Nori's Delta (Delta Team Three #1) - Lori Ryan Page 0,48

be a diversion for a rescue operation. You could be killed doing that.”

She leveled him with a look and crossed her own arms. She didn’t have the advantage of that bolstering up her arm muscles to the point of distraction the way he did but she didn’t care.

“If we pull me from the talks now, he’ll know exactly what’s happening. And you can pull me out at the last minute, when it’s too late for him to do anything about it. You’ll be right outside the room when we meet and you know there’s only one exit to that room. What is he going to do?”

Heath seemed to seethe and she could see he was clenching his teeth. He unhinged them long enough to yell. “What is he going to do? How about kill you? How about that?”

His team came in behind him but she ignored them. She had faith in Heath’s ability to take care of her. This was a man who’d grown so much from the boy she once knew. He was sharp and strong and so damned capable. There was none of the wild kid who used to bluster his way through shit.

This man knew how to keep her safe. She was sure of that.

Now she had to convince him. “He’ll have no reason to do that if you don’t give him a reason to. We can keep my team here if you want. Beth can come with us but I can send her back to the hotel for something so they don’t suspect anything. Then you’ll just interrupt and pull me out saying there’s been an emergency at the last minute.”

Her hands clenched in frustration. Why was he treating her like this? She had a job to do. She thought he’d have her back at that.

Merlin spoke from behind her. “We just got the call, Woof. She’s going in. She gets one more shot at this agreement. Team Two will be watching the bunker. If they see the chance to go in, they’ll take it and we’ll pull Eleanor.”

The curses that came from Heath’s mouth weren’t pretty.

That was okay. She didn’t need him to be happy. She just needed him to let her do her job.

Chapter 26

“Then I believe we have an agreement, Ms. Bonham. I will release the hostages 24 hours from now and your government will give me the agreed-upon satellite images,” Demir said.

He stood with several of his advisors behind him. His brother sat in the corner texting. It was where he’d been for the entirety of the talks. It was good because that meant he wasn’t over at the bunker. As one of Demir’s main fighters and the leader of his military forces, it helped to know he wasn’t where the raid would take place if it had to happen.

Eleanor hesitated a beat at his insistence on the 24 hours, but she supposed that he wanted time to set up the exchange for the images. She wouldn’t be involved in that. That handover would happen through a military team, maybe even Heath’s team, after she went back to the US.

Her job was done. There would be no written document between her government and Demir. Nothing that anybody could trace back to show what the US government was doing in the region. But she’d done it. Thanks to this agreement, they would get the support they needed to shut off the weapons trade and they’d get the hostages out without anyone having to put their lives on the line.

Heath and Duff were outside the door here and Merlin had taken Beth back to the hotel, so they wouldn’t be in the line of fire, but Zip and Jangles were with Delta Team Two at the bunker. She felt better knowing they would be safe now instead of headed into a situation where they could be hurt or even killed.

She nodded and held out her hand. “We have an agreement.”

The watch on Demir’s arm vibrated and he glanced at it before tapping something to dismiss the alert.

He grinned as he shook her hand. “Will you do me the honor of joining my brother and I for dinner before you leave?”

“I would be honored, but first I need to let my people know we have an agreement in place.” If she didn’t the raid might go ahead and that couldn’t happen.

They stood and Farid’s brother came forward. He leaned in as if he were going to speak to Demir as he’d done so many times