Jenna grimaced. "Says it all, doesn't it?"
"Yeah." She tore open the envelope. Inside were two small plastic packets. Stephan wasn't taking any chances—he'd sent two tracers, one for each of them. She got one out and handed it to Jenna. "He's also an unrecorded changer. He disappeared on me last night, but he doesn't know I know. Keep an eye on him, and try to place the tracer on him without alerting him."
She nodded, pocketing the packet quickly as Wetherton came out. When his gaze fell on Jenna, his whole demeanor lightened. Sam didn't know who she felt sorrier for—Jenna for being placed on a twelve-hour watch with a lecher, or Wetherton if he actually tried to harass her.
Though personally, she wouldn't have minded seeing Jenna kick his sorry ass to kingdom come.
She made the introductions, then donned her jacket, grabbed her bag and com-unit, and got the hell out of there.
The morning sunlight was so bright when she came out of the building that she had to shade her eyes and blink against a sudden rush of tears.
That's when she saw Gabriel. She stopped briefly as surprise and something else, something close to excitement, ran through her.
He was leaning against one of the concrete columns, arms crossed and looking as tired as she felt. "What's wrong?" she asked, stopping a few feet away from him. His scent ran around her, spicy and warm, stirring a longing that she hadn't felt in a long, long time.
And it steeled her earlier resolve to pursue whatever it was between them. Whether or not she succeeded, whether or not there was ever going to be anything more than destiny between them, didn't matter. If she didn't do something, if she simply sat back, accepting his statement that his heart belonged to someone who was long dead, she'd regret it.
"Heard you requested information about a General Blaine."
He shifted his hand, revealing a manila folder. "Thought you might like to share why over breakfast."
She raised an eyebrow. "Breakfast doesn't get you out of lunch, you know."
A wry smile touched his lips. "I guessed that. This is a business breakfast, not an apology."
That she'd guessed. He wouldn't be here, otherwise. "Why are you curious about my interest in Blaine?"
"Because I met him last night. Since you saw him when the Wetherton attack went down wrong, I wanted your opinion of him."
He motioned her forward, and then pressed his hand lightly against her spine to guide her toward his car. The warmth of his touch trembled across her skin. Yep, she had it bad for the damn man. But if he noticed her reaction, he didn't say anything.
Didn't react in any seeable way himself.
"I know this sounds catty, but why does my opinion of the man matter to you?"
He slanted her a look as he opened the car's passenger door for her. "Because you have an innate skill for feeling evil in people. I want to know if you sensed it in him."
She waited until he'd climbed into the car before replying, "Yes and no."
He started the car and pulled out smoothly into the early morning traffic. Then he flicked on autodrive and programmed it to head to the address of the hotel where she'd been staying.
She certainly hadn't told him she was staying there, so he'd obviously dug it out of her personnel file. If she wasn't so tired she might have felt annoyed, but right now all she felt was vague amusement.
"What does that mean?" he asked.
"It means that when Wetherton's car was attacked and I was trying to save his ass, I got no sense of evil from Blaine.
And yet yesterday afternoon, as he was coming out of Wetherton's office, my skin fairly crawled at the sight of him."
Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "Do you know why he was visiting Wetherton?"
"Something to do with military funding." She shrugged.
He frowned. "What time was this?"
She shrugged again. "I didn't really look at a clock, but it had to have been after six. Why?
"Because I was called to a murder scene when you left to go up to Wetherton's office and both General Lloyd and General Blaine turned up about ten minutes later." He glanced at her.