AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“So wait, this is totally off the books?” she asked.
“One hundred percent,” I confirmed.
“Then…how did they find me?”
I wasn’t following. “What do you mean?”
“Well, I thought someone must have leaked your…case notes, or reports, or whatever they are—and that when you told your superiors you were coming to find me, they—or someone else in the FBI—told Hayes’s men.”
“You assumed the FBI leaked information?”
She scoffed. “You’ve been to the RoW. How much trust do you think I have in government employees not to be corrupt?”
I…really didn’t have any reply I could give to that. And frankly, I couldn’t defend the FBI and say with real certainty we weren’t like that. I’d just told her I had my own suspicions someone in the bureau was taking their orders from Hayes. There was a reason that in all my searching, I hadn’t leaned on any of my FBI colleagues. The only people I trusted were my old SEAL team. Anyone else was suspect.
“So if they didn’t track me through an FBI leak, how did they find me?”
“I’m not sure,” I admitted, “but I heard some rumors underground that they were tailing you and closing in. That’s why I showed up today.”
Her eyes went wide. “That’s how they did it, then.”
“Did what?”
“That’s how they figured out where I was. They weren’t closing in—they had no idea where I was—but they knew you were working on tracking me down.”
“Wait,” I interrupted. “How can you be sure they didn’t know where you were?”
“You saw them,” she said. “They’re as subtle as bricks to the face. They were the same way in Las Vegas. There was no wait, so if they’d been watching me, they would have grabbed me already. No, what they did was put out word that they were closing in…and then wait for you to lead them right to me.”
“No way,” I argued. “I wasn’t followed here—I can guarantee that.”
“You weren’t tailed here,” she countered. “But could you have been tracked? Ever check your car for trackers?”
“Fuck,” I muttered, feeling like an idiot. I had led them right to her. I should have suspected some kind of trap, but I’d spent so long trying to track her down, and at the prospect that Hayes’s men might get to her first, I’d jumped into action without thinking it through. That wasn’t like me—and I couldn’t let it happen again. No matter what, I had to keep my wits about me. That was the only way I was going to be able to keep her safe. “Where are you parked?” I asked. We were coming up to the diner. Luckily, the police had come and gone, and there didn’t seem to be a big crowd gathered.
“The gravel lot,” she said. “Around the back.”
I maneuvered around the building and parked beside a beat-up Honda Civic. “Can that thing travel?” I asked. If her theory proved right, we were going to need to switch vehicles…but hers wasn’t in the best shape.
“She’ll do just fine,” Nataliya said. “She’s gotten us this far.”
“There any record tying it to you?”
She shook her head. “I bought it after we left Las Vegas in cash through a Craigslist ad…and I changed the license plate once we settled here.”
Smart and gorgeous, I mused. It was a dangerous combination I could not think about right now. “I need to check my car,” I said.
We got out, and she stood and watched, head on a swivel, as I lay on the ground, examining the undercarriage of the car. I reached, and my fingers found a piece of something attached to the drive shaft. I detached it and brought it out into the light.
Standing up, I showed it to her. The tracker was the size of my thumb nail, and it was military-grade, not the kind someone could buy at the local electronics store. Nataliya let out an impressed whistle. “That looks expensive.”
I dropped the thing on the ground and crushed it under my heel. “Now, it’s broken.” I looked at her car. “We should check your car too. Just in case.” Again, she watched as I did a sweep, but this time, there was nothing.
I got my go-bag from my car and motioned for her to open her trunk. My eyebrows went up when I saw a hefty duffle stashed in there already. “You keep a go-bag in your car?” I asked.
“Always,” she said. “It has all the essentials for Elias and me,” she said impatiently. “There’s nothing important at the apartment.”
I had to admit I was impressed. She thought like a SEAL: prepare for the worst and hope for the best. I stowed my bag next to hers and closed the trunk, then turned and held my hand out for the key. “I’ll drive us to the school so we can get your son.”
