Keira ate a couple more fries and pushed her plate away. “I’m ready when you are.”
Rogue laid a couple of bills on the table to cover the meal and tip. “Let’s go out the way you came in.”
Keira led the way down the hallway with bathrooms on one side and an exit door at the end. When she started to open the door, Rogue stepped in front of her. “Let me.”
She shrugged and stepped back.
Rogue pushed open the door and looked around the back side of the diner for any sign of men in combat gear or a sniper lying in wait to pick them off. Nothing moved. There weren’t any other buildings with rooftops that had a clear line of sight to the back door where he stood.
Satisfied they were safe, he waited for her to join him. Using his body as a shield, he walked with her to the SUV and held the passenger door for her to enter.
She hesitated.
“I promise, I only want to help. I’m not going to abduct you and turn you over to Kaufman and Strickland.” He pulled his gun out of the holster at his belt. “Here, take this. You can hold me at gunpoint just to make sure.”
She glanced up into his eyes and held his gaze for a moment. “No. That won’t be necessary. If you tried to do such a thing, I’d just kill you.” She spoke the words as if it were just another day of sunshine and wildflowers.
Rogue chuckled as Keira slid into the passenger seat.
He rounded the front of the vehicle and climbed in. Then he reached behind the seat, pulled out her laptop and the rolled-up butcher paper and laid them in her lap. “Look familiar?”
She ran her fingers over the laptop and the paper, nodding.
“Oh, and I almost forgot,” Rogue said.
When he reached into his pocket, she stiffened, her hand going to the gun under her jacket.
“It’s okay. I’m not going for a gun or knife.” He pulled out the flash drive and handed it to her. “Just so you know, I’ve seen your murder board and what’s on the flash drive and forwarded copies to my boss and his technical support guy. You can trust them. They’re already digging into the data and looking for other leads and evidence that will hold up in court. However, I couldn’t get into your computer.”
“Thank you.” She smoothed her hand across the laptop as if trying to decide whether to share what to do next. Only a moment passed before she opened the laptop and pulled up several data files. “I hacked into Kaufman’s corporate data and found financial trails between Kaufman and shell companies. I also found communications between Marcus Kaufman and Alan Strickland, as well as between Strickland and Viktor.” She opened a file. “These are the training records of four active Onyx operators. There are more.”
“How have you managed to get into all that data? That’s the kind of thing our technical expert does for us.”
She shrugged. “Though the last foster home I lived in was something akin to hell, they had high-tech computers. The oldest son was into illegal hacking. I picked up a few things.”
“From what you’ve told me so far, Kauman is involved in illegal arms trade through Kaufman Syndicate.”
“And human trafficking,” Keira said. “In respect to the girls stolen for the Onyx program.”
“Viktor Rousseau is the trainer and handler of the operatives.”
Keira nodded. “And Deputy Director Strickland provides government cover and identifies targets. I’m scratching the surface. I need more hard proof—damning communications and financial records.”
“Why don’t you hand over what you have to the police?” Rogue asked.
She was shaking her head before he stopped speaking. “I have some of the pieces, but we need more.”
“Testimony from other Onyx operatives?” he suggested. “Would they flip?”
Keira’s lips twisted. “I’m not sure. We’d need to get to them before Viktor gaslights them and tells them I’m a traitor to my country.”
“He’d do that?” Rogue asked.
“Yes,” Keira said. “He’d have the others turn on me.”
“And do his dirty work.” Rogue glanced through the windshield, digesting everything, his stomach clenching at the extent to which Kaufman would go to line his own pockets.
Keira closed the laptop and nodded. “That’s what I have so far.”
