“It starts the goose chase. We’ll use an entirely different alias for you and start social media. Let’s say we choose a spot in the Bahamas. You can start posting and living life as Jane Hawthorne. It needs to look discreet. Tasteful. Maybe we’ll get a wig for you. But the feds’ facial recognition software will pick it up. They will track the accounts to where my hacker points them.”
“But won’t Blackwing know what I’m doing?” I asked.
“No. They don’t monitor security agencies. The company is in practically fifty countries, and they have agents from just about all of those. The resources are expansive, but they can’t watch everyone all the time. They spend the majority of their surveillance on targets or preparing background data for potential jobs. They aren’t running facial recognition software around the globe looking for your beautiful face.” He waggled his eyebrows.
“Ok, so we send Agent Kenneth to some tiny island town. How does that allow us to escape?”
Vaughn rubbed the back of his head. “I’m working on the second phase. We have to get them in each other’s path. So the location is key. And the timing is going to be critical.”
I bit my lip. “Since we’re talking about our options, I went to the library today after my run in with Eloise.”
“Checking out the next book for book club?”
“No,” I snapped. I got it. I had been pacifying myself with book club and wine dates, but things had changed. “I researched sanctuary cities for political asylum.”
“Fuck, Em. No.”
“Listen to me. We need to have backup plans. Why can’t we have all the information? I would feel better if the law was on our side.”
“It’s not. It never has been.” I heard the bitterness in his voice.
I wanted to change all of it for him. I wanted to give him hope. The light he always said was inside me. I never took that seriously until today. There was light in the law, even if it was buried inside dusty old court cases.
“It could be. I think I found something.”
He stopped abruptly. The gravel slid under our feet.
“What kind of something?”
“I think you could qualify as a whistleblower.”
He groaned. “I’m not trying to expose anything from the U.S. I think you know that. I’ve always been in it for the money. My bank accounts prove that.”
“There are plenty of double agents in the world who have used this defense. You aren’t blowing the whistle on the U.S., you’re blowing the whistle on Blackwing and all the countries they have helped infiltrate our systems and data.”
He slouched into an open bench. He buried his head in his hands. “No.”
I pulled his hands away from his face. “Let me take care of this part, ok? It’s what I do. It’s what I can do to protect you this time.”
His eyes landed on me. “It’s not supposed to work that way.”
“And I hope it doesn’t. We might not have to use it. But I can build a proactive case and find out exactly what I need to know if we end up in that situation. Let me do this. It’s just one layer of armor.”
He chuckled. “Armor, huh?”
I nodded. “It’s what I know.”
“Even if it isn’t the truth?”
I twisted my lips together. “I would do anything to keep you out of prison. You know that?”
“I do.” His hand slid to my leg.
I felt the quiver in my core. The subtle reminder that my body belonged with his.
“I want to be with you,” I whispered.
“Stop worrying about the bugs.” He pulled my lips to his mouth. “Let me take you home and fuck you the rest of the night.”