Elite Ops: Black Jack Part 32

Lilly, using Travis's body for cover, slid her hand to her back. It happened quickly. Too quickly.

Nik stepped out. Travis drew his weapon, Isaac rolled to his back, and Lilly dropped to her knees.

She fired at her mother. Tears filled her eyes and ran down her cheeks as the bullet slammed into Angelica's shoulder. It wasn't a kill shot, but as everyone acted at once, two more bullets took her from Desmond's and Isaac's guns. Nik and Travis made quick work of the others. Lilly stared into her mother's eyes, watched as realization surged through the other woman.

Angelica dropped to her knees, blood soaking the cream color of her top, dripping to her slacks, as she held Lilly's gaze. Held it. Hatred flooding it, twisting her expression.

"f.u.c.king wh.o.r.e," Angelica wheezed as she slowly melted to the floor, her eyes losing that brilliant glitter, dimming, and slowly becoming lifeless. Her mother.

Lilly crawled to her, lifted her head in her lap, and slowly brushed the hair back from her face as the gunfire eased and the smell of death began to invade the room. There were other men there now. Elite Ops One. Black masks covered their faces, but Lilly knew who they were. She didn't bother to look up. She watched her fingers touching her mother's brow, her hairline. She looked composed and peaceful in death.

She looked innocent. She looked like the mother Lilly remembered.

"Good-bye, Mother," she whispered as the tears continued to fall. "I loved you."

She had lost everything. Everyone.

"Lilly." Travis was behind her, easing down, his hands settling on her shoulders as she realized she was sobbing. "It's over, baby."

She shook her head.

"It's okay, Lilly." He sat beside her and eased her into his arms. "I have you, baby. It's over."

"I love you, Travis," she whispered as she laid her head on his shoulder. "I love you."

"I love you." He laid his cheek against the top of her head.

"You'll have to leave me now," she whispered. "I know that."

"Shhh," he shushed her gently as he whispered. "Keep the memories inside, sweetheart. You don't remember anything. Keep it that way." He turned her face to him. "Keep it that way, and I'll hold you forever."

Forever? Could she truly have a forever now?

With Travis?

She felt the smile that touched her lips, felt the pain and loss as it eased from her heart.

"I'll have you forever?"

"Forever," he swore.

She turned her head to him, her lips touching his as she whispered. "Then I don't remember a d.a.m.ned thing, Black Jack."

He smiled against her kiss. "That's the way, Night Hawk. Now, let me hold you forever."

His arms surrounded her. There, amid her past, all the death, and the things she thought she had lost, Lilly found love.

A love she could hold on to forever.

Epilogue.

It was over.

Lilly stood aside, Travis's arms wrapped around her, as agents of Homeland Security arrived at the house and began taking over the situation. Senator Stanton was there, as was Jared Malone. The Homeland Security agent a.s.signed to the case didn't question Travis's presence too deeply, though he questioned Lilly extensively.

But it was over. Her mother was dead and the threat that had followed Lilly since the night her father had died was gone.

"Lilly, come sit down," Travis urged her as the agents continued to question Desmond.

"Let me get you a drink."

She nodded shakily. She felt as though she were in shock, though it wasn't exactly shock. Or perhaps it was. She couldn't make sense of the grief tearing through her.

She had lost everything. Her entire family.

"Here, baby." Travis pressed a gla.s.s in her hand. "It's your favorite."

Her favorite. Whiskey. She had never been a champagne girl. Another disappointment to her mother, she remembered.

She wiped at the tear that escaped and wanted to huddle into herself and wail like a child. She had no family.

"Let me in there."

Lilly's head jerked at the sound of her brother's voice.

"d.a.m.n you, I b.l.o.o.d.y well don't care what kind of a crime scene it is, let me see my sister."

The shock was building.

Lilly stood to her feet and watched with a sense of complete disbelief as her brother pushed past the agents standing at the door and stalked into the room. And he wasn't alone.

The gla.s.s in her hand dropped to the floor, the sound of it shattering at her feet, ignored at the sight of her brother.

"Jared," she whispered, the tears falling now, shudders racing through her body at the sight of her brother, older, his eyes filled with remorse as he opened his arms to her.

Lilly pressed back against Travis, her hands gripping his arms now as she stared at him.

Stared.

He had disowned. He had been such an important part of her life yet he had turned his back on her. There was a conversation behind her, Travis ordering someone to get him another drink.

"Lilly." He stopped in front of her, his gaze tormented. She started at him, unable to understand why he was here now.

"You look just like grandmother's pictures when she was younger. It's no surprise Mother knew who you were at that party."

Lilly stared back at him painfully. "You disowned me."

He shook his head wearily as he raked his fingers through his overly long hair. "I had no choice, Lilly. I had to stay away, and I had to have a reason for doing so. I was working to uncover the truth of what she was doing; I couldn't do that if I was here, allowing her to draw me into her machinations."

Lilly shook her head, as she tried to make sense of everything. "You were going to help her have me committed."

"Lilly." Desmond moved beside him. "He would have never done such a thing. But she had to believe he would. We needed every moment to gain the proof we needed against her. She wasn't working alone, though she did, I believe, like to convince herself that she was smart enough to steal the funds she'd embezzled without any help. We had to learn how deep it went."

Lilly shook her head as she turned to stare at her uncle.

My G.o.d, things were out of control here. There was no way she could make sense of this.

"Desmond and I knew what she was doing, but proving it wasn't nearly as easy. She may have been crazed, but she was d.a.m.ned intelligent. Too intelligent to catch easily."

Lilly shook her head again. "Did you know?" she asked Travis as he held her close to his chest, his arms holding her steady.

"Travis didn't know, Lilly," her brother said gently. "Just Desmond and I knew, and I was actively working the case, which made it impossible for me to allow Mother to believe I was in any way convinced that you were truly alive. Or even cared if you were."

She flinched.

Lilly could feel her breath tight in her chest, the dizziness that filled her. Memories were cras.h.i.+ng inside her now. Six years' worth were flooding her senses as she fought to breathe.

"Lilly, we did what we had to in our attempt to try to gather enough proof to have her arrested," Jared stated.

"She was always one step ahead of us. When you were shot in England, we knew you were her weak spot. She couldn't accept you had possibly become an escort.

From the conversations I overheard, she was enraged by your cover, and determined that if you didn't fit into her idea of the life you should live, then she would kill you. Returning you home was the distraction we needed to force her to mess up."

"You used me?" What hurt worse, six years of lies, or learning the truth simply because they had needed her to trap her mother?

"You weren't safe any longer," he sighed. "At least here, within her sight, your memories erased, you had a chance of surviving long enough for us to finish what had to be done. Isaac and Desmond watched out for you, just as Travis did. It was the only way to keep you alive once she knew who you were."

Lilly lifted her hand to cover her mouth. She was going to scream. She was going to sink to the floor in madness as she stared at the father she thought she had lost and the brother she had believed disowned her.

"Lilly Belle," her brother whispered. "Do you remember how Father used to call you that, when you were a child?"

She did remember, Just as she remembered how her mother had hated it.

"You shouldn't have done this," Travis snapped behind her, fury filling his voice.

"For G.o.d's sake, you could have gotten her killed. You nearly did."

Jared frowned darkly over her head. "What would you have me do?"

"A h.e.l.l of a lot different than this," Travis growled back.

"Lilly, I love you, sister," Jared whispered as her gaze sliced him. "Give me a chance now. The danger has pa.s.sed, let me try to make up for it now."

A sob escaped her lips.

"Lilly," her brother crooned, his eyes flas.h.i.+ng with grief as he stared back at her now. "There's no way to make up for the past six years, or the pain you've suffered. There's no way to make up for the lies. But I love you."

Desmond moved in beside him. "He loved you enough, Lilly, that he let you go to save you.

Something we all know couldn't be easy."

The tears were flowing now. She couldn't hold them back. She couldn't stop them from falling.

Travis released her as she stepped into her brother's embrace. Travis watched as her brother sheltered her in his arms, as he bent his head over hers and his own tears fell.

"Travis." She turned to him, throwing herself back in his arms, tears and joy filling her voice as his arms went around her. "I'm finally really alive."

"I know, baby." He held her close to his chest. "I know."

I won't let her go. He mouthed back at the senator, the only man who could spoil Lilly's happiness.

The senator shook his head. I always knew you wouldn't. His response surprised Travis.

Lilly was in his arms. His woman. His lover. The holder of his heart. She had her family, her true family. The men who had stood aside and allowed her to do what she had to do to survive, while they had fought to clear her way home.

She could truly go home now, as the woman she was rather than the woman her mother would have forced her to be.

Lilly leaned back in his arms now. "You'll hold me forever now?"

He smiled down at her. "Always, Lilly. I'll hold you always."

And there, in front of her brother, her uncle, Lilly reached for his kiss. Slow, loving, her lips touched his as her hands clasped his face. She leaned into him, leaned against him, and Travis knew nothing mattered, nothing would ever matter as much as Lilly did.

He held his Night Hawk in his arms. The woman he had loved far longer than he should have.

The woman who had held his heart far longer than she should have. She was home, but he was home, too.

Right there, in her arms.

St. Martin's Paperbacks t.i.tles By.

LORA LEIGH.

Elite Ops Series.