She nodded, and the woman checked her watch while holding up a finger to tell the dude trying to get her attention, she’d be with him in a second.
“His shift starts at nine. Want something while you wait?”
“I’ll take a Diet Coke.” She would have preferred water. And not the bottled kind. The free kind. From the tap. But she couldn’t take a spot at the bar without ordering a drink.
Plus, she didn’t want to appear cheap. She wasn’t. She just didn’t have any money to spare, and a dollar seventy-five plus tip could mean the difference between sleeping in a bed or the back seat of her car.
With seasoned hands, the woman plucked the soda gun and poured Summer’s drink while taking the man’s order for three draft beers and a whisky sour. “This one’s on me,” she said, putting the glass down on the coaster before hustling to the other end of the bar to get the beers.
The kindness made Summer’s eyes well with tears and her vision blur. So far, a free soda from a stranger had been the best thing to happen to her all day.
CHAPTERSEVEN
His ass flatterthan a helium balloon with the gas sucked out; Jay needed to get up and punch something. Sink his fist knuckles first into a leather bag, or his best friend’s stupid face. By midnight on day two, Jamie hadn’t made contact.
Not with him. Not with Adam. Not with anyone.
Asshole.
He had to have known the JTT would come for him.
Sure, they weren’t the only ones looking, and he’d had a close call at the hospital. Well, two, really, but he’d made it to his vehicle alive. Jay had hacked into the local garage’s video surveillance and watched as Samuel Snow loaded him into the rental car.
After that—nothing. No signs of Jamie anywhere. He had his go bag. Access to a secure phone. Money. Weapons. Fake IDs. Medical supplies. If he wanted to be found, he would have reached out by now.
Which meant one thing.
The fucker was planning to cut and run.
Jay understood the temptation. The JTT had suffered back-to-back losses in the fight against terrorism. Add on Jamie’s wife being gunned down in the street, and they were all feeling the impact of their failures.
They were supposed to be the good guys, making a difference, and saving the day.
Instead, they were burying their loved ones.
Exhausted and feeling the effects, he tossed his second pizza crust into the box. He hated pizza with a passion. Where was a good old box of Captain Crunch or Honey Nut Cheerios when he needed it?
“We can’t leave her,” Eve said from the boardroom in Montana. “She may not be Jamie’s, but she has his last name. That makes her a target too.”
“Sweetheart, be re—”
“Don’t tell me to be reasonable, Adam. She’s just a baby, and she has nobody looking out for her best interest. You said so yourself, the CIA thinks this may be a ploy by Johnson and his backers to flush the team out of hiding. Jesus! If that’s the case, they killed one hundred and twenty-three people, including Kosamina, to get to the JTT. What’s to stop them from harming a child they think belongs to one of us? She’s not safe, and unless her biological father claims her, she’s our responsibility.”
On both sides of the country, heads nodded in agreement. Orphaned at the age of ten and adopted into a family of serial killers who’d put her through hell before trying to end her life too, Eve’s impassioned plea hit too close to home.
“We have Petrova’s men staking out the NICU,” Chase said. “They’ll make sure she’s in no danger while she’s in the hospital.”
“And after?” Gray demanded. “What then? Eve’s right. We can’t leave her unprotected. What if—”
“Alright,” Adam replied, holding up his palm to end the debate. “Points taken. Jay, hack into Kosamina’s accounts and give Grant access. Let’s see if we can find out who the father is. Look for family contacts too. She must have parents, siblings, someone who’d be willing to take the baby.”
“Roger that,” Jay said.
“What about Doc?” Cody asked.
“We keep looking,” Adam replied. “He couldn’t have gone far. Jay will keep checking the traffic cams for any signs of the rental car. We’ve got a decent visual on Samuel Snow’s residence from the doorbell cam, but nothing on his lake cabin. You up for a drive-by, Z?”
“Hell yeah.”
