Page 35 of Tiger on the Prowl

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Olivia felt cool air waft against her lips, and felt Jay pull away from her.

“I’m sorry, Olivia. I shouldn’t be doing this. I shouldn’t be dragging you into this mess. Believe me: I only wanted to save your family from the gunman and then disappear without you ever knowing what would have happened. Without you ever seeing me.”

“But I saw you. And I can’t unsee what you did. You saved my family.” And she would always be grateful for that.

But now she had hope for something else too. Jay had said that he’d wanted her from the moment he’d seen her in class. And the feeling was mutual. Maybe there could still be something between them. If she could understand why finding this man was so important to him that it was worth going behind her back, then maybe she could forgive him for that.

“Jay, tell me why you want to find this man so badly that you—”

“That I hurt you in the process?” Jay interrupted and stroked his thumb over her bottom lip. “What difference does it make? I hurt you. I betrayed your trust.”

“You strike me as a man who would never do anything unless he had a good reason. Tell me your reason,” she begged. “You owe me that for using me.”

He nodded slowly. “The man I’m looking for killed my friends, and my mentor, the man I worked for at the CIA. Smith killed him over three years ago, and I’ve been running for my life ever since.”

Olivia sucked in a breath. “Oh my God. He’s a murderer? And you thought I was connected to him? How could you even bear to touch me, suspecting that I knew him?”

“It was simple. I didn’t want to believe it. I wanted to prove to myself that you had nothing to do with him and knew nothing of his crimes.” He sighed. “And yet, you led me to him.”

“What?” She shrank back. “But I told you I don’t know the man you describe. I …” Then it suddenly dawned on her. “You asked me if I knew a wedding guest who matched that description. Are you saying that man is here? Right now?”

“I saw him just before I took down Dirk. He was among the guests watching your sister dance.”

“Oh my God, you have to call the police. Get him arrested.”

“I can’t. He can’t know that I’m onto him, or that I’m here. Or he’ll kill me too.”

“But the police, they can protect you.”

Jay simply shook his head. “The CIA itself couldn’t protect us. There were about thirty of us. All highly skilled, highly trained agents, and Smith managed to wipe us out. I have no idea how many are still alive. I know of several who were killed, most others are in hiding, or dead, I don’t know which. I met three fellow agents in the last two weeks. The man who carted Dirk off is one of them.”

“But what are you gonna do if you can’t go to the police or the CIA?”

“We’re looking for him, so we can figure out who he really is, and who he works for. But we’ve come up empty so far. Unfortunately, we don’t have a photo we can run through facial recognition. It’s been hampering our search.”

“Hold it. You said you saw Smith at the reception. So you know what he looks like, but you don’t have a photo?”

“He had me in his clutches almost three weeks ago. The other three agents managed to free me, but Smith escaped.”

Olivia’s heart pounded. “That’s why you skipped class.”

“Yeah, and if I hadn’t had the premonition of seeing Smith in your cottage, I wouldn’t have come back to Alexandria.”

Olivia put her arms around him and squeezed him tightly, before she lifted her face up to him, an idea blooming in her mind. “I took photos during cocktail hour in the garden.” She pulled her cell phone from her tiny handbag. “Maybe he’s on there. I mean there were lots of older white men, not that I really looked. I’m more into”—she smirked—“handsome young black men.”

Jay kissed her on the lips. “Excellent idea.” Then he smiled at her. “So you think I’m handsome.”

Olivia unlocked her cell phone and navigated to her camera app. “As if you don’t know that. But, if I may make a suggestion: lose the hair. All of it.”

“I think that can be arranged.”

Together they scrolled through the photos she’d taken in the garden of the hotel. It took Jay only a minute to go through them and shake his head. “He’s not on any of them. It was a long shot, but thanks for trying.”

Even though he smiled at her, she saw his disappointment. “You know the wedding reception isn’t over yet. Most of the guests are still here, dancing and drinking. The band is supposed to play until midnight. I could take more photos.”

He stared at her, appearing stunned. “You would do that? For me? Why?”