20. Diego

With a fresh burner phone in hand, I texted Wells' burner. It felt too risky to text Mendez directly after Roni had risked it on my other phone, much too close to where we washed up on shore after we sank the boat. We had some distance and time on our side. The truth was I couldn't be entirely upset with Roni. She did make herself my contractual scapegoat, and now I could go to my friends for help.

Diego: This is G—were you able to speak with M?

I had to keep our texts broad in case he was somehow being tracked. Thirty seconds later, the phone was ringing in my hand from an unknown number. I looked around. We were well into the woods, and there was no one around. It was safe to take the call without the fear of being overheard. Who were the deer going to tell?

"Hello?"

"How the hell did you get involved in something like this?" Wells asked. I was relieved it was him and not an unknown stranger. Would have been a waste of a burner phone.

"Dude, the more good we do, the more famous we get. Turns out I knew their latest target and I was specifically sought out by her family." I couldn't outright give all the details. We were professionals and knew to be careful over lines of communication, especially when the enemies' capabilities were unknown. There were a lot of unknowns about the Geneva Project.

"And you didn't think to let us know?" The question was dripping with irritation.

I sighed. "I wanted to tell you, believe me—but I signed an NDA. My protectee technically found the work around. Anyways, have you found anything helpful?"

I knew better than to ask if he was going to help. That was like asking if the sun was going to rise tomorrow; it was practically a given. We were all nose deep in each other's shit.

I felt Roni's eyes as we continued to walk through the dense woods side by side. We followed route one as closely as we dared. We still had twenty miles to go between us and the cabin—and from what I could recall from my googling of the area surrounding the cabin, our hike was going to become rough soon. It was a cabin on a cliff that overlooked the river and valley below it.

"You may want to sit down for this one." He barely paused before diving in. "Not only was Nina Johnson allegedly killed by the group that will remain unnamed, but they've kidnapped the children of a governor and a senator. You know G2's in the process of trying to hack their shit on the dark web. He's picked up chatter that they're pissed your protectee has escaped them."

"Holy shit," I gasped. How could they have gotten lucky enough to snag the children of two more elected officials? I looked over to Roni. She had no idea how lucky she was that her father took the threat seriously. She may have Daddy issues, but he had the good sense to look out for her, even if she couldn't fully recognize it.

"Yeah, it gets better. Have you seen a newspaper yet?"

I thought back to our trip to town. "No, I haven't."

"Some small paper in the suburbs of D.C. caught wind of this, and now it's going to make national headlines. I suspect there's going to be more pressure than ever to get to your girl." My girl. I knew he meant it as a quick substitute for my protectee, but I liked his word better.

Mine.

Even if she was a giant pain in the ass. There was no denying to myself how I felt now that she forced my feelings into the light.

"And have officials come up with a plan to identify them, weed out those who've infiltrated the S squared?" Secret Service.

He scoffed. "Besides an incredibly intense vetting process?" His tone was sarcastic.

"Yeah, besides that." I felt a sense of dejection I hadn't since I took over the assignment. Maybe I put too much faith in our intelligence after working hand in hand with them for so many years while in the army.

"Don't know. Like I said, G2's working on finding out what he can. We don't want to fuck with your NDA, man, but what do you want us to do if we find something credible? We can't just sit on it."

He was right. If we wanted anything to be done about the threat and not only protect Roni, but the children of others, we needed to get any leads they found into the appropriate hands. "No, don't sit on the info. Get it to the appropriate people, once you've vetted them personally. Fuck the NDA." Roni looked over at me and gave me a reassuring smile. It didn't quite reach her perfect eyes. "I'd like to see him pursue it, anyways—especially if you assholes are the ones who end this whole mess."

Wells laughed in my ear while Roni's smile finally reached her eyes.

"I've got to go, can't risk drawing too much attention to this number. If anything comes up, send me a text with our sypher, yeah?"

"Roger. Take care of yourself and the girl." With that, he hung up.

Roni gave me exactly five seconds to silently digest what I'd learned before she interrupted my thoughts.

"So are you going to fill me in?" She looked entirely annoyed that I hadn't given her a play by play of the whole conversation yet.

I quickly brought her up to speed. There wasn't much to do except wait for my friends to figure out a way to stop the Geneva Project and help authorities flush them out. Other than that, we just needed to lay low and stay out of sight.

We remained silent for hours as we trekked through the wilderness. Birds sang and small critters chased each other over the forest floor. When it was dark, we set up camp and spent another night in the tent and in front of the fire. This time there wasn't any discomfort between us. Instead, we quietly chatted about some of my adventures in the army, or at least what I was allowed to tell her.

The next morning we rushed to pack up camp, eager to make the cabin by nightfall. Hours passed, and the cold didn't feel as bothersome. It was comfortable as we kept a solid pace and took in the scenery around us.

"Have you ever been anywhere more beautiful?" she asked.

"You know, I can't think of anywhere more relaxing."

"Seriously? You've been all over the world, including the beautiful waters around Central America and the Caribbean, and you think this is prettier?" she asked in disbelief.

I stared at her as I said, "Sometimes it isn't always the surroundings that make a place beautiful." I left it at that as I turned my attention to the river in front of us.

We were going to have to cross it, and it definitely wasn't a lazy river.