How the hell had he gotten into MI6 confidential files? Adam might be able to do it, but Adam had been hacking systems since he was old enough to sit at a computer and type. Nothing in Weston’s background made Liam think he was capable of it. Ian wasn’t thinking. Ian had stopped thinking the minute he’d been forced to think about his wife again. Maybe he’d stopped thinking the minute he’d hit the ground in London.
And maybe that was just what Eli Nelson had planned on.
A cold chill went up Liam’s spine. The restaurant was so open. Why had a rogue CIA agent sat outside on the patio in the bright light of day when London had one of the most active systems of CCTV cameras in the world?
“Alex?” Liam asked.
“Yep.”
“You have a sight line of where Nelson was sitting in the picture we got, right?”
Alex was set up to scope the front of the patio on the Thames side.
“Where’s the nearest camera? The one we caught him on?” The one that had taken the footage that sent them to London in the first place.
Adam’s voice came over the line. “I’m standing under it.”
“Is it hidden?” There might be a chance he couldn’t see it, that Nelson hadn’t known.
“No. It’s in plain view.”
“Motherfucker.” Ian’s curse burned over the line. “He knew. He had to know. He wanted us to see him.”
“Well, he wanted someone to see him. And he’s fifteen minutes late,” Jake added. “He’s moved the meeting. He’s not coming.”
There was another loud curse over the line as Ian proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he knew an awful lot of cuss words. He was inventive. Liam had to give him that. Ian went over a number of items he intended to shove up Nelson’s bum, and Liam rather thought he would do it without the aid of lubrication. Ian also, it seemed, intended to go medieval on Nelson as there was something about entrails and wrapping the man’s intestines around his throat, but only after the aforementioned anal torture.
Liam kept quiet as he packed up his gear. Nelson had drawn them here. Nelson had always known they were here, so why hadn’t Molina tried to take them out? What the fuck kind of game were they playing?
“Meet back at the club. We have to rethink everything.” Ian sounded tired after his rant. A long sigh came over the line. “Liam, move her tomorrow. Get her out of here. But do it quietly. Nelson will be watching us tonight. Everything has to look reasonably normal. Pick Avery up at work, take her back to your place, and then don’t leave until dark. Check in with Adam and Jake at six and they’ll get you armed for the night. You and Avery talk about going to dinner and a show. Molina’s listening so Nelson is listening, too. Don’t say anything that could tip him off. Find the biggest crowd you can and lose yourselves in it. Stay out for the night. I’ll have Eve get you both new IDs, and we’ll move you in the morning. Meet her in Liverpool station, eight a.m. Do you want this girl?”
He wanted her more than anything he’d ever wanted in his life, but he had questions he needed answered. “Ian, I think Nelson killed my brother.”
“You have a decision to make, man. If you decide to stay here, I’ll let Adam move her.”
“And you will have lost your chance,” Alex said, speaking for the first time since the revelation. “Li, do you trust us? I’ll do what it takes to find the truth, but you’re going to have to choose between revenge and her. I doubt if you walk away that she will ever let you back in.”
But Liam knew something about Avery that the rest of the team didn’t. He knew how forgiving she was. She would eventually forgive him, and he could have both. He could find the truth. He’d waited years to discover the truth. He dreamed of it every night—except for those few days with Avery when all he’d dreamed about was her.
She would forgive him, but he would prove that he’d learned absolutely nothing. The past was done. He couldn’t bring his brother back, and he couldn’t fool himself any longer into believing that his brother had been a good man. Nelson would have needed one of them.
And Rory had been the one to buy the pints. He’d been the one to convince Liam to just have one before they turned in.
Fuck. His brother had very likely slipped him a roofie. He’d been drugged by his own brother and then saved by Nelson. Nelson had known the house was going to blow, but Rory had been the expert in explosives.
None of it made sense unless they were working together, but then why the hell had Nelson saved Liam? The answers were here.
And he was going to walk away from them because he loved a girl. Because she mattered more than anything, and he wasn’t going to trust her safety to anyone else. He could get her out tomorrow. He could make sure she was safe. That was his real mission in life. “Tell Eve to get at least two different passports and then send us somewhere warm.”