The police had interviewed her last night after everyone else had left. She’d repeated the same as she’d told Christian. Which was everything except the fact that she was pretty sure she knew who was responsible for abducting Tara Roth.
She needed to get into the office and find out if what she suspected was true. If it was, she was going to be seriously pissed. Obviously, they were monitoring her phone calls. That had been a slick operation. They knew about the bodyguards, where to pick them up. It wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment job.
In her book, you didn’t spy on your own.
She’d had a call from the colonel that morning. Apparently, the police had informed him of her injuries. He’d been most sympathetic and told her to take as much time off as she needed.
Maybe he didn’t want her back at the office. Tough luck.
Were they keeping Tara in one of those off-limit areas far beneath the ground?
Tara didn’t deserve this. Whatever her husband had done, Tara wasn’t responsible. MI13 might be powerful, but they weren’t above the law. No one was.
And she now had a bodyguard. She wasn’t quite sure what she should do about that. Carl had introduced himself last night. Ash had arranged it.
Another stunningly gorgeous alpha male, Carl wasn’t quite so intimidating as the two men she’d met last night, probably because while he was as big, he was dressed casually in faded jeans and a khaki T-shirt that matched his eyes. There was an energy about him though, and the air around him crackled.
Static, she told herself.
He had the appearance of ex-military, maybe it was his short hair, which was cut close to his head, but he claimed he’d never served in the army. He was head of Security at CR International. He’d let slip that he’d held the position since Christian started the company, which would make him a hell of a lot older than he appeared.
Someone else who’d been hitting on the Botox?
She didn’t think he seemed the type.
Carl took her home to shower and change and then dropped her off outside the entrance to her office. She leaned in and spoke through the window. “I think I’ll be safe from here.”
“Okay. I’ll have someone watching the entrance. They can give you a ride home when you’re ready.”
She schooled her features to blankness as she entered the building, but she didn’t recognize the guard on duty. The man from the white van last night was nowhere in sight.
As she passed through the security checks, she tried to come up with a plan. She wasn’t sure whether it would be best to plead ignorance and pretend she knew nothing of MI13’s involvement or whether she should admit that she knew they had taken Tara. If she did, she’d have to make believe she approved.
Because she wanted her goddamn security clearance.
For that to happen they had to trust her. In the end, she decided to wait until she’d seen the colonel and make a decision afterward. She didn’t have to wait long.
As she sank down at her desk, the door to the colonel’s office opened and he came out. Security had probably alerted him to her presence. He strode toward her a frown forming between his eyes.
“Faith, what are you doing here? You’ve been shot, you should be resting.”
She pasted a smile on her face. “It was just a scratch. They let me out this morning with some painkillers.”
The frown deepened, and she rolled her shoulder to show it didn’t hurt. “See. No problem. I lost my gun, though.” She didn’t know where it had gone, probably picked up by the police.
“Go down to the armory—they’ll issue you with another.”
He was studying her, maybe a hint of suspicion in his eyes.
“Christian Roth came to see me in the hospital,” she said.
“What did he want?”
“You mean you didn’t have the room bugged?”
His lips quirked in a smile that didn’t reach his pale eyes. “Of course not. You’re in danger of becoming paranoid, Faith.”
“I’m guessing that’s par for the course around here. But Roth wanted to thank me for attempting to save his wife and to ask me what happened.”
“And what did you tell him?”
She stared into the colonel’s face and made a snap decision. “Well, I didn’t tell him that the people I worked for had taken her if that’s what you want to know.”
The colonel smiled and this time it did reach his eyes. “Adams suspected you recognized him.”
“The bastard shot me.”
“You said it was a scratch.” He studied her head cocked on one side. “Though he thought he’d winged you through the shoulder.”
“Maybe you’d better book him some time on the shooting range. So why didn’t you tell me what was going down? And why the fuck didn’t you tell me you had my phone tapped?”
“We didn’t want your new friends to suspect you were in any way involved. They’ll trust you now.” He was almost rubbing his hands together, the smug bastard.