Disavowed(58)

“Gimme a minute.” Her fingers raced over the keys and a satisfied smile curved her lips. “Alexandria.”

Briar leaned forward. “Both calls?”

“Yes.”

“Can you triangulate the area?” Alex asked.

“I’ll pull it up on Google Earth.” Tap, tap, tap. “Here.” She turned the laptop so the rest of them could see. It showed an industrial area of town.

Briar’s pulse accelerated. This was a possible lead for them. “Any CCTVs in the area? Maybe we could see someone or a car around the time the calls were made—”

“Already on it.” Everyone watched her intently as she worked for the next few minutes. Then she shook her head. “It’ll take me a while to search all these. I’ll keep looking into this, but is there anyone else you want me to check?”

Of the names Alex mentioned, a few were familiar to Briar. Men she’d heard of during her tenure with the CIA, but had never met or dealt with directly. Goldstein. Smithers. Balducci. Harding. All people involved with paramilitary ops.

“Those are a start. If we need to go higher after we check them, we will,” he added.

“I recognize those names. Balducci and Goldstein were both trainers.” She felt Matt watching her and met his gaze. “I remember their names, vaguely recall their faces. One was former Navy and the other a Marine scout sniper.”

“What do you mean, trainers?” Alex asked.

Where to start, she thought with a sigh. “They both trained operatives I knew years ago.” Including Trinity and Georgia. Briar would ask Trinity about them.

Alex looked intrigued by that but didn’t press for more. The Valkyrie Project was top secret, but it was possible he knew of it. “Balducci was in Naval intelligence before he joined The Company. And Goldstein’s been with them forever.”

“I seriously doubt either of them are involved.” It would be too complicated for them, opening up the possibility of sealed records being declassified and unleashing a shit storm that would end their careers and land them in jail for the rest of their lives. “Let’s start with Smithers and Harding.”

“I know Harding personally,” Alex said. “I highly doubt he’d be involved with anything like this, but we’ll check him and the others out anyway.”

Briar relaxed her hold on the armrests and took a calming breath. All this would take time. There were so many people to investigate, so many threads to pull on. She had to be patient, the same as when she waited in a sniper hide with her scope to her eye.

But with so much at stake it was hard.

After a while Zahra shifted in her seat and grimaced slightly.

“Stretch your legs for a bit,” Alex told her, taking the laptop away. Zahra shot him a narrow-eyed look then grudgingly pushed to her feet. She moved awkwardly into the aisle and when she walked Briar noticed a pronounced limp. Zahra glanced over her shoulder and caught her looking. Rather than being offended, she smiled.

“Hip doesn’t bother me as much as it used to, but it’s still a pain in the ass. Literally.”

“You mean, more than your husband?” Alex said dryly.

At that Zahra grinned. “Yep. But he’s a close second.” She glanced Briar’s way again, and something in the other woman’s eyes told her she’d been through her own personal hell. “I know all about having a score to settle. That’s why I’m going to do all I can to help you find whoever did this.”

The heartfelt words surprised Briar. She inclined her head. “Thank you.”

Matt reached over and took her hand, lacing his fingers through hers. His hand was so large compared to hers, so strong, yet he’d always touched her with such gentleness. Until him, she’d been convinced men like him existed only in fairy tales. “We’re going to find them. I promise.”

She squeezed his hand in return, thankful he’d called in backup because she was all too aware that she was going to need all the help she could get.





Chapter Sixteen





A jolt of fear shot through Will as he gripped the phone in his left hand. “What?” he demanded, praying he hadn’t heard the man right. This wasn’t just a headache; it was a potentially life-ending catastrophe.

“You heard right.”

Will dragged his hands through his hair and leaned against the front of his desk. Barbara was out of the house for the day so he was alone and there was no risk of anyone overhearing. “You’re sure about this?”

“I just texted you the images from this morning. This software doesn’t lie. I’m sure.”

Sure enough, his other phone chimed with an incoming text. He checked the three images showing a man and a woman approaching, then climbing into a taxi waiting at the curb. One look at them and he knew it was true.