She sat back thinking on all he’d said and turned the information over in her head since she’d had no personal connection to Sam, his team, or Esteban at that time. “What if the note wasn’t about your team finding the senator?”
He scratched his scruffy chin again and stretched his shoulders. “I don’t know what you mean. What other reason would they have had to come after my team?”
“You said that you and Esteban escaped a prison camp. Could Esteban have been a loose thread of some kind?”
No quick reply followed.
Sam was back in his intense mode of sorting through facts and information. He had a contemplative expression on his face and started speaking as if thinking out loud. “The camp we escaped was a drug-running operation in Libya. I ran into them by accident while trying to find a missing female journalist. Esteban had already been captured because they knew he sold arms to the US allies and wanted his contacts for weapons and clients. They tortured him. He was in bad shape when I showed up, but he hadn’t given up one name. Not seeing how this could be connected to our team hitting that mansion.”
She had to agree with Sam. That didn’t sound connected.
The drive passed quickly because Sam kept her talking. She knew what he was doing by keeping her mind off worrying about how this would end. He wanted to save Phoebe, the senator, and protect the world. When he moved the conversation to what she did back in London, she told him story after story of families and the children her organization had rescued.
It surprised her to realize how she’d needed to share some of the heartbreaking missions with someone. Giving him a shrug, she said, “Basically, I hunt monsters too, but not like the deadly ones you track down.”
“Don’t discount the danger you face. Saving children is a righteous career decision,” Sam said, sounding proud of her.
In a different time and place, they could have been so great together. She would have supported him any way she could, and he’d have done the same.
Life was one screwed-up goat rope some days. She’d picked up the term goat rope from two businessmen talking during her flight here. She was keeping it.
“Thank you, Sam.” Many parents had hugged her when she returned children to loving families, but it wasn’t always a happy ending. “I hate when I have to hand the recovered children over to family services.”
He angled his head at her with his eyebrows drawn tight. “They didn’t have the names of families for the kids?”
“That wasn’t the problem. Some parents sold their children for drug money or just to turn a useless eater into a gain.”
“Man. Guess I have no reason to complain.”
She hadn’t thought of his life compared to those children, but he’d managed to become an honorable man after a tough life. She searched for words to tell him so, but he spoke quickly as if to fill the void by changing the subject.
“We’re getting close to the exit for the resort. Time to fuel up.” He pulled into a huge automobile service area with a line of pumps longer than the building. She had to make a bathroom stop. “Where will you be when I come back?”
Pointing at parking spots near the road, he said, “Out there. I’m not pulling up into that madhouse. This would be a terrible choice for a hit but watch your back.”
Just like that, she was hyper-aware of everyone around her, but the bathroom visit was fast and without incident. Sam was right. There were families everywhere hunting snacks and looking at toys. This would be a bad choice for a sniper.
That didn’t give her a lot of comfort if a new one was on their trail.
Sam came up and put a hand on her lower back.
She smiled at him, hoping to lift his spirits that had taken a beating this morning, mostly her fault.
He stared over her head at the television she’d noticed in her peripheral vision on the way in. What caused his grim expression? She started to ask just as the cashier finished ringing up Hallene’s snacks and bagged them.
She paid in cash while Sam grabbed the bag then led her to the door. “What were you looking at back there, Sam?”
“The news station talking aboutthesenator.”
Hallene hadn’t thought about the senator as more than a captive until now or his family waiting for any word of him being found. “What does his family know?”
“Wife and kids are in a safe house under armed guard. They know he’s been captured.” He heaved a long sigh. “I think about them every day, knowing what it will be like if they get news we failed.”
Hallene felt the weight of what Sam had been juggling the whole time with her. If W succeeded, that family would lose a husband and father, the country would lose a senator fighting deadly criminals, and an international conflict might erupt.
She’d only wanted to find Phoebe when this started.
