“Fuck,” I groaned, pressing my elbows into the railing of the balcony.
What I did know is that whoever sent the text knew my mom as Cindy, and they didn’t know much of anything about Ethan Howard’s relationship with her.
I stormed into the suite and flipped open the laptop. I didn’t think twice. I had been crossed. Duped. Endangered. AJ was right. Someone had used my heart against me. And that psycho had led me into a trap.
I clicked on the VPN icon and waited for the private connection to take place. I was going to hunt this bastard down.
It didn’t matter to me anymore if one hack turned into one hundred. I had to unlock the chains I had placed on myself. I needed to be free of ethics and standards. I needed the dark web now.
I wasn’t surprised when the phone number associated with Ethan Howard’s text came back as a burner phone number. I was going to have to dig deeper and discover where the phone had been purchased. But I could do it. It might take a few hours, but it would be a starting point. One location could lead to another. I was going to find him.
Another thirty minutes passed. I ventured through the suite to the door, opening it with a swift tug.
“Where is Agent Hart?” I asked.
“Ma’am, his status hasn’t changed. He is unavailable.”
I didn’t like the answer anymore the second time I received it.
“When will it change?” I pried. “When will he be available?”
“We aren’t able to say.”
“I still need to see him.”
I scowled at him. It was the meanest look I had. I didn’t know that it affected him. He was trained well beyond my level. I might be able to intimidate someone online, but the suit gave him an extra layer of armor I couldn’t break through.
“Will it be tonight?” I pushed it. I needed something. I needed AJ back.
“Agent Hart is serving the Bureau. That’s all you need to know.”
“Serving the Bureau my ass.”
I slammed the door closed before I said something worse I couldn’t take back. It felt good to be the one to shut them out. I knew AJ wanted to be here. He’d rather be here than stuck in a room being interrogated or listening to high-level intel. He had proved that. The words he spoke at the farmhouse were still there.
Because this is where you are, Syd.
I couldn’t shake them. I probably never would. There were the kind of words that healed the divide we faced. Words that bound us together again.
I trudged to my laptop, but felt the rumble in my stomach. I hadn’t eaten a full meal yet. It seemed like something kept us from ordering or picking up food. We had managed coffee and alcohol, but if I was going to work all night I needed something in my stomach.
I picked up the hotel phone and called for room service. I placed an order for AJ. I wanted to believe he could walk through the door at any second.
“Yes, I said two teas,” I repeated to the waitress.
I still remembered how he liked his cheeseburger cooked. And that he needed an extra side of ketchup for his steak fries.
There were so many little things I would always remember. How he swore he could win any Johnny Cash karaoke contest. How he hated musicals and groaned when I watched them. But how he surprised me anyway with tickets to Miss Saigon. How he always lost his socks’ matches and ran around trying to find them before work. How he never missed watching a Carolina basketball game, or believed the team would only win if he sat in the same spot on the sofa. I’d spent so much of my time trying to push those tiny memories away. Forgetting. Erasing them. I tried to do something impossible.
While I waited for room service I dove back into the channel I had set up to track the fake Ethan. I needed a route that would trace the model number on the burner phone. With that I could detect where it had been bought and sold.
Working the net came back to my quickly. Easily. As if I’d never left. I rushed through my first sequence and on to the next. It was as if there was lightning in my fingertips. I didn’t want to lose my momentum when I heard the call for room service through the door.
I grumbled, but answered it.
“I’m assuming you’ll let me eat.” I glared at the agent.
“I should check the cart,” he answered, turning to the waiter. “Please stand back.”