Protective Measures. Maggie Black K.
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Eve said. “Can we go see the puppy? Please?”
“It’s okay,” Zoe said, stepping forward. “I’m happy to watch the girls. I know you and Josh need to talk. We’ll stay right around here within eyesight.”
Her hand brushed her ear and he saw she was wearing a tiny earpiece. Apparently she’d be staying within earshot, too.
“Please, Daddy? Can we go with her?” Eve’s bright eyes brimmed with hope.
“Okay.” He hated having the girls beyond arm’s length. But he trusted she’d keep them safe, and maybe putting a few feet of distance between himself and Zoe would help keep the jumper-cable jolts at bay. “Zoe, these are my daughters, Ivy and Eve. Girls, this is my friend Zoe. She’s really nice and is going to watch you while I talk to my friend Josh. I want you to be very polite and stay where I can see you.”
Ivy’s skeptical eyes flitted to Zoe’s face. Zoe stretched out her hand toward Leo’s eldest. “It’s very nice to meet you, Ivy.”
“I like your bracelet.” Ivy eyed her hand.
“Thank you,” Zoe said. A tightly woven black-and-green rope encircled her wrist. If she was wearing a microphone, Leo didn’t see it. “It’s a special kind of rope called a paracord. I wear them all the time. You can unravel it really long and use it for climbing or other useful things. I can show you how to make one.”
Ivy paused another moment, then asked, “Do you like dogs?”
“Definitely. I have a terrier at home named Oz. He’s very pesky.”
“Do you like ice cream?” Eve interjected.
“A bit.” Zoe looked at her seriously. “But I prefer sherbet.”
Eve’s lips scrunched as she pondered this. “Do you like climbing trees?”
“I love climbing.” Zoe smiled. “I used to be a gymnast.”
“Really?” Eve beamed. “I want to be a gymnast!”
Did she now? Last he’d heard she wanted to be either a princess or a unicorn. But he wasn’t exactly surprised. Both girls loved climbing.
Having apparently passed inspection, Zoe started walking with the girls toward the dog.
“I can’t climb trees in flip-flops,” Eve was saying.
“Well, maybe after we meet the puppy I’ll teach you how to climb in bare feet.”
Their voices faded to background babble. He let out a long sigh, then turned toward Josh. The former soldier was already on his feet.
“Good to see you.” A broad smile crossed Josh’s face as he reached out to clasp Leo on the back. “You’ve met Alex, right?”
“I have.” Leo stretched his hand out and shook Alex’s hand. “Theresa never told me you were a bodyguard.”
A wide grin crossed Alex’s face. “We do our best to keep it on the down low. Doesn’t always work, but we try. The work we do is one hundred percent confidential.”
“I noticed Zoe was wearing an earpiece.” Leo looked at Josh. “I take it she can hear our conversation, too?”
“Yep.” Josh turned his wrist toward Leo. There was a small microphone implanted in his watch. He had to admit, it was pretty impressive tech.
“I was surprised to hear from you.” Leo sat. “I thought you were on your honeymoon.”
“I am,” Josh said. “But it’s the second week and it’s hard to keep Samantha off the internet once she knows she’s onto something. She found something on The Anemoi’s message board we thought you should see.” Josh passed Leo his phone. Leo looked down at the picture the waiter had snapped of the vandalized poster of him and the girls. “Did you know that you’re The Anemoi’s next target?”
Leo glanced at the picture of the vandalized poster of his girls, then up to where his girls were now climbing trees with Zoe. The old man with the dog had continued down the path. Eve was hanging upside down from a low tree branch like a koala, while Ivy was halfway up the tree. Leo reached into his wallet, pulled out the first bill he could get his fingers on and pressed it into his old friend’s hand. “I’m hiring you, all of you, because I need advice. We can work out the details later. But as of right now, I’m your client and everything we discuss is confidential. Agreed?”
Josh nodded. “Agreed.”
Leo let out a long breath. “Yes, I suspected that I was The Anemoi’s target. But I didn’t know for sure.”
Zoe wasn’t looking at him but he could see her shoulders flinch, as her earpiece picked up their conversation through Josh’s mic. He imagined it bothered her that he hadn’t been more forthright with her when they’d swum to safety together after the fire. But open book had never really been his style.
“Does this mean you know what The Anemoi is trying to steal from you?” Alex asked. “Have they stolen it yet?”
“That’s a complicated question with a very complicated answer.” Leo turned back to the men. He didn’t know how to answer Alex without breaking his cover and spilling classified information. But he trusted they could read between the lines. “I gather Josh told you the story of how we met? It was about six or seven years ago. I was commanding a ship, Josh realized that one member of my crew—a real charmer named Tommy Ferrier—was smuggling some drugs in his bunk. I looked into it, got the proof I needed, and Tommy was discharged and tried. He eventually went home, ruined his life dealing drugs in Canada and went to jail for beating his girlfriend so hard she miscarried. It was an incredibly sad story. But it’s why I trust Josh with my life and why I trust you and Zoe by extension.”
Josh nodded. So did Alex. Neither answered.
“Now imagine, instead of one ship it was a lot of ships, and instead of one rat on my ship there were a bunch of them scurrying inside a lot of ships, and instead of just telling me that info, Josh had offered to sell it to me for a whole lot of money. After seeing what happened to Tommy Ferrier, I know how important it is that information like that gets handled very carefully and what people would do to keep it from ever coming out. But let’s say that my boss just ended up in hospital from a car accident this morning, and I was obligated to get that intel, but I couldn’t ask any of my crewmates for help in case they were rats.”
“Wow, that would be quite the thing,” Alex said.
“Wouldn’t it?” asked Leo. Out of the side of his eye, he saw Zoe flash a smile in his direction. Despite the seriousness of the situation, he felt his shoulders begin to relax. It felt good to know he wasn’t alone. “Obviously you can’t be involved in my mission, at all. Hands off. If any of you were at an event with me and someone were to approach, you’d all have to skedaddle and disappear. I can’t have outsiders involved in this. You are all civilians with zero clearance. But you can watch my back, keep your eyes open, tell me if you see anything I should be worried about, keep me informed of whatever this Anemoi situation is, and of course make sure my girls aren’t touched by any of this.”
“Understood,” Josh said. “Eyes and ears only. Can I ask what you know about the new, less charitable version of me?”
“The informant?” Leo said. “Not much. He contacted my admiral a week ago using robotic-voice-disguising software and an encrypted line. He said he had ample proof of a large-scale rat problem to sell, but that he couldn’t trust anyone inside military intelligence to handle the negotiations. The admiral suggested me. I’ve been overseas for a long time and would spot bad drug-smuggling data in a heartbeat. The informant suggested the exchange happen during the symposium. I’m authorized to give him a lot of cheese, but only if the intel proves sound.”
“Can