Strange, Macauley’s reputation was impeccable. This didn’t sound like an innocent conversation, though.
“I’ll take care of it,” Macauley stated. “I’ll let you know when they arrive.”
The call disconnected.
Macauley stood still and silent for long moments afterward before replacing his phone and deactivating the blocking device he had used.
Replacing it in the desk, he turned and left the room, reactivating the security behind him.
Travis moved from the closet as Noah met him at the desk.
“Let me check this,” Noah hissed as he pulled the device free again. “This bastard will screw with my electronics.”
“Why here rather than his room?” Travis mused, wondering why Macauley didn’t have the device in a place he wouldn’t be caught using it.
“Security,” Noah stated. “Harrington obviously uses it. If it were found in his room, he’d have to explain it. Besides, these puppies are damned hard to acquire.”
Noah attached it to another device he had with him.
“Can you bypass it?” Travis asked.
“Maybe,” Noah answered. “I’ll try, but it sounds to me like we’re not going to have a lot of time here.”
“Then we better hurry,” Travis growled. “The next time, Lilly’s luck just might run out.”
And that he couldn’t allow to happen.
Travis simply couldn’t imagine his life without Lilly, which made her a very dangerous weakness.
A weakness he knew he could ill-afford.
“Got it.” Noah quickly replaced the device, then stored his own in a pocket of his pants.
“Let’s roll.”
They left quickly and made their way back to Noah’s room. Travis left the house just as dawn began to brighten the sky and he couldn’t help but stare up into Lilly’s window.
The lights were on and he had no doubt she was reading the report Harrington had received.
And she was alone.
There was no one to soften the shock or the blow being dealt to her. He wasn’t there to hold her. He wasn’t there to make it easier.
No matter what the doctors said, he thought, Lilly would remember everything soon, and when she did?
There would be hell to pay.
Chapter 5
the next morning Lilly lay in her bed, the hefty report given to her the night before still lying beside her, the pages scattered haphazardly across the bed.
She stared at the ceiling, dry-eyed, a frown pulling at her brow as she considered the information she had been given.
First, she had been suspected of killing her father because she had disappeared.
And second, according to the investigator—a rather reputable one—Lilly had been a high priced whore available only to certain clientele. Clientele requiring a well trained lover rather than a helpless one. And she evidently hadn’t cared if the clients were legitimate businessmen, or those considered highly illegal. Criminals, suspected terrorists, or international CEOs. She had been hired out to the best of them.
Lilly had been trained in Israel, Pakistan, China, South America, and Mexico. The training she had received, secretly, through MI5, before her supposed death, paled in comparison to the eighteen-month course she had taken to become part of Santos Bahre and Rhiannon McConnelly’s stable.
She and the three other girls she was known to work with were considered four of the most elite whores in the world. Wow, she should be impressed with herself, she thought sarcastically. She had gone from society princess to exclusive call girl. And she hadn’t stopped there. Hell, no, when she wasn’t playing “eye candy” for whoever paid for her services, then she was having fun causing trouble elsewhere. It was no damned wonder someone had tried to kill her.
She had been in more than one hot spot in the world with Travis Caine, who seemed to have required her services extensively. As a matter of fact, it seemed that outside of
“business” they were actual lovers as well. Lovers who caused trouble wherever they went. In more than one instance, they had started fights that had nearly gotten them killed.
It sounded like she had had a hell of a lot of fun.
Except it just didn’t ring true.
There were pictures of her with Travis Caine as well as several other men. Men known for their rather subversive criminal activities. Weapon sales, drug deals, terrorist negotiations, the list went on and on. She and the three other girls were reputed to be not just highly experienced sexually, but also rather enthusiastic when it came to creating or cleaning up the messes their lovers were involved in.
The men whose identities had been included in the file seemed too familiar. Santos Bahre, Travis Caine, Micah Sloane, John Vincent, and Nikolai Steele were the most familiar. There was something about their pictures that pricked at her missing memories.
The pictures and the locations looked familiar. The pictures themselves appeared to have been taken from security footage from hotels and restaurants. Those would have been easy enough to come by. Once the investigator had a name, and a picture of her, he could have tracked many of her movements, as well as her associations.
The pictures of the men in the file had her eyes narrowing, though.
These men she and the other three women seemed to have the most association with.
John Vincent was a “broker.” Though he often brokered legitimate deals, he was also suspected to broker not so legitimate deals. Deals that often involved high-priced, top-secret stolen arms or information.
Nikolai Steele was a suspected assassin. He’d been questioned many times in regards to those activities, but there had never been enough proof to tie him to a kill. He also hired himself out occasionally as a bodyguard and was known to work often with Travis Caine and John Vincent.
Then, there was Travis. “The Facilitator,” he was called. He brought together products, services, or clients. He facilitated major business deals, matching buyers, sellers, and brokers.
He was also suspected to do the same with less savory clients.
Each man had, more than once, required Lilly’s or one of the other girls’ services.
Somehow she couldn’t see the very possessive, very dominant Travis Caine standing idly by while Lilly slept with his bodyguard.
Then, there were the women.
Nissa Farren, Raisa McTavish, and Shea Tamallen. She couldn’t rid herself of a feeling of urgency where they were concerned. There was something she should know about them.