“I guess maybe we’ll find out,” Mustang said, almost wishing they’d try. If he had the chance to have a one-on-one encounter with someone from the Columbus family who might be sent to kill Elodie, he’d make sure they knew she wasn’t alone anymore and was well protected. He’d make it clear she was off limits, and it would be in their best interest to forget they knew her.
“So she’s staying with you, then?” Aleck asked.
Mustang didn’t hear any censure in his tone, and he answered honestly. “That’s unclear as of yet. But hopefully, yes.”
“The great and mighty Mustang hasn’t gotten her to agree to move in with him after,” Jag exaggeratingly checked his watch, “forty-eight hours of meeting up with her again?”
“Shut up,” Mustang said, throwing his pen across the table at his friend.
“It would make things easier,” Slate said—and everyone turned to stare at him incredulously.
“Weren’t you the one who was questioning his immediate attraction to the woman?” Pid asked.
“Yeah. And he explained it. So now I’m onboard,” Slate said matter-of-factly.
Mustang couldn’t help but grin. These guys could be a pain in the ass, but they were loyal as hell, just as he was to them. They’d been through too much to be petty or assholes toward each other. They might disagree or play devil’s advocate, as they were trained to do, but when push came to shove, they’d always have each other’s backs.
“So we’re playing this low-key and waiting to see if anything comes up?” Midas asked. “Should we be more proactive?”
“If we clue in the family that we’re looking into them, it might tip them off about where she is,” Pid said.
“But if we don’t find enough information, they could sneak up on our six and ambush her,” Slate said.
“So the question is, do we dig far enough that it might tip them off, or lay low, stay on our guard, and react if and when we need to?” Aleck added.
The room was silent for a moment as the men mulled over the decisions that had to be made.
“I think we see what Pid can come up with discreetly, and go from there. The last thing we want is to bring the wrath of the mob down on our heads,” Mustang said. “Besides, our hands are somewhat tied in this anyway. Paul Columbus isn’t going to be dumb enough to come here himself, and even if he did, we can’t get away with murder.”
“Exactly,” Midas said, then lowered his voice. “But we know people who know people. We might not be able to act, but we know others who can. Including someone who lives here on the island.”
Mustang nodded. He didn’t want to call in favors, but he would for Elodie. She deserved to live a life free of fear. To be who she wanted to be and do what she wanted to do. If that was being a deckhand, fine, but if that meant opening up her own restaurant, with her name splashed across the front and all over the Internet, he’d do whatever it took to give that to her.
“I’ll start seeing what I can find tonight,” Pid said. “In the meantime…when do we get to hang out with you guys?”
Mustang smiled, grateful that the team wanted to get to know Elodie. But at the same time, he was feeling a little selfish. He wanted her to himself for a while.
“Maybe she can come work out with us one morning,” Aleck suggested.
Mustang burst out laughing and shook his head. “Nope, she already informed me that she wasn’t the working-out kind of woman.”
“She could watch us?” Aleck tried again.
“She already gets up early for her job, and when she has the chance to sleep in, she takes it,” Mustang told him.
“She’s a cook, right? Maybe we can have a cookout and she could make the food,” Pid suggested.
Slate reached out and smacked him on the back of the head. “We aren’t going to make her cook for all of us the first time we meet her. Jeez, you’re an idiot.”
“It was just a suggestion!” Pid said. “No need to get violent.”
“I’ll figure something out,” Mustang told his friends.
The door to the conference room opened and their commander stuck his head in. “You guys ready for a debrief on the situation in Benin?”
The men all got serious and nodded. Benin was a country in Africa, near the equator, that shared a border with Nigeria. They’d been watching internal factions fighting for a while now and it looked like the country was on the verge of a coup. If they were sent in, their job would be to rescue US and other foreign nationals who were caught in the fray. Everyone had been advised to vacate the country, but there were always a few people who denied what was happening right in front of them or who thought they’d be safe if they stayed.
The topic of Elodie was dropped, but Mustang felt better knowing his team was now aware of her situation. He was satisfied, for the moment, that she wasn’t in imminent danger, but he was grateful that Pid would be looking into the Columbus family. He’d be thrilled to find out Elodie had misread the situation and the family wasn’t actually part of the mob. But he didn’t doubt her fear was real. No one gave up their life like she had if there wasn’t some truth to what was happening.
No, he was sure Elodie felt as if her life was in danger. The question was…how deep was the threat? He’d find out, and then he and his team would take care of it so Elodie could live the life she wanted…hopefully with Mustang by her side.
Scott was waiting for Elodie when the Fish Tales pulled into dock that afternoon. She’d been distracted most of the day, fluctuating between insanely happy and wondering what the hell she was doing. She wasn’t the kind of person to dwell on the negative, but it seemed so much shit had piled on top of her over the last year, it was hard to see anything positive. Meeting Scott had been a light in her otherwise dark life.
The weekend had been amazing. She’d been afraid to tell Scott about Paul and what had happened in New York, but he hadn’t freaked out. Hadn’t told her to get the hell out or yelled at her for possibly bringing the mob straight to his doorstep. Not that she’d thought he’d do either of those things, but there was always the possibility.
Even better, he hadn’t immediately tried to take over her life. He hadn’t ordered her to quit her job and go into hiding. He hadn’t insisted she go to the cops and tell them what happened. He’d listened and made suggestions—things she’d readily agreed to. She didn’t think she’d ever met someone so tuned in to what she was feeling and thinking as Scott.
And then there was the sex. She couldn’t deny she’d thought about how things would be between them, but the reality had been so much better than her fantasies. Scott was rough and a little aggressive, and she loved it. She felt like a completely different person when she was with him. Oh, there was more to a relationship than sex, but they were definitely starting out on the right foot as far as she was concerned.
“See you tomorrow, Melody!” Kai called out as she stepped off the boat and headed for Scott, who was standing at the end of the dock waiting for her. It was crazy how even a few days of her real name coming from Scott’s lips made hearing Kai call her by a different name feel so wrong.