His Innocent Lover (Slade Security Team 3)

“Dad’s something of a disappointment. Got a rap sheet on him—a few DWI’s, local bar fight stuff.” Travis gave him a smug smile. “And you’d know this and more if you’d bothered to do your job and checked into her.”

Trent pulled up a chair. “I know enough. Now, let’s see if we can find anything interesting on these damn Guardians.”

Chapter 10

“Nada. Zilch. Nothing!” Travis leaned back from the computer. “Looks like the Guardians are just who they say they are. We’ve wasted the night.”

The dawn was starting to lighten the room. Trent got up and stretched. “No way are these guys legit. I know there’s more—they just have a great front. But I can’t hang onto Chloe’s computer all day.”

With a nod, Travis started to shut it down. Trent caught his hand. “Wait. That file. The one with only numbers for a file name. That strike you as odd?”

“Right now the only thing that I’d like to strike me is a large pot of coffee.” He opened the file.

Trent scanned down the document. It seemed like a lot of other memos, but this one was addressed to an individual outside of the organization, and talked about ‘action against McFall Enterprises’ and some vague deal-like terms. A series of numbers were noted across the bottom of the file. “That name mean anything to you?” Trent asked.

Travis shrugged. He closed out of the Guardian’s network and turned to Trent’s laptop. Doing a search on the name, he said, “Looks like it was a lumber company. Went out of business last year. It’d been targeted by some environmental groups for logging in old growth forests.”

“Sounds like the Guardian’s type of target.”

Rubbing his unshaven cheek, Travis nodded. “Yeah, but something doesn’t add up. Look, a month before they went under they got a huge contract to clean out trees from a burne

d area, then they went under? The contract went to a competitor.”

Trent straightened. “Let me guess—the guy on the memo, his name was Harold Givart. Competitor was—”

“Givart Industries. The Guardians aren’t just eco-terrorists, or even do-gooders. They’re selling their sabotage skills to the highest bidders.”

Trent nodded. “That’s what it looks like. But we need a paper trail. We need to see that money changed hands.”

“And find out who is paying them to go after Jawhara’s oil.” Travis stood. He handed the tablet to Trent. “This puppy isn’t going to get us there. My bet is Chloe’s access is limited. If she’s on the up and up, she won’t have access to financial records.”

“No, but we can get those from their offices. They’ve got to have a server room on the premises.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Travis slapped Trent’s shoulder. “I’m heading for that coffee and sleep. You can get that computer back, no problem?”

Trent gave a snort. He let himself into Chloe’s place, left her tablet on the table, and moved into her bedroom to check on her. Her face had relaxed in sleep and the lines of pain that had creased her brow had eased. She’d tossed off her covers, so he slipped the key fob into her pocket and kissed her on the forehead. She stirred, but didn’t wake.

Outside her bedroom, he glanced around. She’d bought a few things—flowers, a vase, some dishes, it looked like, but the place still looked more like a stop-over. She hadn’t moved in. Was she still thinking about Wyoming? Did she want to move back there with her dad?

What was her old man like? Trouble? He had been. He headed back to his place, grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge, and fired up his laptop. PJ had sent him an email, asking him to Skype her—she was still on the payroll with Slade Securities as a consultant, and you ignored her at your peril. She not only knew where all the bodies were buried, she’d put a few of them in the ground.

He pulled up Skype and called her. PJ’s voice came through the computer, raspy and warm, a touch of humor in her tone. “About time you called. I thought the waves had lured you out.”

“No, it’s too early here to be doing anything. How’s it going over there?”

Her voice dropped, turned serious. “Not so good. Two more oil wells were targeted yesterday and this time they did a better job. Managed to blow up the main valve on one and infiltrate the computer monitoring system on the other. They’re trying to cap the first well as we speak.”

“We’ve got a credible lead…” Trent broke off. He heard shuffling and then Talib’s lightly accented voice came on the line. He wasn’t just PJ’s main bed warmer these days, he was also head of security for the Jawharan royal family. “Trent?”

“Yo. PJ was just telling me your trouble-makers managed to light a fire under you guys.”

“They’ve been training. This is the sixth well that has been targeted, but only the first to sustain any credible damage.”

“How big is Guardians of the Earth over there? What do you know about the group?” Trent asked, not liking the sound of things.

“They currently have a group in the country, and they’re working with our ministers to help draw up long range plans for sustaining and conservation of our plant and animal life.”

“Yeah, I’m thinking that’s a cover story. Get me pictures of the delegation that’s there right now.”