AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Not with Naraj. I exchanged a few emails with Ayala just to check on things at the center, send some money and tell her about the fund-raiser.”
“When was the last time you heard from her?”
Hailey’s dark eyes got huge in her face. “A few weeks ago.”
“Did she mention anything out of the ordinary?”
“No. Should I contact her again?”
“You don’t have to tell her what’s going on over here. Just feel her out.”
“I’ll do that now.” She waved a hand at the laptop. “Is the video off?”
“I closed it and the email.” He opened the computer and turned around to face her. “It won’t bite.”
She approached the bed and dropped to her knees. Using the bed as a table, she launched her email and typed a message to Ayala. “I’m just asking her for a progress report and an accounting of the money I sent. I need that for my tax guy, anyway.”
She hit the send button with a flourish. “I’d better not find out anything has happened to Ayala, or I’m going to lose it. Do you think Andrew’s okay? Did those injuries look life-threatening to you? They’re not going to kill him, are they?”
“Like they killed Marten?”
Covering her mouth, she sat back on her heels. “What do they want, Joe? Do they want to shut us up? We’re not saying anything—at least, Andrew and I aren’t saying anything.”
“You don’t know what Andrew has or hasn’t said.”
“Are you trying to tell me he also retracted his story about Denver? Someone is going to a lot of trouble to keep driving that narrative forward.”
“You have no idea.” Joe bent his head forward and pinched the tight muscle at the back of his neck.
Hailey braced her hands on her thighs. “It’s more than us, isn’t it? They have more on Denver than just a few aid workers implicating him in a bombing, don’t they?”
“There’s a whole framework around him.” He shifted to the side and patted the bed. “Come up off the floor and have a seat.”
Her gaze darted to the spot he’d indicated, and she licked her lips.
Was she afraid of him? Afraid he’d make a move. She had called him when she got the video, so she must trust him on some level—maybe just not the sitting-with-him-on-her-bed level.
He pushed off the bed and grabbed the laptop. “Where do you want this?”
“You can plug it into the charger on the nightstand.” Rising, she wrapped her ponytail around her hand but still didn’t sit on the bed. “I’m going to call the FBI tomorrow morning. Do you want to be there when they question me? If they question me?”
“I’m sure they will want to talk to you, but I’m not gonna be there. I don’t want any government official to know I’m involved in this. I’m supposedly on leave, and I don’t think my superiors would appreciate my interference.”
“You’re not the only one...interfering, are you? You said they have more evidence against Denver that others debunked?”
“They do, and two of my Delta Force team members were able to poke holes in that evidence, but that hasn’t cleared Denver’s name or changed the course of this investigation. We need names. We need motives. Right now I have no idea why anyone would want to set up Denver.”
“I wish I could help you. How can I help you?”
Joe raised his brows at Hailey, arms folded, clutching the material of her pink-cloud pajamas. “Why do you want to help? Why do you go to places like Syria? It’s dangerous. You could be playing tennis and lunching like most rich women do.”
She tilted her head to the side, and her ponytail swung over her shoulder. “Is that your image of most rich women?”
“That’s what they seemed to be doing in Beacon Hill all the time.”
“And you know this how?”
He shrugged. “My mom used to clean house for them.”
Hailey blinked. “Oh. Well, some of us do more than that. I don’t even like tennis.”
“You must have something driving you. Guilt?”
A pink tint crept from her neck to her face, matching her pajamas. “What does that mean?”
