Oath of Honor

“I’m afraid tonight isn’t a good night. I think it would be awkward

for me to change my plans. But if you’re on a tight schedule—”

“No, no, I’m more than ready. What about breakfast?”

“There’s a diner a block from my apartment. Eva’s.”

“Seven thirty?”

Wes registered the silence a second before Jennifer appeared in

the kitchen doorway.

“Sorry,” Wes said quickly. “I was looking for the bathroom.”

Jennifer smiled thinly, her eyes narrowing. “Top of the stairs on

your left.”

“Thanks. Be right back.”

“The food should be here soon.” Jennifer traced a fingertip over

the top of Wes’s hand. “I hope you’re as hungry as I am.”

• 245 •

RADCLYfFE

chapter thirty

Evyn called Cameron Roberts. “We’ve got something on audio.

Sounds like she’s arranging a meet.”

“E-mail me the audio file,” Cam said.

“It’s on its way.” She glanced at Block, crowded next to her in the

back of the surveillance van. They’d parked around the corner from

Jennifer Pattee’s town house, within range of the transmitter Wes was

wearing but out of line of sight. Block was focused on monitoring the

audio feed—he wasn’t paying any attention to her. “We can’t get both

sides of the conversation, but the subject is coming through clear. She

mentioned a mutual contact—Tom. There’s no way he—”

“That doesn’t concern us right now,” Cam said.

She knew their priority was locating and securing the stolen

biocontagion, but no way was she letting Tom become a suspect. “I

just want to go on record that I’m the best one to have observed his

activities, and nothing suggests he’s involved.”

“I appreciate that, and I’m sure he will too. We picked up the name

on a few scattered communications over the last few weeks, but we

haven’t been able to put anything together. At this point, we’re simply

being cautious.”

“I understand. There’s something else,” Evyn said. “I think she

made Wes.”

“Hold on. Let me listen to this,” Cam said. “I’m downloading it

now.”Evyn chafed in the sudden silence and switched to watching the

video feed from the camera they’d mounted on a light pole halfway

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Oath Of hOnOr

down the block from Jennifer Pattee’s front door. If she didn’t occupy

her mind, she was going to drive herself crazy imagining what was going

on with Wes inside that house. They didn’t have eyes inside—there

hadn’t been time to get anything in place. So she was left to imagining

Wes and Jennifer’s activities by following the audio transcript on the

computer next to Block. The impersonal words appeared as if a ghost

were typing them, but she had no difficulty hearing Wes’s voice. She

knew Jennifer Pattee well enough to recognize hers too. As the words

scrolled down the screen, Evyn saw Jennifer with Wes.

She’d always found Jennifer attractive but aloof, which had

never bothered her because Jennifer wasn’t her type. She was capable,

competent, and sexy if you liked aggressive femmes, but she’d always

sensed something just a little bit calculating about her. Jennifer was

nothing like Wes—Wes didn’t play games, didn’t pull her punches,

asked the hard questions, and didn’t run from the answers. Wes didn’t

run from anything, which was why she was sitting in Jennifer’s house

tonight with no backup close enough to help her if something went

sour. The thought curdled her stomach.

She reread the transcribed message. Even without the audio to

accent the innuendo, Jennifer sounded like she was coming on to Wes.

The idea of Jennifer so much as touching Wes made her want to kick

down the town house door. She wasn’t jealous—she was furious.

Jennifer was a terrorist, and she’d do anything to achieve her goals—

sleep with Len O’Shaughnessy, seduce Wes, maybe even get rid of

someone she perceived as an obstacle to her mission. Right now, that

obstacle looked a lot like Wes.

“Can you tell where they are?” Evyn asked, her voice sounding

loud above the low steady hum of electronics.

Block said, “Huh?” and lifted the headphones from one ear.

Evyn gritted her teeth. “Can you tell where they are in the

building?”

“The GPS on the transmitter is pretty specific. With the blueprints

we have as reference, I can place them pretty close.” He dropped

the headphones back in place. “Looks like they’re still in the living

room.”

The living room. Good. The front door led directly into the living

room, so if Wes got into trouble at least Evyn could be inside in under

a minute. A lot could happen in a minute.

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Her phone rang, and she grabbed it off the narrow counter bolted

to the sidewall of the van. “Daniels.”

“It definitely sounds like a meet,” Cam said. “From what we

can get of the caller’s voice off the enhanced audio, definitely male.