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“There’s a man named Alexander Duggan,” Dan continues, his voice low. “For the last several months, I’ve been following a trail involving military weapons and classified information. At first, I thought I was dealing with separate incidents. Missing inventory. Leaked information. Transactions that didn’t make sense. Then I started finding connections.”

“And Duggan is the connection.”

“Yes.”

I run a hand over my jaw. “What exactly is he doing?”

“I don’t know everything yet. But I know he has access to people he shouldn’t have access to, and he’s been selling things that should never leave government hands. Weapons. Information. Military secrets. I’ve been gathering evidence, but the deeper I got, the worse it became.”

“Why haven’t you taken it to your superiors?”

His silence answers the question before he speaks. “Because I don’t know who I can trust. I think Duggan has friends in high places, Roman. Government, military, law enforcement. I don’t know how far it goes, and I don’t know who is protecting him.”

I push away from the counter. “Does he know you’re investigating him?”

“I think he does now.”

Fuck. I look toward the dark windows overlooking the city, suddenly wishing Dan were standing in front of me instead of hundreds of miles away.

“Where are you?”

“D.C.”

“I’m coming.”

“No.” The answer is immediate.

My jaw tightens. “Dan…”

“Listen to me. I got an anonymous tip tonight,” he says. “I don’t know who sent it, but whoever it was knew details they shouldn’t have known. They told me Duggan is aware of what I have.”

My grip tightens around the phone. “What do you have?”

“Enough. I gathered everything I could and put it on an encrypted drive. Names, transactions, photographs, messages, everything I’ve been able to connect to Duggan.”

“Where is it?”

“I sent it to Cora.”

I close my eyes briefly. Dan’s daughter.

I haven’t seen Cora in years. The last time was during one of the rare occasions Dan and I had managed to be in the same place at the same time. She was still a teenager then, all bright energy and loud opinions. She’s twenty now, a college student with a life I know almost nothing about.

Dan had raised her alone after her mother died. She was everything to him.

“Where is she?” I ask.

“At school. I had the package delivered to her dorm. She should have it by now.”

My eyes open. “You sent evidence connected to a military weapons operation to your daughter?”

“I didn’t have another choice. I needed it somewhere Duggan wouldn’t think to look. Cora doesn’t know what’s on it. As far as she knows, I sent her something personal for safekeeping.”

I know him well enough to understand how serious the situation must be. Dan would never deliberately put Cora in danger. Which means he believes she’s already in danger.

“What do you need me to do?”

“I need you to get to her.”