Page 151 of Dark Angel
“But Iwasable to hack into the Russian sex club,” Teddy said. “No cameras in or out, but someone could have recorded you on their phone.”
“I looked like SWAT, my face was covered in a ski mask. What about the convenience store?”
“I hacked in and was able to delete last night’s footage.” Teddy got busy on his laptop, then turned the computer around. “Here’s Halston at Krov bar.” Teddy turned the laptop toward him. More typing. “Here’s the bartender adding something to her water.” He showed them.
“I hacked into the cloud and removed the video altogether,” Teddy explained. “These are clips I downloaded before I deleted everything. I also got one of that monster escorting you out. You were completely out of it.”
Halston hardly recognized herself. She was slumped over, Donskoy was half carrying, half dragging her.
“Cameras outside Krov?” Gabriel asked.
“No,” Teddy replied.
“Teddy, you’re a tech genius,” Gabriel said. “Why don’t you and Sydney take the jet and spend the weekend at my villa?”
Sydney grinned. “I’m so there.”
Halston loaded her bowl into the dishwasher, sidled close to Gabriel.
“Can you take off this weekend?” Gabriel asked her. “We can jet to Italy, spend the weekend at my oceanfront villa.” He paused. “The one youdidn’tbreak into.”
Her sheepish smile had him kissing her forehead.
“What was that?” Teddy asked looking up from his laptop. “You broke into his home?”
“It was an assignment from the ambassador,” Halston replied.
“Too complicated for me,” Teddy said.
“Welcome to my life,” Halston said.
They thanked their hosts, climbed into Gabriel’s truck, parked in the garage. After backing out, he waited for the door to close before he drove away. Halston had been quiet all morning. Rather than push her, he clasped her hand, gave it a little squeeze.
“What do you think about my renting a house for us?” Gabriel asked.
She glanced over at him, her bright eyes holding his gaze. “I’m staying in my hotel suite and I’d love it if you stayed with me. I’ve got a small kitchen, but I wasn’t using it. We can have some dinners there.”
“I’ll let Evangeline know when I call the meeting for tonight,” he said.
“Where?”
“The group has a safe house. We’ll go together.” After a beat he said, “How are you doing?”
“So much better. I’m not mentioning Bob Smith—Donskoy—but I’m confident the ambassador will ask.”
“Expect that someone told him about the ambush.” He parked behind her SUV at the loading dock of Hotel Dillinger.
She shifted toward him. “If someone snapped a photo, he’ll know I was there. Same if someone described me. I’ve never been caught in a lie. I need Bulgrov to continue trusting me or he won’t keep me in the loop.” She sighed. “For the first time, I’m not sure what to do.”
He wrapped his hand around her thigh. “How can I help?”
“I’ll figure it out, but if you can drop me a block from the embassy, that would be great.”
Once in her hotel suite, she made a call.
Evangeline answered. “Heading to work?”
“Just about,” Halston replied. “Gabriel is with me and you’re on speaker.”
