She grabbed a mug in her other hand and, trying not to use her bleeding finger, poured herself a cup of coffee. After blowing it with Mitch last night, she needed to review her options. She could try Caterina for an in to the party. She’d paid one of the bus boys at the restaurant to give her the scoop. He’d said his boss was a soft touch and really nice. So maybe her plan would work.
She remembered that it was Thursday, though, and the bus boy had said Caterina was going to be at the farmer’s market all day and then at a closed event at the restaurant tonight. She could crash it, but it was for proctologists. She’d seen a proctologist convention before, and it wasn’t pretty. So, the event was a no, and that didn’t leave her with much time to cultivate a friendship.
She sat down on a stool by the counter. There was always another way in. She just had to find it. Normally, she would have a plan B already lined up, but she’d gotten cocky. Now she was paying the price. She took a sip of her coffee and let the needs of the job roll around in her head.
A few minutes later, an idea came to her, and she texted Leo. She needed a bit more info to make it happen, but she was pretty sure it would work. With that plan in play, she took her apple slices, minus the one with blood on it, and the blackberries she’d cleaned and sat on her deck to finish her breakfast.
It was amazing to her how quickly she had come to love this little cottage on the beach. It was beautiful and peaceful here before the crowds showed up. She popped a berry in her mouth as Mrs. Olsen made her way up from the beach. “You’re out early this morning,” Alex called.
Mrs. Olsen looked up. “Good morning. May I join you?”
“Please do.” Alex gestured to the porch swing beside her chair.
Mrs. Olsen smiled. “Ahh, so nice to sit down.”
“Can I get you a cup of coffee or glass of water? Would you like to share my fruit?” Alex offered the bowl of apple slices and blackberries.
“I’m good, dear, thank you.” She pulled out a small bottle of water from her pocket and took a sip. “Well, you’re not usually up this early. What happened?”
Alex blinked. “What do you mean?”
Mrs. Olsen smiled. “Dear, not to be rude, but you look like you haven’t slept at all and not in a good way,” she said with a wink.
Alex burst out laughing. “That obvious, huh?”
“Mmm-hmm. The date didn’t go well, I take it?”
“Oh, the date part went fine. Better than fine…until the bottom dropped out.”
“I see. Well, that’s disappointing.”
Alex nodded. “You have no idea.”
“Did you like him then?”
“Uh”—she licked her lips—“yes I did. I do. But he…he doesn’t get it.”
Mrs. Olsen frowned. “Doesn’t get what, dear?”
Alex heaved a sigh. “I’ve been on my own for quite a while. I know how to handle myself. He…he stepped in and took care of a situation last night for me.” She stopped speaking. How to explain the rest?
“And you didn’t like that he took care of you?” Mrs. Olsen took another sip of water.
“It’s not that. I appreciate what he did, but he doesn’t seem to get that I could have handled it myself. He went on to lecture me on how much danger I’d been in, acting like I couldn’t figure that out myself.”
“Ahh” Mrs. Olsen nodded.
Alex continued. “I understood the situation perfectly, and I could have handled it—differently than he did, but I would’ve been fine.” A flash of guilt hit her. Maybe not fine, but she would have survived. She’d been through worse.
“I don’t need a man to handle shi—things for me. I can take care of myself, and I’m good at it. I don’t need to be lectured by a guy who barely knows me.” She threw another berry into her mouth.
“You didn’t like being told you were weak.”
“Exactly. Wait”—she frowned—“he didn’t say I was weak. It was more like he doubted my ability to get out of the situation.”
“Mmm-hmm. When did he tell you this? Right after it happened?”
“Yes, on the way back to the car.”
“And you were having a great time before that?”
Alex nodded.
“Did it ever occur to you that he was scared?”
“Scared? Him? No.” She shook her head. “He’s former military. He wasn’t scared.”
Mrs. Olsen sighed, just a little. “No, dear. Not scared for himself, scared for you. Scared that you might get hurt. Any decent man would feel responsible for his date if they found themselves in a dangerous situation. He wanted you to let him deal with it so you wouldn’t be hurt. It sounds like he was worried enough to try and warn you off handling situations like that by yourself in the future. As you say, he doesn’t know you well enough to know that you can take care of yourself.”
Alex cocked her head. He had been so overbearing last night. It had never occurred to her that he’d acted that way out of fear for her. She’d interpreted it as controlling behavior, something she hated. Her father had forced her mother to be dependent on him, and then he’d left. Lesson learned. Alex had taken control of her life as soon as possible, and she’d never looked back.
“I guess...I guess I can see your point. Still, he could have dealt with the situation better.”
“Yes, I’m sure he could have, and I’m sure you probably could have been a touch calmer as well.”
She glanced over at Mrs. Olsen to see if she was laughing. Her mouth was still, but there was a twinkle in her eye.
“I suppose I did say a few things I might regret. What would you suggest I do?”
“Well, I would call him and apologize. Perhaps invite him to lunch.” She paused. “A picnic would be good. I always liked picnics.”
“A picnic. I guess it’s a possibility. We’ll see.”
Mrs. Olsen stood up. “Well, good luck, dear, and enjoy the rest of your day.”
“Thanks, Mrs. Olsen. You, too,” she called as she watched the woman walk up the path to her house.
A picnic. Maybe. But first she had to get his phone number. She smiled for the first time all morning. She glanced at her watch. She’d give it a couple of hours and then call her source. It would give her time to figure out exactly what she wanted to say. Maybe she could still get an invite to Saturday’s party and then she wouldn’t have to use her new plan B.
Chapter Nineteen
“I get that you want to keep everything shrouded in secrecy, but time is running out, and I might have a lead. I need some answers to help me track down who’s after the software.” Mitch did his best not to sigh or grind his teeth, but the conversation kept going in circles, and he was tired of it.
“I fail to see why it’s necessary for you to track down who’s after the software. Isn’t it enough to know that someone’s after it? Your job is to protect me from any and all harm regardless of where it comes from,” Drake stated in a flat voice.
“Yes, it is, but if the person behind it is an agent of a foreign government, that’s slightly different than if it’s some start-up geek that wants your code. Foreign government agents tend to carry big guns and shoot to kill. Tech geeks hack your bank account—bit of a different ballgame. I think maybe it’s time for you to share a bit more information, because if it’s a tier one recon team who are coming, I’m going to need a helluva lot more fire power.”
Drake stood still for a solid minute and studied Mitch. Mitch didn’t much care. He’d been through SEAL training—he could stand still and stare with the best of them. If this was the game, he was a master.
“Fine,” Drake said between clenched teeth. “I will tell you what you want to know, but I want the room swept for bugs first.”
Mitch started to point out they’d just swept yesterday, but why argue? It was easier to just do the damn sweep. He took out his phone and texted one of his guys. They showed up two minutes later, equipment in hand. Ten minutes after that, they left and closed the door after them.
/> “Now, fill me in.”
Drake gestured to the chair in front of his desk, and Mitch sat down. “I have a sister.”
Mitch didn’t know what he’d expected Drake to say, but it wasn’t that. “Okay.”
“She disappeared almost fifteen years ago, and I have been looking for her ever since.” Mitch started to speak, but Drake waved him off. “A while ago, I found a computer programmer who was interested in helping me build a facial recognition software that actually worked.
“It’s not like in the movies where they can identify a person who has only the slightest bit of skin showing. As you probably know from your former profession, unless a person’s face is caught looking straight at a camera, it’s hard to conclusively identify anyone, let alone a person in a crowd. Things like hats, scarves, and facial hair can make it impossible to identify someone.”
Mitch shifted slightly in his chair. He knew the government was working on building Artificial Intelligence software that could be used for facial recognition. China already had one that was supposed to be excellent.
Drake continued, “I needed something that could do facial recognition and project what someone would look like fifteen years later. My programmer has been working on it, and the prototype is almost finished.”
Mitch sat stunned for a second. “Are you telling me you’re sitting on actual facial recognition software that can accurately age a person and pick them out of crowd? How is that possible?”
“Amazing, isn’t it? I don’t understand the details of how it works just that it does. The program can calculate and extrapolate how a person’s face might be altered and create dozens of different outcomes for that person. Then it can take those dozens of new images and look for every single one of them in a crowd in milliseconds. It’s not one hundred percent accurate, but it’s damn close. Closer than what anyone else has come up with.”
“Son of a bitch,” Mitch mumbled. “That’s why you wanted more security. If news of the prototype got out, it would bring all kinds of dangerous people to your door.”
“Yes. I knew it would make me a target. Now you know what Tolliver wants. To be honest, though, I’m not sure how that’s going to help you figure out who’s pulling Tolliver’s strings.”
“Yeah, I see the problem. There’s not a group on the planet that wouldn’t want it. Every small country that can’t afford to build its own, all law enforcement agencies, every security firm, not to mention every terrorist cell in the world. This takes things to a whole new level."
Drake frowned. “Yes, it does.”
“How did Tolliver find out about the software? Do you have it here? Is that why he was casing the yacht? Or do you think he’s after you?”
Drake lifted one shoulder. “I have no idea how he found out about the software or the fact that I have a prototype here. That’s what he’s after.”
Mitch swore long and loud in his head. It might have been nice to know all this before he agreed to this job. “What about the programmer? Could he have said something to someone? Could he be selling it on the side?” Mitch asked.
“She wouldn’t do that. She’s paid enormously well, and there’s no upside to having me chase her down for the rest of her life if she screwed me over.”
He had a point there. “Where is your programmer? Is she safe? Are they going after her, too?”
“She’s fine. I spoke with her recently and told her to keep an eye out. She’s hidden away and perfectly content to stay that way until the project is finished. There’s nothing to indicate that they—whoever they are—have found her or that she’s in any danger.”
“Okay. One problem at a time, I guess. If you’ll permit me, I would like to bring my brothers in on this. I think we need to find out how Tolliver came to know about the software. That might help us identify who’s hired him.”
Drake studied Mitch again, who tried to remain still, but he very much felt like he was on a microscope slide. “Okay, but I want to speak to them about it, and I want all the necessary security precautions in place. I don’t want anyone listening in.”
“Of course. I’ll set up the call. Is this morning convenient?”
Drake glanced at his calendar. “Eleven a.m.”
“Very good. I’ll have my brothers call at eleven. You can fill them in, and we’ll discuss strategy after that.”
Drake nodded and went back to his screen. Mitch was clearly dismissed, but he hesitated. “Can I ask, how are you going to use this software to find your sister? You would have to have access to cameras in very busy public places like airports or use a city’s infrastructure to scan the crowds. Are you planning on—”
Drake sighed. “I have no need to hack anything or pay anyone off if that’s what you are asking. You forget that my main business is hotels. I not only own boutique hotels, but I have interests in some of the largest hotel chains in the world. Everybody stays in hotels at some point or another.”
“That’s why you got into hotels, isn’t it?” Mitch asked, his voice filled with awe.
“Yes.” Drake nodded. Now…” He gestured to his screen, and Mitch took the hint. He left the office and started down the hallway. His phone vibrated in his pocket. He took it out and glanced at the screen. Not a number he recognized. His first instinct was to ignore it, but given the current situation, he wanted to be sure he didn’t miss anything.
“Callahan.”
“Hey,” came the breathy voice on the other end.
Mitch stopped dead in the hallway. It had never occurred to him that she’d be the one to reach out. “Carrie?” He’d almost said Alex since that was how he thought of her now.
“Yes. Hi. Um, how are you doing today? All recovered from last night?”
“Ah, yeah sure. You?”
“Tired actually.”
There was a bit of a pause. Mitch thought about what he should say. He needed this woman to trust him enough to answer some questions. “So—”
“I—”
They both stopped again. Mitch said, “Please, ladies first.”
“Okay. So, I might have overreacted just a tad last night. Not saying you were right or anything, but I could have been nicer about it.”
Mitch bit back a grin. “I see. I guess I could have handled it better as well.” Not really. He still wanted to tell her to smarten up—it was always best to avoid a conflict you might not win—but he had an agenda.
“So, I was thinking maybe you’d like to get together again. You were right. You’re a much better dancer than I anticipated, so I guess I owe you your victory.”
This time he let the grin slip into place. “Glad you admitted it. I’d be happy to collect. What did you have in mind?”
“Your modesty overwhelms me, yet again.”
He could imagine her rolling her eyes as she said it and couldn’t help but chuckle. “Glad I didn’t disappoint.”
“I was thinking of a picnic. Are you free today to meet me for lunch?”
Mitch did some rapid calculations. He had some calls to make, including the one he needed to set up with his brothers, and another meeting with his security team. After that, he wanted to walk the grounds one more time and double check the yacht security. Even though Drake wasn’t living there at the moment, it didn’t mean he could relax about it. “I can do a late lunch, say around three.”
“That works,” Alex said. “Where do you want to meet? I don’t have a parking permit for any of the beaches, but I think there are a couple that don’t require them. Do you have a parking permit for any of them?”
“No, but why don’t we meet on the yacht? I have to go there anyway. Do you remember it? It’s by your hotel.”
“OK, how about at three? I’ll bring the food. See you lat—”
“Not so fast,” Mitch said. “I agreed to the picnic, but that’s not the prize. The prize is you have to answer all of my questions. Truthfully.”
Silence echoed down the phone line.
“Well? A bet is a bet. Are
you welching on the deal?”
“That’s too broad. Questions about what? What if it’s too personal or it’s just simply none of your business? Nope. Picnic is off.”
“Ten. You have to answer ten questions, and I won’t make them too personal.”
“Three,” she said, “I’ll answer three questions. If they’re too personal or none of your business, I can pass and you can ask another one.”
“Deal. See you at three.” Mitch rang off and started down the hallway again. He couldn’t help but smile. He had a few questions for his little thief, and she was going to answer them come hell or high water.
The morning dragged on as he went over the security for the estate again and again. He wanted to make sure all his men had the protocols drilled into their heads. There could be no screwups. They only had to get through the next few days, and then Drake and his software would be someone else’s problem.
The call with his brothers had gone surprisingly well. It helped that Logan and Drake had people in common. Drake had texted those mutual contacts to run a background check on Logan during the call. The man did not trust anyone, apparently not even those he’d already hired. No doubt he hadn’t meant for Mitch to notice, but Mitch could read upside down and backward—a trick learned in childhood.
The boss had received nothing but glowing reports on Logan and Callahan Security. Good to know their company reputation was growing in a positive direction. At least for now.
When he finally headed out to the yacht, he called Logan and Gage on the way and spent the drive talking strategy. They needed to find the leak about the software. The best, most direct way would be to talk to the programmer and discuss who had physical access to her workspace. Drake said they could email this mystery woman, and he gave them her email address. He would instruct her to answer their questions, but she was not allowed to divulge her location, nor were they allowed to ask questions about the software. It seemed extreme, but now that he knew what the prototype was, he could see Drake’s point.
Break and Enter: A Sexy, Thrilling Romantic Suspense (Callahan Security Series Book 1) Page 12
