Page 23 of Inevitable

“Exactly,” Claire responded. “Brady and I worked together earlier and I wrote a program based on the information he gave me. I hope I’ve come up with something that is going to work. Tracking him through his phone, bank accounts, and GPS on his car puts us in a reactive position.”

“Which is not where we want to be,” Brady said decisively.

“So, I’ve got a program running on Erin’s phone that is feeding information to Alvin. I’m trying to lure him out and see what he does with it. I’ve got various phone calls going out and fake voicemails coming in. Pictures are going to be posted by Erin’s assistant to follow the trail we’re setting. I’ve got the GPS ready to take him on a trip across the country.”

“So, you’re testing his willingness to get close, despite the restraining order?” Quinn asked.

“Yes. I want to see what he does as I feed him info. I’ve got her in Vegas right now, staying at the Wynn. We’ll post some photos later and see if he takes the bait.”

“If we can lure him close enough then we can nail him and hopefully get rid of him for good,” Damian said. “This guy has been taunting Erin for years and we would like to put an end to it once and for all.”

“I’m willing to be bait if it means I don’t have to worry about him anymore,” Erin said firmly.

“No way are we putting you out there. The team will come up with something that lets this guy self-destruct without you anywhere near him,” Hunter said.

Quinn knocked his knuckles on the table. “Sounds good. Claire, do your thing, keep me in the loop, and let’s see what we get by Monday. After we have some intel on how the guy is going to react, we can adjust and come up with a solid plan.”

“Perfect,” Claire said. She leaned in front of Brady and high-fived Erin. “Let’s nail this sucker.”

“Yeah,” Erin responded.

When Claire sat back and watched the men exchange glances, she knew they were not too sure, but it didn’t much matter to her. As long as she could track Alvin’s every movement, they had a shot at ending this for Erin. Which she really wanted to do, because having a constant threat was no way to live. If she could help end this, then she would be happy to do whatever it took.

***

Claire sat across from Brady on the patio of the Saint Street Inn and felt like laughing. He was struggling with his choice for dinner and she figured it was because the menu didn’t have more than one or two things he recognized. The place was cool and had a hipster vibe that she guessed wasn’t Brady’s thing. “Did you find something that looks good?” she asked.

“Yeah, I’m going to try the steak and frites. Can’t go wrong there. What about you?”

“I’m going to have the roasted chicken.”

“Looks like neither one of us wanted to be daring with our choices.”

“I thought about the roasted pumpkin curry, but decided it might be a bit much.”

“I have no idea what that is,” Brady commented. “All my years out of state didn’t make me much of an adventurous eater, no matter how hard I tried.”

“How many years were you in Virginia?”

“I went up right after I graduated from college, so six years. I lived in a little apartment not far from Quantico and enjoyed the hell out of my time up North.”

“We lived about an hour apart for several years. Wouldn’t it have been funny if we met up there?”

“What?”

“I went to work for the CIA after I graduated from college. In 2011, I went up to Langley and took all the tests and then joined the company.”

“I had no idea,” Brady responded incredulously.

“It was really exciting when I started and then it became all-consuming and depressing. I lasted about four years before I discovered it wasn’t someplace that I wanted to dedicate my life to.”

“Damn, woman, we are some kind of super-operator, super-spy couple.”

Throwing her head back, she let out a laugh. “We are not even close to that. We are Southerners who happened to spend time working for the government.”

“I take it you didn’t really enjoy the spook business.”

“I was never a spook. I worked in a dark office surrounded by computers, figuring out ways to gather and hack information that would serve some mission I never completely understood. I was a low-level grunt and I never really got a sense of the big picture, so I never knew if what I was doing was making a difference.”

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