“He’s a good man,” she protested. But Leo could see that his words had gotten through.
“Fine, he’s a good man. Tell me who he is. It was hard enough for our men to get our guys to find this, but how did your guy come across it?”
She let go of his shirt and tried to sit back, but Leo wasn’t having any of it. She was staying where she belonged, in his arms. “I don’t know his sources. He’s a reporter. I don’t think he would ever tell anybody how he got his hands on that video. But Alistair has worked with him in the past. He vouches for him, so that’s good enough in my book.”
“Fine. But give me a name. If he has this kind of info, he might have something else that would help us. I know that your natural inclination is to keep this to yourself and try to come up with your ‘back-up’ plan, but Daisy, you need to rely on us now. Hopefully, you see that.”
He could see the conflict in her eyes. She was such a capable and strong woman. She reminded him of all the strong and capable women in his family, but she was someone whose trust had been badly broken by different people. He waited for her to make a decision. Finally, she nodded.
“Rayi Abad. He’s an Afghan reporter. He’s been smuggling out reports for years under different bylines.”
“Do you have a way to contact him?”
“He has only Skype’d me. So that’s the only incoming communication I’ve received from him. My stepfather has something, but I’m not sure he would give it to me.”
“Can I see the Skype address he used?”
Daisy nodded. She got up from the couch and Leo followed her to the desk. She pulled up the Skype conversation. Leo used the hotel stationery to write out Rayi’s Skype address. “I’m going to call my computer expert and let him work with this while you eat something, is it a deal?”
She shook her head.
Leo frowned. “What do you mean, no?”
“You have to eat, too.”
He laughed. “I will. Just let me make this call, then I will be eating right beside you.”
She let out a sigh of relief as she went back over to the coffee table. She started lifting lids off the plates.
“You did a good job choosing food. Thank you.” Her smile was half-hearted at best, still, it was something.
“I’m glad you like it. I’m just going to step out in the hall for a minute.”
She opened her mouth to ask a question, then closed it and nodded.
Leo went out in the hall and walked down to the end of the corridor to make his call.
“Kane, have some info.”
“Give it to me.”
“Reporter by the name of Rayi Abad sent Daisy the video that we saw this morning of her father being beaten.” Leo watched the hallway that led to the elevators, making sure no one came out of them.
“Shit, why the hell would someone do that?” Kane bit out.
“That’s my question. Anyway, he did. I want to know where he got the info and what his real motive was behind sending it to Daisy. He could have just told her he’d seen a video of her father or sent her a picture from the video, he didn’t need to send her the whole thing.”
“You’re right on the money, Leo. Did she give you any contact information on this guy?”
“I’ve got his Skype address. Can you find him from that?”
There was dead silence.
Leo laughed. “I’m so sorry I doubted your expertise, oh great computer genius.”
“There you go,” Kane chuckled. “Now give me his address and I shall work my magic. You are still coming back tonight, right?”
“That’s the plan, why?”
“Captain Miller came up with more info that looks somewhat promising. It’s thirty klicks from where we were last night.”
“What did she find?” Leo straightened up.
“Dogs outside a cave. No jeep, no truck. But the cave has a wide entrance; according to Miller this wouldn’t be the first time that vehicles were hidden in the caves.”
“Are we going in?” Leo asked.
“She’s been doing drone flyovers for the last four hours. She’s going to continue for another four and report back to us. If it looks promising, we’ll take another ride with Wilma tonight.”
“Gotcha.”
It felt cold in the hotel room. She couldn’t tell if it was because Leo had turned up the AC before they’d made love, or because he’d left—either way, she was cold. Daisy got up and adjusted the temperature then she drew back the sheers to let in more sun. She stood by the window, basking in the warmth as she thought about Leo’s words.
No matter what angle she looked at, she couldn’t find any upside for Rayi to upset her with the video. Yeah, what Leo said made sense—that he could have been kinder and just told her that her father was alive instead of sending her the file, but she would have demanded proof. Rayi would have known that, so wasn’t he just being expedient?
Now that she had her head pulled out of her ass and could think rationally, she realized that Leo and his team were her father’s best bet. It killed her to admit it. Knowing that she didn’t have any power in a situation was anathema for her.
With the first knock on the door, she hurried over to let Leo in.
“This is the second time you didn’t use the peephole or use the chain on the door. You need to be more safety-conscious.”
“Both times I knew it was you.”
“Use the guard chain, check the peephole, I don’t care how sure you are.
