Page 20 of Protecting You

She was ready to end this day.

Not just this day. She was ready for this whole crazy thing to be over, the sooner the better.

Callan hung up the hotel phone as she walked in. “I sent for a pizza. Thought I’d better let Jonathan know.” He gave her a quick once over. “Comfortable?”

“More than I was. What are you going to do for clothes?”

“I’ll figure it out. What do you know about the person Ghazi wants you to find?”

“He’ll email the information he has.”

“Can you see if he sent it to you?”

Settled on the sofa, she checked the progress of her download—the files were still transferring to the thumb drive—and opened her email.

There was one from Charles Sanders. She read it, shaking her head. “It’s just an IP address and some names.”

“You think it’ll be enough to find who he’s looking for?”

“It would be easier and faster with my desktop. I have programs on there and private bots and…” She’d been so focused on the intruders in her apartment, the strange journey through the city, and the very distracting man at her side that she hadn’t yet processed what the break-in meant.

The enormity sank in. Her desktop’s hard drive was gone, and with it, most of the tools she used to do her job.

She could rebuild the bots and download the programs again, but it would take time.

Callan settled beside her on the sofa, his scent wafting toward her—some combination of mahogany and musk. He peered over her shoulder. “Huh.” He tapped one of the names on her screen. “I know this guy.Ofhim, anyway. He used to be high up in Putin’s government, but last I heard, he’d left his job.”

“Do you know any of the others?”

“They’re not familiar, but I can look into them.” He sat back, and though he wasn’t as close, he still took up way too much space on the small sofa.

Would it be rude to move to the loveseat?

“What else has Ghazi asked you to do for him?” Callan asked.

“Mostly things like this, though he usually has more information. He once wanted me to do a thorough background check on some French diplomat.”

“Named?”

She told him, hoping he’d shift over, maybe grab a notepad and pen from the desk to write it down.

But he just nodded. “What else?”

“Just, you know, stuff like this.”

“I’ll need to know everything. Did he ever ask you to do anything illegal?”

“I already told you, I won’t do anything illegal.” Well, maybe,technically,some of the stuff she did skirted laws. She’d hacked into private databases occasionally, but it wasn’t like she was stealing credit card numbers.

Callan nodded, though the gesture seemed more contemplative than agreement. He tipped his chin toward her laptop. “Is the download almost done?”

“Close.” She’d started with Charles’s folder, so she deleted it from the cloud.

“If your intruders are interested in something you’ve saved, then you’re just making yourself a target.”

“Do you have a better suggestion?” She stood and moved to the loveseat so he wouldn’t see the names of her other clients. Not that she didn’t trust him, but…

Well, she didn’t, notthatmuch, anyway.

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