Page 65 of Wrecked
That woman would hold firm to get her way, not trusting his team to go after the senator first with Hallene’s captive as second in significance.
She’d be right.
That wastheduty of every team hunting for Senator Turner.
Sam faced making the wrong choice and destroying any cooperation between him and Hailey.
In the end, he’d reasoned that no one on the planet looking for the senator had Hailey’s intel because she hunted someone unrelated to the senator.
Someone Sam believed was personal to her and worth Hailey risking everything to find that person.
What if he’d been searching for someone likehissister who had been kidnapped? No question he’d turn his back on any future to save her.
But if he could make this work with Hailey, they’d save her target and maybe even get the senator back as well.
That decision to not call Nitro hours ago might have sealed his fate with Logan and Nitro, but Sam believed he was doing the right thing. That he had the best chance to find the senator by staying with Hailey and hoping when things got down to the wire, she would agree to bring in his team for support.
Taking action was better than sitting around flagellating himself over Esteban’s death and how close his team had come to being wiped out at the mansion.
He had to find out if that had all been his fault. Finding W would answer a lot of questions.
A sense of purpose settled him, the same one that had steadied him since entering the military and then joining the HAMR Brotherhood.
If that was his last mission, so be it.
The hotel sign came into view a few blocks away. He tapped Hailey on the shoulder. “Time to wake up.”
She jerked upright, looking around in a moment of confusion, then blinked and rubbed her eyes. “I’m up.”
Her hair had come undone from the ponytail again and parts were shoved up both sides.
He was starting to like that jacked-up style best. Gave her a softer look, a more human side than the one always in control.
He couldn’t let her get out like that, though.
He’d never known a woman who wanted to be walking around with hair, makeup, or clothes messed up. “You might want to do a quick mirror check.”
She stared at him as if she hadn’t understood his words, then flipped down the mirror on the visor. “Good grief.” Digging out a brush from that bag-o-everything she carried around, she undid her hairband and quickly brushed her blond mane all back into a tidy ponytail.
He parked under the arrival and departure canopy. She jumped out, informing the valet they’d prefer to self-park and gave the guy her name as Hailey Carlton for the reservation.
Was she using a credit card tied to that pseudonym because it sure as hell was fake?
“Be right back,” she tossed over her shoulder at Sam. She walked into the lobby, fully in control and holding her back ironing-board straight.
The valet went back to his key stand.
Sam searched all around the hotel but saw nothing suspicious from this position.
Hailey returned with a numbered buff-colored card to lay on the dash.
He drove them to the underneath parking garage, then grabbed his duffel and followed her to the elevator.
Now she watched all around them. What about up on the street?
She was cute in spy mode. Not a fully trained operative after all, but she’d been tutored by someone with skills.
The elevator stopped on the fifth floor, and he strolled behind her to the door. She hadn’t offered him a key. If he had his lockpick set, he could open any room on this floor.
