cool, but the idea of spending an entire evening with Derek was surprisingly appealing.
“John has a previous engagement and asked me to go in his place.” Derek looked over at her. “Care to join me?” he asked softly.
This was exactly the type of mission she lived for, craved...missed desperately. And having Derek as her partner for the evening wouldn’t be so bad, either. Lily prayed she could maintain a poker face. No need to give him the satisfaction of knowing he’d roped her into this mission hook, line and sinker.
“It’s in three days. That’s not a lot of time to prep.” She shook her head and began to rattle off the imperative information she needed. “Bodyguards, arrival times, accessibility...”
“So I take it you’re in?”
Her second chance looked back at her, his gentle eyes burning away all her defenses. Lily looked out over the river and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. This was the opportunity she’d hoped for—after not knowing, not acting, and walking away.
Redemption.
With one word, her entire life would change. She just didn’t know whether it was a good change or not.
Only one way to find out.
“Yes.”
CHAPTER NINE
Wednesday, September 17, 6:00 p.m.
LILY HAD BALKED at meeting at Derek’s place, which had been a relief. He’d rolled the dice by dropping in on her at the river and gotten lucky. Very lucky. Taking up shop just across the street from her was a different matter entirely. He hadn’t quite figured out how he would have explained that one away if she’d accepted his veiled offer.
Somehow, he doubted Lady Luck would have been on his side twice.
As he juggled the large file box, Derek pushed open the tall glass door to Lily’s building and headed into the grand foyer, the white marble floor reflecting his shadow, and glanced around. He’d spotted the cameras, both seen and unseen, the first time he’d walked in.
Today, their locations were different. He couldn’t help but smile. Nice job.
The doorman stared at Derek, his black eyes hard and searching, reminding him of an enormous Maasai warrior he’d once met on one of his 67 trips to Africa.
“I’m here to see Lily Andrews, penthouse.”
The old man glared at him. “Yes. I’m aware of that.”
Though the information wasn’t in Lily’s file—which irritated the shit out of him—it hadn’t taken Derek long to piece together that both George and Ben had a background similar to his own. Ben Tinsdale was a no-brainer. The man was a legend within Unit 67.
George, on the other hand, was a bit of a mystery.
Derek had watched the massive black man until he was certain. There was no denying it, in the way George moved, and with his access to Lily and Ben. It screamed that something was missing in the papers that chronicled Lily’s short life—he definitely played some role in her life in Omaha, and quite possibly even before.
He quickly read the situation. The big man staring him down had gone from DEFCON 5 to DEFCON 1 overnight. Time to diffuse that ticking time bomb.
Derek dropped the file box on the counter and reached out his hand. “Let me get straight to the point here, George. I’m not the enemy.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. Jury’s still out on that one.” George grabbed Derek’s hand and squeezed, hard. “But let me get straight to the point, too. I’m watching you.”
Derek locked eyes with the man trying to crush his hand bones and smiled. “No doubt.”
George let go and tipped his head toward the elevators. Derek silently made his way to his waiting ride and resisted the urge to shake his hand until after the elevator doors closed.
Damn, that old man had the grip of Godzilla.
* * *
LILY’S FRONT DOOR swung open before Derek could knock. Impressive. Cameras downstairs. Monitor upstairs. What other surprises did this woman have up her sleeve? He was sure there were plenty, and he hoped to uncover every single one of them.
“Hey.” Her brown hair was pulled back into a high, messy ponytail. She wore a black tank and matching yoga pants. There wasn’t a spot of makeup on her olive skin.
She was beautiful.
His stomach tightened. Focus, Moretti.
She glanced at the box of case files in his arms and grimaced. “This is the part I could’ve lived without.”
Stepping back, she let him through the door, then closed it tightly behind them.
“You and me both. But there’s no getting around it. We have less than three days to bring you up to speed, and we need to put together your file. Rowland will vet you, so we need your identity to be airtight.”
“I thought you might say that,” Lily said, grinning. “I’ll be right back.”
She disappeared into her bedroom for less than sixty seconds, then reemerged, balancing her open laptop. “Already started.”
Of course she had.
And that, ladies and gentlemen, was exactly why he wanted—needed, really—Lily on this case. She knew the outer workings of this game just as well, if not better, than he did, and a solid, unbreakable file was crucial to the success of their mission—and essential to keeping her alive.
She set the computer down on the island and turned it to face him. “Take a look. Rowland is your guy, so feel free to add whatever information you feel is pertinent.”
Derek set his box of files next to the computer and silently scanned through her backstory, checking for any inconsistencies. He found none. “Impressive.”
She leaned against the counter, an embarrassed smile lighting her face, and shrugged. “Thanks.”
“Now we bring in the big guns.” He reached for his phone and punched in his security code.
“Wait, what? What are you doing?”
“Testing to make sure this thing holds.” He punched in a number he knew by heart, held the phone to his ear and waited, grinning at the sight of Lily’s scrunched forehead.
A soft, feminine voice answered on the third ring. “Hey, D.”
Derek smiled at his baby sister’s nickname. Alexis didn’t call any of her brothers by their given name, hadn’t since she was old enough to talk.
“Hey, sweetheart.”
Confusion swept Lily’s face, and her brows arched in a silent question. He threw her a wink. She turned away, color rushing her cheeks. Derek turned his attention back to the other woman in his life. “You have a second?”
“For you? Always.”
“Great. I need red.” Red was their term to go secure on any line. His genius baby sister had figured out a way to scramble their calls without needing a special phone. It had saved all the Moretti brothers at one point or another.
“Go ahead,” she said, her voice high with excitement.
“I just sent you a file. I need you to run a background check on it, see if you can find any holes or discrepancies.”
“Easy peasy.” Her tech skills were legendary and highly sought-after. She’d been able to hack into the FBI database without leaving any type of footprint since she was fifteen. Vetting Lily’s cover story would be child’s play for Alexis. “When do you need it done?”
“Yesterday.”
“How about thirty minutes?” she countered.
“Sounds perfect. I’ll wait for the call.” He hung up and pocketed his phone.
“Okay, I’ll bite,” Lily said. “Who was that?”
“My baby sister, Alexis.”
Lily’s mouth popped open. “You sent my encrypted file to your sister?”
“Easy, tiger. There’s no one else on this planet that I’d want to make sure your file is bulletproof. Trust me.”
“Okay, but we’re going to need something stronger than water tonight.” Lily headed to the kitchen and called over her shoulder, “What do you want, Merlot or Guinness?”
Derek followed her movement with his eyes. What he wanted to drink didn’t matter, not when he was in the same room with Lily. Especially not with her walking around with that tight black getup hugging her curves just so, no matter how he looked at her.
She stood on her tiptoes and reached for a glass on the top shelf, her shirt riding up, exposing her soft yet tight stomach. Oh, shit. “Guinness.”
Lily obliged and rejoined him at the island, handing him his chilled beer and staring down at the overflowing box. He took a sip of the frothy liquid and watched as she grabbed half the case files and, bypassing the table, plopped herself on the floor. Without a word she spread the files out, arranging them and rearranging them, and finally made herself at home on the floor among the information.