Page 37 of Near Miss

A spike of adrenaline sent her pulse racing. Late-night phone calls never meant good news.

She stared at the lit screen. Why the heck was her boss calling her at this hour? “Hello?” Sleep muffled her greeting. She cleared her throat and tried again, “Jared?”

“Sophia, I’m sorry to wake you.” The somber note in Jared’s voice had her instantly on alert.

“What’s wrong?”

“Fred was killed in the District tonight.”

“What?” she gasped, fully awake now.

“The police said he was shot. A victim of armed robbery.”

“What was he doing in DC?” She was pretty sure Fred had said he lived in Chantilly, in the Virginia suburbs. Why would he be in the city late in the evening on a weeknight?

“I have no idea. I’m calling to let everyone know, so they don’t hear it on the morning news first. Tomorrow’s going to be a rough day at the office. I’ll need your help.”

“Of course. I’ll do anything I can.”

“Thank you, Sophia. I know I can always count on you. You were the first person I called. I need to let the others know. Goodnight.”

“Goodnight,” she whispered, but Jared had already hung up.

Tears blurred her vision.Poor Fred.What a senseless, random act.

“Sophia?” Emily knocked, then cracked open Sophia’s bedroom door. “Is everything okay? I got up for a drink of water and heard you talking to someone.”

“That was my boss. One of my coworkers was killed tonight in the District.”

“Oh my God.” Emily entered the room and crawled onto Sophia’s bed, settling beside her. “That’s horrible. What is this world coming to?”

Sophia snuggled next to her friend, taking strength from her companionship. “I don’t know.” She’d always chosen to believe the best of people. It had given her the strength to believe in herself.

What if Lachlan was right, and what she thought of as a strength was, in fact, a weakness?

Maybe she was too naïve, too trusting. She trusted Lachlan. But Roshan Haider had stalked her because of Lachlan.

Admiral Dane suspected Lachlan of trafficking weapons to a warlord. She thought she’d discounted that theory, but after meeting with Fred earlier in the day, she couldn’t help but wonder if she’d missed something.

Fred’s personal audit of the Global Security division’s financials might prove the admiral’s suspicions were justified after all.

Only now, Fred was dead.

Everything kept circling back to Lachlan.

Was he the decent but troubled man she believed him to be?

Or was he a dangerous man with a hidden agenda?

Chapter Sixteen

RobberyTurnsDeadlyinAdams-Morgan

Sophia skimmed the online article in the local section ofThe Washington Post‘s digital edition, then closed it with a click of her mouse. The few bites she’d taken of her bagel turned to lead in her stomach.

Outside the window, the hazy outline of the sun peeked through a blanket of dull, gray sky. A smatter of raindrops trailed down the glass, drawn by gravity to the pavement below.

The weather matched the mood of everyone at LAI this morning.

---