“She’ll love the chance to talk to you.” He could see how much it meant to her that she and Lily had something in common. “Speaking of which, what were you going to tell me before I distracted you with all the superconductor questions? Or was that you, hopping from one subject to another? I can never keep up.”
She knew he was teasing. His tone was nearly the same, but she felt the little flutter of butterfly wings brushing against her stomach, something that seemed to happen when he was bantering with her. “What I wanted to tell you, before you so rudely brought sex into the conversation, is, I don’t know that this is all about me. The killings. Why did they shoot Jesse right there? In the leg that way?”
“They thought he would tell them where you were.”
She shook her head. “If they were Jesse’s people, they’d know I never tell Jesse anything. He has no idea where I am at any given time, nor can he contact me. It’s always worked that way. Jesse could tell them the target, but not much else.”
“You’re certain his people know this?”
She nodded. “I’ve done recovery work for them for several years. We’ve always done it the same way—always. His people have to know that he would never know where I was or how to find me. Other than at the target location. They didn’t hit me there, they hit me at home.”
“What are you saying, Dahlia?”
“You thought they were destroying all the evidence of my existence by killing Milly and Bernadette and burning down my home.”
“I don’t believe in coincidence,” Nicolas said. “Lily made inquiries and probably raised a red flag somewhere. If they aren’t legitimate they would have to destroy all evidence, anything that might lead back to them.”
“True, if they aren’t legitimate, but Jesse Calhoun is no traitor. He believed in what he was doing. We had quite a bit of contact over the years, and even though I’m not telepathic, I still have a good feel for people through energy. He wasn’t betraying his country. And he was no mercenary either.”
“He might have been duped, Dahlia. I volunteered for the GhostWalker program. The contract was a military one and a colonel was overseeing it. The rot went all the way up the chain to a general. Calhoun could very well believe that his superior officers are telling him the truth. We believed—until people started dying.”
“That doesn’t make it the same situation. In fact, that only adds more doubt. If they were operating outside the government, they would have made sure they kept tabs on the relationship between Jesse and me. They’d know he couldn’t tell them where I was.”
“Do you have another contact for these people? I’m not convinced, but it’s worth investigating.”
Dahlia drew up her knees and rubbed her chin back and forth. “I could find them. I have contact numbers, but I’ve never used them. Jesse is always the contact.”
“Dahlia, how could you be so careless when you were working with these people? You seem like someone who pays attention to details.” Her behavior seemed out of character to him. He didn’t know her that well, but she didn’t seem like a woman who would work for an agency without knowing exactly what she was doing.
“I knew Milly worked for them. She watched over me, and she could contact them if needed. I’ve spent my entire life staying away from people. Separated from them. I didn’t trust them, but it was something to occupy my mind and use my skills, so I did it. And I felt it was important.”
“I think we need to have Lily run a check on both Milly and Bernadette.” He said it carefully, knowing it would bother her. “She’s looking into Calhoun now, and I hope she has something for us.”
Dahlia shook her head, ignoring the reference to Milly and Bernadette. The moment he mentioned their names her chest burned with grief. “I just don’t buy it, Nicolas. Jesse was too squeaky clean. And he’s intelligent. Really, really smart. I think if something was off-kilter, even a little bit, he’d begin to suspect.”