Page 124 of Killer Secrets (Tempting SEALs 5)

"He's not here."

"His signal is right there beside the two women," Macey repeated patiently.

Ian looked around. Kira was in his arms, Tehya beside her.

"Deke, check me for the transmitter." Resignation filled his voice.

Deke moved to him quickly, running his hands over the collar of Ian's shirt as Ian continued to hold Kira to his chest.

"Here it is."

Diego had slapped his shoulder before Sorrell had arrived. He had known about the tracker.

"He's flown," Ian snapped into the link. "Find the bastard. Son of a bitch. He got away."

DIEGO STARED AT THE LIGHTS blazing in the villa an hour later, surrounded by his personal team of soldiers and sailing for home.

He gripped the rail of the borrowed yacht, grief lying tight in his chest, clenching his stomach. Tears would have fallen had he been alone.

A boy should not be forced to kill his father, he thought to himself, continuing to stare at the receding lights of the estate Ian had moved them into. At his side, laughably enough, was his DHS handler. It was amazing really how his deal with DHS had worked out through the years. Such as now.

"My dear Mr. McClane, how do you think Ian is going to feel once he learns how easily you managed to slip me from the island and also that you warned me of what may well happen?"

McClane sighed at that. "It would be nice if he didn't find out, Fuentes. You know what they say about burning bridges. As your legal counsel in this matter, I can assure you, it could be a deal breaker with DHS."

Diego chuckled, but the sound was rusty, bitter.

He hadn't had his son long enough, hadn't had a chance to pull free those more calculating tendencies he knew I

an must surely possess. He hadn't had enough time to gain his loyalty, and he had known it. Just as he had known it was Ian's intention all along to kill him when this was finished.

"A man shouldn't have to murder his own father," he whispered then, aware that the agent was listening.

"If I didn't agree, I wouldn't have had the yacht waiting for you."

Diego nodded and sighed again. Wearily.

"Marika raised a fine man," he told Jason then.

"Yes, she did, despite Carmelita's attempts to have him killed."

He was always being reminded of this. As though there were a way he could go back in time to change the past. If only he could. He would have given his own soul to do just that.

"Did you know about him when I made my deal with DHS?" Diego wondered aloud.

"None of us knew about him until he and his stepfather approached the director," Jason assured him, his voice as cold and unemotional as ever.

Yes, that sounded like Ian, and Marika. They wouldn't have wanted anyone to know the shameful secret of who Ian's father was.

He couldn't find it in himself to blame the boy; as Jason said, Carmelita had made his life hell. She had helped mold the man Ian had become, and Diego cursed her to hell for it.

"The estate is secured?" he asked then.

"Secured. Ian will receive his orders tonight that you're protected by DHS. And in return you sign the papers I brought that you'll refrain from taking any U.S. government personnel hostage. Should you learn they are agents of the U.S. you will contact me and I'll take care of them."

Diego nodded. Yes, it had been a mistake to allow Clay and Sorrell to hold Nathan Malone. The testing of the whore's dust on the SEAL had been amusing, and it had taught him something about the depth of a man's soul. Malone had never broken. He had always known that the women brought to him were not his wife.

"Perhaps I will concentrate on some of the plans Ian placed into motion while he was with me," he mused. "Several of those business look very lucrative."

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