He had to face the music and admit that he was still butt hurt over the crumbling of their marriage. He’d loved her and wanted to spend his life with her and Finley. Some say that love made a man weak, but for Egan it made him a giant. With Novah he could do anything—would do anything—for his family.
Then she’d pulled the rug out from underneath him.
When they married, she’d had no complaints that he had a contract in the military. Sure, he understood once Finley was born things had unexpectedly changed, they certainly had drastically in their relationship. What he’d wanted Novah to understand was that he’d witnessed the devastation in war-stricken countries. Saw women and children used and abused—even some lost to suicide blasts. He’d made it his personal mission to save as many innocent people as he could because what if Novah and Finley had been placed in the same perils? Who would save them if he couldn’t? A man never walked away mid-effort. He’d been committed, but that didn’t mean he hadn’t been just as committed to his family. Now he was back on friendly soil, determined to be a better father to his daughter. To give her a better life.
Novah carried the weight of her childhood like a knight’s shield.
Her father who’d been a general in the Army had been away a lot. She’d often talked about how she decorated the house to welcome him home from deployment and sometimes being disappointed enough to cry herself to sleep when he didn’t come. Egan understood, he did, and that was why he’d retired. Unfortunately, that came just a little too late for his relationship with Novah.
Walking into the mansion and down the left wing of a private corridor solely used for security personnel, he entered the surveillance room where one of Langley’s security team sat behind a wall of monitors and an elaborate control panel. Egan skimmed all the levers and knobs.
“Good morning, Joe,” he said to the man who had unusually protruding brown eyes behind thick lensed glasses. They’d met briefly earlier, but Egan made it his goal to get to know every one of them better. Loose lips would work in Egan’s favor.
“What do you think of the place so far?” Joe eased back into the chair that creaked under his heavy weight.
“I’ll give it to Langley. The man has a fortress here. It’d take some skill for anyone to breach the wall and gates.” He wasn’t quite telling the truth, but he wanted to fluff the man’s ego. Glancing over the screens, Egan took note of the few locations that weren’t monitored by cameras, which didn’t seem logical.
“State of the art security.” Joe sipped his coffee from a Styrofoam cup. “Have you seen the gator hole yet?”
“Gator hole?”
With a chuckle, Joe pointed to a screen to his right. Nothing looked out of the ordinary except for overgrown ivy. “Right there is an underground tunnel, built when this place was erected. The door is behind that ivy-covered fence.”
“And it’s passable?”
“Yeah. Anyone can still move freely through it if they don’t mind spiders and rats. I’ve heard it was used for the bootleggers engaged in smuggling whiskey out of the mansion during Prohibition. If only these walls could talk.” He whistled through his teeth. “Now it’s just an escape route for Langley if he needs to get out without anyone seeing him.”
“Does he use it often?”
“In a roundabout way. More like he has his deliveries come that way.”
“Deliveries?” Egan asked with a skeptical tone.
Joe only smiled.
“Everything looks in order here.” Egan backed off a bit. He guessed he needed to get to know the team better before he expected them to tell him everything.
“With a set up like this security is a cakewalk.” Joe leaned in and pressed a button, enlarging one of the screens, focusing on a woman walking through one of the halls. “There are definitely some perks to the job. Do you think it’s true that redheads are hotter in bed?”
Egan felt a scorching heat race through his veins as he realized the “redhead” was none other than Novah. “She’s not a redhead,” he growled. Her hair was dark with a touch of auburn.
“Really? It looks red. Maybe I need to get a better view.” Joe wagged his brows.
It took all of Egan’s strength to not slap the man in the back of the head.
Staring at the screen, Egan smoothed his gaze over the white, flowing dress that brushed every soft curve of her body. In one hand she carried a straw hat and a beach tote was pulled up over her shoulder. So that little lacy number she wore was a bikini cover up?
She dropped the hat and bent over to pick it up, bringing the hem of the dress high on her firm bottom.
Joe whistled as he used the controller to aim the camera closer and as she started walking again, he focused in on the sensual sway of her flared hips. “How much do you want to bet Langley has his sights set on that sweet morsel.”
“Langley doesn’t seem like her type,” Egan grounded out, glad he kept his cool when he had a war raging inside his gut.
With a grunt, Joe said, “Are you kidding?
