She didn’t know why she’s said Colonel Diesel’s first name to Alex. A wicked part of her just liked seeing his reaction when she talked about other men. He acted as if he were jealous, even if it was unfounded. She had no interest in any of them.
“Yes, Major Simon Diesel, you met him yesterday.”
“I know who he is.” His words clipped as if he wereindignant. “The weasel.”
“You and Colin and that ridiculous name.” She shook her head at him. Such a juvenile name.
“You have to admit, he is weaselly.”
“I will admit no such thing.” Simon had been nothing but ever kind to her and her father. She would never think of him as that stupid name.
“Why does he have your number?” Payton heard the growly tone in his voice. He almost sounded jealous, but that couldn’t be true.
“Because we are friends.”
“What did he want?”
“He’s worried and asked me to call him.” She dialed Simon’s number. “Hi, Simon.”
“Payton, thank God. Are you alright? I just came to your apartment and found it in shambles.” Simon sounded out of breath and frantic. She’d never heard him like that before. It was worrisome.
Payton winced. She had been so distracted with everything, she’d forgotten to tell anyone about her place. That must have come as quite a shock. “I’m alright. I had a run-in with the same men that have been following me, but I’m in a safe place now. Have you heard anything about my father?” She couldn’t keep the hopeful tone out of her voice.
“Nothing yet. Where are you? I’d love to come see you and assure with my own eyes you are well.”
Payton saw Alex shake his head at her. She knew her location was supposed to be secret, but this was Major Diesel, one of her father’s closest friends. He’d never hurt her. But secrecy was key right now. “I’d rather not say. Just know I’m safe and working on Dad’s case from where I am. I won’t rest until I find him.”
“I know you won’t, and neither will we.”
“Oh, Simon, are you still at my apartment?”
“Yes, why?”
“Daddy’s things from his car are in the living room. They are yours to take.” Though she hadn’t meant to hand them over quite yet. There was no reason to keep holding onto them. There was nothing useful to her in them, and she was tired of General Wessex calling her about them.
“Thank you, Payton. Keep me posted if you hear anything.”
“Same here.” She hung up. “You know he’d never hurt me.” She felt the need to defend the major.
“The less people who know where we are, the better.”
“Even if I did tell him where we are, it’s not like he can get to us without blowing himself up.”
“Regardless. Less is more.”
“Are you finding anything on the list?” she asked, changing the subject. She felt idle just sitting there while he did all the work. She’d only brought one laptop, so they were forced to share. And she wasn’t about to hover over his shoulder.
“In the ten seconds since I started looking at it, no.”
Ass.
Payton clutched her mother’s necklace in her fingers and started twisting it back and forth. There had to be something productive she could be doing instead of just sitting here.
She flopped on the couch then picked her phone back up and looked over her texts from her boss again while sending off a quick one with a status update that she was out of town but would check in as she could. She scrolled through the list of the incident report and everything collected from the car. Then something caught her attention. “Where is it?” she whispered under her breath. She read through the report again just to be sure she wasn’t overlooking it.
“What is it?” Alex asked, sensing her distress.
“My dad’s phone. It’s not listed amongst his possessions found in the car.”