Those who failed him paid with their lives.
And often the lives of their family members.
“One of those agents...he took her from the cementerio, stopped her from entering the car.”
Sí, he already knew this. He’d seen the video clips. The cameras had been rolling when the limo exploded, and Juliana James had been tossed back into the air.
The press had all wanted to be there when Senator James was laid to rest. Then when the car had exploded, the reporters had closed in even tighter.
Those reporters had done him a favor, though. They’d shown him the face of Juliana’s rescuer.
Diego strolled to his desk and picked up the photo that he’d had enlarged. The photo that his team had used to track down Juliana’s anonymous protector.
Only, the man wasn’t so anonymous any longer.
Logan Quinn. A SEAL. A SEAL who hadn’t been listed as officially in action for the past three years.
But I bet you are in action, hombre, under the radar, fighting dirty.
Diego could almost respect that. Almost. He didn’t actually respect anyone. What was the point?
“He’s the one we need to track.” Diego tapped the photo. This wasn’t some random agent. Just a man doing his job by protecting his charge. This was...more.
Diego knew how to get information out of people. Sometimes you used torture. Sometimes lies. With Juliana, he’d enjoyed a game of lies. The torture would have come, of course, but he hadn’t been ready to kill her.
He couldn’t kill her, not until he’d gotten the evidence back. A dead daughter wouldn’t have encouraged the senator to give up the secrets he’d stashed away. But a living daughter...one who spilled all her secrets so easily...she’d been a tool that he used.
Logan. Perhaps that had been her most important secret to reveal. He just hadn’t realized it at the time.
Everyone had a weakness. It was a lesson he’d learned so very long ago. Diego slanted a fast glance at Luis, not surprised to see the man shifting nervously. I know his weakness all too well.
The agent, Juliana—they both had weaknesses, too.
Weaknesses that I already understand.
Juliana had revealed so much to him in those hours spent in the darkness. Sometimes torture wasn’t the most effective means of getting what you wanted. Sometimes...sometimes you had to make your target trust you.
Only then could you go in for the kill.
“When we find Logan Quinn, we’ll find Juliana.” Simple. Diego dropped the photo. Weaknesses. They were so easy to exploit.
“You ever been in love, Juliana?” It had been a question he had to ask. If she loved, then she was weak. He could use her loved ones against her. So he’d waited, trying not to look eager, then Juliana had said...
“Once.” Pain had trembled in her voice. A longing for what couldn’t be. Juliana had been so sure that death waited for her. And it had. She’d drawn in a ragged breath and said, “But Logan didn’t love me back.”
Diego stared down at the picture. Tough SEALs weren’t supposed to show fear. Not any emotion. But...right there, on Logan Quinn’s face, Diego saw that the man had been afraid.
Not for himself.
For the woman he held so tightly. The woman he’d shielded with his own body when the car exploded, and Diego knew he was staring at—
Her Logan.
Ah, Juliana, I’m not so sure he didn’t love you back.
Diego picked up a red marker and circled the face of his target. “You have six hours to find Quinn.” The man wouldn’t have left the area with Juliana, not yet.
Not...yet.