AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“If it’s not him, it will be someone else. Right now, I have someone on him. I’m hoping he leads me not just to her brother, but also the director who stole government property before Kyle stole it from him.”
Kenna was finally seeing the bigger picture. “I’m guessing this top secret prototype is related to espionage.”
“You should stop guessing and get ready to leave,” the agent warned.
“I can’t just leave. I have a job, responsibilities to my students. Marcus’s funeral. I have a life here.” Not that it had been so great the last several years. But she’d made a vow to herself to change all that and focus on herself and go after what she wanted.
She’d tried to kick-start a relationship, first with Sean, then Marcus, that would take her into the next chapter of her life.
How’s that working out for you?
Shitty, thank you very much, she answered that annoying voice in her head.
“Why do I have to give up my life for days, weeks, months, however long this takes?”
“To keep you alive. That’s why,” Max snapped.
Right. She needed some sleep to clear her head. But this was going way too fast. It felt like her life was out of control. “I don’t have what they want.”
“Are you sure?” Agent Gunn pinned her in his gaze.
She remembered Kyle’s odd behavior last night. “Do you know exactly what it is?”
Agent Gunn narrowed his gaze and thought for a moment before he spoke, obviously trusting her withmore information to get what he ultimately wanted. “Kyle wouldn’t want to store it on a server. The prototype would fill multiple hard drives. Our information says that Kyle put those in a secure vault that only he can access with a key, which is actually a thumb drive, and a password.”
She grinned. Maybe she could end all this. “I think I know where it is.”
Agent Gunn perked up. “Great. Tell me where, and I’ll go get it.”
“My place was trashed. I have no idea if it’s still there, or exactly where you’ll find it in all the mess. Plus, I could be wrong. Who knows? Maybe that thug found it and took it.”
“I don’t think so,” Hunt chimed in again. “Or he wouldn’t have said it’s not over. He didn’t finish his job. And he left a loose end.”
Max swore under his breath. “Find this thing for them, so they can arrest this guy,” he ordered her.
Agent Gunn frowned. “Come on, let’s go.”
She sighed and spelled out the piece Max forgot. “Even if I find it for you, I’m still going into protective custody indefinitely until this guy leads you to the other, right?”
“Yes.” When she frowned and huffed out her frustration, he added, “But it’s more than that. You could be used as a means to get to your brother. Do you understand?”
Her throat went tight and her breath stopped. “Yes.”
“What if she stayed here?” Hunt blurted out. “It’s abig spread. Lots of men working here to keep an eye on her and the place. Anyone who doesn’t belong would be spotted immediately. She’d have some freedom here, instead of being locked in a cramped room for god knows how long.” The whole time Hunt spoke, he kept his gaze locked with Max’s.
Max clenched his jaw, but didn’t say anything.
“I couldn’t possibly impose on the Wilde family,” she said diplomatically and emphatically.
“I can put a couple men on the ranch to watch over her.” Agent Gunn actually considered it.
“You mean to use her as bait,” Max bit out. “If the guy who vowed, ‘This isn’t over,’ doesn’t come for her, maybe her brother will feel like it’s safer to approach her here than at some hotel.” Max was trying to protect her.
She appreciated it. She hadn’t thought of any of that. Like she hadn’t considered that she’d be used as a pawn to get to Kyle.
She also agreed with Max. Staying here was not a good idea. For reasons that had nothing to do with her brother at all and everything to do with sparing Max any more upset.
“She’d be protected,” Agent Gunn assured everyone.
