Page 29 of A Soldier's Temptation
“Does she know how you feel?”
“She knows, she doesn’t believe it yet, but she knows.”
“Okay, so what can we do to help?”
“Ari is in trouble. Her ex was stealing information for the Chinese Ministry of State Security. He even tried to make it look like she was behind it all. The FBI has point, and my friend Colin is the SAC.”
“Shouldn’t they be handling this?”
“Yes, they should. The fucking trial is next week and they still don’t have any leads. Her ex is keeping quiet, probably worried they’ll come after him. But in the meantime, Ari’s been getting threats and then tonight’s break-in.”
“What the hell have they been doing? Didn’t I read in the paper about this over a year ago?”
“Yup. It doesn’t make sense to me either. There’s something else going on here. Earlier today she got an email with a picture of her and her friend on their balcony. It was taken maybe an hour before. The FBI couldn’t trace the IP. Which seems fucked up. It’s not the only time it happened either. No one is that good at covering their tracks. I sent Chase a text but it’s the middle of the night in Florida.”
“Your old team lead? Frost was his name, right?”
“Yeah. He has a couple of excellent computer guys working for him. I bet they can dig something up.”
“Okay. Remember we can’t operate on US soil. We’ll have to turn it over to the FBI if we come up with anything.”
“I know. I don’t like it but I understand. Think you can all come over tomorrow around zero nine hundred and we’ll put together a plan?”
“Sure, just make sure you keep Ariana in the loop. If you don’t, it’ll be the fastest relationship ever.”
“I know, I’ll talk to her.”
“Night,” Elwood said as he disconnected the call. John could have sworn he heard a female voice at Elwood’s just before he hung up. Interesting.
“Talk to me about what?” Ari asked from behind him.
Shit. How much had she heard? Did she know he knew everything that had been going on with her? He had a feeling his ass about to be grass. Turning around, Ari stood in the doorway with her hands on her hips and Mr. Darcy parked at her feet. It didn’t look like a happy pose. It looked like he was toast, but how burnt was the question.
“Just that I was calling in my team and my old boss. He’s got a security firm in Florida with a couple of awesome computer geeks. I figured they might be able to help.”
“Help what?”
“I’m hoping he’ll have them take a look at your computer to track down the person sending the emails. Hopefully, it will lead to who’s behind this.”
“How do you know about the emails?”
Shit. He should have told her at dinner. It would have been better before all this other shit happened tonight. Now he had no choice but to tell her everything and hope she didn’t walk out of his life. He’d promised to keep her safe and he would. Even if she never wanted to see him again. Maybe a partial truth would work?
“Colin told me about them while you were grabbing your stuff.” He felt like a shit lying to her, but her safety was all that mattered.
“Why would he do that?”
“Because I told him I was going to protect you and I needed to know what was going on.”
“I guess it helps that you’ve known him for years, right?”
“Not really. FBI agents don’t like to share. I told him you were important to me, and in order to keep you safe, I had to know what could be a problem.” Trying to prove that he was a better man than Chen and lying to her about knowing her truths was not the best way to do it.
“You told him that?”
“Yes, I did. I don’t plan on hiding it anymore.”
“I told you how I feel about relationships, and that I didn’t want another one.”
