“I think I’m the reason your dad was attacked.” That was the driving force of his guilt right now. He felt Nick was missing because Alex had asked for his help. The evidence was starting to point in that direction.
Payton’s whole body stiffened, and she looked at him like she’d like to beat the hell out of him. “Excuse me? You’re the reason my dad is missing and I’m being attacked?” Her voice was calm. Too calm. The calm before the storm. He’d better start talking fast.
“Let me explain.” He held his hands up in surrender. “Recently I asked for his help. Over the past few months, there have been base breaches. Three in fact. One in California, one in Texas, and most recently in Arizona. Intel was getting stolen from smaller bases, but no one could find out who it was or what they were getting. I contacted your dad for help. Now this happened.”
“And you think the two are connected?”
“I don’t know what else it would be. All the evidence is pointing that way. The bases on your list are in the west. Maybe he thought they were potential targets. Places that had gotten hit before we knew about them.”
“Or it could be something else entirely,” she pointed out, still not convinced like him. “That still doesn’t explain why he was pushed off the road.”
“Unless he was onto something and they needed to shut him up.” Both he and Payton turned in unison to stare at Colin. “What?”
“Payton, how did you know your dad was pushed off the road and it wasn’t an accident?” Alex asked, taking the focus off Colin before Payton tried to kill him for his insensitive question. Though he did have a good point. Not that he would say anything in front of Payton.
She dragged her murderous gaze away from Colin and pulled her phone out of her pocket and showed him a photo of a road. He recognized it immediately as the road her father’s accident was on. “My father’s car was pushed off the road while he was traveling at a high speed which means he knew he was being followed. Not only that, look at this.” Using her finger and thumb she zoomed in the photo.
He leaned closer but didn’t see anything. “What am I looking at?”
“There’s no tire tracks. Which means he never hit the brakes.” She pulled her phone away and put it back in her pocket. “There’s also the damage to his car. There’s damage to the back bumper which leads me to believe he was pushed off the road.”
Damn, she was good. He hadn’t looked at the road and lack of tire tracks as evidence. She would be more helpful than he thought. But now there was the concern for her safely. Smith and Jones would come back, he knew with a certainty. They thought she had what they were looking for. Whether it was the list or the drive. He couldn’t let either get in the wrong hands. They’d have to stick together.Payton had no idea what she was up against. He needed to get her off radar and fast.
He didn’t have a place to stay, and Payton’s apartment was now compromised. It would be a tight fit at Colin’s.
“You need to pack a bag. A few days’ worth of stuff,” he snapped out the command as he did with his teammates when out in the field, going into military mode. He’d check them into a motel.
“I’m not going anywhere. Especially after what you just told me. No, I refuse to run. They probably took my dad to get information from him. They could be torturing him as we speak. No, I won’t abandon him.” She folded her arms over her chest, giving him a look that told him she wouldn’t budge. Too bad for her, he was just as stubborn.
“We’re not running. Just laying low. People are after you, and they obviously know where you live. If they have your dad, they could use you as collateral to get him to talk. You are the main concern now.” He saw the uncertainty in her eyes. “We’re not running,” he promised her again. “We just need to get someplace safe so we can make a plan. Someplace they don’t know.”
Payton cocked her head again in thought. They stood so close he could feel her body heat. Smell the shampoo in her hair.Peaches. Instinct told him to back away, but his pride was ruling and he held his ground. It was like a game of chicken. The first one to move lost. He wouldn’t lose.
“I know a place we can go,” she finally said after a moment. Alex was shocked she’d agreed so easily. He expected more of a fight. “But…” And here it was. Conditions. “We will do this together. You’re not going to send me off somewhere and ditch me for my own good,” she said in air quotes like it was offensive for him to even think of her safety. After he’d seen her in action, he was still worried for her, but he knew she could handle herself pretty efficiently. “While you get to play hero. I want to help. I know I can help.”
“I agree.” Payton raised a skeptical eyebrow like she’d expected an argument from him. Alex had to admit—only to himself—Payton’s help could prove useful. More than once she’d found things they hadn’t. He was used to working as a team. He should carry on that same work ethic.
“You’re being serious?” She still didn’t believe him.
“I can vouch for him, Payton,” Colin butted in. “We came here with the intention of him apologizing and asking you to work with us.” He leaned closer than Alex would have liked to whisper loudly in her ear, “I threatened to leave him for you if he didn’t agree for us all to work together.”
“Thanks,” Alex said dryly. Like Payton needed more reasons to distrust him. Now she would know it was bribery that had made him agree to this.
“Regardless of the reason, we’re in this together.”
Payton gave him half a smile as her cheeks burned red before she looked away. “I’ll go pack.” She all but left a vapor trail in her wake.
“So what’s the plan?” Colin asked, tearing Alex’s attention away from Payton and her tight ass as it swayed in her jeans walking away.
“First, we need to figure out what’s on that drive. I’d prefer to take it back to Texas and have someone I trust work on it, but that’s not an option.”
“I know someone on base who might be able to help us with the password.”
“Someone who can be discreet? Nick was almost killed for this. The less people know, the better.”
“I know the meaning of discreet.” Colin gave him a dark look, like he was offended Alex even questioned him. It wasn’t that Alex didn’t trust him; he just didn’t know the people of Fort Carson like Colin did.
“I know you do. I’m sorry, this whole situation has me on edge. I just don’t know who to trust.”