Page 30 (1/2)

Cole sighed "The password is Pjshot, okay? Happy?"

Her eyes widened and she stifled her laughter "PJ’s hot? That’s the password? How long have you had this network?"

"Three years, okay? Now can we change the subject?"

He was so cute in his embarrassment and it made her want to squeeze hio, huh?"

He sighed "I was checking you out from the day you joined our tearin

"Cute?" he gruer who just got busted rinning, she logged on to her e the subject headers

When she got to one buried below a dozen others, she froze and her heart sped up, beating painfully against her chest With shaking fingers she clicked on the e

She had to read it several ti her jue

B in town Soirls were hired Can’t say more in email I’ll talk in person if it’s just you

The eirls PJ had befriended in her quest to track down the four men who’d been present when she was raped Katia--PJ didn’t know her real name--had been an invaluable source of inforood reason Brumley wouldn’t hesitate to shut anyone down he perceived as a threat

She quickly checked the date the email had been sent and breathed her relief when she saas sent the previous evening So it hadn’t languished for days while PJ had been out of touch

With shaking hands, she shut the laptop, her mind in vicious turet her objective when she was a world aith people who cared about her The last days with Cole had enabled her to shove Bruuard, had been able to pretend she was flirting and forging a relationship

Last night should have told her that there was no way she could move forith her life until she’d taken care of her past But even after her panic attack, she’d still refused to focus on the task at hand

She had to get to Vienna and talk to Katia What if Nelson had been wrong about Jakarta? What if he’d outright lied, purposely sending PJ on a wild-goose chase? He could have been protecting his boss with his last breath

What if they could take Brumley down before the deal in Jakarta?

Her mind was filled with a thousand what-ifs

"Hey, what’s wrong? You’re pale," Cole said, concern an edge in his voice

"We need to talk," she said more sharply than she intended

Cole dropped what he was doing and walked around to take the bar stool beside her, turning so he faced her

"What’s up?"

He was all business now, his expression serious, and he was focused solely on her

She let out her breath, hoping like hell she wasn’tin Cole But she trusted hi to work

"Okay, you knoas gone for six ed to take out three of Brumley’s men You were there when I took out Nelson"

Cole nodded

"What I never told you was hoas able to get so close How I got my intel and knehere to find them each time"

Cole nodded "Yeah, I wondered since you weren’t using the teaht of the party, when Donovan and I went in, I saw several very high-class girls hooking up outside the gate with singleinto the party Donovan explained that they were very expensive working girls A date for the night plus whatever went on behind closed doors when it was all said and done"

Cole nodded again

"Well it occurred to irls were probably in the know They knohen the parties go down They knoho the players are And that if I got close to one of them, I could tap a valuable source of information"

Cole frowned "Okay"

"I could only find one willing to talk to me She calls herself Katia The rest were obviously afraid and unwilling to risk talking to me I can’t say I blame them They’re pretty much nameless, faceless women no one cares about No family to be concerned if they disappear They’d probably not even cause a ripple if they suddenly wentto talk to me, but she was extremely cautious Always met in secret She was adamant that I was the only person she would talk to, and if I didn’t show alone, she wouldn’t open her mouth So I paid her for info She’d tell me when a party was planned or even when she’d heard about a deal going down Apparently a lot of the guys these girls pick up have loose lips after sex and they like to brag about hoerful they are"

"So she told you how to get to the first three avesoanization, if not Brumley himself"

"Okay, so what does that have to do with now?" Cole asked iot an e despite her best effort not to let the e down in Vienna with Brumley She wouldn’t say more She wants to talk to me in person"