AllFreeNovel
Share Us
The way he said it made her go all fluttery inside.
She’d put up with Mason’s repeated attempts to hit on her because the NDA with Gardner Holdings prevented her from taking action. The idea of flirting outrageously with her fake client with his big muscles and wildly good looks in front of the little prick who’d done everything he could to all but own her had a certain delicious appeal.
Chapter Forty-Eight
It took more than an hour to get to the rendezvous point near Baltimore. Diana was relieved to see Freya’s husband, Cal, sitting on the designated bench that faced Chesapeake Bay.
Diana stayed in the car while Chris approached the bench with the tracker in a paper coffee cup. He took a sip as he dropped on the bench, then set the cup on the seat next to Cal.
He sat there for a few minutes, taking sips and looking at the water.
She imagined they had the kind of conversation two strangers would share, observations on the gulls that swooped in the air above the bay. A person walking a dog passed by. The dog paused before Cal, and he scratched it behind the ears. She guessed the dog walker was another player on Team Diana, and she felt a rush of thanks and affection for these people who were rallying to help her.
The dog walker continued on, and Chris stood, leaving the cup on the bench. He walked toward the public restroom.
While he was inside, Cal grabbed the coffee cup and sipped. She never saw the motion in which he pocketed the tracker, but next thing she knew, he threw the cup in the trash and headed down the path.
From there, she guessed it would take a journey mapped out by Freya, designed to convince anyone monitoring the device that Chris was still unaware he was being tracked. Cal would drive various places in the area to keep it in motion for at least the rest of the day, but eventually it would end up in a garbage can in the parking garage at Dulles Airport.
How long until news was released that no bodies had been found in the destroyed house?
Had the police been able to track down the homeowner? Had Xavier been questioned? Freya had promised to notify Xavier that Chris and Diana were alive.
Diana was at a loss for what to do about the destroyed vacation rental. Who would pay for that? Did homeowners’ insurance pay for terrorist acts?
Chris climbed back into the vehicle, and they set out. They had their own planned route, and it would take them to Baltimore Washington International Airport to pick up a car left there by someone connected to Freya just in case there was another less obvious tracker attached to Chris’s SUV.
From BWI, they would head to a place in Virginia that Freya had arranged. They’d have a new safe house, and once there, Diana would be able to upload the video she’d taken of the explosion so it could be analyzed.
They would find out who was behind this. And maybe, just maybe, they’d be able to convince the State Department that Diana shouldn’t be extradited.
Kira’s penchant for keeping her head down meant she didn’t see most of the hungry looks Mason Gardner sent her way. Except the looks weren’t just hungry, they were something else that triggered all of Rand’s protective instincts.
And his possessive ones.
It probably made him just as bad as the prick of an heir.
Still, he didn’t mind that Kira leaned toward him every time Mason tried to crowd her, which was constantly as they all stood at the conference table as she reviewed the paperwork Gillibrand provided.
She leaned in close and whispered in his ear when she found the name Freya had flagged—Harun Taha. “Pretend I’m saying something sexual.”
He tilted back his head and laughed; her words were so unexpected. And he didn’t have to pretend because the statement was sexual all on its own.
“I’ll keep that in mind,” he said in a whisper loud enough for Gardner to hear.
Gardner glowered.
Rand looked at a photo of a small vase. It was labeled as being a calcite alabaster tripod vase from the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B period. Small and gray with rounded sides and very, very old. “This will look great in my study, don’t you think?” He wanted to say bedroom, but knew that would be going too far for Kira’s professional reputation. She still had to work with Gillibrand in the future.
“You’re just kicking the tires, Fallon.” Gardner’s tone was surly. This was a man who’d never faced the word no. Well, except from Kira, he’d guess.
And if the little prick hadn’t accepted a no from Kira, he’d have to kill him.
Kira drew everyone’s attention to the documents spread out on the table. “Harun Taha. His name has come up in my research recently. He’s suspected of dealing in stolen goods, if I remember correctly.”
“Bullshit.”
Rand waited to see if the man would admit to previous dealings with Taha, but he clammed up. Kira’s identification had put him on the alert.
