Emmett sent them both an admonished scowl. “Can we please stay focused?”
The pair gave simultaneous apologies as matching looks of chagrin fell over both their faces.
“Sorry, boss,” Gwen offered softly.
Blake muttered a low, “My bad.”
Emmett blew out a breath and got back on track. “Blake, you were saying you found something from the safe house pics?”
The other man nodded. “When I looked at the spot where the first bullet hit the kitchen window, I realized the angle was off.”
“Off how?” Emmett wasn’t following what the genius was saying.
“Given the shooter’s height, where you said he was standing when he pulled the trigger, and where you said you and Janie were in relation to him . . .” Blake paused before finishing, his expression growing ominous. “I don’t think she’s the one he was trying to kill.”
He ran a hand over his jaw. “You’re sure?”
“As sure as I can be.”
Emmett’s back teeth ground together. “The hotel . . . the safe house . . . We had it wrong this whole time. The goal was never to kill her. They needed her alive, so she could give them what they want.”
He hadn’t anticipated an abduction attempt in themiddle of a busy hospital. But he should have. He never should have let her out of his fucking sight.
An overwhelming sense of failure threatened to take control as the painful revelation struck.
“Don’t do that to yourself, Shaw.” Lucas sent him a knowing glance. “This isn’t on you.”
“I was supposed to protect her.”
“And you did,” his teammate countered. “No way you could’ve known some guy was lurking around the hospital bathroom on the off-chance Janie had to pee.”
“I should have known.”
I should have escorted her and waited by the door.
“You thought these people were trying to kill her, not abduct her.” Gwen took Lucas’ side. “And given how sophisticated the first two attacks were carried out, there was absolutely no reason to think they’d be sloppy enough to go after her in a place filled with potential witnesses.”
“They’re right, boss,” Blake agreed. “You blame yourself for what happened, you’re going to have to blame the rest of us, too.”
His teammates were wrong, but even in his troubled state, Emmett understood this wasn’t the time for self-loathing. It was time for action, and they’d already wasted too much damn time as it was.
“What else do we know?” He bypassed their words of support and moved on. To Gwen, he asked, “You find anything useful on Janie’s phone?”
“Unfortunately, no. Lots of pictures from a tour she took of the White House the day she met Amy. A semi-interesting video of two Secret Service guys in a heated discussion, but it was taken from inside, and the twomen were outside, standing several yards away. Oh, and there were a few pics of that one agent, Christopher Campbell. I have to say, Janie was right.”
“About what?”
She snorted. “The guy looks like a total dick.”
A few chuckles sounded from around the table, but a loud ding coming from Blake’s computer sent the room back into silence.
“What’s that?” Emmett asked.
Blake leaned in a bit and focused on his screen. “Give me a second.” His fingers flew across the keys. A beat later, he froze. “Holy shit. I think I might know where she is.”
“Where?” His heart thumped wildly with a renewed sense of hope as he took a broad step forward.
The screen on the wall filled with an image they’d all been shown before.
