She snorted. “How am I supposed to do that now?”
“It’s also possible,” Killian said, seated off to the side, “that she came back with something and was supposed to take it to him.” He looked at Jerricho.
“Or,” Jerricho continued, “maybe the boyfriend came to bring in something, and then she was supposed to pick up something and bring it back out again.”
“That’s possible too,” Killian said, “but it’s most likely to be intel then.”
“Wouldn’t they do that digitally?” Brenna asked.
“I don’t know,” Jerricho said. “Depending on how high-profile it is, nobody wants to take a chance. Digital is traceable. Most likely it will be on a USB key or in an even smaller storage device,” he said.
She sucked in her cheeks at that.
Jerricho saw her reaction and asked, “Notice anything like that?”
“She carries a sleek silver thumb drive around her neck, looks like jewelry even,” she said. “I always asked her about it, and she just laughed and said it was pictures. Some she didn’t want to lose.”
“There you go,” he said. “That just moves her up the rank of suspicion.”
“But that’s not fair,” she protested. “She has never done anything in any way to make us suspect her.”
“Not true.”
A knock came at the door. Immediately Killian went to the doorway, and, when he opened it, a package awaited him on the hallway carpet. He picked it up, brought it inside, and said, “Our phones.” He handed one to her and said, “Switch it on, and call Jessie’s number, would you?”
“She won’t still have her phone though.”
They turned and looked at her and said, “But she did have her phone.”
She stared at them. “What are you talking about?”
Killian said, “I saw her at the hotel on hers.”
She stared and said, “What?”
“She had a phone at the hotel.”
Brenna picked up the phone, looked at it, and then quickly dialed the number for Jessie. When she answered at the other end, Brenna asked, “How come you have your phone?”
“What?”
“Jessie, it’s Brenna,” she snapped. “How is it you have your phone?”
“They didn’t take it from me,” she said in a softer voice.
“And you didn’t call for help that whole time?”
“Of course I did,” she snapped. “Why are you talking this way?”
“Because it just seemed to me that maybe you weren’t who you said you were.” At that, she looked at Killian, who was shaking his head at her. And she realized that she probably shouldn’t be saying anything, but she was too angry.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Jessie said, “I just left you a few hours ago.”
“And that’s when I realized you had your phone. And somehow I missed that.”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she said in that tired voice. “And, if you don’t mind, I’ve done enough traveling right now. I don’t want to be listening to any half-baked ideas that you’ve cooked up.”
“That I’ve cooked up?”
“Yes, that you’ve cooked up,” she said. “You’re always trying to get into trouble.”
“I’m not trying to get into trouble at all.”
“No, maybe I shouldn’t say trying to get into trouble, but you’re always trying to make up for whatever it is you think you’ve done wrong,” she said. “You’ve lived a blameless life. Get over it. Go home. Live your pretty little life and move on.”
“Jesus,” she said, “you don’t even sound like yourself.”
“Life changes you,” she snapped.
“If you say so,” she said quietly. “It just occurred to me though that maybe you had something to do with all of it.”
“What?” Jessie cried out. “Now you’re getting seriously delusional. You have no business even saying that to me.”
“Maybe not,” she said, “but it’s a little hard not to when I realize now that you had a phone, and you didn’t let any of us know.”
“Of course I let you know,” she said, “but you were stuck in your own world. Once we realized that Jerricho was coming to get you.”
At that, she froze.
Jerricho grabbed the phone from her hand and said, “Interesting pronoun use of we. Obviously you were tracking us, so are you responsible for the pirates who came and attacked the ship too?”
An audible gasp came on the other end, and then a man spoke. “I suggest you leave well enough alone, Jerricho,” he said. “You’re alive. That’s a gift. Take it and run.”
“I don’t run so well,” Jerricho snapped. “I don’t know what it is that you got Jessie to deliver into this country or why you had to kidnap all those women.”
“We didn’t have anything to do with the women,” he said, “but our plan went sideways. Jessie was kidnapped. Now leave us alone.”
“No,” he said, “because, for whatever reason, you used her, and I can’t let that go.”
“She didn’t get used at all,” he snapped. “Jessie is already my wife. I was just bringing her home.”
“No,” he said. “You had no reason for her to be in the US, unless she was picking up something. You used her as a mule. I just don’t know what for.”
“You won’t find out, so leave it.”
“Depends on if it puts my country in danger,” Jerricho said coolly. “There has to be a reason why she took that job there for a few weeks and then managed to get herself assigned to an overseas stay.”
“You don’t know anything,” he said. “Intel is bought and sold one million times a day. It’s already taking place, so don’t worry about it.”
She stared at Jerricho. “Oh, my God, she really did steal from the company then.”
“I did not,” Jessie cried out. “But that’s all I’m telling you. And that job was my way of getting out of the country before I got caught. So thank you for that.”
“And then we got kidnapped, but you weren’t supposed to, were you?”
“Yes, but, of course, I knew he would get me out of there. But somehow you managed to get a hold of Jerricho,” she snapped. “We could have just left the women there and escaped.”
“No,” Brenna said, with a sudden understanding. “Once you realized how many women were kidnapped, you just saw that as another way for you to get out,” she said, her heart breaking at the betrayal. “You would have left, and you were quite happy to leave me behind with all those women, weren’t you?”
There was silence at the other end. “There will always be predators and victims in this world,” Jessie said, her voice more distant. “You just need to understand which side you’re on,” she said, “and I’m afraid people like you will always be the victims. I have no intention of ever being a victim. I’m a predator, and we won this one, so now take a hike. This phone will be tossed in seconds.” And there was a hard click.