Brent walked through the front door after finishing his midday sweep of the perimeter of his in-laws’ home. Jim’s voice was barely audible from behind his closed office door, and voices sounded from the security suite located beyond it.
Moving forward, he found Amy sitting with Seth in front of the bank of monitors.
“Anything going on I should know about?” Brent asked.
“Seth was showing me what to look for so I can take a turn on surveillance,” Amy told him.
“Are Tristan and Quinn at the police station?” Brent asked Seth.
“Yeah. They’ve been there since ten hundred.” Seth glanced at his watch. “We should be hearing from them anytime. They’re supposed to check in as soon as they acquire their subject.”
“It’s after noon. What time was our guy getting released?”
“Eleven.”
“We should have heard something by now.” Uneasy, Brent pulled his phone from his pocket and dialed Tristan’s number.
The cadence of Texas came over the line. “Hey, Brent. We’re still waiting for our guy to show up.”
“Could he have gone out another exit?”
“Negative. There’s only one exit for civilians, and Quinn is covering the back just to be safe.”
“I’ll get back to you.” Brent hung up and relayed Tristan’s report.
“Do you want me to call the courthouse to get an update?” Amy asked.
“No. I don’t want any inquiries to get traced back to here.”
“What do you want to do?” Seth asked.
“We may not have much of a choice.” Brent made another call, this time to Quinn. “Hey, I want you to go into the police station and see if Greyson is still there. Pretend you’re his cousin or something coming to visit.”
“Will do.” Quinn hung up, and Brent waited impatiently for a return call. Five minutes later, the phone rang.
“Status?”
“My cousin was sprung late last night by some fancy lawyer.”
“What?” Brent straightened. He turned to Amy. “Did the release time on Greyson change?”
Amy shook her head. “I checked it before Quinn and Tristan left.”
“Great.” Brent raked his fingers through his hair. “They must not have updated their system when he was released.”
“Now what?” Quinn asked.
“Wait another hour in case this was a diversion. If you don’t see anything by then, come on back.”
“Roger that.”
Brent again relayed his conversation to Amy and Seth.
“What do you want to do now?” Seth asked.
“Amy, update the message board for the guardians. I’ll give Ghost a call.”
* * *
Renee stared at the flat screen, her mind still replaying the moment Kade had kissed her in the woods. She could admit to herself that she had felt that surge of attraction more than once over the past few days, but the walls of privacy that surrounded him had kept those thoughts from wandering into the what-ifs. Now that she knew what it felt like to be in his arms, to feel his lips on hers, she couldn’t keep the what-ifs from circling through her brain.
Truly alone for the first time since meeting Kade, she let her thoughts continue to wander. Pausing the image on the screen, she stood and walked into Kade’s bedroom. She opened the closet to find a wardrobe that leaned toward black. A framed photo of a waterfall hung over the bed, but nothing else in the room gave it any character. Who was this man?
She pressed two fingers to her lips, not sure how it was possible that she could still feel the lingering sensation of his kiss. Whatever curiosity she had experienced about him before their walk together had exploded into a thousand questions in that moment. How could she feel so connected when she knew so little about him?
She headed back into the kitchen and started the video feed once more. She expected Kade would return anytime now, and she wanted to at least look like she was working.
The image of several cars driving through an intersection four blocks from her apartment played out in front of her, and she tried to concentrate on the task at hand. Several minutes passed, and she caught herself looking around the room, anticipating Kade’s return rather than watching the video feed before her. If her mind kept wandering, she was going to have to start this segment over again.
She was debating doing exactly that when she caught a glimpse of a familiar car. The blue sedan slowed at the intersection and took a left onto the street that ran along the front of her building. Though her apartment was a quarter mile away, the car took the first available parking place. On the edge of the screen, she saw the driver step out of the car, and she finally recognized a familiar face. Anthony Barrett.
She heard the engine of Kade’s motorcycle outside. Despite the sense of anticipation that ran through her, she forced herself to continue watching.
Anthony looked around before walking back toward the intersection.
The hatch opened, and Kade appeared with a backpack in one hand and a set of motorcycle saddlebags in the other. He set them on the floor before disappearing the way he had come.
Renee paused the image and crossed to the items Kade had deposited on the floor. She opened the saddlebags and backpack, which were both stuffed with groceries. While she put the food away, Kade made a second trip to his motorcycle before climbing into the trailer.
The scent of Chinese food permeated the air. “I picked up some dinner so we wouldn’t have to cook tonight.” Kade set a brown paper bag on the table and glanced at the screen. “Any luck with the traffic cameras?”
“Actually, I think so.” She put the milk in the refrigerator before turning to motion at the TV. “I haven’t watched the whole segment, but that’s one of my coworkers on the edge of the screen. It’s from the traffic camera a few blocks from my apartment.”
Instantly, Kade’s demeanor changed. “Who is it?”
“Anthony.”
“The guy who kept asking you out?”
“Yeah.”
Kade retrieved two plates from the cabinet. “Let’s eat dinner, and we can watch it together.”
“Sounds good.” Renee pulled a gallon-sized jug of water from the refrigerator and poured each of them a glass. She took their drinks to the table and slid into her seat.
Kade set their food between them and handed her a set of chopsticks. Renee started to rise to get some serving spoons, but when Kade opened the rice and started dishing some out using his chopsticks, she decided she would use his method rather than dirty more dishes. He passed her the rice, and she tipped it sideways to scoop some onto her plate.
“What did you get?” Renee asked, opening the container closest to her.
“Triple delight, cashew chicken, and Singapore rice noodles.” He dished some of the meat-and-vegetable mixture from the triple delight onto his rice. “I hope there’s something here you like.”
“Singapore rice noodles are too spicy for me, but I like the other two.”
While she served herself, Kade started the recording on the TV in front of them at four times the normal speed. He pointed at Anthony. “This is the guy you were talking about?”
“Yeah.”
“Does he live anywhere near you?”
“No. He lives in Woodbridge. I’m sure because he complains about the commute on a pretty regular basis.”
“Your place is out of his way, even if he was on his way home.”
“A little bit, anyway.”
“Have you ever had him over to your apartment?”
“No. No one from work has ever been to my apartment. I keep my personal life and professional life separate.”
They grew silent as they ate and watched Anthony walk a short distance before turning the corner. “It doesn’t look like he’s heading for my apartment.”
“Maybe.” Kade kept his eyes on the TV. “Tell me about this personal life of yours.”
“What do you mean?”
“You said you keep your personal and professional lives separate. I know you work for the CIA. What do you do when you aren’t working?”
“I don’t know. I work out, hike, and go into the city and visit the museums.”
“What about friends?” Kade asked. “I saw your contact list. It was on the small side.”
Renee took a bite and glanced over at him. His gaze was still on the TV, and his words held curiosity without any hint of judgment. “I have a couple friends from my gym that I go out with on occasion, but mostly I do things alone.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know. I guess I’m just used to it.” Her shoulders lifted. “What about you? You don’t really work all the time, do you?”
“Mostly, yeah.” He waved absently toward one of the cabinets across the room. “I have a stack of movies I keep thinking I’ll watch one of these days, but usually I spend my free time scrolling through the database to keep up with the latest news or working on developing new tools.”
“What kind of tools?”
He spared her a glance.
“Don’t tell me it’s classified.”
“It is.”
“Above my clearance?” Renee challenged.
“Probably.” He shifted his attention back to the TV. “Mostly I work on surveillance equipment, stay up to date on forging documentation, that sort of thing.”
“A girl I work with is married to a forger in the agency. I never realized before I met him what an art form that sort of thing is.”
“It can get tricky.” Kade picked up the container of Singapore rice noodles and immediately set it back down, straightening in his seat as he did so. “There he is again.” He pointed with his chopsticks.
“He’s coming from a different direction.” Renee watched Anthony come back into view. “How much time has elapsed?”
“Forty-three minutes. That’s more than enough time to have walked to your apartment and back.”
“And still have ten or fifteen minutes to spare,” Renee said. “That’s still not a lot of time to have searched through my place.”
“If his main purpose was to find you, he wouldn’t have needed much time.”
“But the salt shaker had been wiped down.”
“It’s not an uncommon concealment device. He may have looked for the obvious ones, searched inside, and then wiped them down.”
“But he missed the knife block.”
Kade muttered an oath under his breath. He pushed away from the table and hurried to the cabinet behind his desk. “Go get the stuff that was in the knife block.”
The sense of urgency in his voice made her move quickly. She retrieved the papers from the drawer in his bedroom. “Here.”
He spread them out on his workbench: a passport for her alias; a stash of cash in U.S. dollars, British pounds, and euros; and a flash drive.
“You’re worried Anthony planted a tracker in my stuff?” Renee asked. “But I thought the Saint Squad already checked it.”
“They did, but if they only did a visual inspection, they might have missed something. The tracker on your purse was tiny.” Kade retrieved a handheld scanner from his work cabinet. “If he knew to look inside the salt shaker, it follows logic that he would check the knife block too.”
“Maybe he found the first concealment device and assumed it was the only one I had.”
“Yeah, but he had to know you kept a go kit.”
“Not necessarily. I don’t know of anyone else in my office who does.”
Kade turned the scanner on. Immediately an alarm sounded.
Renee’s heartbeat quickened, and she froze in place as she watched Kade quickly rummage through her go kit until he found what he was looking for on page six of her passport—another miniature tracking device.
Kade pulled the tracker off the page and looked up at the monitors, presumably to search for any sign of intruders.
Swallowing hard, Renee managed to form the words. “You think someone’s coming after me.”
“Brent called when I was at the store. Greyson was released late last night, and we don’t know where he or his partner are.” Kade motioned to his workstation. “See if you can track our suspects’ locations. Car, cell phones, whatever you’ve got.”
Renee moved to her computer and began her task, the danger becoming all too real when Kade opened his gun locker.
“Roland Sava is still off the grid. According to the GPS on his car and phone, Anthony Barrett is at home.”
Kade holstered two weapons, one in his waistband and a second at his ankle.
“Why don’t you throw the tracker outside and we can move to another location?” Renee asked.
“Too much time has passed since Greyson was released. For all we know, they could be on their way here. I don’t want to take a bullet in the back while I try to disconnect my rig from the water and power hookups.” He retrieved a high-powered rifle and tipped it against the wall, then he pulled his phone out of his pocket and dialed.
“Brent, we have a problem. We found a tracking device here. I need some backup.” Kade paused a moment and then passed along their location to the Saint Squad. As soon as he hung up, he selected another pistol and handed it to Renee. “I assume you know how to use this.”
“Yeah.” She accepted the weapon and the three clips he handed her.
“Stay inside. Our backup should be here in ten minutes. They can cover us while I get my rig ready to relocate and make sure we don’t have anything else here that can track us.” He retrieved his rifle. “I’m going to plant the tracking device by the north camera in case someone really is heading our way.”
Renee swallowed hard and watched him open the hatch and disappear outside.