Page 62 of Owen

“I’ll make some calls and get you access,” Ethan said.

Owen tossed the phone on the seat of Sophie’s car as he drove the last few miles to the base through traffic made worse by the spring breakers who had come to party at Virginia Beach. Getting past the guards at the entrance was easy enough. One recognized him and waved him through after a cursory check of his identification.

A warrant officer met Owen at the front door to the small office building used by the SEAL trainers and asked for Owen’s ID. This man scrutinized it, looking from Owen to the picture as precious seconds ticked past.

“That checks out. Follow me.” The warrant officer led him down the hall to Ethan’s office and unlocked the door. “I don’t have a key to his desk. Can’t help you there.”

“Don’t need one.” Owen went behind the desk and opened the left drawer. He felt underneath and quickly found the flash drive just where Ethan had promised it would be. He peeled the tape off and pocketed the drive. “Thanks for your help,” Owen said as he jogged past the other man and headed back for Sophie’s car.

Before he was even off the base, he called Ethan back. “I’ve got it.”

“Now tell me the rest of what’s going on.” Ethan demanded.

Owen gave a succinct replay of the call from Quinn and her demands. “I’m meeting Sophie and we’re going together to make the exchange,” he said after explaining the rest. “Did you tell Helen what was going on?”

“Hell, no. I’m headed your way since you might need back up, but I told her I got called to work. She believed me, I think, and she’s safe at the place we picked for our weekend getaway,” Ethan said. “Wish I could be there quicker, but I’m not going to reach you nearly two hours after the rendezvous time.”

“By then, I should have Quinn taken down.” At least, that was what he hoped—but there were too many variables, and he didn’t want to make the mistake of underestimating Quinn. “If something goes wrong, you’ll make sure Micky and Sophie are safe, right?” He didn’t need to ask, but he felt compelled to.

“You know I will. What aren’t you telling me? Is it something about Quinn? Is she working with someone?” Ethan asked.

“Not that I know of.”

“What’s gotten into you then? You don’t sound like yourself.”

Owen considered blowing off Ethan’s question, but he had no reason not to be honest with his friend. “It’s not about the mission. Sophie and I…we ended whatever it was that we had.” That wasn’t quite the truth, so he corrected his statement. “Iended it. I told her we had no future to discuss.”

“Jesus, Owen.” Ethan sounded exasperated. “What the hell were you thinking? Weren’t you going to talk with her and try to work things out?”

“I couldn’t do it.” Not that he’d tried very hard.

“You couldn’t let her in, could you?” Ethan asked bluntly since this was no time for dancing around an issue. “You’re an idiot. You said she met your family, right?”

“Yeah, my brother and sister-in-law,” he admitted. Ethan was one of the few people in the world that knew about Owen’s background and his issues with his family.

“And she defended you, right? Isn’t that what you told me? Doesn’t that count for something? She saw that they treated you like shit, and she had your back. Do you know how special that is?”

“Yeah, I know,” Owen responded through gritted teeth. She’d seen his vulnerability and tried to help. He pulled up the image of her facing down his brother and sister-in-law and then kissing him in front of them. It was almost enough to make him smile as he turned onto Virginia Beach Boulevard.

With the clarity that had only ever come to him during a mission, he saw their relationship. Sophie, who he’d judged and railed against, wasn’t at all the type to hurt others, to hold their insecurities against them. That had all been on him. She hadn’t started shutting down, shutting him out, until he’d done that to her first. God, he was a dumbass.

He’d felt he was failing her and the case, so he’d withdrawn. Retreated into his shell like a turtle threatened by a stick. He’d made a mistake, so many mistakes with her. He hadn’t spoken with her when he should have and then there’d been that stupid vision board. He could have shown her his heart as she had, but he’d made a joke out of it to protect himself.

“Sorry, man. I don’t mean to snap at you,” Ethan said. Owen had almost forgotten that they were still on the phone. “I’m worried about Micky. If something happens to him, I don’t know how I’ll tell Helen. It’ll crush her.”

And Sophie would feel the guilt of that forever since Owen and her had brought Micky into this. He couldn’t go back and change that, so he had to focus on getting Micky free and taking out Quinn.

“It’ll be all right. We’ll get him back,” Owen said because he had to believe that. Once this was settled, he had some words to say to Sophie. She might not accept the apology that he planned to give, she might not give him the second chance with her he longed for, but he had to ask.

“Good luck. We’ll talk soon.” Ethan hung up just as Owen pulled into the parking lot of the shopping plaza to wait for Sophie.

They had thirty minutes before the rendezvous time. Thirty minutes to come up with a plan to beat Quinn at her own game so he could try to win Sophie back.

* * *

Sophie waited until she saw people leaving the newspaper office for lunch and then snuck in the back door and headed down the stairs to the archive area. She was pretty sure she’d made it in without being seen. Now she just had to figure out where Jude had stashed the briefcase containing the knife. Micky had thought maybe one of the locked cabinets, so she used her lock picking device to open those.

Nothing. The cabinets were full, but not with what she needed.

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