Page 33 of France Face-Off
“My…friend found it online.”
Alex turned to Daniel and frowned. “No way. My parents never posted anything online. Try again.”
“My friend has connections with a lot of government agencies and some not-so-reputable places,” he said.
“Who are you, really?” she asked. “And don’t tell me you’re a male escort. You’re not.”
He sighed. “You’re right. I’m not a male escort. However, I’ve learned that I could do the job if I need the money…and I have needed the money in the not-so-distant past.”
She tapped her toe, impatiently.
He blew out a deep breath. “Okay. I’m Dane Ryan. I’m working for a woman I haven’t met in person, only spoken to over the phone. She hired me because of my training.”
Alex studied the man. Dane Ryan seemed to fit him better than Daniel Rayne. It was a strong name worthy of a strong man. She liked it…she liked him, even if he had lied about who he was. The fact was, she’d lied, too. “What kind of training?” she asked.
“I’m a former Navy SEAL.” As he said the words, he stood taller and squared his shoulders. “Unfortunately, I was asked to leave because of a mission I performed based on orders from people in a higher pay grade than I was. Their bosses didn’t like the results, so they made me the sacrificial lamb.”
“What was the mission?” she asked.
“To take out one heinous Russian.”
Her eyebrows rose. “Assassination?”
“I like to think of it as a termination of his propensity for atrocities. The man tortured a number of Americans before killing them.”
“So they sent you as the judge, jury and executioner.”
He shook his head. “I was just the executioner.”
“And they kicked you out for following orders?”
Again, he nodded.
Alex shook her head. “I took out a few people who killed others.” She looked away. “I didn’t like what I did, but I couldn’t let them do it to anyone else. They did it for money. No emotions. No concern for anything but filling their bank accounts.”
He nodded. “I did what I had to do for my country.”
She lifted her chin. “I did what I had to do for my family. And I’m not done.”
“I’m not actually certain what my role is here now. My original assignment was to stop an assassination of one or more of the Russian delegates to make certain the agreement for phase two of the Nord Stream pipeline goes through.” His lips curled on the corners. “It seems I almost failed my first mission.”
Her lips twisted. “Because Petrov was stabbed while you were dealing with me.”
“Now, it seems my boss wants me to keep an eye on you. That you could be potentially more important than the Russians and the signing of the agreement.”
Alex frowned. “Why does she think I’m more important?”
He tipped his head toward her chest.
Her eyes widened. “The flash drive?”
“Yes. It appears someone wants it. If it’s important enough to kill for, they’ll be back to take it from you. Have you made a copy of it?”
She shook her head. “I tried, but it wouldn’t let me. I can’t do anything with the file because of the encryption. My parents kept other information on that disk, like bank accounts and contact names, and I was able to get to those. That information was also stored on the cloud, but not that one file. And it’s not on the cloud, nor have I been able to access it.” She tilted her head to one side. “If my parents locked it with biometrics, is it possible to access it another way?”
“My new boss might have people who can crack the code. She said their intent was to turn it over to the CIA. Why not do that, now that you know that’s what they wanted?”
“I should,” Alex said. “I’m not getting anywhere on my own, and I don’t want to use members of the dark web to accomplish the task. That’s what bothers me—not knowing why the information is so important. I don’t want any organization to have it if it will cause a world war or mass destruction.”
