57. GRAYSON
57
GRAYSON
“Are you alone?” Daniel’s voice infected my cell.
I eyed Barry in my passenger seat and Seth in the back seat. My instinct was to lie to Daniel, but I had no idea if he could somehow see us right now or if this was a test. Nor what he’d do if I failed it.
“I’m not,” I answered.
I listened intently for any signs of where he might be—planes near O’Hare or Midway airports, the grinding metallic sound of the “L” train—but there was nothing. The silence itself was a clue, really.
Maybe he wasn’t in the city. Or maybe he was far enough away from windows that the sounds of the city would not penetrate his phone.
“Then, give no indication who you’re talking to,” he demanded.
Figuring out his location would be difficult, but it was the only way to get the police to take him into custody tonight . If the CIA wanted to spend twenty-four hours vetting the evidence against Daniel before they officially labeled him a traitor, that was their prerogative, but Daniel had committed crimes. With him in a jail cell tonight, I’d breathe easier, waiting for the CIA to finish their work.
“If you’re aware of who I’m with,” I said, “you’re fighting an uphill battle there.”
“I heard about your meeting.” Daniel’s voice was accusatory.
“I figured you would.”
“I thought I could trust you.”
“Ditto,” I replied flatly.
“You made a very big mistake, going up against me, Grayson.”
“Ditto.”
Daniel sighed. He was lucky I was holding back what I wanted to say to him.
“We need to talk in person,” Daniel insisted in a firm tone.
“That’s not going to happen.”
“If you care about your family, you’ll make it happen.”
I gritted my teeth, swallowing the retorts he deserved. “Elaborate.”
“If you don’t want anything bad to happen to your family or that little girlfriend of yours, you will find a way to meet me. Alone.”
Fuck. Did he have eyes on them right now? Was he aware of where they were? Or was he bluffing? I needed more information to launch a counterattack against his moves.
“Everyone is safe,” I baited.
“Are they?” Daniel antagonized.
I clenched the steering wheel tighter with my right hand, Barry looking over at me with an eyebrow raised.
“We don’t need to make this complicated, Grayson. I’m about to text you an address. You will show up to it, alone.”
“You think I’m stupid enough to do that?” Stupid enough to believe that Daniel would reveal his location? If he was luring me to an address alone, it was to take me out.
Not that I could say that; even if it was a fruitless effort, I would at least attempt to maintain discretion for the sake of keeping my family safe.
“It’s about time you and I had a little chat.”
“So, talk,” I said.
“In person.”
Unbelievable.
“Sure,” I said, hiding the sarcasm in my tone. Well, mostly. “Text me that information.”
A pause elapsed.
“If you think I haven’t taken precautions to ensure you don’t do something stupid with the information, you’ve severely underestimated me.”
I ground my molars. “What is it, exactly, that you’re looking to get out of this?” The idea that he could lure a trained agent into what was probably an attempt on my life with a vague threat against my family was absurd.
“We have something important to discuss.”
“Which is?”
“We’ll talk about it when you get here.”
When . What a presumptuous asshole.
“That’s never going to happen,” I repeated.
“I knew you’d need encouragement.” Daniel’s voice was a mixture of annoyance and offense.
My cell phone buzzed. Pulling it away from my ear to look at what he’d sent me, my heart sank.
It was a picture of Ivy wearing the same shirt she’d been wearing when I left her—one she’d borrowed from Luna. Which meant this picture was taken within the last couple of hours, and if that was true, Daniel had already penetrated our security defenses.
Based on the angle of the photo, Ivy was unaware the picture was being taken. She was not bound or blindfolded, nor did she have a gun to her head.
And I’d just spoken to her…
I urgently replayed our conversation, looking for any clues that she might’ve been under duress, but couldn’t find any. In fact, before I’d left, we’d come up with a code word to use in distress—Dad. A simple thing she could say to alert me to trouble. She hadn’t used it.
So, no, Daniel hadn’t abducted Ivy.
But someone had taken this photograph of her, and since Hunter’s security team would never allow a stranger close enough to capture this image, the conclusion was inescapable—Hunter’s security had been compromised.