Page 2 of His Reluctant Savior

Veil was on his own now and in hiding from The Brotherhood—our previous employer—since he’d left without permission.My connecting with him put us both at risk, but I had no choice. I needed an ally and help.

“I know, and I’m sorry for this, but I need you. There’s no one else I can turn to who has your experience and expertise. You’re the only person on my side right now who is someone my organization doesn’t know about. I was incredibly careful to scrub you from my history.”

There was only silence on the other end.

“Are you still there?” I asked.

“Fuck… yeah, I’m here.”

“I’ve got the money.”

“You know I don’t need it.”

“Then think of it as a favor owed.”

“Dammit! Fine,” he growled. “You’ll owe me big, and more than one favor.”

“Of course, and I expect your utmost discretion.”

“Screw you. I’m a fucking professional. All right, out with it. What do you need?”

“A few things. First, while I’ve done my best at scrubbing my past, I want you to dig even deeper to find anything that may have been missed. That includes old high school friends from where I grew up. I realize it’s impossible to erase everything, but as much as you can, and quickly.”

I just hoped Layla hadn’t found anything yet about Dalton and my connection to him.

Rapid clicking on the keyboard filtered through the phone as Veil set to work. “It’s going to take time.”

“I know.”

“What else?”

“This comes in two parts. I need to find anyone Dalton Reed is close to or was close to, from childhood friends to his deceased husband’s family and friends. Anyone he could run to for help to take care of his son in secret. He’s an FBI analyst, so this could include other agents. Send me all of it.”

Veil grunted over the phone, continuing to click and clack away. “That will also take some time. There’s no guarantee I’ll find all the people you need. Shoot me all the deets you have on him. I’ll text you where to send it. And the second part?”

“The second part is to scrub all that you find on him from his history as soon as I get his details.”

“Are you fucking kidding me?!” he screamed over the line so loudly that I had to pull the phone away from my ear. “He’s a fucking agent? They keep meticulous records over there. If I hack into their system and fucking erase him, it will flag the NSA. You’re out of your goddamn mind! I’m not having the N-fucking-SA on my ass. I like living and having freedom, thank you very much. There’s a reason I’ve lived for so long. I’m good at avoiding them, but if you tamper with files like that…?”

I patiently waited until he finished his rant. “Are you finished?”

Veil simply huffed in irritation.

“I know you can’t fucking delete Dalton’s life, but if you come across important people he may go to, make sure their connection to him can’t be easily found. I’m not talking about his parents or closest friends. I’m talking about people he hasn’t seen in a while. There has to be someone from his past to whom he can reach out. Someone who isn’t obvious. He won’t run to peoplewho are close to him. He wouldn’t put them in danger. This is in case we can’t find him first. I also need to know where he banks.”

There was more loud, irritated clicking in the background, but he didn’t hang up on me, so that was a bonus. “Anything else,princess?”

I chuckled. “Yeah, I’m going to send you his last known location. Please trace him and see if you can pinpoint where he’s hiding. He’s an agent, so he’s going to be clever, but he’s also an analyst. He doesn’t work in the field, so he’ll make mistakes. And he’s also got a five-year-old kid with him. That should narrow down things.”

“It makes him a fucking target, is what it does. Anything else I need to look for or be worried about?”

“Layla Blair is on this. Avoid her.”

“Shit… Pookybear?”

I did a double-take. “Pookywhat?”

“Pookybear. That’s what we call her on the dark web.”

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