Nori's Delta (Delta Team Three #1) - Lori Ryan Page 0,19

was leading the push to pull back on any talks with Onur Demir while he had American hostages. He wanted them to negotiate with the ruling party to try to cut off the pipeline of weapons to terrorist groups. Of course, that meant dealing with a government who was known for committing atrocities and human rights violations against its own people.

It wasn’t an easy decision.

Eleanor focused on the intel on the hostages. “Are they at the compound?”

The hostages were going to be the trickiest part of this negotiation. There was no way around it. It would be messy and complicated and she’d be walking a tightrope where they were concerned.

“No,” Cheryl answered. “They’re at a nearby bunker. We’re talking to the UK and France about our attempts to free them and Hughes is pushing for a joint raid on the bunker. I’ll keep you posted.”

“All right. We should be at the compound in a day and a half. If I don’t hear from you before then, I’ll let you know when we’ve arrived.”

Eleanor ended the call and handed the phone to Heath.

And then it was just the two of them in the room with no one between them and no excuse of a phone call with her boss to put off the inevitable.

Eleanor shook her head and forced a smile. They both had to know they had to address their past together eventually. Still, she didn’t know how to say she was sorry for what had happened. For the way she’d handled things. She hadn’t ever thought she’d have this conversation and she’d honestly buried things so deep, she didn’t know how to bring them up and into the open now.

But there was no time to say anything as Heath’s team filed quietly into the room and gathered their go bags to move out.

She pushed all thoughts of their past aside. She needed to be thinking of the mission. It was too important not to. She wasn’t going to be able to offer military troops to Demir and his people. The US’s support of him wouldn’t be anything so blatant and visible as that. But she had arms and monetary support to offer if the talks went the way they wanted them to go. First, though, she needed to get in there and feel things out with Demir. Her first job would be to assess the man and assess whether the US should put money and support behind him.

Heath came up beside her and put a hand on her lower back, warm and strong and firm. It shouldn’t have done things to her the way it did. Especially not with all of his teammates in the room and all that still hung around them, but it did. Lord, she wanted to turn and sink into him, to let their bodies come together so the heat she was feeling deep in her belly could spread to all of her.

“All set?” He asked, the simple question seeming to carry so much weight.

It was just a question, she reminded herself. It wasn’t him asking if she needed anything, if she was all right given all that had happened. If he could help her.

It wasn’t all of that. And yet, it seemed like it was.

They hung back as the others checked the hall outside the door to the room. When Merlin ducked his head in and gave the all clear, they moved together to the SUV. And when Heath settled in next to her in the back seat, she felt safe. Despite all that had happened and all of what was to come, she felt safe.

Chapter 8

Heath shook Eleanor awake. He hated to do it but he had to. They were coming up on their chosen border crossing and he wanted her awake and alert for this. They’d been driving straight through, stopping only for the bare essentials for the last eight hours. They would be meeting up with her team the following day before making the final approach to Demir’s compound.

She came awake slowly, blinking up at him before flushing and lifting her head off his shoulder. He cursed the loss. He’d liked having her leaning on him like that.

Come to think of it, he liked the way she looked waking up next to him, mussed and dazed.

Fuck. He shifted in his seat. He needed to stop that train of thought before he embarrassed himself in front of his team.

Eleanor wasn’t making it easy. She had pulled her hair out of the ponytail