Chapter 203
767 Words
The next morning at Solid Security, Hunter Sullivan gazed at his boss, his dark eyes hard.
“A fellow ex-Marine?” he asked.
“Yeah.” Dallas sucked back his third coffee of the day, feeling like it wasn’t nearly enough. “But unlike you, he’s a real bastard.”
“Yeah, he sounds it.” Sully shook his head. “So who am I going to Oregon with?”
“Well, I have an idea,” Dallas said slowly. “Something a bit different, so just hear me out, OK?”
Sully braced himself. Whenever Dallas had a ‘different’ idea, it was sure to be challenging and diabolical and out-there to the point of near-insanity. It would also probably be brilliant.
“OK,” Sully said.
“So Foxburg Falls is small. Like, population twelve thousand souls kind of small.”
“Yeah.”
“You show up there with Mark or Selena or Griff, and you’ll both stand out. I don’t care if you’re lounging around the local café in jeans, this guy will spot you a mile away as ex-military.”
Sully nodded. “So you want me to go alone? Less suspicious that way, right?”
“No. I want you to go with Cordelia.”
Astonished, Sully actually felt his jaw drop. “Cordelia? You mean – you mean the receptionist?”
“Yep.”
Always a man of few words, Sully was rendered totally speechless.
“Just hear me out,” Dallas said, almost laughing at the look on the ex-Marine’s rugged face.
Fucking priceless. I wish I had a picture of this, I swear.
Sully narrowed his eyes. “Uh-huh.”
“OK, so. You and Cordelia are going to pose as a married couple looking to move to the town.”
“We’re what?”
“I have a hotel room booked for you for the next week. I want you two to pretend to look at houses, ask around about the area, and so on. House-hunt, basically.”
Sully glowered.
“You’ll stick around as long as I need you to do so, then you’ll be able to leave, no questions asked.”
“Dallas.”
“Yes, Sully?”
“The woman has no field experience. No training. She can’t even carry. She’s a secretary, for God’s sake!”
“She’s also a woman who looks nothing like a field operative, which is what we need. She’ll be the best possible cover for you.”
Sully glared some more.
“Look, man,” Dallas said. “It’s not standard procedure, I get that. But it’s not like you’ll be engaging with Ferguson in any way, beyond saying hello if you run across the local sheriff. The most you’d do is follow him if he left town, and you’d let me know if that happened. I’d decide whether or not to send backup.” He grinned. “I think you’re also forgetting that the woman has amazing instincts about people and situations.”
Sully fell silent, thinking about that. Yeah, no argument from him there. It had been Cordelia, after all, who had just known that something was seriously wrong when Greg Wallace had shown up at the security firm and wanted to take Olivia to the conference room. Sully had never fully understood what exactly Cordelia had known or sensed, but there was no denying her natural instincts about things feeling ‘off’.
“So,” Dallas said. “Shall we get her in here and tell her that you two are now married?”
Sully groaned. “OK. Let’s get on with it.”
****
Cordelia Patton glanced up at Dallas. He was standing in front of her desk, his huge hands in his jeans pockets, those blue eyes trained on her. She blinked.
“Morning, Dallas,” she said.
“Morning, Cordelia. Can you join me and Sully in the conference room, please?”
“Sure,” she said, perplexed. “Should I bring the laptop, take some notes?”
“Nope.” He sounded amused. “Just you, hon.”
“OK.” She got to her feet and followed him down the hallway. When she got to the door, she looked at Sully, saw that he looked seriously annoyed.
Uh-oh. What’s going on here?
“Hi, Hunter,” she said.
“Cordelia.” His handsome face was stormy, his square jaw set.
“So,” Dallas said once they were all sitting down. “I’m wondering if it’s possible for you to do some travelling this week?”
- Writer
