Chapter 13
Rowan straightened automatically when Adalyn stepped into the office that Gage and Hailey were using to work—and tried not to stare at her in her workout gear.
A tiny sports bra and shorts were normal workout clothes, but on her… He rolled his shoulders once, unable to move his gaze away from her.
She gave him a brisk nod, then smiled at the others. Which just annoyed him to no end. She might as well be a magnet for him, but not vice versa. Not when she dismissed him so easily. Of course, he probably deserved it for blaming her for things out of her control.
“So what’s up?” she asked.
“Gage and I found something this morning,” Hailey said without looking up from one of the computer screens.
“You found it,” Gage growled, more to himself than Hailey, Rowan was sure. And there was self-recrimination in those three words.
Hailey shook her head. “Nah. It was a team effort.”
Rowan was surprised Gage was so chill about sharing a space but it was clear that these two liked to nerd out together and definitely spoke the same language.
“Omar Ali has rented a place on the water. On the other side of Lake Pontchartrain,” Gage said. “He’s not using his real name, but it’s him.”
Adalyn frowned, clearly trying to place the name. “Omar… Wait, Bes Ali’s cousin? He’s a lot younger than him and was never into gunrunning.”
Hailey swiveled in her chair. “He’s into it now. And I can’t actually find a link to him and the bombing or the murder of Clara Fournier, but he wouldn’t be that sloppy. Not when he went to a lot of trouble to enter the country under a pseudonym. And we don’t know why he’s here yet either, but we’re digging deep.”
“I’ve still got some contacts I trust.” Not as many as she’d like, but she had them. “I’ll reach out now that we’ve got a name. Unless…I’m the reason he’s here. But that seems like a stretch.”
“Does it?” Hailey lifted an eyebrow.
Rowan simply cleared his throat. “If he thinks you killed his cousin, who was more like an older brother to him, the only father figure he ever had, then it doesn’t feel like a stretch to me.”
Adalyn simply frowned and didn’t confirm one way or another what she’d done. But he knew that she’d killed Bes Ali for his betrayal. Clearly they all did. “I just don’t want to jump to conclusions, but fine, it does seem strange that he’s here. Especially if he’s never traveled here before?”
“We’re not sure about that,” Gage said. “What we’ve found so far suggests no, but we’re still digging. He only recently took over his cousin’s former operations, got things running again.”
“Could be he wants to kill you as an example,” Rowan added.
Which just earned him a glare from Adalyn, but she didn’t respond otherwise.
“I don’t think you’re the only reason he’s here,” Gage added, still working. “He brought too many people with him. No, I think he’s going to use the port to move his weapons. And killing you might just be a bonus.”
“Do you have good images of him? Can you check them against the clips we have from the murder?”
Gage turned around then even as Hailey gave her a disbelieving look.
She held up her palms. “I’m not questioning your skills, just asking if you guys can run the comparison.”
“We’ve already done it,” Hailey added. “He’s the same height and build as the guy who shot Clara.”
“Well, crap,” Adalyn muttered.
Yep, that about summed it up for Rowan. This guy was bad news, had every reason to want Adalyn dead, and was now in New Orleans and suddenly she started receiving threatening texts from a murdering bastard? Rowan didn’t believe in coincidences.
“What do you want us to do?” Rowan asked.
“You’re going to do on-the-ground recon. Or on-the-water recon,” Hailey continued. “He’s staying on the water so you’ll be able to run drones from a boat. And get away easily if necessary.”
“I’m going too,” Adalyn added, turning her glare on Rowan as if she expected him to argue. “And if you say otherwise, I’ll punch your face.”
“What’s up with the violent impulse to punch my face?”
“Your face is punchable.”
Yeah, well her face was gorgeous and he wished that her impulse would be to ride his face, not punch it. “Violence isn’t always the answer.”
She sniffed once. “In my experience, more often than not, it is.”