Page 79 of Near Miss

Eleven forty-five.Penny usually ate her lunch from noon to one outside if the weather was nice. Today was a clear, sunny day.

Penny was lifting a small cooler bag from her bottom desk drawer when Sophia passed by. “Going to lunch?” Sophia winced at the eagerness in her voice.

“Yes. Would you care to join me? It’s beautiful outside.”

“I’d love to, but I think I’ll eat at my desk today. I’ve got tons to catch up on.”

“Don’t work too hard,” Penny tsked. “You’ve had a rough time of it lately.”

“I won’t.” Sophia slow-walked in the direction of her office until Penny was out of sight, then made a beeline for Jared’s door.

She eased behind Jared’s massive desk and logged into the computer. Most files related to LAI’s operations or Jared’s networking with DC’s powerful elite. She downloaded LAI’s financial spreadsheets and several other documents that pertained to LAI’s operations in Afghanistan, then she performed a search for folders with Global Security or Lachlan Mackay in the file name.

Mackay.

Sophia’s pulse kicked as she clicked on the folder and a second password screen popped up. Jared’s credentials didn’t work on this one. Why was this folder password protected? Dragging it to her USB drive, she breathed a sigh of relief when it created a duplicate file.

She removed the thumb drive and replaced it with the second one Nathan had given her, then uploaded the file it contained as Nathan had instructed. Once she was finished, she removed Nathan’s USB drive and pocketed both drives before leaving Jared’s office.

She grabbed her things and wrote Penny a brief note saying she had a migraine and was going home for the day. Emily might get angry with her for not following the plan, but her friend was in meetings most of the day and didn’t have the time to pick her up and drive her the short distance to the condo. She pulled up her rideshare app and took an Uber home.

Once she was safely inside her home with the alarm dutifully set, Sophia changed into her favorite yoga pants and a loose-fitting t-shirt before sitting down at her dining room table. She inserted the flash drive she’d used to download the files from Lachlan’s, Fred’s, and Jared’s computers into the USB port on her laptop.

There were a couple of hundred files, all obtained illegally.

The first file she opened would cement her status as a thief, no matter how well-intentioned. Her hand shook as the curser arrow hovered over each document, inviting her to click on the mouse and make a discovery.

By the time she’d skimmed the last file, spots danced around the screen, she was pretty sure her vision was no longer 20/20, and the sick, gnawing feeling in her stomach wasn’t because she’d forgotten to eat lunch. Too many questions swirled in her brain with no clear-cut answers.

Lachlan had swept into her life with all the impact of a tornado. Her ability to be subjective about his guilt or innocence had gone out the door with him after they’d made love and he’d told her of Nadia’s treachery.

Before she lost her courage, she connected to the secure online cloud storage site Admiral Dane had set up and logged in using the password he’d provided. She began uploading the files from the flash drive, her heart sinking as the percentage ticked upward on the green progress bar. “Please let me be doing the right thing.”

When the file transfer was completed, she picked up her phone and called Admiral Dane. “I’ve uploaded the information.”

“Good, now stand down, Sophia. I’ll handle it from here.”

“I know what it looks like,” she bit her lip at the tremble in her voice, “but I know Lachlan. He didn’t do this. There was a mission in Afghanistan.”

She paused. How many more of Lachlan’s secrets should she divulge? “Bad things happened. I think someone is framing him, and it’s related to that mission. Do you know what I’m talking about?” The admiral had been head of US Special Operations Command. Surely he knew about the mission or could find out.

“I know.” A grim knowledge underscored the admiral’s curt reply.

There was one thing she wouldn’t divulge, even to her best friend’s father. That Lachlan was alive. He was safe as long as people believed he was dead, and it was the least she could do.

When Lachlan found out she was working with Admiral Dane and had been from the beginning, he’d never forgive her.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Lachlanmassagedthetightmuscles in his thigh as Nathan finished his phone conversation with the Fairfax County Police detective.

The police were looking for him. He was running out of time. The walls of Nathan’s war room closed in on him. He needed to be out tracking people down, not hiding in his mate’s home, waiting for information to fall into his lap.

Nathan tossed his phone onto the desk and rubbed his hand over his short, spiky hair. He let out a long, tired sigh. “The police ID’d the body in the car. This detective is contacting everyone who knows you to try and generate any leads on your location. He wants to come here to interview me in person even though, as you probably heard, I told him I had no idea where you could be.”

“I should leave. If the detective finds out you lied, he’ll charge you with aiding and abetting a fugitive.”

Nathan’s eyes narrowed, lit with an icy fire. “If he wants to have a look around, let him get a fucking warrant. And this conversation is over.”

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