“Why didn’t my father tell me any of this?” Odie asked. “He knew about Dharr. The terrorists. The mission…” Her voice hitched.
“He didn’t know until long after the mission. A year later. It’s what got him killed. It’s what got Frasier killed, too.” He hesitated. “And Kate.”
She fell into another lapse of thought, no doubt still reeling with the discovery that her husband had been murdered.
“Calan set it all up,” she finally said, almost to herself.
It appeared that way. Jag still had some unanswered questions.
“Why did Frasier arrange for this to be sent to you?” Jag asked. Why not Roth?
“I don’t know. Maybe because of the connection to Sage,” Luis said. “Frasier’s brother was part of the team and he knew I was close to Edward.”
The senator must not know Frasier had gone to Roth. He saw Odie watching Luis, probably wondering about the same thing. Had Frasier learned something about Roth? Something that had made him turn to Luis?
“I’m so sorry, Odelia,” Luis said. “I know this is going to be like losing Sage all over again. I saw what it did to you before. I shudder to think what knowing he was murdered will do.”
Seeing her tear up, Jag felt a stab of apprehension. Odie was strong, stronger than any other woman he’d ever met and it was one of the things he liked about her most, but would she ever be able to overcome her loss and love another man the way she’d loved Sage? Once again he found himself backing away.
He didn’t want to put his heart on a chopping block again. One too many times he’d misjudged the woman he was with, misjudged the relationship. And he’d come out of the experience with more to lose. Every time, particularly the last time, he’d invested more and felt more, believing that she felt the same. Either he was lousy at detecting the problem or he was too trusting. Well, not anymore.
He didn’t have to ever forget her and how good it was with her, but he also didn’t have to love her.
Odie lifted her eyes after staring at the folder to look at Luis. “It’s been a long time. Sage is gone and I’ve accepted that. I’ve moved on.” She sounded downtrodden and unconvincing. “I’ll just be happy to see his killer behind bars.”
“My father’s, too,” she added.
“They might be one and the same,” Luis said.
Calan. Everything did seem to point to him. The way he met with Odie and didn’t reveal anything, only fished for what she knew. The way he went after Frasier and possibly killed him. His wife’s unsolved murder and the similarities to Kate’s. Dharr. It all made sense.
But there were still so many unanswered questions. Why had Odie’s father kept Calan a secret? What was Roth not telling them? And who was Frasier’s lover? Three of many more he still had.
Odie yawned and stretched. They’d been parked in front of Hersch’s sprawling two-level house for hours, and it was shaping up to be an uneventful night. Before coming here, they’d stopped by Heather Darby’s house. She’d confirmed a man she didn’t know had delivered the letter and asked that she pass it on to Senator Raybourne. What had Frasier learned that had stopped him from going to Roth? The answer was locked in Hersch.
She scanned the arms dealer’s property from their vantage point across the street. There was no fence around his home, but it was on about a five-acre forested lot. Odie could barely see the structure through the maze of tree trunks and leafy vegetation. Hersch had two other houses, one in Florida, and the other in California. For a government contractor, he sure was loaded. She wondered how no one had noticed before now.
Jag rubbed his eyes beside her. Being with him was both a comfort and a bother. Aside from needing his support, she went from fighting urges to climb onto his lap to berating herself for allowing things to have gotten to this point. He’d withdrawn since Luis had left their hotel room. She hated that she couldn’t enjoy the aftermath, savor the glorious feelings she’d had all day and into the evening. It had been a long time since she had felt as sated as that, or felt more deeply. Emotionally powerful. The way she’d felt with him overwhelmed her. With Sage it had taken more time to find that connection. They had spent more time getting to know each other before having sex. With Jag, it sprung up all at once, and led to gripping intimacy.
She didn’t understand it and she needed to. Did he feel the same? Why had he withdrawn? The letter exonerated her father and pointed to Dharr as his killer. Yes, she’d destroyed the email and photo, but those had been planted to shift blame off Calan. He had no reason to not trust her now. Unless something Luis had told them opened his eyes. Something about Sage? It had to be obvious that she loved him. Did Jag wonder if his murder would prove too much for her? Maybe he wasn’t comfortable going against the love she had with Sage. Maybe he was afraid he wouldn’t measure up. His failed marriage made him skittish, that was for sure. So, let him be careful. She actually admired that about him. He wasn’t going to dive headfirst into a relationship with her. She didn’t want that, either.
How many times had she thought about this since they’d had sex? Every time she always circled back to what he’d said the night they were at the cabin, that he wasn’t going to do this kind of work much longer, that he wanted to open a bakery. A bakery of all things. She smiled. She could see him doing that. He was another he-man that TES employed, but he was also…well…normal. A nice guy. And there was something sexy about a man whose masculinity wasn’t threatened in a kitchen.
She leaned her head back on the seat and looked at him across the car. He turned to look at her, too.
“What are you smiling about?” he asked.
She didn’t realize she was still smiling and she couldn’t stop herself from asking, “Does your dad still run a bakery?”
It took him a few seconds to respond. She supposed, to him, the question had come out of the blue.
“No. He sold it and now he and Mom live in Denver. Retired.”
“Really?” The idea of him having a close relationship with his family was another anomaly in her perception of him as a he-man op for TES.
“It’s one of the reasons I agreed to work for TES. I could live close to them.”
Her attraction to him grew a little more. She already knew he had a house in Denver. Why hadn’t she thought of this before? Maybe she’d been too busy locking his operative side out of her heart to allow herself to care. Well, she cared now.
“Do you have any brothers and sisters?” she asked.
“A sister in Durango, and a brother in Dallas. They both have families.”
She rolled her head to look through the windshield. Thinking of him at family gatherings, nieces and nephews climbing all over him, was charming. She’d never had many family gatherings. Her father had worked so much and she was an only child. Christmas had always been quiet. After the presents were opened and dinner was out of the way, her parents would sit and read. She’d get bored and go find her own thing to do. As an adult she’d spent the holidays either skiing or with military friends.
“Do you see them much?” she asked.
“Every year, at least. I talk to them on the phone, too.”
The sound of his deep voice warmed her as much as his words. She was in danger of really falling for him. Unsettled by that, she focused on the driveway with an elaborate gate and guard shack. Every once in a while she spotted other guards patrolling the property. They were pretty regular. Predictable.
“What about you? Do you see your mom much?”
He pulled her back into the conversation. “Not really. She’s always gone, traveling with friends or visiting them.”
“It must be lonely as an only child.”
She stared at him.
He grinned. “Cullen told me.”
“Why were you talking about me?”
“I asked him about you once.”
“Really.” She already knew that, but she wanted to hear him tell her.
“Right after you gave me the cold shoulder. I was cu
rious what made you that way. Didn’t tell Cullen that, though.”
“Being an only child didn’t make me what I am today. My parents raised me well and I had a lot of friends. I wasn’t lonely. It was the only way I knew. I don’t know what it’s like to have brothers and sisters.”
“I know what made you what you are. I didn’t when I first met you, but I do now.”
Her father. Sage. He didn’t have to say it for her to know that’s what he thought.
A car turned into Hersch’s driveway, stopping at the closed gate. The female driver slid her window down. The guard spoke to her through an open window in the guard shack and then nodded. The gate opened and the car drove up the long and curving driveway.
“How many is that now?” Odie asked.
“Four.”
Two cars had arrived before this one, the first with two women inside, the second with one. Knowing Hersch’s preferences, she wondered if they were here for sexual reasons.
“What kind of woman would want to get naked with three other women and one man?” she asked.
“One that gets paid to.”
“I don’t think these are hookers.”
“Weren’t you the one who said he paid them?”
“I said he probably had to.”
“There you go.”
She looked over at him and laughed briefly. He leaned comfortably back on the driver’s seat, but he had to be anything but comfortable. They’d been parked out here for three hours. What was going on in there?
“Maybe he’s having a midlife crisis,” Odie said.
“You’re assuming he paid those girls to come here.”
“Of course he did.” She’d studied his background.
He grunted. “You are Cullen’s best.”
At least he was on the same page as her. She stifled a smile. “You couldn’t pay me enough to get naked with someone like him.” Or any man for that matter.
“Me, either.”
She laughed at the way that sounded and then they fell into a lapse of silence.
Across the street, the guard put his feet up on the console and opened a newspaper.
“Great,” Odie said. “Hersch isn’t going anywhere tonight.”
“I figure we’ve got about two hours.”
“To do what?”
He started the rental and began driving. “Go check out his office.”
A little while later they drove past the nondescript building that was Defense Initiatives. The building looked to have once been an old warehouse. It was red brick with white trim and bars on all the windows, but tastefully done so as not to call attention. There were a few lights on, but it didn’t look like he had much security here.
“Probably has twenty-four-hour security personnel.”
“A guy behind a desk?”
“Yeah, and maybe one more to walk the property.”
“Kind of odd for a man who does business with terrorists.” In her experience the ones who didn’t want to be noticed had something to hide. “This place screams front company.”
“Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. Government contractor by day, arms dealer by night.”
He opened the car door and stood outside. Odie got out, too, and opened the backseat door. She bent over to dig into her work tote that was more of an equipment bag and found a keystroke logger. Jag was lucky she always came prepared. Tucking it into her pocket, she turned and saw him watching.
“Did you like the view?” She could tell by the heat of his eyes that he’d been staring at her butt.
“Yes.”
“Stop that. We’re working.”
Grinning, he slipped on a pair of thin leather gloves and walked with her up and over an earthen berm separating the parking lot from the street. “What do you have in your pocket?”
“Something that will let us record Hersch’s keystrokes. We’ll know everything he does on his computer. I tried to send him an email with a nifty link to a Trojan but he didn’t bite. Since we can’t do this remotely, we’ll have to come back to retrieve the data.”
“I’ll have to find another badge.”
She looked at him askance as they walked down the other side of the berm and followed the edge of the parking lot. “You have one now?”
He pulled out a badge and held it up for her to see.
“I see you’ve planned ahead. How’d you get that?”
“I picked it up while you were with Friese.”
“You just stopped by and picked it up, huh?” She shook her head. The man was amazing. “Does it get exhausting staying one step ahead of me all the time?”
“About as exhausting as it is for you to stay a step ahead of me.”
“Not exhausting at all.”
He grunted a laugh. “You made it easy on me. You had a list of Hersch’s staff in the file you gave me. When I was on the way to the airport, I called each one through the main phone listing until I found one whose message said they were out. I found out where he lived and went there. His badge was on the kitchen table. He’s a janitor.”
“Glad I could be of help.”
“You always are.”
Scanning the roofline, Odie spotted what she was looking for. Two inconspicuous cameras, one on each front corner of the two-story building.
They stayed in the shadows at the edge of the parking lot until they made their way to the back of the building. Then Odie followed Jag up a ramp beside the shipping dock. There were no cameras here. Jag used his badge to unlock the double doors. Inside was an open shipping area full of worktables and shelves of boxes and a few desks sitting on a bare concrete floor. The dark globe on the ceiling had to be a camera. She and Jag slipped into the hallway off the shipping area.
Odie didn’t see any cameras as they emerged into an area of cubicles. There were some stairs ahead. Hersch’s office must be on the upper level. Better views there. Plus, there were no offices down here.
“If we were seen, we don’t have much time,” Jag said.
“You think?” she joked back.
They took the stairs. Upstairs was carpeted and had a lot fewer cubicles. Two or three conference rooms and a few offices. One had double wood doors and was in the corner of the building.
“That has to be his office,” she said.
“Yeah.” At the door, jag tried the knob. Locked.
“Of course,” Odie said.
Jag took his badge from his back pocket and swiped the card reader beside the door. A clicking sound made Odie roll her eyes wryly.
“Janitor’s badge,” Jag pointed out.
“Or just more of your luck.”
“Hey, whatever works.” He entered the office ahead of her and she was careful not to touch anything with her ungloved hands.
Jag shut the door before he flipped on a light.
Slipping the keystroke logger from her pocket, Odie went to the computer and leaned over the dual screens to reach the box behind them. She inserted the logger into a USB port and waited a few seconds. Then she removed it and tucked it back into her pocket. That’s all she needed to do. The software would do the rest and Hersch would never know he had a little spy in his computer. God, she loved this part of her job.
Seeing Jag finger through a four-drawer file cabinet, she sat at the desk and plucked some tissues from a box Hersch had next to his computer monitor. There were two shallow drawers on each end and a center drawer. She opened the right drawer and found a few papers. She flipped through them. A couple of reports, and copies of invoices. She checked the vendors. Probably nothing notable. His center drawer was full of office supplies, all neatly compartmentalized in an organizer.
“Tidy,” she said.
Jag glanced over at her as he searched a bookshelf adjacent to the desk. He returned his attention to pulling out books and looking behind them, as if he were looking for a hidden switch.
Smiling, she opened the left drawer. All that was in there was a pistol and some ammunition. A Ruger SR9. Could do better
.
Hearing voices outside the office, she looked up and stared at the door. If the security guards had seen them on their monitors and were looking for them, maybe they didn’t think they could get into this office since the doors were locked.
She looked at Jag.
“Are you ready?” he whispered.
Nodding, she got up and stopped behind him. He turned off the light and opened the door a crack. Quiet.
They slipped out. Jag took her hand and led her through the carpeted area. Odie saw a guard appear from inside an office and another one emerged from the stairs.
Jag pulled her into a dark conference room, standing between her and the door against the wall.
“Have you seen anything?” one of the guards asked. “I saw them come in through Shipping.”
“No, but they’re using Enrique’s badge. They can get into any office.”
“That’s all we need—somebody breaking into Hersch’s.”
“Let’s go check all the offices.”
“We should call the cops first.”
“Are you nuts? Hersch said no cops.”
Odie barely heard that last snippet as the guards made their way to the other side of the building.
“I need to get to the security desk,” Jag said.
Still holding her hand, Jag pulled her from the conference room. She let him lead her toward the front of the building. Behind the security desk, Jag began opening drawers. He found a visitor badge and started keying into one of the two computers’ security software. A minute later, he was finished. He’d used the number on the badge to code it into the system. If no one noticed the missing badge, it would be easy to return.
Taking her hand again, Jag once again led her through the building. She thought it was odd that she didn’t mind his protectiveness. She could certainly take care of herself, but she liked her hand in his. They ran down the stairs and through shipping. Outside, he pulled her toward the edge of the parking lot.
“Hey, you!” one of the guards yelled.
Odie saw him coming from the front entrance.
“Stop right there!”
She stumbled as Jag ran faster. He had longer legs than her.
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