Page 65 of Crossover
I couldn’t let this forgiveness take root.Right?
Yet, with every passing minute in Grayson’s presence, my conviction grew less concrete.
I fidgeted in the booth, my mind still processing the idea that Grayson would sacrifice himself for me. The thought of facing the police, even Detective Mitchell, filled me with a new sense of dread. What if, in his efforts to help me, Detective Mitchell traced our path and discovered our gas station detour? What if?—
An intrusive buzz shattered the silence. Grayson’s hand instinctively reached for his burner cell, and when he scanned the screen, the color drained from his face.
36
IVY
“What is it?”
God, the look on his face alone was enough to send my heart into A-fib.
His sea-glass-green eyes had gone dark and stormy while the muscle in his jaw clenched tight. He tried to wipe the tension from his chiseled features, but it was too late—I had seen it.
“Grayson, tell me,” I insisted.
“I’m going to need a new burner phone,” he said, powering it down.
“Why?”
His eyes snapped to mine. “Because Daniel’s found the number to this one,” Grayson said.
Ice shot through my limbs. “That was him?”
A grim nod.
My stomach swirled with nausea.
“How…how did he find it?” I asked.
Grayson ran a frustrated hand over his face. “I’m sure Seth can explain it better than I can, but I knew it wasn’t impossible.” Thus the reason he’d told me not to use the phone, I guess. “One time, I was on a mission where the CIA used metadata analysis and hacked into apps on one of my targets. It wasn’t easy, butonce they had that, they kept trying to keep him on the phone long enough to ping it and narrow down his location.”
“Do you think Daniel knows where we are?” I almost shrieked.
“He wouldn’t have tried to call if he did,” he assured. “If I’d answered, he’d use the call to triangulate our position while we were on the phone.”
“And he thought you’d be reckless enough to let that happen?”
“He’s either desperate or overconfident that I’d be willing to talk to him on account of our long history. Or thatI’dbe overconfident that I could end the callbeforehe could trace it. In any case, we need to be careful and assume he’s getting closer. As soon as our food comes, we need to leave town, just to be safe.” He ran a frustrated hand through his hair. “We need to warn Red. And call Seth. To do that, I need to get a new burner.”
“Do you have their numbers memorized?”
“Memorizing information is an important aspect of my job.”
Right.A CIA agent can’t be studying paper and GPS when he’s meeting a target.
I twisted my fingers beneath the booth.
“Is there any way to use this to our advantage?” I questioned. “Call him back and have Seth or Barry work their magic to track Daniel down?”
It was probably a terrible idea; chances were, that in a game of GPS chicken, Daniel had the upper hand here with whatever army he’d assembled to hunt us down. But before Grayson could respond, a voice from behind me sent a shock wave through my body, belonging to the last person I expected to see.
“Ivy?”
Grayson’s intense gaze snapped to the all-American figure approaching our booth. With blond hair and blue eyes, he was like a walking Ken doll.