Nowhere Safe

CHAPTER 46



Josh sat at the dining room table in the team hotel suite, trying to keep his attention on the six-inch wide electronic unit mounted inside the briefcase.

Wondering why he hadn’t heard from Trish all day.

Wondering if her neck was bothering her.

Or if she missed him.

He’d gotten confirmation that she’d arrived and was met by Senator Dixon’s staff, which included security. She was safe. Josh had to believe that or he couldn’t function.

He still had to decide what he was going to do if this monitor in front of him started receiving a signal.

Would it lead his team into a trap?

Or would an attack happen while he sat here staring at a static map of Miami? The map had appeared as soon as he opened a program that was unlike any he’d seen before.

And he’d seen plenty.

He wanted to dig into the backside of this program and see what he could find, but the risk of hitting a hidden oh-shit electronic tripwire set to destroy the software was not worth the gamble.

Sadly, this represented their only chance at finding Rikker.

“What time is it?” Ryder asked the room in general when he walked in looking marginally rested and as if he’d slept in his clothes. Probably had. Combat naps.

“Seventeen-forty-eight,” Dingo answered, but he was no longer tied to the laptop. Ready to move out the minute they had a target, the Aussie had on his dark cargo pants and a brown long-sleeved T-shirt over a body shaped by weights and rowing. Nick released constant sighs from taking his turn studying the security camera feeds on the laptop monitor. No one had gotten twitchy or acted suspicious in the task force offices so far.

Ryder crossed the room to Josh. “Nothing yet?”

“No.” Josh stood. “Your turn.”

Ryder sat down and turned the briefcase toward him. “The purpose of this briefcase might be simply to keep us out of the way.”

“I know.”

“Or a map to a trap.”

“I. Know.”

“Could be–”

Josh grabbed his forehead to keep from strangling Ryder who had thankfully fallen silent then muttered, “Shit.”

Jerking his hand away, Josh looked down where a light had begun blinking. “That’s near the Miami airport.”

Trish was flying in tonight, but not until closer to ten. This whole thing could be a scam to divert the attention of Josh’s team, which would mean someone knew he and Ryder were not agency people. Or maybe this had been sent for the DEA.

Hell, he wasn’t freaking clairvoyant. It came down to a fifty-fifty chance that this could hand him Rikker or kill everyone on his team.

Standing up, Ryder said, “Decision time. What’s it going to be?”