Page 33 of Killer Secrets (Tempting SEALs 5)

Eleanor was sobbing now, her body protected by his own as he stood between her and Diego.

"We agreed this operation would be handled my way!" Ian bit out, coldly furious. "You don't kill without my permission."

"As though I would ever receive it," Diego spat back. "You will throw her carcass into the streets and that whore she slept with will take back to her diseased owner my answer to his quest. 'Get fucked, Sorrell.'"

Good God, have mercy. Ian wanted to put his fist in the man's stupid mouth and shut him the hell up. Or a bullet in his black heart and stop this charade for good.

"Get the fuck out of here," he snarled. "Now."

"So you can bargain with her?" Diego sneered. "You bargain with your enemies as though they were business associates whose word you can trust. You are the fool."

"And you're as dead as she is if you don't get the fuck out of here!" Ian's voice lowered dangerously as the need to silence the bastard raged inside him. "I'll deal with you later."

Diego smiled mockingly. "But you will not kill me, and still Liss is dead. My answer to the bastard that would strike my son. Eleanor can give it to him herself." Then he turned and strode from the room.

Ian turned to look at Eleanor. She had stopped sobbing and now stared at Liss's cooling body in horror.

"Ernesto will have me killed," she whispered, pulling her gaze to Ian. "I only helped Liss, as she asked me to do. So we would have the money to leave Aruba and to return home to Colombia. Enough money to help feed our families . . ." Her voice trailed away as she reached out a trembling hand to touch Liss's slack face.

The scent of blood and death filled the room now, wiping away the sweet scent of sex and fear.

"Deke, get her on a plane," Ian told him quietly. "I want her safe." He wiped his hand over his face, suddenly aching as he stared at the mess Diego had made of Liss.

Ian had had no intention of hurting her. Frightening her, yes, convincing her to give him information, definitely. But God help him, he would never have hurt her.

"Should we have her interrogated?" Deke's voice was just as quiet.

"On the plane." Ian nodded. "I want her flying out of here to a safe house within the hour."

The Cessna waited on a private airfield outside Palm Beach, just in case it was needed, the pilot on twenty-four-hour call.

"Come on, Eleanor." Deke wrapped his arms around her and helped her from the bed. "Let's get you dressed. Get you out of here."

She stared at Ian, shell-shocked, desperate. "Don't kill me, Ian, please." Tears fell down her cheeks as her reddened lips trembled. "I am so sorry." She held on to Deke's arms as though terrified Ian would jerk her from the suddenly gentle embrace.

"I'm not going to kill you, Eleanor. Go with Deke. Let him take care of you." Ian's gaze moved back to Liss. "Have Liss buried. Quietly. Get this taken care of." He turned and stared at Liss's blank expression. "Son of a bitch, some days it doesn't pay me to wake up in the morning."

"You'd have to sleep first, boss," Deke murmured as he helped Eleanor dress.

"Shut the fuck up, Deke," Ian snarled.

He left the room, his gun still clasped in his hand, and headed through the villa to the one place where he knew he could find Diego at this time of the day. Nothing turned that bastard off his food. The son of a bitch could murder a woman and sit down to breakfast as though he were royalty five minutes later. And that was exactly where he was. At the breakfast table, a cup of coffee and a plate of fruits and sweets in front of him, his assistant Saul sitting across from him.

Before Ian realized his intentions, his hands were on the older man's silk shirt, clenching the fabric in his hands as he jerked Diego fro

m his chair and threw him against the wall.

Shocked, wide black eyes met Ian's, then narrowed in fury. But no anger Diego could have been feeling could possibly come close to the rage building in Ian's gut now. The remembered sight of Liss, slumped back, her brains splattered on the wall behind her, sickening him.

"Ever. Ever. Fuck me over that way again, and I walk. Do you understand me?" He was in Diego's face, nose to nose, a killing rage pumping through him.

"She betrayed me," Diego snarled.

"You stupid fucking bastard, she had information," Ian rasped, murderous fury burning in his gut. "Information I needed. Do you understand me?" He threw his father away from him, his fists clenching, the need to do something, anything, raging through him. Damn Diego. Liss had been a fucking child. An easy-to-use, impressionable, filled-with-anger young woman who didn't know shit about this world. And Diego had just killed her. Without a second thought. Without questions.

"Fuck it," he muttered. "I'm out of here."

"You would leave Sorrell to destroy us all?" Diego moved to place himself in front of Ian, his expression knowing, cold. "What of all your justice and belief in freedom," he sneered. "I move to defend you and you whine over blood spilled. What will you do when Sorrell achieves his objective to strike at your precious country?"

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