away before she’d delivered what he wanted?
Why hadn’t she thought of this earlier? He must have had tabs on her all along, having her watched every moment just in case she didn’t comply with his demands. How stupid had she been! Nick running into her at the coffee shop and then, later, when she’d nearly stepped in the path of the taxi couldn’t be a coincidence. Smith had set it up. And for all she knew, he’d even orchestrated it so that the taxi would almost hit her so Nick could save her and thus gain her confidence.
And she’d fallen for that cheap trick. Hadn’t she seen this kind of thing happening countless times in movies and TV shows? She should have recognized it for what it was: a ploy. A trick for Nick to get close so he could watch her, maybe even gain her trust so she would tell him what she was planning.
She wanted to curse, to scream, but she couldn’t. She had to play along now, not let him know that she knew, that she’d discovered his deception and was onto him. She had to remain calm and behave as if nothing had happened.
The door of the bathroom opening nearly made her jump out of her skin.
Way to go, Michelle, she chastised herself silently. That’ll look normal.
Nick didn’t come into the living room, but headed straight for the bedroom. She heard him get dressed. She used the little time it bought her to take deep breaths and calm herself. When she heard his footsteps again, she quickly slammed the lid of her laptop shut and stood up.
“Michelle.” His voice was hesitant.
Slowly, she turned, facing him. She tried a smile but failed.
“Sorry, I, uh… didn’t mean to frighten you earlier.” He ran a hand through his damp hair, looking utterly crushed. “The nightmares, they’ve become less frequent.”
“Nightmares?” she echoed.
“Yeah. I was in Iraq. It was hell.” He dropped his gaze to his feet.
“Iraq? You were in the war?” Did that explain at least his nightmares? It could. And oddly enough it could also explain other things. If he was ex-military, then it made even more sense that Smith had hired him to keep tabs on her.
“Yeah. One tour, but it was enough.” He paused. “Listen, I’d better go. I’ve got work to do. I’ll call you tonight?”
She nodded quickly, eager for him to leave her apartment. When he walked up to her instead, she tensed. He froze a foot away from her, clearly having noticed her apprehension.
“I’m sorry again, I know it must have scared you.” He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her cheek.
“It’s okay.” Michelle forced a smile.
“Talk later, okay?”
Nick turned and walked to the door, grabbing his backpack on the way out. Only when the door snapped shut behind him was she able to breathe again.
“Oh God,” she murmured to herself. “I’ve slept with the enemy.”
13
Nick pulled his laptop from its compartment and placed it on his desk, before he tossed the backpack in the corner, angry at himself.
He was used to lying to cover his ass, but by God, he’d hated lying to Michelle, telling her he was an Iraq vet suffering from post traumatic stress. What a cheap shot that had been. There were lots of real Iraq vets out there dealing with PTSD and worse. And there he was, using them to cover up his real issues.
He’d never served in the military, though he’d served his country as a CIA agent for many years. He’d sacrificed his life to keep the people of this country safe, and how had they repaid him? By chasing him down like a dog. It was time to fight back.
But first things first.
Nick navigated to the folder where he’d saved the information from Michelle’s flash drive and looked at the files. One was a picture file. He clicked it open. It was a portrait of Michelle. He recognized immediately what it was for, the lack of a smile and the way her head was turned, giving away its purpose. It was a passport picture. Only, why would she have a digital version of it? Passport pictures were normally submitted in printed form when applying through the post office.
Curious, Nick perused the other files.
One was a resume. He scanned it quickly. There wasn’t much. A few jobs as a software consultant and a degree from an online university, as well as a list of computer programs Michelle was proficient in: C, Fortran, JavaScript, Lisp, Python. She