Chapter Eight #3
She winced. “I found out about it last night during the picnic and drove over.”
“Who’s seen what’s on the flash drive?” Luke wanted to know.
“Besides Leo and me, Tyler handled the decryption.”
“All right.”
Two words, and Anja felt the shift through the phone, the ninety seconds of fury folding neatly into operational mode. She’d seen it happen in person a dozen times, and it never got less impressive.
“We need to keep this off the books for now,” she insisted. “The inside threat is unconfirmed. I don’t know how far it extends.”
“Understood.” Logan transformed immediately into problem-solving mode. “We’ll send Remi over to assist you. Whatever gear you need, get a list to Tank ASAP and Remi can bring it with him.”
Perfect. “I’ll need a safe house. Two, actually. One for us here in St. Louis and one for Devonte’s family in Baton Rouge.”
“BeBe can have both for you by morning,” Luke assured her.
“I doubt she’ll enjoy a call this late on a Saturday.”
“BeBe enjoys everything.” Logan chuckled. “It’s unnerving.”
Her smile faded. “One more thing.”
“Chloe,” Logan guessed before she could get there.
“Kayne would kill me if Leo was in danger and I didn’t give him a heads-up.” Not to mention that Chloe wouldn’t be able to leave the compound until this was resolved.
Luke replied, “We’ll let you handle that call.”
Fantastic. And here she’d been hoping they’d fall on their swords for her.
“Take care of yourself out there,” Logan added. “Keep us posted.”
She thanked them both and disconnected.
Down the hall, she could hear the muffled sounds of a closet door opening, then a drawer. She had maybe five minutes.
She pulled up Kayne’s number. The photo on his contact page was the one she’d taken herself at his and Chloe’s wedding, mostly because she’d wanted evidence that the man was capable of smiling, which she had no reason to believe before that evening.
It was a great picture. He looked annoyingly happy in it.
“Hey, Anja.” He answered fast, not groggy at all. Technically, he was still a newlywed, and she cringed, wondering what she’d interrupted. “What’s up?”
“I need you to listen before you react.”
“Well, that’s never a great opening. Hang on.”
She heard muffled voices and the distinct sound of kissing. She almost hung up out of respect, but then a door closed.
“What’s going on?”
“Chloe is safe right now, and I need you to remember that and stay calm while I tell you the rest.”
He didn’t speak, which spoke volumes.
She gave him the short version. Concise and direct, with the facts in the necessary order. She told him about the dossier and the fundraiser, then about the photographs that had arrived at Leo’s building tonight.
The silence on his end lasted long enough for her to count it. “Kayne?”
“I’m here.”
“Leo’s going to call her, but I wanted you to hear it first.”
“How is Leo?”
“He’s okay,” she responded.
“That’s not what I asked.”
She considered deflecting but decided against it. “He’s holding up better than he should be. He’ll hit a wall at some point.”
“And you’ll be there when he does.”
It wasn’t a question. “I’m not going anywhere,” she assured him. “Not until this is done.”
The quality of his silence shifted, and when he spoke again, the flat control in his voice was gone.
The ice remained, but it was banked now.
He was putting himself in the box he’d built for himself over the years of being the most dangerous person in the room who also happened to love people.
“Good. Then stay. What do you need from me?”
“I don’t need to tell you to watch Chloe, but watch Chloe. Don’t let her leave the compound alone until we can figure out what’s going on.”
“She’s not going to love that, but done.”
“I’ll keep you posted.”
“I’ll have my phone on.”
She ended the call, then heard Leo’s footsteps in the hallway.
He came in wearing a T-shirt and dark sweats, holding two mugs of tea, one of which he handed to her.
She thanked him and took a sip of the hot brew. “Luke and Logan have been looped in. They’re sending an operative to help and setting up safe houses for us and for Devonte’s family.”
“And Kayne?”
“Briefed. Chloe doesn’t leave the compound without coverage.”
“In less than fifteen minutes, you mobilized an entire team.”
“It’s what I do.”
“I know.” He paused. “I enjoy watching you do it.”
She took a sip of her tea. Two people who had already crossed every professional line once sat on opposite sides of a guest room and carefully avoided everything neither of them was ready to say.
It was, she thought, a very loud kind of silence.
“We should sleep. We’re going to need it.”
Leo nodded, but didn’t move right away. Then he took her empty cup and paused in the doorway. “Goodnight, Anja.”
“Goodnight, Leo.”
Anja heard him move down the hall. Heard the door close, not fully. She glanced out the window. Somewhere out there, the person who’d built that dossier and mailed those photographs and put a red circle around a twenty-two-year-old girl’s head was presumably sleeping.
That was all right.
They would run out of sleep soon enough.