Epilogue
Nick sat at the end of the bar nursing his Jack and Coke as he watched and listened to people around the bar. He had to call in a lot of favors to break through WITSEC security to track down the woman who’d broken into his bases.
She hadn’t been at home so he’d tracked her down at her work. It was a dive bar off the beaten path. It wasn’t the place he’d expect a hired killer and the one responsible for stealing military secrets over the past few months to work, but he’d learned to expect the unexpected.
Normally, he’d send one of his people on assignment to extract, but this felt personal to him. He wanted to be the one responsible for the arrest.
He had a gun and his cuffs tucked in the back of his pants. He might be older and delegate more than during his younger years, but he could still take down one woman.
Nick glanced up when a woman matching the surveillance photo came out from a room behind the bar carrying a large tray of glasses in her hand. She wore a lacy red top, jean shorts, and black boots.
The woman’s eyes darted around the crowd before focusing on putting the glasses away. She looked nervous; good. She might make a mistake that would make his job easier.
One of the other bartenders came up to her looking tired and haggard. “Thanks for covering me, Andrea. I owe you one.”
“It’s no big deal,” Andrea said, shrugging her shoulders. “I don’t have anything else going on.”
No, just stealing government secrets and selling them on the black market.
“You’re young and pretty; you should be getting out there and dating,” the woman encouraged her.
A small, wan smile crossed Andrea’s face. “I’m not looking for anyone right now.”
“You’ve been saying that since you moved here a few years ago. What do you do besides work?”
Nick cocked his head to hear the conversation better without being obvious.
The bar wasn’t overly crowded, but it was noisy with talking and a game playing on the TV.
Had the woman said Andrea had lived here for years?
The base attacks started a few months ago.
That didn’t sound right. He assumed she’d come here to settle while things cooled off.
“I do plenty of stuff. Now enough talk, and get out of here before I change my mind.” Andrea smiled even as she threatened the woman.
“Alright,” the woman held up her hands in surrender, “I’ll drop the issue. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
“Night, Lucy.”
“Night, Andrea.”
Nick glanced at Andrea as Lucy left. It was the same woman from the photo, but there was something off about her.
This didn’t look like the kind of woman who stole secrets and sold them.
She looked kind and soft. Something about this seemed wrong.
He just couldn’t put his finger on it. This case wasn’t turning out to be so cut and dry like he’d first thought.
He needed to do some more investigating.
Nick finished his drink and put some bills on the counter before he left, pulling out his phone once he was outside. He knew just the man for the job who was good with women and getting them to confess anything.
“Jack, I have a job for you. Come down to Florida. I have a task that requires your special skill set. No, not the killing kind. Yep, that’s the one.
” Nick got in his car with a smile on his face.
If this woman was pretending to be a goody-two-shoes, Jack would sniff her out in a second.
No woman could resist Jack Williams’ charms.