She dropped her hand to the bed, tapping her fingers. “I’ve paid large amounts of money to reveal the identity of that scumbag kidnapper, but no luck so far.”
“Did you get your intel resources from the person who trained you?” Sam was fishing and waited for her to snap at him, but she didn’t.
“No. I have a computer whiz I met in college. We were nerd friends and studied together to get decent grades. He struggled with some subjects and never wanted anyone to know how brilliant he was with a computer and keyboard. He liked hacking. He accessed Kovac’s computer and has been capturing messages from Kovac’s phone that show up on his computer.”
“Kovac was stupid to do that.”
“He’s not stupid so much as arrogant and overconfident. He pays a small fortune to keep his computers secure. My techie is just better.”
Her phone buzzed. She stepped over and dug it out of her bag. “This is my contact and I’m going to ruin his day by telling him we’ve been caught.”
She opened the text and read the message out loud. “R u okay? Just picked up convo. Bastard xchgd msgs w/someone called Crusher. C tagged van carrying P, but informed Bastard stepdaughter showed up at the meet. Bastard lost his shit over that news. C reported he sent someone to eliminate you but failed (so glad). New orders for C. Grab P before you get to her. C is tracking van and will go after P when van stops for longer than an hour. He’ll contact Bastard to confirm when he can make the snatch. Said he would extract P by ten ET no matter what. Don’t freak. I found area C is in. Map attached.”
She opened the next image and said, “We have a location.”
“You think this is legit?”
Her voice shook with excitement. “Yes! The shooter didn’t find us because of sweeping Kovac’s messages. He was sent to track the vehicle bringing Phoebe for the proof of life meeting. He tagged the van. Evidently, Kovac has had this guy called Crusher hunting me and he told Kovac he saw me at the meet. Said he’d sent someone to eliminate me.”
Black anger burned Sam’s brain. He hoped he’d killed the assassin.
Hallene hurried to fill Sam in on everything as she saw it. “Crusher tracked the van that is circling the Alexandria area of Virginia. That fits with what we know so far. He’s going to contact Kovac when it stops for the night and snatch Phoebe. Those were Kovac’s new orders for him. We just need to get close and be ready for when my tech sends the final location.”
“That’s great,” he murmured.
“You don’t sound entirely convinced, Sam.” The hope shining in her eyes said she needed him on board.
He had to be honest. “I’m not, but I’m going to go with what we have unless anything changes. I just don’t trust easy intel and I’m not discounting your tech.”
“I understand, but I can’t sit still and lose this opportunity. Ready to make a plan?”
“Yes, of course,” he assured her and gave her a kiss to settle her fears. “Let’s grab clothes from the thrift store and change here then I’ll rent us a car with an ID Kovac would have no knowledge of. We’ll get something to eat and figure out our next step.”
“Unless I hear back with the location for the van first, I can think better after we eat.”
“Let’s dress and make a run to the store.” He didn’t want to leave anything since things could change at any moment for them.
It didn’t take long to finish dressing and packing when Sam could hold all they possessed in his hands. “Got your bag, hon?”
She lifted it from the chair and turned to him. She chewed on the corner of her lip, deep in thought on something.
“What’s wrong, Hailey?”
“That.” She pointed at him and walked over to where he held the door open.
Mr. Grumbly said, “I’m gonna need a few more words to figure out what you’re talking about.”
“Calling me Hailey. My name is Hallene.” She started to walk past him to leave, but he stopped her with a touch on her arm. She had a spark of the devil in her today. “Something bothering you ...Sam?”
“Yep. It’s named Hallene, and I like being bothered.” Grinning now, he gave her a kiss that turned fiery and had him ready to drag her back to bed.
She bit his lip and laughed, walking out.
