His heart careened inside his ribcage as he confronted the awful truth. Not only was Briar Jones alive, but DeLuca was with her. Obviously in on this cover up and likely still guarding her.
Goddammit!
This couldn’t be happening. He’d been so careful, and all he needed was to tie up these last loose ends and he’d be in the clear for good. “Did you follow them?”
“You’re joking, right? I literally just found this footage ten minutes ago. Do you know how hard it is to search through all the hits I got with the program? We’re lucky I found them at all, let alone this fast. And I had to use all sorts of other tricks to tighten the resolution on them, that far away from the camera. These guys know what they’re doing, they made sure they stayed away from buildings and any security cameras when they got in the cab.”
Fuck, he had to calm down. Calm was a hallmark of leadership and it was contagious. He needed to get his shit together.
Will forced himself to take a deep breath, slowed his racing mind. He could still fix this. It wasn’t too late. “Where was this taken?”
“Camera is installed outside a little coffee shop in Aurora.”
“Call the cab company and find out where they went.”
“Already did,” the man said, sounding annoyed that Will was ordering him around. “Driver took them to a small airport outside of town. I’m waiting to hear back from someone about the flight logs there, but the guy I spoke to said there’ve only been a dozen or so flights in and out this morning because of the weather. All privately owned aircraft so far. There’s little to no security there and I’m sure they avoided areas that might be on camera whenever possible. I’ll need to check each of the flights, find out where they originated and where they’re going before I can get anything else.”
Yes, this was going to work. It had to.
Keeping his voice calm, Will added, “I’ll double your fee if you find them and take care of this within the next twenty-four hours.” Hell, he’d pay ten times the fee if it would help make this all go away that quickly.
“Well then let’s hope I get lucky with a lead.”
Yeah. That his entire future was currently hinging on something as fluky as luck or fate just made him sick to his stomach. The biggest night of his life was coming up in a few days’ time. A scandal like this one would make everything blow up in his face. It wouldn’t matter how much money he had or how powerful his friends and supporters were. He had to keep this secret at all costs.
The last thing he wanted was to be branded a traitor, thrown in prison and maybe even wind up facing the death penalty for what he’d done to earn the money he’d socked away in the Caymans. Money earmarked to launch his political career and pay for his comfortable retirement. “Call me as soon as you find something. I’ll have this phone with me.”
He ended the call and tossed the phone onto the walnut desk. The clatter startled his black lab awake, who was lying on the bed next to the fireplace. Patriot blinked sleepily at Will a few times, ears back, the tip of his tail thumping feebly as though he wasn’t sure whether Will was angry at him.
“Not mad at you, boy. Got myself in a tight bind,” he told the dog.
Patriot perked his ears and thumped his tail harder, seeming to understand that he wasn’t in trouble.
Sighing, Will crossed the room and sank onto the leather ottoman at the foot of the easy chair, absently scratching the dog’s silky ears. There were too many things beyond his control, it made him feel frantic, a totally foreign sensation. He hated it.
Georgia had lied to him. Or maybe she had thought Briar was dead and dumped her body someplace, but he doubted it. And she was still out there too.
Had she and Jones recognized each other from before, perhaps? The idea was a stretch but it sent a wave of cold through his body anyhow. He was more convinced than ever that Jones had found out about his side ops. She could have told George. They might both be working with the HRT commander now, trying to bring him down.
Shit. He closed his eyes, one hand still on Patriot’s head. He’d never felt this scared before. Everything he’d worked for now dangled on the edge of a sharp precipice. All because two female assassins had so far gotten the better of him.
For the first time in recent memory, he wasn’t sure what to do. A dark hole of doubt opened up inside him, a place he always refused to acknowledge and couldn’t now.
Locating Georgia and sending someone to deal with her would involve yet another person and increase the likelihood of a leak or something else going wrong. But he’d lied to her about who Jones was. If she knew the truth she might come after him, or at least try to expose him given the chance. And Jones would want her name cleared. They would both be after him. His best hope lay with getting rid of them.