Deadly Little Secrets by Jeanne Adams Page B

his head. “Not this one. On or off the record, I have no idea. We’ve been clear for months on the thing with Hong Kong, and the other one from Honduras. Nothing brewing to warrant a threat.” He frowned, his tired brain working slowly. “I don’t know, Bax. Seems more old-fashioned Ninja-style. Most hits these days are pretty straightforward, on the street, in the car, sorts of things. This?” He gestured at the wall and the bushes. “This is both professional and amateurish since they shot at me. I don’t know what to make of it. Besides, I’m better at the business security part of things than I am at this.”
    Baxter nodded, and checked the tech’s progress. “I don’t think there’s much you need me for yet. Or that you need to be here for,” he added. “You look like hell. Go get some sleep.”
    â€œYeah.” Gates managed a smile. “That’ll happen.”
    Â 
    â€œSo, what did you think?” Jen said as she lounged on the couch in her condo as she and Ana shared a pizza on Sunday night.
    â€œOf the guy?” Ana pretended to be confused to buy time.
    â€œUh, yeah.” Jen’s sarcastic response was immediate. “I give you chapter and verse on the date, the Prometheus thing, the private jet to Vegas on Saturday, the whole deal, and you’ve barely batted an eye. You’ve got something smoking in that mad mind of yours. You’ve hardly heard a word I’ve said.”
    â€œOh, I heard it,” Ana stalled. She didn’t want to admit she’d been thinking about Gates. Or that she’d been running scenarios about the art fraud case. Or that she’d been wondering again about Dav and Carrie.
    â€œSo?”
    â€œSo what?” She wasn’t going to get away with that one, but how did she tell her best, most supportive friend that the millionaire she was dating was tweaking Ana’s suspicion radar? She didn’t want Jen hanging out with the guy, possibly getting into something she couldn’t get out of, but she hadn’t found anything to hang her hunch on, nothing solid. There were some peculiar things in the files, some weird codes that might even be Agency codes, some stuff about him from New Jersey, but she hadn’t had time to dig them out.
    Jen sighed and set her plate aside. “I know you ran him, Ana. I could tell it at the gallery. So let’s get that out of the way. I forgive you, all right?”
    Ana was shocked that Jen wasn’t going to ream her. Relief followed hot on the heels of shock. “So when I tell you he gives me the willies, you’ll know why you shouldn’t see him again, right?”
    â€œNonsense,” Jen parried. “Everybody gives you the willies. Stupid, if you ask me.” Jen made a tsking sound as she recovered her plate. “Look, honey,” she said, a look of sympathy suffusing her features. “You’ve had a crappy run of it. First that married guy in Rome, then the whole work deal and all that crazy scary stuff with your job. You’re gun-shy, I know it and you know it. I’m just sayin’ it’s time you got over it. You’ve never let fear get you, all these years we’ve known each other. I mean, when I met you, after your parents died, you were shy and hurt. You climbed out of that when we were in college, really played the field. Hell,” Jen laughed, shaking her head over the next words. “You blew the field wide open, girl. You went to work for the CIA.”
    â€œI know, I know. But they recruited me,” Ana reminded her. “And I do have skills they need, right? But this guy, D’Onofrio. There’s something about him I don’t like.”
    Jen rolled her eyes and continued eating pizza. “I appreciate you trying to save me from myself, honey. Here’s the thing: I like taking the risk, you know? And you used to take ’em right along with me.