What kind of strategy is at play here?
I couldn’t get close enough to see everything, but it seemed like Ted’s benign move was more than it seemed because the muscles tightened in Locke’s shoulders again. From the look on the players’ faces, you’d have thought they were fighting an actual battle, not a fictional one.
After several more players took their turns, complete with lots of nervous tension and tapping, the game seemed to come to a natural pause. Selene turned to her assistant and gestured her forward with a smile and a request for an update on a business matter. Esteban gestured for an attendant to fetch his son. Al-Qadiri penciled notes in a tiny notebook. Nanda closed his eyes as if taking a mini-nap or possibly meditating.
Locke crooked his finger at me. When I moved near his shoulder, he turned to whisper again. “We are going to be here a while. Please go outside and enjoy the rest of the day. I’ll need your help again after dinner.”
“Are you sure? I don’t mind staying.”
He shook his head. “Just bring me that food first,” he said with an unexpected grin.
I stepped back to the tray and pulled up the little divided serving dish of olives, dried fruit, and nuts before setting it on the table in front of him next to his coffee and a fresh crystal tumbler of ice water.
“Perfect. Thank you.”
“Can I get you anything else?”
He met my eyes, his grin now gone. “Please do as I said.”
I nodded and turned away, stung, but as I exited the room and reached for my phone, I realized what he’d “said” was for me to go outside and enjoy the day. He was asking me to take a break.
And what better way to take a break than to go for a run outside and make the one phone call that could absolutely ruin my fucking career?
23
JETT
After changinginto running gear and grabbing my earbuds and phone, I moved to the front door of the villa. Several security personnel were there, two from the team Locke’s people had hired, one who was part of the British royal guard, one who worked for al-Qadiri, and one of Alvarado’s men.
Alvarado’s man frowned at me. “May we help you, Mr. Davis?”
“Just going out for a run,” I explained with a friendly smile.
Al-Qadiri’s man tilted his head toward the stairs to the terrace level. “You would be safer remaining on the property and taking advantage of Mr. Maris’s fitness center.”
“Am I in danger?” I asked, acting as sweetly naive as possible while wonderingwhat the fuck.
The guard working for us shifted on his feet. “It is our job to ensure your safety.”
Alvarado’s man nodded. “You should stay here.”
I tried to look friendly and clueless. “No, thanks. I’d rather enjoy this beautiful weather. It’s a nice break from New York’s cold.”
I moved to the front door before Alvarado’s man spoke again. As I left, I heard him murmur something to one of the other men, but I didn’t stick around to hear what it was.
While I was too experienced and well trained to shake with nerves, I certainly felt them.
Now that my lust was temporarily slaked, my training was kicking back in, and the weight of all my questions about Locke was impossible to ignore. What were the chances that Locke’s business in the Kiel Canal was unrelated to the very mission my fellow agents were on right now?
Pretty slim.
And why had those men warned me against leaving? They had no need to protect me. I was household staff and nothing more.
I started with a walk, then a slow jog, following a map of the area on my phone while listening to music in one earbud. After a mile and a half, I found a secluded area and stepped off the road into a large cluster of trees before making my call.
“Aren’t you supposed to be on vacation?” Rocky answered with a smile in her voice. “Why am I not surprised to hear from you?”
I tempered my voice to keep it low on the off chance anyone was anywhere in range. It seemed impossible, but I’d been trained to never assume. “Hey, yeah, about that… Turns out work might have found me.”
