“Absolutely.”
Her shoulders slumped. “You don’t have to patronize me. I just meant—”
Jason leaned in and placed his palm on the table, an inch from hers. He’d barely thwarted the urge to grasp her hand. “I didn’t mean to sound patronizing.” Why was he apologizing to her every two minutes? “I understand you care about your uncle.”
“Yes, I do. He’s my only . . . we’re all the family either of us has.”
Emotion seeped through her statement. And helped explain why she would fly to this remote island to warn Leland that armed men were looking for him.
“I understand. It was brave of you to come all this way to help your uncle. Especially since I don’t believe you’relaw enforcement or military.” Actually, he was positive of that.
“No, no I’m not. I’m a personal assistant. I’m virtual part of the time, but sometimes I—oh never mind, I won’t bore you with that.” Her eyes sharpened on his. “Your turn, Mr. Bridger. What’s going on? And what does it have to do with Leland?”
Oh, boy. Here we go. “Ms. Faraday, what do you think your uncle does for WhiteRock?”
“What do Ithink. . .“ Her eyes left him, focusing on nothing for a few beats. “What Ithink. . . meaning what have I beentold?“ Thoughts he couldn’t read pulled her brows down and curved her lips into her mouth.
“Ms. Faraday?”
“My uncle doesn’t have a desk job at a company that sells security systems, does he?”
Oh. Eric was right. Leland gave her a cover story. “No, ma’am. He’s never had a desk job. And while security is WhiteRock’s business, we don’t sell security systems.”
Her eyes slowly met his. And he felt another uncomfortable pang in his chest. Leland’s lie hurt her.
“I think I knew he was hiding something.” Her voice was an almost-whisper. “I don’t know why. It just felt ‘off’sometimes. Several times, actually. The job he described didn’t match his personality at all.” She forced a little more composure. And narrowed her striking blue eyes at him. “So, what does he do?”
“I should let him explain.”
“You said ‘security.’ Do you work for the government?”
“We occasionally liaison with agencies from different governments, but WhiteRock is a private company.” A new worry line creasing her brow told him he needed to clarify. “Hey, we’re the good guys. We’re not supporting terrorists or corrupt governments.”
She processed the information with a slow nod. “I see. I didn’t assume you were.” She closed her eyes with a long exhale. “But I do believe Leland is the type to do questionable things for the right reasons.”
“Like lying to his niece to protect her?”
She looked like she was going to respond to that, but he didn’t give her the chance. “Look, I don’t mean to get into anything between you and your uncle. Right now, I need to find Leland and ask him why he’s here. I’m here on another matter, and I need to know if our situations are connected.” Though, in the last couple of minutes, he’d abandoned all doubt they were connected.
She looked confused. “But if he is here for work, why wouldn’t Eric Kitts know? Leland always said Eric was his boss. Was that a lie, too?”
“No, it wasn’t. Eric’s our boss. And I have no idea why Leland is here without a directive from Eric. I need to talk to him. When you were at Leland’s house, did you notice anything at all that would give you a clue why he came here?”
She shook her head. “The only thing I know is that two armed men were looking for him.”
“Do you know if they found his laptop?”
“He doesn’t have a laptop.”
Jason didn’t hide his expression. She read it easily.
“Oh. He has a laptop?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I didn’t see it. And I didn’t hear them say anything about a laptop.”
He nodded and took a last sip of his coffee. If he could get the waitress’s attention, maybe she could bring him another coffee in a to-go cup. He needed the caffeine, and he needed to get moving.
