Page 37 of A Soldier's Temptation
“Have you seen my phone?”
John opened the window to let out the stink and finished making her coffee. “No, I don’t think so. When did you have it last?”
“That’s just it, I don’t remember. I’ll be right back. I’m going to check my purse.”
“Okay. We’ll be here, me and Farty McFartface.”
That was a worthyShira-ismand she’d have to remember to tell her about John’s new nickname for Mr. Darcy. So much happened since yesterday that she didn’t know about, and she’d be hurt if Ari didn’t tell her soon.
It was hard to believe that itwasjust yesterday. Damn. Finding out that Ari was staying with John would be a hell of a surprise. Knowing how Shira’s mind worked meant she’d be giving Ari a ton of grief about not jumping his bones. Sex was definitely high on Shira’s “you’re missing out” list for Ari.
In the spare room, she grabbed her purse from the top of the dresser and dumped the contents onto the bed. The last thing to hit the bed was the missing phone. With a sigh of relief, she pushed the button to check for messages. Dead. And of course, she’d forgotten to grab her charger.
John was on his phone when she walked back into the kitchen. He’d been busy while she’d been searching for her phone. A mug of coffee, a sliced bagel, and a tub of cream cheese was on the table waiting for her. If he kept this up, she’d be spoiled rotten.
From what she could hear of his side of the conversation, he was talking to Chase or one of his guys. Not trying to eavesdrop, she took a bite of her bagel. Watching as John refilled his coffee, she smiled as he stepped back over the dog. It was crazy how fast he had adapted to her staying there. He’d even remember to check for Mr. Darcy sprawled on the floor.
* * *
“I haven’t heard from Colin yet.”
“What’s taking so long?” Chase asked.
“No clue. There has to be something else going on. Unless he’s leaving me out of the loop.”
“If we ran our missions like this, we’d be in deep shit.”
“Exactly. But we’re not really supposed to be involved either. It’s only because Ari is here he’s sharing anything.”
“Okay, well I think we should assume they didn’t know about the other phone until you told them last night,” Chase said.
“I think so too. Hold on, Ari is here now. I’ll put you on speaker.”
“Good morning, Ari,” Chase asked.
“You guys start early, huh?”
“Mission or not I’m up at the crack of dawn and out running or in the gym. But it’s also three hours later here.”
“Oh right. I forgot about that.”
“Most days I get up before dawn to do PT. After so many years of operating, it’s a hard habit to break.”
“My father did until the end,” John added.
“I guess when you do it for so long it would be.”
“Exactly. Anyway, the reason I called is that Alex found out a few things about Chen. He should never have been hired to work on any kind of government contracts. Paul Chen is an assumed name he began using about four years ago. He’s done a good job covering his tracks, but it didn’t take us too much to find out the truth. What I don’t get is why your company and the FBI didn’t discover any of this. His real name is Huang Chiu. He was born on mainland China and came to the U.S. fifteen years ago on a student visa. After he graduated he just disappeared, and there was no sign of him until he started using the Paul Chen alias. That’s when he started interviewing with a number of government contractors.”
“I told you Chase’s team was good,” John said as he refilled her coffee mug.
“Yes, you did. I can’t believe you found all of this in a few hours. I’m like you, how did the FBI miss this? Paul didn’t have any kind of a security clearance at work, so maybe they didn’t bother to do a background check.”
“I’m not sure, but when Colin calls Riot he can fill him in. Hopefully, they already knew but just didn’t tell you. I can’t imagine it wouldn’t be part of their case against him,” Chase said.
“I hope so. It still seems weird to me,” Ari replied before taking another bite of her bagel.
“The FBI could have brought in Homeland or the CIA. Especially if they found out Chen was using an alias. With all the different alphabet agencies things can get dicey.”
