A Cold Dark Promise (Cold Justice #8.5)(13)
“Ah, hell.” Frazer wasn’t making him feel any better.
“If I go in and grab the kid then I might fuck up an operation. But if our intelligence agencies aren’t involved, or the ICs of our allies aren’t involved…”
“Then they should be. But bringing them into the loop ruins your chance of grabbing the kid.” Frazer swore. “Why do you always make things complicated?”
“It’s a gift,” Alex said. “Look, I’m going to go back to the marina to see what I can discover, but if you don’t hear from me for a few days…”
“Oh, no. Nope. You called me. Now we’re doing this my way,” Frazer told him.
“Only if you can guarantee getting the kid back and me getting home in time to marry the woman of my dreams.”
They both knew that in this sort of situation there were no guarantees. Frazer swore colorfully. Frazer didn’t usually get flustered, but being a best man had clearly upset his equilibrium.
Alex heard him talking to someone before coming back on the line. “Don’t do anything until you hear from me, understand? I’ve a few contacts I can leverage, but if there’s an illegal arms deals going down we need to know about it.”
“That’s why I called you.” And why, if she found out, Jane Sanders would have Alex’s head.
Chapter Seven
Monday morning, Alex was back at that same cafe, reading another copy of Die Zeit, drinking another cappuccino and slowly going out of his ever-loving mind. Today he wore a pale blue, linen shirt, cream, linen pants and a white, straw fedora and dark sunglasses. He missed his jeans. He missed his combat boots. He missed Mallory more.
The good news was he’d written one-hundred place names on customized white cards in his best handwriting. The bad news was he still had another hundred to go. He’d run background checks on everyone attending their wedding and some of the guests he wouldn’t let look after his potted plants. But they were friends of the senator’s or the judge’s and, apparently, the groom didn’t get a say. He’d hired another firm to provide security as an added precaution. He wasn’t expecting trouble, but neither was he taking any chances.
Frazer had gone dark, which wasn’t like the guy. Alex needed to make a decision about whether or not to fulfill his primary objective and grab the kid, or pursue this new angle. Putting arms dealers out of business wasn’t his job anymore, but defeating terrorism was everyone’s problem. No one got a free pass.
Jane was getting antsy. Reilly had his hands full trying to keep her occupied and contained.
Alex had spent the last day or so gathering information. He’d run facial recognition programs on images he’d captured while strolling the streets and bars of Antibes and come up with a few more potential bad guys.
It was the people who weren’t on the IC radar who worried him most—they were the people they needed to identify and shut down.
His cell rang, and he answered with an internal grin. Mallory. She was up late. He wondered how her German was. “Hallo.”
“Hey. Can you talk? How’s everything going?”
“Es geht mir gut.”
A few beats of confused silence. “I thought you were in France.”
“Richtig.”
She groaned. “I don’t speak German. I’m gonna text you.”
“Gute idee. Auf wiederh?ren, fr?ulein.”
“I love you.”
The best words in any language. Alex resisted the urge to say it back. He had a role to play and that role was of a happily married man. He kept one eye on the quay and texted Mal who was listed under MR with a picture of another woman. The communications were encrypted but it was always possible if someone captured Alex they could eventually force him to open his phone. Everyone broke under torture. The key was gaining enough time that appropriate safeguards could be put into place to mitigate potential damage. Frazer would look after Mal if anything happened to him. Alex didn’t doubt that.
Not that he intended to get caught.
Alex: Why are you up so late?
MR: Couldn’t sleep. Junior is kicking.
Alex: Everything alright?
MR: Everything is fine
After the scare Mal had on New Year’s Eve, Alex would never take their health for granted. But he refused to obsess. Even as he obsessed, he refused to obsess. It was an ongoing process.
Alex: How was your last weekend as a free woman?
MR: How was your last weekend as a free man?
Alex: Sucked because you weren’t here.
MR: Awwww…
Alex: Did Haley get your friends drunk?
MR: Ha! You have no idea how much Harvard law students drink.
Alex: Are you saying they drank more than Haley?
MR: …No, but my mother did. I needed the stripper’s help to get Haley into bed.
Alex: Wait.
Alex: What?
Alex: Stripper???
MR: Actually, three strippers but only one helped me get Haley into bed.
Alex: You had three strippers at your bachelorette party? In a health spa? And you were in a bedroom with one of them?
MR: They didn’t go full monty despite my mother offering them a thousand-dollar tip if they did.
Alex: But…
MR: Not my idea!!!
Alex blinked stupidly at his cell.