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“Perfect.” The encrypted thumb drive had copies of the photos, their burner phone number, and Diana’s log-in and password for the email account that received the original photos. Everything Freya would need to get in touch and get started searching for the IP address. He reached for his boots and pulled them on.
“You going somewhere?” she asked.
“Going to drop the drive, and then I’m meeting with Rand for a beer. Cover for going out.” He finished lacing the left boot and moved to the right.
“Meeting Rand is a risk if he’s being watched.”
He paused in his task and lifted his head to meet her gaze. Her expression was as blank as a bullet packed with cotton wadding. “You have reason to think someone is watching Rand?”
She shrugged. “I’m just struggling with who to trust.”
He rose and crossed the short space to her and placed a knuckle under her chin, lifting her gaze to meet his. Up close, her eyes gave a hint of confusion she was mostly good at hiding.
He leaned down and kissed her. Soft and undemanding. She leaned into him, her body pliant.
Okay. It wasn’t him she didn’t trust.
He released her and took the thumb drive from the counter and slipped it into his pocket. “Lock up behind me. I’ll be out late, making sure cameras get me in town. Don’t wait up.”
She nodded.
“Don’t go online without using the VPN on the tablet, and don’t check your email, even with that.”
“I know.”
Before heading for the door, he turned and kissed her one more time, his tongue dipping into her mouth.
Damn. He wanted to stay. Pretend something hadn’t shifted between them when she spoke with Boyd, but there was no putting that genie back in the bottle. He had to trust Boyd wouldn’t screw them over.
If the guy hadn’t been endorsed by Xavier, he’d already have ditched the burner phone and moved them to a new safe house.
Instead, he was leaving Diana alone.
He took a complicated route to the drop site, watching for a tail. He didn’t imagine anyone could have followed them to this point, but stranger things had happened. He wouldn’t start getting lazy now.
Ninety minutes after leaving Diana, he planted the thumb drive under a trash bin at the playground, then was back on the road, taking another twisted route into the city. His car had an E-ZPass and even though he’d avoided toll roads, he wouldn’t be surprised to know there were RFID sensors on the bridges in and out of DC.
Once he was over a bridge and inside the city, he pulled into a parking lot near the Lincoln Memorial and texted Rand.
Chris
Just got to the city. You still at your sister’s?
Rand
Yeah. Be at the bar in thirty. Ran into Albrecht in the lobby after you texted. Told him to join us.
Even better. Albrecht seemed like a good guy, but Chris didn’t know him well. Young, skilled, and eager. Chris would be his commander when Rand moved up and out.
Twenty minutes later, Chris was in the pub and grabbed a large booth by the window. The curved booth he’d shared with Diana was a dozen feet away, and he felt a longing to be back in that moment.
Wild to think that was just three nights ago.
Seeing her then had energized him. Those first touches that signaled interest. It had been a fucking amazing night, and he wanted more of that.
The server came and took his beer order, just what he needed to break his trance as he looked at the booth that was now home to a Black couple who, from their body language, he assumed had been together for a while. Comfortable, happy.
He scanned the room, and his gaze met that of a Black woman with friends standing by the bar. Their gazes held just long enough to not be casual.
