The balcony seemed to shake around him.
“What aliases?”
“We’re still compiling the full list, but the pattern is concerning—professional-grade identity work, the kind that takes resources and training. She’s not a hotel inspector. Whatever she’s really doing on this tour, it’s not what she’s told you.”
Dakota closed his eyes. Saw Jayden in the Hunter Valley, firelight playing across her face as she told him about Skylar. Saw her in Cairns, laughing as they danced by the pool. Saw her in Fiji, talking him through the nightmare with a voice that knew exactly what she was doing.
You get too close to me, and things could end badly.
She’d warned him. He just hadn’t understood what she was warning him about.
“Are you sure, Ham? Can you get me pictures?”
“Sure. But Coco is pretty sure it’s the woman you’re with. Has she done anything suspicious?”
Where to start. Nothing? Everything?
“I don’t know.”
“I’ll reach out to our contact. It’s a woman named London—she’s a Black Swan, been working this case with Logan Thorne with the Caleb Group for months. She’s the one tracking the assassin. If anyone has the full picture on your travel companion, it’s her.”
“London.” Dakota filed the name away. Another piece of the puzzle, another player in a game that kept getting more complicated. “How soon can you get the intel?”
“I’ll have something for you by morning. In the meantime—” Ham’s voice shifted. “Let’s talk about Sydney. You’re touring the Opera House tomorrow afternoon?”
“That’s the plan. Backstage access, the whole tour.”
“Good. I’m sending West to meet you there. The Secret Service has been on-site for over a week, vetting the venue, but your blueprints have specific areas marked. We need to nail those down before the summit.”
The blueprints. The ones he’d been carrying since the beginning, the ones that had gotten mixed up in the Fiji bag shuffle. The whole reason he was on this tour in the first place.
“I don’t want anything happening to President White,” Ham said. “Whatever’s going on with this woman—keep your eyes open. Don’t let it distract you from the mission.”
“It won’t.”
The lie tasted bitter. Everything about Jayden had been a distraction from the moment he’d first seen her in Fiji.
And now, her latest move had torn up his heart.
He closed his eyes and wanted to hit something.
“And the suitcase?” Dakota asked. “The rifle components? We still haven’t found who it belongs to.”
“That’s concerning, I won’t lie. But the summit is the priority. If the assassin is on your tour, they’ll make their move at the Opera House. That’s where we’ll stop them.”
“And if Jayden is the assassin?”
The question hung in air, eaten by the night sky.
“Then you do your job,” Ham said quietly. “Whatever that requires.”
The line went dead.
Dakota stood on the balcony, hearing his heartbeat in his ear.
Has she done anything suspicious?
Like what? Wheedle her way into his heart?
