Paulie had spoken since they’d left Risa. He’d been silent as they made their way across two narrow yards to the car left on the other side of the block. Adam hated having to rely more heavily on the cane to support his leg across the uneven ground. Despised even more being forced to dodge and hide from the assassin who’d targeted him.
So his voice revealed all his frustration when he answered shortly, “I know my people.”
He waited for Paulie to disengage the high-security alarm before easing into the front seat of the car. Pulling the door shut, he waited. The man wasn’t done. And until he was, the subject wouldn’t be closed. They enjoyed something more than an employer-employee relationship. They’d been friends well before he’d stolen the man away from the forensic accounting department at the bureau. Their fates had been entwined since one life-altering decision eight years ago.
Adam still didn’t know if he should feel grateful to the man for the path he’d chosen that day. He only knew they were on the path together.
“She’s not ready. That’s clear. You have a bad habit of not hearing what people are saying to you if it’s not what you want to hear.”
“It’s what they don’t say that I listen to. And she won’t ever be ready unless she’s pushed.”
Paulie shook his head as he started the car. “She’s strong. She’ll get there on her own.”
“Not until she drops the load of guilt she’s hauling around with her. It’ll factor into every decision. Color every response. I know my people,” he repeated, settling back into the luxurious leather of the town car. Before hiring someone on, he familiarized himself with every facet of their background. Observed them in their line of work. Many people looked fit on paper, but psychologically were a poor match for the demands of his company. It wasn’t enough to know their lives inside and out. He made sure he walked around inside their minds before offering them a job. He didn’t think he’d made a mistake in hiring yet.
And he didn’t want to be wrong about Marisa Chandler.
“She’s not you.” Paulie had an uncanny and damned annoying habit of reading his mind at times. “People deal with trauma in their own way. You can’t dictate the road posts to their recovery.”
“She’s strong. And I’m not dictating,” he countered. “I’m just handing her a map.” He pulled out his cell and checked for the one message that would keep them in Philadelphia another night. When he didn’t find it, he muttered a curse.
Paulie nosed the car down the street and checked in his mirror to be sure the vehicle with their security detail followed. “Our guy didn’t take the bait?”
“It was a stupid plan,” muttered Adam. And one he’d only succumbed to under pressure.
“It was worth a shot,” the other man corrected. In conjunction with four different city police departments, and the bureau that seemed only too eager to jump into the mix, Adam’s would-be assassin had been identified. Tyler Jennings had been raised in Philadelphia and should have felt comfortable making a move here.
He should have fallen for the look alike masquerading at the Ritz, while Adam and Paulie stayed at a much more modest nearby hotel. The fact that he hadn’t, when they had proof that he’d followed Adam to the city was troubling.
“He’s smart,” he said grudgingly. The man would have to be to have evaded law enforcement in four cities so far.
“And tenacious. He won’t give up.” Paulie slanted a glance at him. “His name still doesn’t ring a bell?”
Adam shook his head. “I don’t know him. Hadn’t even heard of him until we made the ID a couple days ago.” There was no reason he should have. He’d put away his share of men just like Jennings over the years, and there were always more to take their place. Men without scruples who sold their services to the highest bidder.
He didn’t care about Jennings. The man was just a tool. Adam wanted whoever had hired him.
“I still think this is tied somehow to the Mulder kidnapping you worked with Kellan and Macy last winter in Colorado.”
Because this was familiar territory, Adam leaned his head against the headrest and closed his eye. “There’s no proof of that.”
“It was during that time that we started getting hacking attempts into our financials,” Paulie said doggedly. They were driving down a street edged in neon. To his credit, he gave barely a glance at