The Hitman's Pregnant Bride: A Baby Romance by Alyse Zaftig Page A

some of their information was available to a casual observer.
    And Andreas was much more than that.
    His head began to pound as the hours ticked by, but he ignored it. He needed to figure out what exactly the Crucible was so he could save Phoebe. It was the key to getting his wife back where she belonged.
    He needed to come to clean to her, but he'd have to find her first.
    Rubbing his eyes, he noticed that he'd gone through an enormous amount of pages, learning more about large-scale weapons than he ever wanted. He was tempted to access the FBI from his laptop, but he needed to wait for a better place to go. He knew just where he was going to go with Harold's card. Together, they could get the information that he needed to find his wife.
    His phone rang.
    "Hello?"
    "You asleep?"
    Andreas rubbed his eyes. "No."
    "We've got the green light for a meeting."
    "Roger."
    Chung hung up. The information that he'd needed to convey was there.
----
    T he next morning , Andreas had already finished his eggs and was ready to grab his coat to get out.
    Mr. Kaine’s phone rang. Mr. Kaine looked at Andreas, who froze right where he was. He said a prayer of thanks that Mrs. Kaine was still asleep.
    It rang again. Mr. Kaine put the phone on speaker and mute at the same time.
    “Good morning, Harold. What a lovely day, isn’t it? Your daughter is a very beautiful dancer. You’ve definitely placed me in a tempting position.”
    “If you lay a hand on her…”
    Odhran cut him off. “Don’t worry. I’m not planning on giving into my primal impulses. She’s not my enemy. She’s pretty useless when it comes to information, which is the most precious currency, as you know. I need you to give me what I want.”
    “Take me instead.”
    Andreas’ eyes popped open. Was Mr. Kaine offering what he thought he was?
    “That’s all I can give.”
    “Fair enough.” Odhran paused. “We can make the trade at a park near the Pentagon. They block all the signals around there, so it’s definitely ideal. I’ll text you the meeting time and exact location.”
    Harold hit the red button on his phone to hang up. His face was so white that Andreas wondered if he should ask him to sit down.
    “I think I know where she is.”
    “Where?”

29

Satellites
Andreas
    H arold had given him an address , and Andreas had taken his laptop to Chip’s to get a secure connection when he hacked the FBI. The ID worked perfectly to unlock the door. He used the satellites to check for weak points on the estate, but he couldn’t find anything. Whoever was in charge of the security of the estate was very good. There wasn’t any way to just march in and grab his wife without setting off a bunch of alarms.
    Sighing, he drank a sip of Chip’s coffee, choking it down for the caffeine. He changed the coordinates of the satellites. If Harold wound up in this thug’s hands, he might not make it out if he planned on being a martyr, a hero. Sighing, he sat back, seeing his screen but not reading it.
    His mind ran the different scenarios. The outcome for Mr. Kaine would be pretty grim. He cleared his history and closed his laptop.
    “The cookie you requested, sir.” Andreas looked up at the barista, who had a plain package wrapped in brown paper.
    “Thank you for my cookie.”
    Andreas tossed his coffee in the trash and headed for the back rooms at Chip’s. When he was in one of the small offices, he opened the package up. It was a layout of the underground tunnels at Odhran’s estate. There was an area that was highlighted. This was the second part of the same mission. They wanted him to go into the estate and get whatever they’d highlighted. This couldn’t be connected to the first mission to take out Harold Kaine, could it?
    He raised an eyebrow. What was going on? Did they mean for Harold Kaine to sacrifice himself and kill two birds with one stone?
    He wasn’t sure if they were giving a way out of stone-cold murdering his father-in-law. The layout didn’t