Her lingering worries over an uncomfortable future of happiness and familial bliss sank underneath the immediate darker and harder currents. A bright future might lie ahead, but taking down the Nuevo Gulf Cartel didn’t mean that future was secure.
“I’m sorry,” Peyton replied. “I wouldn’t have called if it wasn’t important.”
“Does it involve someone dying? Someone I give two shits about?”
“Yeah. Well, maybe. You see, I’ve got a lot of alerts set up for a lot of things. Not just job stuff, but anything that looks like someone is sniffing around you or your alias too closely. I also have a bunch set up for my family.”
“Yeah, I know that, and I remember you freaking out about your brother. So what, your brother is snooping around again? I thought we discussed this? Those guys aren’t at your level. They’re not a problem.”
Shay kept her voice steady and casual. She couldn’t have Peyton panicking when she was thousands of miles away. He might end up doing something stupid like flying to the East Coast to try and handle his brother alone, and no matter how slick Peyton believed he was, he wouldn’t last long in the field against someone who knew he was coming. Her specialty was kicking ass. His was support.
Shit. I’m probably going to have to kill his brother in the end. Have to be careful, though. If he ends up conveniently dead when people know he was poking around it might bring even more attention, and we just got the government off my ass.”
“No,” Peyton answered, “not Randy. Way worse. Someone we should worry about. Someone even you should be worried about.”
Shay snorted. “Talk about dramatic. Who’s the big threat?”
“Francois Durand.”
“What about him? You said he likes to keep a low profile. I don’t even know the next time we might end up on a job related to an artifact he’d care about. Not saying I don’t care at all, just saying that he’s pretty low on my priority list right now.”
Peyton sighed. “Wish I could say the same about him.”
“Huh?”
“My alerts. They weren’t flagging Durand’s activities. They went off because someone is digging into you in a big way online, or to be clear, digging into Aletheia. When I poked into it, I found it was Durand. The guy’s suddenly obsessed with your tomb-raiding career. He’s going all out, including fake accounts to try to gather information.”
Shay scoffed. “That doesn’t mean much. My reputation has skyrocketed in a short time. Of course, I’m gonna get a few people looking into me and wanting to know my deal.”
“Yeah, but why now? I don’t buy that he wouldn’t check at all after everything you’ve done and suddenly decided this weekend that you’re worth his interest. Something changed.”
Shay blew out a breath as she thought about the possibilities. “Yeah, something did change.”
“What?”
“You started looking into him,” Shay clarified. “The guy is so low-profile that you said he was a ghost. He’s probably got a few alarms of his own set up.”
Peyton groaned. “No, no, no. Seriously?”
“Just saying.”
“No,” Peyton insisted. “That can’t be it. I get that he might be spooked about someone checking into him, but what I did wouldn’t be linked to Aletheia. Unless this guy is the literal God of Computers, there’s no way he’d think to look your way.”
“Then he’s got another reason,” Shay mused. “Something we don’t know about yet.”
“He’s working with Project Nephilim, which means he’s got to be interested in your stone. Of course, he’s going to want to collect more of them.”
“Maybe, but it’s not like anyone knows I have the stone—not even the Professor or his Elf Mafia buddy.”
“Sure,” Peyton offered. “But they know you’ve recovered at least one on their behalf, and from the way you talked with them, they might have figured out you have another.”
Shay frowned. “Even if they were behind Durand in some weird-ass roundabout way, it’d make no sense to play those kinds of games. The Professor has his secrets, but I think that if he really wanted the stone, he’d just come to me and offer a buttload of cash or an artifact exchange.”
“What about the other guy? Correk?”
“Who the fuck knows? I’ve started checking a little more into his background and his name keeps popping up in odd places, but nothing concrete so far. Plus, I don’t see why a light elf would hire some human contractor to do his dirty work for him.”
“They hired you, didn’t they?”
Shay laughed. “First, I’m badass. Second, the Professor did the hiring. The elf was just along for the ride.”
“Okay, that still brings us back to the original question.” Peyton sighed. “What do we do?”
“Do what you do best.” Shay chuckled. “Redirect that shit. Just because Durand’s looking around doesn’t mean he needs to find me, and this can end up being a good thing.”
“How is having this guy looking for you, even through your alias, a good thing?”
“Because now we know he’s interested in me. Forewarned is forearmed.” Shay pushed away from the wall. “And now we can take precautions.”
“That makes sense.”
“Do you need me to come back?” She didn’t want to, but if her assistant was that freaked out, she might be forced to return to LA.
There was silence for a few beats before Peyton answered, “No. I’m good.” The confidence had crept back into his voice. “It’s like you said before with my brother. If Durand were as good at computer stuff as I am, I wouldn’t have even seen him coming. I can send him on a wild goose chase to Abu Dhabi, and by the time he figures it out you’ll have found every single alien artifact on this planet.”
Shay laughed. “Sounds good. See you in a couple of days.”
“See you.”
Shay ended the call and smirked to herself.
I disabled your Deadman’s Switch, Peyton, and you haven’t figured it out. I’m a cut above Durand and the losers your brother hired.
She slipped her phone back into her purse and went back into the diner.
