It didn’t take long to unpack his laptops and get the programs running. He shot a quick message to his boss, Samuel Carpenter. He’d promised Savannah he wouldn’t talk to Bogey and his fellow SEAL teammates, or Ranger and Sarah, but Carpenter was the boss man, and he wasn’t about to keep secrets from him. Besides, he figured Carpenter should put a couple of guys on Ranger and Sarah—just in case Aristides had anything to do with savannah’s package.
Aristides was bad news, and that was putting it nicely. The man had his fingers in so many criminal enterprises, it was a wonder he hadn’t been arrested a decade ago. Yet the guy seemed to be coated in Teflon, because neither the local cops nor the feds had been able to make any charges stick.
Savannah’s testimony could change all that. When Danny Cooper took her back to his place on that fateful night, she’d been a hapless witness to murder. Stavros Aristides had iced his biggest competition—literally—with an icepick through the eye. Once the cops heard her story, an all-out manhunt revealed Aristides had fled the country. The feds were hot on his heels, but even desperate, he’d been smart and slipped under their radar.
His passport hadn’t been used to reenter the U.S. But that didn’t mean he hadn’t found a way back in. Fake passports were a dime a dozen, especially on the black market. Aristides had more than enough money to buy the best—one that would pass even the closest scrutiny.
If Savannah testified, Aristides would go to prison for the rest of his natural life. Which probably wouldn’t be too long. The man had a lot of enemies behind bars who wouldn’t blink at exacting a little payback.
A quick message back from Carpenter showed the boss read between the lines of his e-mail, and he’d have Gunner and a couple of the other guys keeping a close eye on Savannah’s sister. Because going after her sister would be a down-and-dirty way for Aristides to cause Savannah more grief. Add in the whole eye-for-an-eye-thing, since Savannah’s rescue resulted in the death of his son, and he’d see it as righteous vengeance.
Too bad Danny Cooper, the rat bastard, was already dead. Stefan would love to extract a little payback of his own for the abuse Savannah had endured. He’d seen her when he’d snuck into her hospital room, and again after she’d been released. The image haunted him still.
He’d been working for the last several hours, checking everything he could think of to find any link to Aristides. Concentrating hard, he nearly jumped at an alert from his main laptop. Instead, he cursed. He’d started running his facial recognition program, assessing international passport photos. If Aristides had a fake one, it wouldn’t be under his real name, so he skipped the name search, focusing solely on photos.
And got a hit.
Rio de Janeiro to Heathrow. Heathrow to Miami International. The hair was longer and had been colored a darker shade. He’d grown a thick mustache, but those things couldn’t change the facial structure enough to hide from his software. Between him and Sully, during the search for Savannah, they’d worked together and tweaked the program even more. Everybody wanted it, but he and Sully had the only copies—and he planned to keep it that way, no matter how much pressure he got from Uncle Sam.
Georgio Smythe was listed as a resident of Athens, Greece, but if he was, he had a doppelgänger who was a wanted felon. Getting a hit on the passport meant one thing—Aristides was back in the States. Which made him even more dangerous, because he had the money and the power to make Savannah’s life a living hell. If she continued living at all.
Dreading telling her, he knew he didn’t have a choice—he’d given his word. He wasn’t about to start lying to Savannah. The fragile trust he’d developed with her was too precious to risk.
But keeping her safe was more important. With a sigh, he picked up his phone and dialed her number.
“Stefan?” She sounded breathless.
“Yeah, it’s me. Everything okay?”
She chuckled. “My mom’s been stuffing me with peanut butter cookies, so I barely had the strength to answer the phone.”
Crap. She sounded so happy he almost changed his mind about telling her.
Might as well get it over with.
“I got a hit on the facial recognition program.”
The silence following his statement seemed endless, though it was probably mere seconds.
“He’s here?”
“All I can say for certain is he’s in the United States. I’ll keep checking, so don’t worry.”
“Don’t worry! The man wants me dead. I’d say it’s the perfect time to worry.” Her voice lowered to a whisper. “Oh—we need to warn Ranger and Sarah. He’s almost as big a monster as his son—he’ll want to hurt them, because of Danny.”
“Already done, sweetheart. I let Samuel Carpenter know what’s going on. He’s the boss, I’m not hiding anything from him. He’s making sure Ranger and Sarah are safe. Gunner’s got eyes on them, though he’s not going to say to them anything until we’ve got more intel. No need to worry them needlessly.”
“No—tell them. Better they know and are cautious. Especially with Sarah being pregnant—nothing can happen to her or the baby.” He heard the panic rising in her voice and felt an overwhelming instinctive need to comfort her.
“I’ll let them know. Meanwhile, stay at home. I’m going to contact Bogey.”
“I don’t want to bother him or the other SEALs. They’ve got too many important things to deal with, missions and stuff.” It was a nice try, but her attempting to downplay the danger wouldn’t change his mind.
“Stay put. I’m going to pack up the laptop and head your way.”
“Wouldn’t it make more sense for me to come to you? Keep working. I can be there in about half an hour.”
He didn’t like it, but she was right. It made more sense to keep the programs running. He didn’t think Aristides would attack her on the street—it wasn’t his style. But that didn’t mean he wouldn’t hire somebody to take care of the problem for him. It was the way he’d allegedly handled his business in New Orleans. He hadn’t liked to get his hands dirty; except for the one time he had, Savannah had witnessed the whole thing, putting a target on her back.
“Fine.” His tone sounded exasperated, and he didn’t care—she’d just have to deal with it. “No stopping along the way. Get in your car and drive straight here. Make sure to keep your phone easily accessible, and have my number called up, so you can get me if anything seems off. Got it?”
“Sir, yes, sir.” He could almost imagine the jaunty salute that accompanied her words. “I’m on my way, Stefan. I’m not stupid, I’ll be careful. Bye.”
Cracking his knuckles, he hunched over the keyboard and got to work.