She hesitated again.
Alex wanted to growl in frustration. Was she purposely being evasive? He had an easier time extracting information from insurgents than her. “Payton, we agreed to work together. Which means we need to be honest with each other.”
She looked between him and Colin. The indecision written all over her face. He was the main cause of that with his repeatedly pushing her away. Telling her she wasn’t wanted. That he didn’t need her help. Never once thinking about her wants. If someone had told him to stand down while his loved one was hurt, he’d do exactly what she had been doing.
He should have known better. Payton had always been anautonomous person. Even Nick had trouble controlling her when she wanted something. He admired that drive and passion in her now. As a kid, it had been annoying. Especially when he tried keeping her at a distance.
Finally, Payton pulled out a piece of paper from her front jean pocket. “I found this in my room, before I found you in yours. It’s a list of addresses. I was on my way to the first one when I had the run-in with Jones and Smith.” She held the paper out for Alex to take. He scanned them over.
“What’s at the addresses?” he asked.
“The ones on the front are here in Colorado Springs. One was an address to a warehouse not far from here and another was near a diner my dad I frequented. The last was an abandoned warehouse on the other end of town. I don’t know yet about the others.”
“And the back?”
“Out of state addresses.”
“May I?” Colin held his hand out.
Payton nodded, and he took it from Alex. They waited while Colin looked them over front and back. “I recognize one. It’s a base in Alaska. This one,” he pointed at the top, “It’s here on base. I don’t remember what the building is used for, but I can check it out tomorrow.”
Addresses and numbers. The numbers didn’t make sense, but something about the two bases got Alex excited. Had Nick figured it out? He knew he could count on Nick to figure it out. But why leave the list in his house for Payton instead of the envelope for him to find. Anyone could have found the list of addresses.
“This hardly seems worth trying to kill someone for.” Colin handed the list back to Payton.
Alex felt the weight of the flash drive in his pocket. All the answers were on it. He could feel it. That’s why Nick had left it for him to find. “We need to crack that code on the flash drive. I can take it back home with me—”
“No,” Payton cut him off, glaring daggers at him. “You said we’re doing this together. Now you’re talking about taking it back to wherever you came from.”
“Payton, what’s on this flash drive is worth killing for. We need to get the Intel off of it. I don’t know anyone here that can break the code. I know people at my base that can.” He needed to make her understand how dangerous the situation was. That the safest place for the drive was somewhere far away from where these men could get it.
“How do you know?” she asked, not at all convinced about his concerns. “How do you know what could be on the flash drive? It could be blank. To fool someone into thinking something is on it.”
“No.” He refused to believe that. “He left clues to the answers. The addresses, the numbers, whatever is encrypted. He left breadcrumbs for us to follow. The envelope had my name on it. He wouldn’t have left me a blank drive.”
“Why would he even leave any of this?” She threw her hands up in the air in frustration. “None of this makes sense. My dad was an analyst; what could he know that’s worth trying to kill him over?” Payton asked, exasperated. “Why would he feel the need to hide anything on a drive or have a list of addresses?”
“I think it’s time you told us what’s going on,” Colin said to Alex. Alex had promised, just one thing after another had come up. Now was as good a time as any.
Chapter 14
“Nick wasn’t an analyst.” Payton snorted, but he chose to ignore it. This wasn’t going to be easy for her to hear, but she’d asked for honesty and that’s what he was going to do. “It was a cover. Nick is head of the counter cyber terrorism group for the west coast.”
“No, I don’t believe it. He’s an analyst.” Payton folded her arms over her chest, shaking her head in denial. “He has been for over twenty years.”
“He was an analyst long ago, then he moved into the cyber terrorism group about eight years ago.”
“My dad?” She raised an eyebrow skeptically.
“Yes.”
“And how would you know all of this? You haven’t seen my dad since you left for basic training. Long before this supposed job change.” Her head cocked to the side, waiting for a response. For a moment he was distracted as her hair fell and draped over her shoulder. The tie it had been in earlier was gone, probably from the fight.
Long, flowy waves cascaded down to the middle of her chest like a waterfall. He was mesmerized by the rainbow of colors. It wasn’t just brown. There were warm tones hidden, that only shone in the right light. Caramel and fresh spun gold. Interwoven with strands of dark chocolate. His hand twitched wanting to run his fingers through it. Wondering if it was as soft as it looked.
Alex clenched his fists and kept them at his sides. “He told me about it years ago.” Alex couldn’t remember when exactly. It hadn’t seemed important until he’d needed Nick’s help with his investigation.
“Of course he did,” she muttered under her breath. He probably wasn’t supposed to hear it, but he did. He didn’t know why that knowledge should upset her. It wasn’t public knowledge what her dad did.