“I understand. If you looked her up, then you know she lives alone and she’s almost eighty-two. Aunt Maggie isn’t a wilting flower by any stretch, but she’s not going to be able to stop a man like Owen Fisher. She wouldn’t even think to. He’ll approach her with some kind of lie, and she’ll be polite even if she doesn’t like him.”
“He gave you three days, right? We’ll have her out of there by tonight.”
Jenna’s heart began to beat with hope instead of dread. It wasn’t going to fix the problem of the money, but she’d have more time to think if Aunt Maggie was out of harm’s way.
“She won’t want to come. She has her garden, and her church and friends. She’ll want to stay home.”
“She’ll come, Jenna. She won’t have a choice.” She must have looked alarmed or something because he gave her a smile. “Don’t worry, honey, my guys know how to coax women into doing what they want. She’ll come along willingly.”
“Maybe I should go get her—”
“No. It’s not a good idea. Trust me when I tell you that I have experience in this stuff, and you don’t need to be anywhere near your aunt’s house.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because Fisher isn’t giving you three days, Jenna. He’s baiting a trap, and he expects you to walk right into it.”
Chapter Seventeen
Noah called Saint and explained the situation. Saint whistled, but he didn’t hesitate.
“I’ll call Hacker, Wolf, and Muffin. You call Zany and Gem. Harley and Eva aren’t returning until tonight. We can get him up to speed later.”
“Thanks, Saint.”
“No problem, man. All those who can be there should converge at your place at 1400. Hopefully Hacker and Bliss will have some information for us by then, assuming they’re around today.”
Noah hoped they were, but of course everyone had private lives. Not that the guys wouldn’t drop everything to help each other out, because they would, but it wasn’t going to take all of them to go to Delaware. “Copy that. See you then.”
He ended the call and phoned the other two men. Jenna had taken Alice upstairs to wash her off and get her dressed. She hadn’t seemed as pale as earlier, but she wasn’t completely at ease either. He wasn’t entirely sure she wasn’t half thinking about slipping away anyway. If she was, he wasn’t letting that happen. Besides, she didn’t have a new battery and she wouldn’t get all that far if she tried.
Noah blew out a breath and shoved a hand through his hair before getting up to pour more coffee. Last night, he’d gotten Jenna naked and had a hell of a good time. He’d planned to do it again today. What he hadn’t planned on was landing in the middle of a Mafia operation and finding out his nanny was involved up to her eyeballs.
She’d heard a murder, for fuck’s sake. He got why she didn’t come forward about it. It was the kind of thing where she’d have needed witness protection if she had. And with Fisher being arrested for another murder, it hadn’t seemed necessary to her.
He got it. He really did. She hadn’t seen anything. All she’d done was hear it, and a good lawyer would tear her statement apart. Unless there was another piece of evidence tying Fisher to her boss’s office at that time, then it was her word against his.
The money was the key. Noah believed her when she said she had no idea what Fisher was talking about. She hadn’t known her boss was part of anything illegal, and she didn’t know about any money. Considering the way she lived like a nomad—sleeping in her car, taking low-paying jobs, moving on before too long—he didn’t think she was hiding a fortune from the Mafia.
But they thought she was, and that was enough.
Jenna returned with Alice and set her down to play with her toys. Alice was wearing a pink sundress with little pink sandals and pink bows in her pigtails. He watched her pick up a stuffed animal, and his heart squeezed tight. She carried it over to him and he took it, oohing and aahing before he handed it back. She returned to the pile, dropping the animal and selecting another, and he knew she’d do the same again.
He glanced at Jenna. She shrugged. Sometimes you just had to play the game and hope the toddler gave up.
Jenna had left her hair down for a change, and it cascaded over her shoulders and almost to her ass. He loved long hair on a woman. He could wrap it around his hands and tug her head back so he could kiss her long and hard.
She was wearing a loose T-shirt and denim shorts that she’d half tucked the shirt into. She looked casual and at ease, but he knew it wasn’t real. Inside, she was a mess of fear and nerves.
“You okay?” he asked.
She’d shoved her hands into her pockets as she came over to stand by the table. “I’m trying to be.”
He realized that she’d never eaten. He hadn’t either. He’d been waiting for her, and then she’d walked in and looked like Death was nipping at her heels. Everything went sideways after that. He pushed the chair out with his foot and stood. “Sit. I’ll fix breakfast.”
He thought she might protest, but she did as he said, playing the toy game with Alice. Noah scrambled eggs and made toast with butter and set a plate in front of Jenna. It wasn’t impressive, but it was hot and filling. She toyed with the eggs, pushing them around her plate as she acknowledged all of Alice’s toys one by one.
“Eat, Jenna. You can’t defeat the bad guys on an empty stomach.”
She looked at him. “You’re taking this remarkably well for a guy who just found out his nanny is wanted by the Mafia.”
He forked eggs into his mouth. Swallowed. “You think that’s the worst of what I’ve dealt with? Au contraire, Miss Lane.”
She sighed and touched his arm. “Noah. I’m not an idiot. I know the military doesn’t go after civilians, and especially not within the borders of the US. It’s not legal. The last thing I want is for you to get in trouble because of me. For any of you to get in trouble.”
“You’re right,” he said. “We don’t operate within the borders, and not against civilians. But we have resources. Friends, you might say.” He thought of Ian Black and his Bandits. They were mercenaries, and though it would gall Noah up one side and down the other to hand this over to those fuckers at Black Defense International, he’d do it in a heartbeat if it meant Jenna and her aunt would be safe. BDI could do things Strike Team 2 could not.
But they weren’t helpless, and this wasn’t an official mission. They were skilled, and they could make plans of their own. If they needed more resources, they’d call BDI in.
“Are you sure your guys don’t mind helping? I feel guilty that they’re giving up their Sunday for this.”
“It’s what we do, Jenna. It’s fine.” She sounded like the guys were coming over to move furniture, or something equally mundane, when it was far more serious. He found it endearing in a way.
He drummed his fingers on the tabletop, thinking. He’d managed to polish off his eggs and toast while she took her sweet time with hers. Alice had started playing with her toy computer, which meant the trips to Jenna’s side had stopped for now. Noah was beginning to wonder if the food tasted bad, but Jenna finally finished a slice of toast and ate another bite of eggs. Her appetite was improving, and he was glad.