Nori's Delta (Delta Team Three #1) - Lori Ryan Page 0,29

the area around them as they moved out into traffic.

Eleanor turned in her seat, looking behind them. “Where is my team? Where are the others?”

“Not coming,” Heath said, not moving his eyes to her. “They’ll come in half an hour with the rest of my team.”

“What?”

He had expected the anger in her tone. He knew without asking that she’d disapprove of being split from her team. Still, no one was gunning for her team.

“Eleanor, our job is to keep you safe. This is how we make sure that happens.”

She turned now, leaning toward him so he had no choice but to look her way.

“By making my team decoys? You’re sticking them out there, but hiding me away?”

He shot her a look. “We’re not making them decoys. They’ll go out a different way. No one’s going out there in the open as a target. We’re going to keep all of you safe. I promise.”

He looked back to their surroundings, checking for anything suspicious. “Look, Eleanor, we have a job to do and we’re going to do it. Thanks to someone in your office or on your team, people knew you were coming here for what’s supposed to be a black op. I’m not about to let you travel with the team now. I’m not going to let them know when and where you’ll be.”

He looked back her way and saw her pale.

“You moved me to another room last night because my team knew what room I was supposed to sleep in?”

“Yeah,” he said, not expanding on that. He knew she wouldn’t believe one of them could be the person who was leaking her whereabouts and her mission for this trip.

She’d never want to think one of them could be guilty of betraying her on such a heinous level.

But he had to believe that. He and his team anticipated the worst before it got them killed.

And in this case, before it got her killed.

Chapter 13

Eleanor was more than happy with where things had gone during the morning’s talks. They were sitting down to eat now, which in theory wasn’t meant to be part of the negotiations, but this was as much a part of it for her as her one-on-one talks with Demir.

She needed to see more of his people and his organization.

She saw her Delta team, as she’d come to think of them, spread out around the perimeter of the large dining room they’d just entered. They hadn’t admitted to her that they were Delta but she’d checked with her boss on a last-minute call before the meeting this morning and she confirmed it.

Heath and his team were good at being present but slipping into the background when needed.

Not that Heath was ever really part of the background for her. She was aware of his presence in a way she wasn’t with the others on the team. She’d seen him shadowing her throughout the compound, always within shouting distance as they moved. He wasn’t wearing his sling today and the bandage on his arm was covered by a long-sleeved shirt. The stitches on his temple only served to make him look all the more threatening and scary.

Now, he took up a position not far from her and stood guard as she and Onur walked side-by-side.

The building they were in was the largest on the compound and could easily be considered a mansion with its size. There were large columns in many of the rooms, including this one, and beautiful tile mosaics. She was particularly fond of the carved wood doors and the courtyard with tiled fountain.

Eleanor knew from their research that the land and home had been in his family for several generations, but he’d built the rest of the buildings around this one in the last few years for his army. What had once been the family estate was now a paramilitary compound of sorts.

“Ms. Bonham, may I introduce my brother, Farid?” Onur raised a hand, drawing his younger brother over. No one could mistake the men for strangers. They both had dark looks and nearly matching eyes.

But there was something about Onur that Farid didn’t possess. Onur Demir had a smoothness to him. A refined presence and charisma that would allow him entry into circles she would guess Farid would struggle in.

Farid had a scar that ran from his temple to the corner of his mouth. He came forward and greeted her politely, bowing his head in acknowledgment rather than shaking her hand.

She nodded her head back. “It’s a