Page 38 of Her Forever SEAL

“That's control,” Angie said immediately. “Classic leverage. Whoever has Bree is keeping Lettie afraid and isolated. Any deviation, they've told her, blows back on the people around her.”

“It's working. Angie…she said for Kayla's sake.”

A beat.

“She named Kayla specifically?”

“Yes.”

The line was quiet for a moment.

“I need to run something down,” Angie said, and her voice had shifted. Flat. Professional. “Give me until noon.”

“Noon,” Sophia repeated. Then she headed inside.

The work routine helped. Hands in dough, eyes on timers, the warm, close smell of butter and sugar. She'd been doing this for more than twenty years and her body knew the motions completely, which meant her brain could move independently.

She shuddered as she realized that just five blocks from her was a woman named Mary who knew where Bree Bowman was. Who was holding a fourteen-year-old girl against her will. It made her sick.

Her phone rang just before noon. Lydia, not Angie. She rushed to her office and closed her door.

“I found something.” Lydia's voice had its flat, careful quality. The one that meant she was being precise because what she was about to say mattered. “I've been looking at how Mary's digital identity was built. It's sophisticated. It would pass casual scrutiny. But there's a pattern to the construction that Rylie recognized. Certain choices in how the backstory was anchored.”

Sophia sat down behind her desk. “Where have you seen it?”

“We've been cross-referencing. The pattern matches a set of constructed identities we've tracked in connection with West African militant networks. Not definitively. There's no direct line. But the signature is there.”

The bakery was quiet around her. The Boko Haram. How many times had their men gone on missions against that terrorist group? Five times? Ten times? Was it a coincidence? It had to be, this had nothing to do with the Midnight Delta team.

“Lydia, what do you think of all of this?”

“The Boko Haram is not known for espionage. But someone could be using their models. It’s possible this has nothing to do with them.”

“What’s your gut say?”

“If you want a gut response, ask Rylie. I look at facts. Let me track this down some more.”

That was right. That was Lydia.

“Okay. What are our next steps?”

“We find the girl,” Lydia said simply.

“Right. Can you do that?”

“Yes. Give us just a little bit of time.”

“What can I do?” Sophia asked.

“Sit tight.”

“Wrong answer.”

“Sit tight until tomorrow. Can you do that?”

Sophia considered Lydia’s request. “Yes.”

“Good. That’s good. Remember. This is what we do. We’re damn good at it.”